Title: Charles Bennett Palmer Papers
Inclusive Dates: 1862-1900 (bulk 1861-1876)

Creator:

• Palmer, Charles Bennett, 1844-1909

Call Number: Mss 821

Quantity: 0.6 cubic feet (2 archives boxes)

Repository:

Wisconsin Historical Society, Division of Library, Archives, and Museum Collections

Archival Locations:

Wisconsin Historical Society (Map)

COLLECTION MAY BE STORED OFF-SITE: see catalog entry to request materials and for additional information.

Abstract:

Papers, mainly 1861-1876, of Charles Bennett Palmer, an educator and journalist who lived in Wisconsin, Ohio, and Nebraska. Included are letters from friends from Berlin, Wisconsin, who served with him in the First Wisconsin Cavalry and the First Wisconsin Heavy Artillery during the Civil War. Some letters from Berlin and numerous other locations around the country relate to Civil War homefront conditions. Later correspondence was received from Palmer and Kiefer Family relatives and friends whom he met while a student at Antioch College. Some letters from this period relate to the activities of a friend who served on a Customs Service ship during the 1860s. Also part of the collection are seven diaries containing brief notes about Palmer's activities during the 1880s and 1890s.

Language: English

URL to cite for this finding aid: http://digital.library.wisc.edu/1711.dl/wiarchives.uw-whs-mss00821

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Charles Bennett Palmer was born on February 19, 1844 in Springfield, New Hampshire, the son of Bennett Palmer and Velina Snow. As a youth he came to Wisconsin where he settled in Berlin with his widowed mother and sisters. At fourteen he became an apprentice of the Berlin Courant, working there until 1861 when he enlisted as a private in Company D of the First Wisconsin Cavalry. In this capacity Palmer was a scout in southwest Missouri and Arkansas and with the help of George W. Clayton, another employee of the Courant he published a paper, the Cape Girardeau Eagle. Palmer returned to Wisconsin briefly and then reenlisted in the First Wisconsin Heavy Artillery. Palmer served with this unit in Kentucky and was discharged on August 30, 1865 as a second lieutenant.

Shortly after the end of the war he entered Antioch College which he attended from 1865 to 1868. Later Palmer became principal of the public schools at DeGraff and Yellow Springs, Ohio. He was also a member of the board of education at Beatrice, Nebraska, and editor and publisher of the Beatrice Express. He also founded and edited the Nebraska Teacher. In 1877 he joined the faculty of the University of Nebraska, later becoming a professor of geology and zoology. At one time he served as acting president of Antioch College. Palmer was active in local and civic affairs, and he was a member of the board of education and the city council of Columbus, Ohio. During the 1880s Palmer led a small colony of Ohio people to Alachua County, Florida where they attempted unsuccessfully to develop the community of Orange Heights. In later life Palmer became a minister of the Universalist Church in Kansas City. His wife, Minerva Kiefer Palmer, died on July 22, 1899. Charles Palmer died on March 2, 1909 at the Army and Navy Hospital in Hot Springs, Arkansas.

Because of the nature and provenance of the Palmer Papers many facts concerning the life and genealogy of Charles Palmer are unknown. The collection was found in 1951 by Richard Marsh, a professor at Hamline University in St. Paul, Minnesota when he rented a house that had been owned by a member of the Palmer family. The papers consist almost entirely of letters received by Palmer and his wife Minerva from 1862 to 1876. As a result, the collection primarily documents the activities and interests of the Palmers' family and friends rather than the lives of the two Palmers.

The letters are divided into two groups: letters to Charles and letters to Minerva. These two groups are each further subdivided into letters from relatives and general correspondence from others. Minerva's correspondence is less useful for genealogical purposes because the last names of her relatives are unknown.

The letters to Charles while he was in the Army contain inquiries about his health and welfare, as well as news from the homefront. This correspondence originates from widely varying locales such as Wisconsin (especially Berlin), Ohio, Vermont, and Kentucky. There are also letters from several of Palmer's friends, many of whom were also from Berlin, Wisconsin, concerning their service in the Army. Notable is a letter from Hiram Sleeper of the 38th Wisconsin who eventually deserted and joined the Confederate service and who died on December 28, 1864. There are also several letters from Wiley B. Arnold, a former associate on the Courant and Griffith J. Thomas, another associate from the Courant, who also served in the First Wisconsin Heavy Artillery. Several of Thomas' letters concern his post-war work as a quartermaster on the U.S. customs steamer John A. Dix. There are also incidental letters from other members of the First Wisconsin Cavalry: George W. Clayton, the printer at the Courant, who published the Cape Girardeau Eagle with Palmer, and Charles G. Appley. Palmer also received one letter from William L. Bronson, formerly of the First Heavy Artillery, after his assignment to the Permanent Party at Camp Randall.

Charles' postwar letters principally consist of letters from his associates in Ohio, primarily fellow students from Antioch College, many of whom became teachers. Of note are several contemporary accounts of the Chicago fire written by Palmer's mother and a sister and many letters from Nellie Cox, a cousin. (The folder about Nellie Cox contains information supplied by Antioch College which holds a small collection of her correspondence). Many of Palmer's associates became teachers, and the papers contain scattered references to their individual experiences.

Minerva's correspondence dates from 1871 to 1876 and primarily consists of letters from family members, especially her sister Ella.

At the end of the collection are General Papers consisting of seven diaries containing brief entries for the years 1883, 1886-1890, and 1899-1900; an 1877 notebook, and some miscellaneous papers. The most useful of the diaries, which combines entries for 1899 and 1900, contains personal information about the illnesses of Minerva and daughter Mary Ella as well as some data concerning Palmer's real estate dealings.

Acquisition Information

Presented by Professor and Mrs. Richard Marsh, St. Paul, Minnesota, 1984. Accession Number: M84-216

Processing Information

Processed by Wade Slinde and Carolyn J. Mattern, 1992.

Mss 821	Series: Charles Palmer Correspondence
	Relatives
Box   1 Folder   1	Brown, Lucia E. (sister), 1862-1872
Box   1 Folder   2	Cox, Ellen (Nellie, cousin), 1866-1867
Box   1 Folder   3	Palmer, Gershom B. (brother), 1862-1866
Box   1 Folder   4	Palmer, Mattie (sister), 1871
Box   1 Folder   5	Palmer, Velina (mother), 1866-1871
Box   1 Folder   6	S.R., Sarah (sister), 1866-1872
Box   1 Folder   7	Saxton, Bella (sister), 1864-1866
Box   1 Folder   8	Sleeper?, Augusta (sister), 1863-1865 Note: Bella Saxton and Augusta Sleeper may be the same person.
Box   1 Folder   9	Wheelock, Dora B. (sister), 1865-1872
Box   1 Folder   10	Miscellaneous relatives, 1862-1872, 1900
	Friends
Box   1 Folder   11	Arnold, Wiley B., 1862-1866
Box   1 Folder   12	Bassett, Nettie F., 1862-1863
Box   1 Folder   13	Faught, Tillie, 1865-1866
Box   1 Folder   13a	Nellie, 1864-1867
Box   1 Folder   14	Nicholson, Henry W., 1863-1876
Box   1 Folder   15	Sleeper, Hiram H. (and printed article), 1864
Box   1 Folder   16	Thomas, Griffith J., 1864-1867
Box   1 Folder   17-18	Miscellaneous letters, 1862-1873
	Series: Minerva Palmer Correspondence	⇧
Box   1 Folder   19	Ella (sister), 1874-1876
Box   1 Folder   20	Miscellaneous letters, 1871, 1875-1876
	Series: General Papers	⇧
Box   2 Folder   1-4	Diaries, 1883-1890, 1899-1900
Box   2 Folder   5	Notebook, 1877
Box   2 Folder   6	Miscellaneous papers