Title: Martha Eliza Gunnison Papers
Inclusive Dates: 1868
Inclusive Dates: 1879-1957
Inclusive Dates: 1973

Creator:

• Gunnison, Martha Eliza, 1865-1960

Call Number: Oshkosh Mss AK

Quantity: 1.2 c.f. (3 archives boxes)

Repository:

Housed at the Archives & Area Research Center, Polk Library, University of Wisconsin Oshkosh; owned by the Wisconsin Historical Society, Division of Library, Archives, and Museum Collections

Archival Locations:

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

UW-Oshkosh Polk Library / Oshkosh Area Research Ctr. (Map)

Abstract:

Diaries, 1879-1957, and other items of Martha E. Gunnison of Waupun, Wisconsin, until 1940 and then of Detroit, Michigan. They chronicle her daily housewife activities, operation of a boarding house with her mother, activities in several women's clubs, and frequent travel in her later life.

Language: English

URL to cite for this finding aid: http://digital.library.wisc.edu/1711.dl/wiarchives.uw-whs-osh00ak

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Martha Eliza (Mrs. Arthur G.) Gunnison was born Martha Strickle in Plattsburg, New York, March 8, 1865. She soon moved with her family to Wisconsin where her father farmed in the Fond du Lac area. Later the family moved to Waupun where they operated first a hotel and then a boarding house. Between 1880 and 1884, Martha lived with her Aunt and Uncle Tyrell in Brandon, Wisconsin. In November, 1886, Martha, known as Mattie, married Arthur G. Gunnison in Waupun, but about 1914, Arthur Gunnison left her for unknown reasons. She stayed in Waupun, continued to operate the boarding house with her mother (Her father had died about 1906.), and was very active in several women's clubs. After her mother died in 1938, Mattie found she disliked living alone and moved to Kentucky to live with her oldest granddaughter, Mary (Mrs. Raymond) Baruth (the daughter of Arthur Gunnison's daughter by a prior marriage). They soon moved to Detroit and later to Clarendon Hills, Illinois. Mattie's lifelong frugality enabled her to travel frequently in her later years and she paid many long visits to relatives all over the country. She died in her sleep in January, 1960.

The Martha E. Gunnison Papers consist mainly of diaries, 1879-1957, but also include a 1942 will, a Xerox copy of one 1868 letter from her mother in Wisconsin to her grandmother in New York, and a biographical sketch written in 1973 by her granddaughter, Mrs. Baruth. Between 1879 and 1906, the diaries are scattered, some of them incomplete. There is a complete record from 1906 to 1957. Mrs. Gunnison faithfully recorded the weather and deaths and funerals occurring in Waupun and Detroit during the later years. Otherwise, the diaries emphasize her personal life and daily activities.

Acquisition Information

Presented by Mrs. Raymond Baruth, Clarendon Hills, Illinois, September 16, 1960 and September 7, 1973. Accession Number: M73-338

Processing Information

Processed by Karen Baumann, October 12, 1973.

	Diaries
Box   1	1879-1927
Box   2	1928-1941
Box   3	1942-1957
Box   3	Will, 1942, Sept. 3
Box   3	Letter, 1868, July 26
Box   3	Biographical sketch, 1973