The Papers document several generations of Fisks who were prominent in the business, banking and civic life of Green Bay. The majority of the papers, five of the seven boxes in the collection, concern the family's land and lumber business, W.D. Fisk and Co. Only two boxes contain personal papers about the family. Primarily represented are: Joel and Charlotte Fisk, Eva Cornell Fisk (the wife of Wilbur D), Hiram Fisk and Mary Fisk Newton (the children of Wilbur D.), and Martha Driggs Ryan (the sister-in-law of William J.).
The collection is divided into BIOGRAPHICAL MISCELLANY, BUSINESS RECORDS, and PERSONAL PAPERS AND CORRESPONDENCE. The BIOGRAPHICAL MISCELLANY consists of clippings and photographs about various members of the family. Additional information about the family may be found in the GAR membership application in Mary Fisk Newton's papers. It traces the Fisk lineage to a Revolutionary War soldier, Nathaniel Selleck. The photographs, which are housed in Green Bay, include portraits of Wilbur D. Fisk, several unidentified Fisk family members, George J. Driggs (brother-in-law of William J.), Martha Driggs Ryan (sister-in-law of William J.), and Polly Driggs West. Also included are nineteenth century photographs of the William J. and Wilbur D. Fisk homes. The career of Hiram Fisk is represented by a large group of photographs taken in China in 1915.
BUSINESS RECORDS, which span the period 1853-1908, comprise the majority of the collection and they document the firms J.S. Fisk & Son (Joel Fisk and William J. Fisk) and W.D. Fisk and Co. The earlier records are incomplete, consisting of two poorly identified volumes. While some of the entries clearly concern business operations, others concern the Fort Howard Cemetery, home construction, and other topics of a personal or civic nature. The W.D.Fisk & Co. records are more complete, particularly for the 1870s and 1880s, consisting of letterbooks of outgoing correspondence, cashbooks, journals and ledgers, and two volumes listing shipments to customers such as the Chicago and Northwestern Railroad. The letterbooks suggest a more complicated history for the company than is found in the standard nineteenth century biographical sources. The volumes indicate that prior to the formation of W.D.and Co., the firm operated as the Elmore and Fisk partnership.
The PERSONAL PAPERS AND CORRESPONDENCE consist of personal material about only a few members of the family. There is some information here on the Fisk Family women. The documentation concentrates on the line that descended from Joel Fisk to his son William J. Fisk, then his son Wilbur D. Fisk, and then to his son and daughter, Hiram Fisk and Mary Fisk Newton. The folder entitled General Correspondence consists of letters whose writers could not be identified.
Joel and Charlotte Green Fisk are documented by two folders. One contains property documents and miscellaneous letters, highlights being an 1834 letter from Charlottte to her sister Alida written in Brunswick, Ohio, which she describes as “a letter beyond the West” and an 1843 letter to Charlotte and Joel from a sister in Plattsburg. Joel Fisk's career is represented by two account books dating from 1838 to 1842. Both record fees for legal services. It is not clear if Fisk was acting as justice of the peace or attorney in the litigation. (Accounts noted include J.D. Doty, Daniel Bread, A.G. Ellis, and Daniel Whitney.)
About Eva Cornell Fisk, wife of Wilbur D., there are a few letters from her father, and several from her maternal cousin William Haight, who was an examiner in the Justice Department in Washington, D.C., who traveled widely during the 1880s. The Hiram Fisk material consists of letters from China and Japan dated 1915 (as well as the aforementioned photographs), and sympathy letters received by the family at the time of his death. Mary Newton Fisk is represented by a souvenir scrapbook primarily relating to her education at West High School and letters written during her honeymoon in 1920. (Three decorated paper napkins from this scrapbook have been removed to the SHSW Paper Ephemera File). The Driggs family is represented by letters to and from Martha Driggs Ryan, the sister-in law of William J.
