The papers consist of photocopies, primarily of correspondence, financial records, and clippings. They detail the activities, work, and finances of a family on the Wisconsin frontier during Territorial days, and, in the letters from the 1850s, the life of one family member on the Minnesota frontier.
Correspondence in the Irwin Family Papers is arranged chronologically, 1819-1859, with one item for 1864, and another dated circa 1877.
Early letters are to or from Horace Smith, Frances Irwin's brother. A particularly interesting letter, dated February 8, 1826, from a former classmate, P.M. Martin, tells of Martin's travels to Havana and New Orleans.
Frances Irwin's first letter is dated July 19, 1826, and tells of the start of her journey to “Michigan” (Green Bay, Wisconsin) with her cousin, Henry Smith. From that letter until Alexander Irwin's death, a large portion of the correspondence consists of letters between Frances and Alexander Irwin. Alexander's private business and his public offices required him to be away from home often. During these absences, he wrote detailed letters about where he was, what he was doing, and the people he saw, and Frances wrote him detailed letters about what was happening in Green Bay.
The correspondence between Alexander and Frances is interesting, lively, and refreshingly devoid of the lugubrious references to death and the futility of life on earth which pervades most letters of the time. Frances and Alexander emerge as real people, friends as well as husband and wife, facing life with optimistic curiosity and good humor. Only when her two-year-old son, Horace, dies does Frances waver. Even then, she works out her grief by writing to herself about it over a year's time.
Sample excerpts:
Alexander to Frances, from Ft. Winnebago, May 16, 1831:
“Tell Caroline that this is one of the finest places to fall down I ever saw. . . when you fall, you are sure to fall into a swamp.”
Frances to Alexander, spring, 1832:
“Old Marts has been just as you left him, all the time drunk. I am heartily tired of him....”
Alexander to Frances, from Ft. Winnebago, August 2, 1832:
“Report says the Indians [Black Hawk] have crossed the Mississippi. If so, there is but little probability of our falling in with them. If we do, it will be in conjunction with Atkinson's or Dodge's force....”
Alexander to Frances, from Belmont, October 29, 1836:
“Belmont is a handsome place, but in a state of nature as yet. The accommodations are tolerable good....”
Frances to Alexander, November 15, 1836:
“I do think you must have delightful times at Belmont, more particularly sleeping two in a bed, and ten persons wiping on one towel....”
Frances to Alexander, November 21, 1836 (on the school building):
“...there are some things which ought to be attended to. If it was anything I could speak to Samuel about, I would tell him, but that I cannot do. There is one thing that is very necessary (and that will explain what it is)....”
Alexander to Frances, from Madison, November 30, 1838:
“...my roommates are Martin, Childs, and Shackelford. We sleep on the floor, and but one chair for us all. Sometimes we lie down on the bed, sometimes sit on the floor, on the table, and just as it happens....”
There are numerous letters, 1854-1859, from Robert A. Irwin, Frances and Alexander's son, written to Frances from Chicago, and, later, from Belle Plaine, Minnesota. The letters give a good picture of a young man growing up on the frontier.
Other correspondents include Frances' mother, Cynthia Smith, and her sister, C. Maria Cruttenden. The letters do give news from New York, but run much more to the standard type of the day, with long passages devoted to religion, sickness, and death. They serve as an interesting counterpoint to the exchanges between Frances and Alexander.
Other items in the correspondence include letters from Henry Dodge to Alexander (a March 22, 1842, letter consists largely of a thinly-veiled diatribe against Dodge's arch-rival, James Duane Doty); a number of letters and documents from 1845 which chronicle charges brought against Alexander while he was postmaster (these papers, as well as those relating to an earlier attack on Robert Irwin Jr. while he was postmaster, are most interesting for the many details they give about how mail was handled); letters, over several years, regarding Alexander's wish to exercise pre-emption rights to land (Lot 18) which he held jointly with the Episcopal Mission (the Mission had rights to the land as long as they maintained an Indian school there, but their rights came into question when the school closed); and an 1846 letter from Henry Smith giving graphic details of Henry's son shooting himself accidentally and surviving.
Among the early Wisconsin people mentioned in the letters are: Major and Mrs. David Twiggs, the Reverend Richard Cadle, Henry and Elizabeth Baird, Mr. and Mrs. John Kinzie, John Lawe, the Grignon Family, Pierre and Joseph Paquette, Mr. and Mrs. Samuel Beall, and the Reverend Daniel E. Brown.
Financial records in the Irwin Family Papers are organized according to the family member generating them.
The small number of records from Robert Irwin Sr., and Robert Irwin Jr., 1818-1823, 1841, relate primarily to land sales. Personal financial records, 1825-1847, of Alexander Irwin also relate primarily to land sales. Within these records are note of transactions when land was purchased or sold jointly by Alexander and Robert Irwin Jr. Also in Alexander's personal records are papers relating to money borrowed, land--and improvements--rented, and taxes paid. A particularly interesting item is a long list (1836) of credit “points” given to Indians for beaver pelts at the Irwins' store.
Papers, 1835-1844, relating to Alexander's controversy with the Episcopal Mission over pre-emption of Lot 18 are filed separately from his other personal financial records.
Alexander's records, 1842-1847, as Receiver for the Bank of Wisconsin consist mainly of lists of property belonging to the bank, lists of claims, copies of receipts for payments made by the Receiver, and Alexander's compiled statements of account.
Alexander's records, 1845 through 1847, as Receiver of the Public Moneys for Land Sales in the Green Bay area contain all the financial records of the Green Bay land office for that period. All the receipts, deposits, and disbursements are recorded--from paying for having wooden boxes built to haul payments which were made in gold and silver, to receipts for the actual purchase of land. Copies of Alexander's reports to the Commissioner of the General Land Office are also included. Alexander employed a consecutive numbering system, either by quarter or half year. This system has been retained. For this reason, initial dates of documents are not always in precisely chronological order.
Frances Irwin's financial records cover the period between Alexander's death and her own, 1847-1880. These papers relate to land sales and mortgages. There is also Frances' personal account book.
Financial records, called “non-Irwin,” relate primarily to land transactions between other early Green Bay area settlers. There is also a map of “Calumet Village,” plotted into lots, and a part of a circular urging people to settle in Brown County.
Irwin Family data include a few handwritten birth and death records, baptismal and marriage certificates, a sketch of a house plan, and copies of Irwin records from the Brown County Register of Probate.
Clippings retained in the Irwin Family Papers were sorted out of a large group of clippings, which had probably been gathered by Alexander's and Frances' two youngest daughters toward the end of the nineteenth and beginning of the twentieth centuries. Most of the clippings relating to individual members of the Irwin Family are obituaries. These obituaries were all annotated, during processing, as to their exact family relationships, and, used in conjunction with the genealogical charts at the beginning of this register, will make the relationships between the correspondents easier to understand.
Clippings regarding other old Green Bay families will give the researcher a clearer picture of the names mentioned in the letters and other records.
Clippings relating to historic sites will also give the researcher a better understanding of place names in the papers.
“Recollections” clippings consist largely of the reminiscences of Elizabeth Therese Baird, which appeared in the Green Bay State Gazette, 1886-1887. (A somewhat condensed version of Mrs. Baird's recollections appear in theWisconsin Historical Collections.) Other reminiscences are by Mrs. Harriet de Nevue and J.G. Knapp.
