The Charles C. Sholes Papers include:
Nine letters (1843-1845) to his fiancee, Sarah McKinney, written by Sholes from Milwaukee and Kenosha (Southport), Wisconsin. These are heavily personal in content and contain only brief vague allusions to his newspaper work in Kenosha and Waukesha.
Twenty-nine letters (1853-1855) written by Sholes to his wife Sarah. These include series written during his trips east in 1853 and 1854, and a group written in 1855 while he was in Madison as speaker of the Assembly. Included are discussions of a temperance convention in New York; mention of meetings with Horace Greeley and Phineas T. Barnum; impressions of William Lloyd Garrison as a speaker; descriptions of New York museums, of a spiritualist seance, and of a sumptuous entertainment given by Charles Durkee following his election to the United States Senate in 1855. There are a few brief references to Sholes' work in New York overseeing the printing and sale of railroad bonds in 1854, to his activities as speaker of the Assembly, and to his purchase of telegraph lines serving Madison, Milwaukee, Janesville, and Beloit in 1855. There are also a few allusions to his brother.
Five letters (1864-1865) written by Sholes from Norfolk, Virginia, Baltimore, Maryland, and Washington, D.C. while in the service of the federal government. In content the letters are mainly concerned with family matters.
Ten miscellaneous letters (1858-1867). Included are undated fragments written by Sholes and four pieces addressed to him. One (March 10, 1867), a letter of condolence on the death of one of Sholes' daughters, was written by Charles Durkee, then governor of Utah Territory, and has modest autograph value.
Also included are a mortgage bond for the Kenosha and Rockford Railroad Co., 1857; two appointments, 1864, 1865, signed by Governor James T. Lewis and Secretary of State Lucius Fairchild; a copy of Sholes' will, a funeral discourse and assorted estate papers; and three carte de visite photographs of Charles Sholes, Mrs. Sholes, and the Wisconsin State Senate of 1867 of which Sholes was a member.
