The papers document Crocker's business and financial activities as railroad receiver, property holder, investor, and lawyer in Wisconsin; and span the years 1836 to 1887, with the bulk of the material falling between the years 1846 and 1871. The papers are divided into three series: railroad papers, real estate papers, and financial papers. The first series relates principally to the La Crosse and Milwaukee Railroad, and includes a few items concerning the transportation of soldiers during the early years of the Civil War. The second series, the largest of the three, involves real estate transactions of Crocker, relatives by marriage (Augusta Crocker and Louisa E. Delafield, daughters of Paraclete Potter), business associates, and others. Consisting almost entirely of quitclaims and property tax receipts and containing little correspondence, it provides information on the price and ownership of land but not on the plans, calculations, and negotiations that concluded in the conveyances of real estate, or on the subsequent utilization of real estate. The third series pertains to Crocker's investments in City of Milwaukee bonds, to debts and mortgages, and to household and personal expenses.
The collection contains little information on the careers of the individuals whose names appear there, such as: Solomon Juneau, first mayor of Milwaukee (1846); Moses Kneeland, unsuccessful candidate for mayor in 1852; Alexander Mitchell, railroad builder, member of the Board of Debt Commissioners, and member of Congress (1870-74); William A. Prentiss, holder of all public offices of the city, except mayor; John H. Tweedy, territorial delegate to Congress (1847) and representative in the State Assembly (1853); Don A.J. Upham, twice mayor and unsuccessful candidate for governor in 1851; Daniel Wells, Jr., first justice of the peace of Milwaukee County (1836) and member of Congress (1853); and Crocker himself. Nor do the papers shed light on their character, except for a letter of December 6, 1883, in which Mary Anne Rice thanks Crocker for paying her the money he owed her late husband but that she could not claim, since the documents proving indebtedness no longer existed (box 2, folder 7). Although the Hans Crocker Papers lack detail, continuity, and completeness, they are a source of information for the real estate activities of these prominent Milwaukeeans in the 1840s-1860s.
BIBLIOGRAPHIC NOTE: Since quitclaims comprise the bulk of the collection, it might be useful to consult Maps and Atlases Showing Land Ownership in Wisconsin in the Collection of the State Historical Society of Wisconsin, compiled by Michael J. Fox, assisted by Barbara A. Wilson (Madison, 1978); Silas Chapman, Map of the County of Milwaukee, Wisconsin (Milwaukee, 1869); J.V. Dupre, Quarter-Sectional Atlas of the City of Milwaukee (Milwaukee, 1884); and The 1972 Atlas of Hancock County, Iowa (Harlan, 1972). For biographical information on notable Milwaukeeans, see Memoirs of Milwaukee County, v. 1, edited by Jerome A. Watrous (Madison, 1909).
