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Summary Information
Anson W. Buttles Papers 1846-1906
Milwaukee Mss 186; Milwaukee Micro 75; Micro 161; Milwaukee Micro 76; Micro 2068
2.6 c.f. (7 archives boxes) and 8 reels of microfilm (35mm)
UW-Milwaukee Libraries, Archives / Milwaukee Area Research Ctr. (Map)Wisconsin Historical Society (Map)
Diaries and letters of Anson W. Buttles, a rural resident of the township of Milwaukee, Wisconsin. In the diaries, kept continuously from 1856 to 1906 on a farm near Fox Point, Buttles remarks on national elections and gives information on local political activity derived from his positions as town clerk, justice of the peace, school clerk, county surveyor, and county superintendent of schools. For the Civil War period, there are notations on the volunteer army, the draft, civilian privations, and the Indian war scare. The diaries also include references to farm operations and household economies; Dutch immigrant life; the Lady Elgin steamboat disaster in 1860; the Chicago fire of 1871; the Milwaukee strike of 1886; the panic and mob rule following bank closures of 1861 and 1893; rural entertainments; smallpox vaccinations; road building; books read; and family life. There are a few letters from Byron Kilbourn, Abram Vliet, Don J. Whittemore, and Paul Juneau from 1851-1857 containing information on surveying for the La Crosse and Milwaukee Railroad; genealogical material on the Buttles and Stoughton Families; and letters to his wife describing his work as engineer during the construction of the Milwaukee & Mississippi Railroad and the Milwaukee & La Crosse Railroad. English
http://digital.library.wisc.edu/1711.dl/wiarchives.uw-whs-mil00186
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