The Nevitt family records have been organized into five series: Charles R. Nevitt Papers, Nevitt Agency Records, Paine Lumber Company Records, Butte Des Morts Land Company Records, and Bayou Shooting Club Records.
CHARLES R. NEVITT PAPERS include a letterpress copy book, 1893-1906, into which are copied letters to his family, particularly to his children and grandchildren. They deal only peripherally with family business matters. Included is a brief autobiography, written in 1898. Nevitt's financial papers consist of five volumes of accounts, 1860-1907. They provide some detail of his business activities as a printer, realtor, and insurance agent. They also include household accounts and justice of the peace fine accounts. The miscellaneous account book includes entries apparently not kept by Nevitt: eight pages of an undertaker's daybook and seventy pages of a furniture maker's ledger.
NEVITT AGENCY RECORDS consist of five volumes of letterpress copy books, 1868-1907, containing Charles R. Nevitt's letters to insurance companies and clients, regarding insurance and real estate business. Unbound Nevitt agency papers, 1868-1969, consist primarily of correspondence, but include a variety of other documents: various partnership agreements; a substantial body of material, 1939-1941, relating to the firm's history and seventy-fifth anniversary; the company's annual financial statements and summaries, 1911-1959; and two auditors' reports, 1935 and 1950.
PAINE LUMBER COMPANY RECORDS, 1872-1949, are those apparently kept by the company's treasurer, Charles Nevitt. They consist of a variety of legal documents and supporting material relating to land holdings, leases, and agreements with railroads and other companies. These records approximate the original order they had when folded into bundles and filed in small file boxes; the bundles have been unfolded and stapled together and the contents of each box filed in a folder; the box titles have been retained as folder titles which appear in the contents list below. They include files for timber sales, land contracts, and easements; for Paine property at Summit Lake, Brute River, Bass Lake, and other property in Langlade County. These records document Paine Lumber's complex business and financial activities, and should complement the Paine Lumber Company Records, 1866-1915, also located at the Oshkosh Area Research Center.
BUTTE DES MORTS LAND COMPANY RECORDS show its operational and financial activities. The incorporation papers include the 1894 articles of incorporation and by-laws of the predecessor Butte Des Morts Shooting Club, and the papers from the land company's legal incorporation, 1903.
The minute book, 1903-1957, includes minutes of stockholders' and directors' meetings covering the entire history of the company, from its organizational meeting until the vote to dissolve was taken. Papers, 1928-1959, consist of letters and other documents which relate to the leasing of land, improvements, hunting rights, stockholder business including proxies and dividends, and efforts to sell the property in 1958. Muskrat trapping rights were granted to the Cyrus Benedict family and to W. J. Johnston from 1928 to 1956. Correspondence with the trappers, which includes regular reports on the number of muskrats taken on company land, is part of these papers. State licenses to operate a fur farm, 1947-1958, are also part of the series.
Other business records include stock certificates and stubs, 1904-1958; leases and agreements, 1904-1957; records of company property, 1887-1957; treasurers' reports, 1904 and 1935; balance sheets, 1943-1957; and annual reports to the secretary of state, 1922-1958. Financial records include a daybook, 1904-1958, in which expenses and receipts are recorded; and an account book, 1903-1958, in which bank, real estate, rent, expense, dividend accounts, and stockholders' ledger entries were kept. Additional financial records are check stubs, 1916-1958; road tax assessments, 1910-1922; and federal and state income tax returns, 1911-1957. Records of the company's dissolution include copies of legal documents filed with the secretary of state, and papers regarding the distribution of assets.
BAYOU SHOOTING CLUB RECORDS include articles of incorporation and by-laws, 1904; a minute book, 1904-1924, with minutes of meetings of the members and of the directors and lists of members; and correspondence with the marsh warden, 1930-1939. The marsh warden was hired by the club to keep non-members out, and to enforce the club rules. After 1930 he was apparently an employee of the land company. Treasurers' reports, 1906-1924; membership lists, 1914-1925; and miscellaneous papers, 1916-1924 (voting proxies, dues notices, and club rules), are also included. Financial records consist of a membership dues ledger, 1904-1925; check stubs, 1915-1932; a bank book, 1903-1924; and state and federal income tax records, 1912-1925.
