The papers document a family with strong roots in Shullsburg, Wisconsin. A majority of the papers in the collection are letters received by family members who resided in Shullsburg from friends and relatives who lived elsewhere. The collection was found in the attic of Geneva James who resided in Shullsburg all of her life. By virtue of the fact that she was a single woman who gradually assumed the care of her elderly relatives, Geneva James apparently became the custodian of many family papers. After her death they were donated to the State Historical Society of Wisconsin by Glenn Matl, also of Shullsburg and a nephew of Geneva James, and his wife. Mrs. Matl shared the family's pronounced interest in genealogy and local history, and she also contributed genealogical charts and typed transcripts of many of the letters in the collection.
The papers are arranged primarily by provenance, that is by the recipient of the letters. Researchers should note that this arrangement means, for example, that users seeking the Civil War letters written by Edward Glines, a member of the 3rd Wisconsin, will find his correspondence in the separate files of relatives to whom he wrote: his father, his mother, his brother Charles, and his sister Marietta. It also means that while the collection is useful for local history research, the predominantly incoming nature of the correspondence means that the life of the Shullsburg recipients of the letters is understood primarily by inference.
The majority of the correspondence concerns Geneva's grandfather Isaac Wesley Glines. He was born in Marietta, Ohio, and arrived in Shullsburg in 1829. In Wisconsin Glines worked as a miner and taught school in his home to supplement his income. For several years Isaac Glines was the register of deeds for La Fayette County. In 1842 he married Marianne Ware. Originally from Virginia, the Wares were early settlers in the Gratiot's Grove area of Wisconsin.
The Glines' children included five sons and three daughters: Edward Pendleton (1843-?), Charles Wesley (1844- ?), Marietta (1847-1944), Hellen Scott (1849-1936), James Mansfield (1853), Ida Theodosia (1857-). Albert Sylvanus, a dentist (1863-), and Isaac William (1867-). Mary Ann Ware Glines died in 1873; Isaac Glines died in 1898. Isaac Glines' obituary said, “he was quiet and unassuming and filled his station in life simply and honestly and would rather suffer wrong than do it.”
Glines was also an able writer, and he published several series of recollections of territorial days. These recollections (some of which are available only on microfilm) are part of this collection. In addition, Isaac's correspondence includes numerous letters from Edward during his Civil War service. Additional Civil War letters from Edward may be found in the separate files of Mary Ann Ware Glines, his mother. Edward remained a frequent correspondent after the war because he ultimately settled far from the family home, in Falls City, Nebraska. Isaac also corresponded with his son Charles who settled in Gano, Ohio. Throughout his life Isaac received numerous letters from family in Marietta and from his brother Joseph in Magnolia, California. Isaac's files also include notebooks, miscellaneous financial accounts and receipts, and two berry books dating from the 1890s. A few letters, deeds, and financial items in his papers, as well as those of Marianne Glines, touch on life in territorial Wisconsin. Of special interest are a poem and several handwritten and printed invitations, dated about 1842, for dances and other social activities at Gratiot's Grove.
Isaac's daughter Hellen Glines, who married Samuel James about 1885, is also well represented here. The James' children included Emmett Eugene, who died in infancy, Mary Mabel Matl (1887-1965); and Geneva Helen (1894-1979). The correspondence of Samuel James (1855-1933) consists primarily of letters received in 1882 and 1883 when he living in Kalo, Iowa. Some of these letters are from his uncle, William Rogers, several are from his brothers and sisters in Shullsburg, and several are from various members of the Glines Family, most notably Hellen. After their marriage, the James Family settled in Shullsburg. Hellen's correspondence is extensive and largely from relatives who lived elsewhere.
Also well represented in the collection is Isaac's daughter Marietta, who was born in Shullsburg on April 8, 1847, and who resided there all of her life. She married John Jackson Lloyd in 1873. They had no children. Of Marietta, her obituary stated that she was “fond of good books, poetry and travel.” Marietta also shared the family's interest in genealogy. In 1885 she traveled to Ireland with her husband, and in 1892 she published A Trip to Ireland. Although the deposit of this book at the Library of Congress is referred to in the papers, it is not included in the collection nor in the Historical Society Library. At the time of her death in 1944, Marietta Lloyd was the oldest resident of Shullsburg. Her correspondence includes several letters from her husband written during his first trip to Ireland (1875) and several from Matthew Farrell, a friend from John's hometown. Marietta also received several letters from Edward during the Civil War and several from her uncles, Joseph Glines in California and Albert Glines in Iowa.
Geneva James, the granddaughter of Isaac and the daughter of Hellen James, is also well represented in the collection, but it is unfortunate that more of the documentation does not pertain directly to her, for she was a woman of considerable interest in her own right. A single woman, Miss James managed a farm, cared for elderly relatives, gathered the family archives, and raised a foster child, Donna Mae Berkiecher. Miss James also saved a significant amount of high-quality paper ephemera that documents the history of Shullsburg. (Similar material of a more general nature has been incorporated into the Archives' Ephemera File.) Particularly well represented in the Glines-James Papers are Shullsburg schools, theaters, and various commercial establishments.
Only a few photographs were received with the papers. The originals are housed in the Visual Materials Archive in Madison, with photocopies available with the papers at Platteville. The images include some photographs of Shullsburg taken during the 1920s and a house that is probably the home of Hellen James or Geneva James. The collection also includes a portrait of Isaac James, but it is of poor quality.
