Summary Information
Joseph T. Mills Papers
1856-1888
- Mills, Joseph Trotter, 1811-1897
Wis Mss BP
0.4 c.f. (1 archives box and 1 volume)
Wisconsin Historical Society (Map)
Memorandum books kept by Judge Mills, Lancaster, Wis., assemblyman and attorney, containing notes on law cases and legislative proceedings, with records of various trips, one to Superior and surrounding territory and return by way of the Great Lakes in 1856. There is an account of his interview with President Lincoln; some Civil War and Reconstruction correspondence; and a letter book kept by Mills and David McKee, Potosi, Wis., merchant and attorney.
English
http://digital.library.wisc.edu/1711.dl/wiarchives.uw-whs-wis000bp ↑ Bookmark this ↑
Scope and Content Note
The collection primarily consists of correspondence and six small diaries of Joseph T. Mills of Lancaster, dated 1856-1882 (not consecutive). The diaries contain memoranda on law cases, persons he met on his trips as circuit judge or elsewhere, an account of his interview with Lincoln in 1864, description of his trip from Wyalusing to Stillwater, Minnesota, and overland to Superior in 1856, and of his trip to Denver, Colorado in 1880.
Correspondence includes one letter from J.C. Cover in 1862 when editor of the Grant County Herald and one in 1871 when consul at Fayal, Azores; one from Major H.E. Eastman of the 2nd Wisconsin Cavalry to Major General James B. McPherson, describing a skirmish south of Vicksburg, and one from A.W. Shewey in Sharon, [West] Virginia in 1868, describing reconstruction measures.
Also included are a typewritten history of the First Congregational Church of Lancaster, and a letter book, 1857-1864, successively used by David McKee, merchant and attorney of Potosi, by McKee and Mills, attorneys of Lancaster, and by Mills alone, dealing with business affairs.
These papers are valuable chiefly for the comments and observations on Mills' trips. The interview with President Lincoln has been frequently published.
Administrative/Restriction Information
Presented by May B. Young, Bloomington, Wisconsin, 1931; and by Judge Edward Schmitz, Manitowoc, Wisconsin, 1936.
Contents List
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Diaries and Memorandum Books
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Box
1
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Diary of Trip from Wyalusing to Stillwater, July 1, 1856-July 30, 1856
: Mills traveled on foot through Minnesota past Rush City where he owned land to Superior, via Sault Ste. Marie and Milwaukee, to Madison. Description of land, settlement, residents, etc.
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Box
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Memorandum Book and Diary, 1861, August 11-1862, December 24
: Includes memoranda and notes on law cases; description of military forces in Madison, comments on Lincoln's policy regarding seceded states, characterization of legislators, and a description of a trip on the Mississippi River.
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Box
1
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Memorandum Book and Diary, 1864, Jan. 25-1865, May 6
: Account of a trip in August 1864 via the Great Lakes to Washington, D.C. and battlefields. Also includes a record of Mills' interview with President Lincoln.
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Box
1
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Memorandum Book and Diary, 1866, Dec. 3-1868, May 2
: Discusses weather, charges to juries, journeys, court sessions, brief description of Barrett's Ferry on Wisconsin River, trip to Detroit via Mackinac.
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Box
1
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Memorandum Book and Diary, 1868, May 10-1870, Dec 31
: Describes weather, expenses, court sessions, jottings regarding local history and persons met with on trips (“I saw the trumpeter Russell at Battle of Balaklava...he keeps a saloon in Chicago.”), and a trip to St. Anthony Falls.
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Box
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Memorandum Book and Diary, 1878, Nov. 14-1882, Jan 4
: Describes weather, addresses, legislative proceedings. Most of book is devoted to an account of a trip to Colorado, June 8-Oct. 13, 1880.
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Box
1
Folder
1-2
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Miscellaneous Letters
: Includes a few Civil War letters; a letter from Virginia in 1868 regarding reconstruction; and a letter from J.C. Cover, Fayal, Spain, 1871, describing conditions there.
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Volume
1
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Letter Book of McKee and Mills, later J.T. Mills, Nov. 23, 1856-July 18, 1864
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