Herbert F. Boughey Papers, 1896-1934, and undated

Central Michigan University Clarke Historical Library

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Restrictions:: Herbert F. Boughey Papers are open for research.

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Summary

Creator:: Boughey, Herbert F.
Abstract:: Boughey Series 1, 1896-1934, and undated, includes biographical material, correspondence, an assortment of financial and banking records, legal records, and miscellaneous, such as catalogs, township charts, and newspaper clippings.
Extent:: Approximately 7 cubic foot (in 12 boxes, 10 volumes, 2 Oversized folders)
Language:: English
Authors:: Collection processed and finding aid created by B. Benson, T. Graves, A. Grose, M. Matyn

Background

Scope and Content:

The collection, Series 1, 1896-1934, and undated, includes biographical material, correspondence, an assortment of financial and banking records, legal records, and miscellaneous, such as catalogs, township charts, and newspaper clippings.

The collection was processed in two parts. First, three processing students in the Archives also processed 12 boxes, 12 volumes, and 2 oversized folders, approximately 8 cubic ft. This section is Series 1, which is described below. A separate Scope and Contents Note and Box Listing follows for each of the student’s box/es with their surname on both their box/es and scope notes/box listing follows after page 16 of this finding aid. This section is Series 2, which is described in a separate finding aid.

The biographical material includes such as licenses, cards, photographs, and copies of federal census for Michigan related to the Bougheys, Ruth’s wedding invitation, 1921, and personal correspondence and receipts of the Bougheys. There is a Bible Study Notebook of Margaret Wheelock, undated. Her relationship to the Bougheys is as of yet unknown.

Personal, business, and political correspondence, including some on postcards and in telegrams, are included. Of note is personal correspondence regarding Herbert P. Boughey’s stay in the Battle Creek Sanitarium and in the State Psychopathic Hospital, Ann Arbor, 1917-1925 (Box 3 and others). Additional Battle Creek Sanitarium correspondence are found throughout the boxes processed by the class.

Some of the political correspondence with Chase S. Osborn, about the state and national Republican committees and national convention, 1912-1930 (Box 3). Osborn was governor of Michigan, 1911-1913. See also Box 1 processed by B. White, and Boxes 1-2 processed by S. Wonsey. There is also personal correspondence with Governor Fred W. Green, 1928, in Series 2, Box 1 processed by M. Morgan.

Other correspondence of note includes personal correspondence between Herbert Boughey and Simon Redbird, a Native American, 1928-1931. Additional correspondence with Redbird is in Box 2, Series 2, processed by F. McDaniel and Series 2, Box 1 processed by A. Grove.

Most of the Carp Lake Lumber Company business correspondence dates from 1911 to 1934. There is numerous business correspondence with various companies mostly regarding lumber, and also for other supplies, including telephone services, railroads, insurance, and hotels. Many companies are documented but one of the most known is Hannah Lay Mercantile Company of Traverse City. Bliss and Van Auken Lumber Company are also included. There are also letterpress books, 1902-1923 (6 volumes). Oversized materials include maps and timber estimates related to the lumber business.

Financial and banking records in the collection include bank statements, check stubs, cash books, and cancelled checks mainly with First National Bank, Traverse City, but also with First Peoples State Bank and People’s Saving Bank of Traverse City, Cadillac State Bank, Leelanau County Bank, of Michigan, and People’s Bank, Blytheville, Arkansas, among others. There are numerous receipts for clothing, food, hotel stays, furniture, gifts, and other supplies. It is often difficult to tell if the receipts are for personal or business reasons. Also included are stock records and financial volumes.

Legal records include various deeds, land contracts, mortgages, business and insurance papers. Other more miscellaneous materials found in the collection include catalogs, and land and township charts, which may be for lumber or real estate purposes. A copy of Herbert F. Boughey’s codicil to his last will, 1931, and the last will and testament of Grace Boughey, 1931, are in Series 2, Box 1 processed by F. McDaniel.

Processing Note: Non-Michigan materials, duplicates, reading materials, material of a peripheral nature were removed from the collection during processing. Extremely dirty and moldy materials were also removed, with material of importance being photocopied. Extremely acidic materials were also photocopied and the originals were then withdrawn from the collection.

Biographical / Historical:

Biography:

Herbert F. Boughey (1872 or 1863-1968) was the son of a Midwest-born father and a German immigrant mother. Boughey settled in various locations in Leelanau County, Michigan, throughout his life, including the Traverse City area, and he owned a home in Leland. Boughey owned Carp Lake Lumber Company, in Bingham, Michigan, on the Leelanau Peninsula, which manufactured lumber, shingles, bark, and wood products. R. Case was the Chairman, J.O. Crotser, Vice-Chair, H.F. Boughey, Treasurer, and W. P. Crotser, Secretary of the company. The lumber company sales office was located at 615 Union Street, Traverse City. According to the federal census for Michigan, Boughey had other occupations during his life including grocery store proprietor, operator of an insurance office, and dealer of (age implements? [the description on the census is difficult to read]).

He owned and sold real estate in Michigan, Oregon, and British Columbia, Canada.

Also, Boughey owned the Cherry Home Company, which grew cherries in Traverse City, Michigan. The cherries were shipped to the Haserot Company in Ohio, which was a canning company that canned food, rice, coffee, cheese, fruits, nuts, and fish.

He was very active politically as a Republican, although he also was interested in the National Progressive Party. He maintained correspondence with Governor Chase S. Osborn.

Boughey donated to various charities, including, notably, The American Relief Committee for Widows and Orphans of the War in Germany, the Anti-Saloon League of America, the American Committee for Armenian and Syrian Relief (see Box 1 processed by Huss), and the International Peace Forum. Other organizations he supported included the New We-Que-Tong Club, and the Western Michigan Development Bureau, and the Central Methodist Episcopal Church.

During World War I, Boughey registered and was involved with the draft board. Boughey often delayed paying his bills and wrote a rough draft of an original story about logging.

Boughey had an idea to create and patent the first car windshield defroster, which he conveyed in letter to Messrs. Owen and Owen in Toledo, OH (which may refer to the owner(s) or the Libby-Owens Company, makers of windshields for the Fords Model A) on December 30, 1930. Earlier that year, on January 6, 1930, Thomas J. French of Minneapolis, Minnesota had already filed a patent application for a window defroster. It was patented on August 4, 1931 (#1817305) and was nothing more than a window scraper, similar to modern windshield wipers. It was not until September 27, 1935 that Edward S. Cornell, Jr. of New York filed his patent application for the hot air window defroster, which was patented on June 21, 1938 (#2121753), eight years after Boughey had first submitted his idea to Owen and Owen. (See Boxes 1-2 processed by F. McDaniel.)

In 1899, Boughey married Grace (1880-), with whom he had three children: Ruth Boughey Semmes (1900-), Herbert P. Boughey (1906-), and Helen Boughey (1907-). When Ruth married Spencer Semmes in November 1921, she moved to Blythville, Arkansas. Herbert F. Boughey conducted business in Arkansas after Ruth moved there. Herbert P. Boughey attended Todd Seminary in Illinois around 1925. Herbert P. spent time periodically in the Battle Creek Sanitarium and State Psychopathic Hospital in Ann Arbor, Michigan, 1917-1925, for anxiety, nervousness, possibly depression, and breathing difficulties. While in school in Traverse City he corresponded with a pen pal, William, from Oakland, California. Grace often shopped at Lane Bryant stores. She donated to/was involved with the Christian Scientists.

In 1900 and 1910, a widow, Harriet Greenstead, lived with the Bougheys in Traverse City. In the 1900 census she is listed as Herbert’s mother, in 1910 as his mother-in-law. She and her parents were born in England. Harriet immigrated to the United States in 1870. Harriet was a dressmaker. In 1900, Harriet’s daughter, Fannie E., age 18, born in Michigan, also lived with the family and attended school. By 1910 Fannie was gone, probably married, and Harriet had retired. Also in 1910, a boarder, William P. Needham, an Irishman, lived with the Bougheys. He was a teacher at a business college.

Herbert F. Boughey also maintained correspondence with Simon Redbird. Simon Redbird (1864-) the son of Stephen and Nancy Redbird of Leelanau, Michigan, was a Native American gentleman whose family, like so many others, was hit very hard by the Great Depression of the 1930s. He resided primarily in Grand Island, Nebraska during the years of 1930-1932, according to correspondences with Herbert Boughey, but worked briefly in St. Josephs, Missouri in 1929 as well throughout Nebraska, including Geno, Nebraska, in 1929 and Crawford, Nebraska, in 1930. Mr. Redbird was also the proprietor of eighty acres in Leelanau County, Michigan, which he conjectured held “about or over three thousand dollars’ worth of hardwood timber.” [Correspondence to M. Herbert Boughey from Simon Redbird on April 21, 1932.] From this we concluded that Simon Redbird and Herbert Bo[ughey were either business acquaintances via the lumber industry or former employee/employer, as Mr. Redbird’s was employed in the carpentry trade, which encompassed cabinet working, woodworking, and neat finisher; he was also a self-proclaimed skilled workman [with] mechanic experience, was familiar with building construction and designing, and could work as an architectural draftsman or mechanical draftsman. [Correspondences to M. Herbert Boughey from Simon Redbird on July 10, 1930; September 6, 1930; and October 29, 1930.] The federal census in 1870-18809 lists Redbird as living in Michigan, in 1900 on the Fort Lewis Reservation, La Plata, Colorado, and from 1910 through 1930 in Nebraska. (This information is from the collection.) [Note: There is a Carp Lake village near Paradise Lake, south of Mackinaw.]

Acquisition Information: