The collection includes Dawson's research, writing and related correspondence, mostly about his research and manuscript drafts for materials on Henry Whiting, Hezekiah G. Wells, Della T. Lutes and minstrel / vaudeville performer Billy Clark. Boxes 1-3 are .5 cubic foot boxes and Box 4 is .25 cubic foot. The collection is organized alphabetically and chronologically.
Box 1 includes: Dawson’s research, writing, and related correspondence, 1970-1999 and undated. Most of the collection consists of Dawson’s research, photographs, drafts of manuscripts, and correspondence about republishing Della T. Lutes’ Country Kitchen cookbook. The same types of materials exist from his efforts to publish an article about Billy Clark, a Michigan minstrel. There is also a typed, 45-page paper with a variety of U. S. Centennial poetry from Michigan newspapers, compiled by Dawson. The Clarke Historical Library also houses the Lutes papers and three scrapbooks about Clark and minstrel shows.
Boxes 2-4 include: Dawson’s research, writing, and related correspondence, 1911-2007 and undated, on Della T. Lutes, Henry Whiting, Hezekiah G. Wells, and English poet Felicia Hemans (1793-1835). Also included are research materials on Michigan history, especially Michigan territorial verse, roads and taverns; the Mount Pleasant public library; Henry Rowe Schoolcraft; Mount Pleasant Woman’s Club; including the Mount Pleasant Saginaw Chippewa Indian Reservation and the Battle of Lake Erie.
Biography:
Lawrence R. Dawson: Professor Lawrence R. Dawson, Jr., was a Professor of English at Central Michigan University. He retired in 1988, receiving the status of Professor Emeritus of English. He lived in Mount Pleasant, Michigan. In 2000 he resided in Kalamazoo, Michigan.
Henry Whiting: Henry Whiting (died 1851) was born in Lancaster, Mass. in 1788. Whiting entered the U.S. Army in 1808, becoming a Second Lieutenant a year later, and a First Lieutenant in 1811. He worked as an aide to General J.P. Boyd and General Alexander Macomb, and in 1817 was promoted to Captain. Whiting was made brigadier-general of the U.S. Army on Feb. 23, 1847. He was a regent of the University of Michigan, and Secretary of the Michigan Historical Society, 1828-1833, and wrote on scientific and other subjects. Henry Whiting died in St. Louis, Mo. on Sept. 16, 1851.
Hezekiah G. Wells: Hezekiah G. Wells (died 1885) was a lawyer and politician associated with the growth of Kalamazoo and Michigan in the nineteenth century. Born in Steubenville, Ohio in 1812 or 1813, he came to Michigan in 1833. He was a lawyer, active in politics as a Whig and later as a Republican. He was a member of the Constitutional Convention of 1835 and 1850. He helped draft a new state constitution in 1873. He was a Kalamazoo County Judge in 1847. He was influential president of the State Board of Agriculture. He was Presiding Judge of the 1874 and 1882 Courts of Commissioners of Alabama Claims.
Della T. Lutes: Della T. Lutes (1872-1942) was a popular Michigan author of several books and numerous magazine articles. (For further information, see the finding aid for her papers, which are housed at the Clarke Historical Library.)
Billy Clark: Billy Clark (died 1939) was a Grand Rapids, Michigan, resident and a minstrel performer of blackface comedy routines. He worked with Primrose and West and Hammer and Fields minstrel companies, and was a featured vaudeville performer on the Keith and Orpheum circuits. Mr. Clark was an unusual performer in that he wrote his own music, painted his owned scenery, and wrote his own comedy sketches. Following the San Francisco Earthquake in 1906, Clark, Al Jolson, and other comedians of the day were noted as having helped the citizens recover their morale. Clark died in 1939 at age 64 in Grand Rapids. He was survived by his sister, Mrs. Edgar B. Delano. (This information is from his obituary in the Grand Rapids Herald, December 2, 1939.)
