The Sheldon family papers contain correspondence, financial documents, and legal documents related to Lucius M. Sheldon, a wealthy landowner, and his family.
The Correspondence series begins with a few items related to Lucius M. Sheldon, including an early letter pertaining to a contested land patent (December 15, 1862) and several letters from Minnesota attorney R. B. Galusha regarding land in Sherburne County, Minnesota. The bulk of the series is comprised of Gardner Sheldon's letters to his parents about his life as a mining engineer and superintendent for the Corralitos Company in Chihuahua, Mexico. In frequent letters to his mother, he described his life in the Southwest and in Mexico, and he occasionally shared his opinions on subjects such as the local population and their spending habits (July 21, 1881). His final letter (May 10, 1887) is followed by a letter of condolence signed by several company employees following Sheldon's death (April 9, 1889). The collection has a business card for Beckett & McDowell, mining engineers and machinists from New York.
Legal and Financial Documents comprise the bulk of the collection. These primarily pertain to Lucius Sheldon's land holdings in Minnesota, Illinois, Iowa, and Texas. The series holds indentures, tax receipts, and land contracts, as well as Sheldon's last will and testament, naming as beneficiaries his wife, son, and grandson (February 2, 1898).
Lucius M. Sheldon was a farmer and merchant who owned land in several states. He had three children with his wife Harriet: Lucius M. Sheldon, Jr., Gardner Hutchinson Sheldon (b. 1860), and Henry K. Sheldon, Jr., named after their uncle. The family lived in Seneca, New York, and St. Paul, Minnesota, before settling permanently in Brooklyn. Gardner graduated from the Columbia College School of Mines in 1879 and spent his first few months out of school at a place called Navajo Springs, Arizona, before joining the Corralitos Mining Company in Chihuahua, Mexico. There, he worked as a mining engineer and superintendent at the company's mines until his death on April 8, 1889.