Mills and Whitney families papers

Collection — Box: 1, Folder: 1-2

Identifier: 2018-023

Staff Only

Content Description

Two folders of family papers from the Mills and Whitney families, ancestral to Charles F. Hutchison of Rochester. Papers mostly related to land transactions and political offices held by the families in both New York and Michigan.

Scope and Contents

This collection documents some of the activities and land holdings of the Mills and Whitney families between 1809 and 1877. The dominant figures in the collection are Isaac and George C. Mills, apparently brothers, whose land holdings and dealings in Wayne County, New York, and Gun Plain Township, Michigan, are documented by this collection. The Whitney family was apparently tied to the Mills brothers by marriage. The copy of the January 4, 1799, Ulster County Gazette included in this collection is a mid- to late-19th century reproduction, as described in the materials accompanying it.

Dates

Creation: 1809 - 1877

Conditions Governing Access

There are no restrictions regarding access to or use of this collection.

Conditions Governing Use

Copyright is held by the Rochester Public Library, Local History and Genealogy Division. Copyright of the papers in the collection may be held by their authors, or the authors’ heirs or assigns. Researchers must obtain the written permission of the holder[s] of copyright and the Local History and Genealogy Division before publishing quotations from materials in the collection. Most papers may be copied in accordance with the library’s usual procedures unless otherwise specified.

Biographical Note

Obtaining detailed information on the creators of this collection has proven difficult. Isaac and George C. Mills appear to have been brothers resident in Monroe and/or Wayne County, New York, in the 1830s and 1840s. They were land owners, and Isaac purchasing new lands in Michigan in the 1830s. The Mills brothers were also politically connected in New York, with George C. obtaining a commission as paymaster of the Second Brigade of Riflemen in the New York Militia in 1835.

At an indeterminate date before the Civil War, Isaac Mills must have relocated to Michigan, settling his land just outside the town of Plainfield, Gun Plain Township, northwest of Kalamazoo. Either he or George C.'s son married into the Whitney family. Their combined lands just southeast of Plainfield, as shown on a hand-drawn map in the collection, are in the hands of George C. Mills (presumably junior) on an 1873 map of Gun Plain Township.

Extent

.049 Cubic Feet (2 folders) ; 12 x 9.5 x .75

.049 Cubic Feet

Language of Materials

English

Additional Description

Abstract

This collection consists of personal and legal papers pertaining to the Mills and Whitney families between 1809 and 1877. The Mills family had land interests in both western New York and Michigan, and the bulk of the collection contents are related to these interests. The collection also includes a reproduction copy of the famed Ulster County Gazette of January 4, 1799, most likely produced in the mid-19th century.