Milo Kendall Papers

Personal letters to Milo Kendall, with a short section of outgoing letters, and other family correspondence. Kendall wrote many letters to family and friends in Vermont in the early years of his move to Illinois, and this correspondence documents his efforts to begin a law practice, and also his thoughts on settling in Princeton, getting older, and getting married. Also included are courtship letters to his future wife, Orpha Ide Kendall.

Family correspondence includes letters from Kendall siblings to their parents and each other, as well as members of Orpha Ide Kendall's family. Also included are Orpha Ide Kendall's courtship letters to Milo Kendall, and incoming correspondence to her from her sisters, parents, and friends. There is also voluminous correspondence from Milo & Orpha Kendall's daughter Helen (Nell) Kendall Winter, who lived with her husband and son in the Hyde Park area of Chicago and later Grand Rapids, Michigan. Nell wrote frequently to her parents, and the letters contain many observations of life in Hyde Park, including the World's Exposition in 1893.

Materials related to Milo Kendall's life, including his career, involvement in civic matters in Bureau County, personal finances, writings and speeches, and various other personal items. A supporter of the Mexican-American War, Kendall's 1846 speeches to the Town of Princeton reflect his point of view that the war was important for land expansion. Kendall's early writings date back to his education, and include his opinions on various matters, including the Constitution, temperance, slavery and women's place in the home. Later writings, which could possibly also be speeches, detail Kendall's support of George B. McClellan for President of the United States in 1864, and reflect his strong dislike for Abraham Lincoln and Lincoln's policies regarding the Civil War and slavery. There is some poetry and story writing as well.

A prominent lawyer and well-respected citizen of the Town of Princeton, Kendall was very involved in local and civic issues, serving as both Mayor and President of the town. He was also a member of the Early Settlers Association and the Board of Education, a director of the Citizen's National Bank, a notary, and served as an election official numerous times in Bureau County.

The few images found with the collection include a copy of a photo of Milo Kendall with his daughter Helen (Nell) Kendall Winter, and grandson Milo Winter, and a photo of a Princeton-based musical group.

Materials related to relatives of Milo Kendall, his wife Orpha Ide Kendall, and her family, including the childhood writings of Orpha Ide Kendall and her sisters Sarah and Clarissa, and Milo & Orpha's nephew George O. Ide. Also included are documents related to Orpha Ide Kendall's father John Ide, a prominent Baptist preacher in Massachusetts and New York state. A few items related to Milo and Orpha Ide Kendall's son William I. Kendall, who lived and worked in Princeton, are also included.

Documents pertaining to Milo Kendall's law practice and other business dealings. The majority of the law papers are from Kendall's partnerships with Owen G. Lovejoy and George O. Ide (1857-1871), and cover a variety of issues, including land and property agreements and disputes, estate administration, divorces, and debt collection. Kendall managed debt assignments for two associates, Elijah Dee and Benjamin Newell, working out payment schedules with creditors for both men. There are legal documents such as wills, deeds, mortgages, and leases included in the papers, as well as hand-written depositions and briefs. Kendall served as lawyer for both the Chicago, Burlington & Quincy Railroad and the Illinois Grand Trunk Railway (formerly the Camanche, Albany, and Mendota Railroad), and there are materials related to personal injury cases as well as right of way and securities issues. Some of the business correspondence overlaps with materials in the legal documents and cases series.

Kendall was also involved in real estate ventures in Princeton. He bought, sold, and leased property himself and also entered into a partnership with local businessmen Jacob T. Thomson and Joseph V. Thompson to buy 100 acres of land in the northern part of Princeton, which they then divided into lots and sold. Other materials include a small amount of materials from Kendall's first law partnership with C.K. Harvey in 1846, expense logs and receipts from Kendall's later law practices, land abstracts, copies of documents Kendall notarized, and financial records of the American House Hotel in Princeton, which Kendall had an interest in.

The ledgers are primarily copies of documents from the later years of Kendall's law practice & business dealings, and continue into 1911 when his son William I. Kendall took over. However, the first ledger, 1860-1890, contains receipts and original business correspondence, and also serves as a scrapbook as it includes newspaper clippings and personal correspondence. Of note is a letter Milo Kendall wrote to his last surviving brother Alonzo Kendall, in which he reminisces about the family's early life in Vermont.