Morris Sleight papers, 1834-1837 & 1850-1854; 1953.

 

Descriptive Inventory for the Collection at Chicago History Museum, Research Center

By Archie Motley, March 1962; rev. 2009

 

 

Please address questions to:

Chicago History Museum, Research Center

1601 North Clark Street

Chicago, IL 60614-6038

Web-site: http://www.chicagohistory.org/research

 

 

© Copyright 2009 Chicago Historical Society

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Title: Morris Sleight papers, 1834-1837 & 1850-1854; 1953.

Main entry: Sleight, Morris, 1795-1863

Inclusive dates: 1834-1837 & 1850-1854; 1953

Size:

153 items (including 7 volumes).

 

Restriction: Research use of this collection is governed by the standard rules and regulations of the Chicago History Museum Research Center.

Accession number: M1936.0008

Provenance statement: Gift of Mrs. William P. Wright (1936.0008) and 1834 letter to James Russell donated in 1947.

Terms governing use: Copyright may be retained by the creators of items, or their descendents, as stipulated by United States copyright law, unless otherwise noted.

Please cite this collection as: Morris Sleight papers (Chicago History Museum) plus a detailed description, date, and folder number of a specific item.

 

This descriptive inventory includes:

Biographical/historical note,

Summary description of the collection,

Notes,

List of headings for the collection in the online catalog,

List of contents of the collection.

 

Biographical note:

Morris Sleight was one of the earliest and most prominent residents of Naperville (Ill.). Detailed information about his birth and death, except for their dates, is lacking. In his letter of June 26, 1853, to his wife, Hannah, Sleight mentions having been captain of the sloop Director. In 1834 he left his Hyde Park, N.Y., home for a trip through the Midwest. Greatly impressed by business opportunities and living conditions in Naperville, Illinois, he settled his family there in 1837. His basic source of income in Naperville appears to have come from his farming. Sleight also had extensive land holdings, several of which were donated to various Naperville churches. He was a member of DuPage County’s first grand jury, in 1837 (according to R. Blanchard’s History of DuPage County., p. 148), and served as County Treasurer in 1839 (Ibid, p. 143), and as Naperville’s Village President 1861-1862 (Ibid, p. 146). He left Illinois for the California gold fields in 1850, remaining there (mostly in Placerville, also called "Hangtown," and Aurum City) until 1854, when he rejoined his family in Naperville, reputedly several thousand dollars richer from his various endeavors in California.

 

Summary description of the collection:

Letters, diaries or journals, and other papers of Morris Sleight. His early letters, mostly from the Chicago area to his wife Hannah in Hyde Park, N.Y., (12 items; 1834-1837), praise business opportunities in the area and describe living conditions, the hospitality of residents at Naper's Settlement, and the beauty and fertility of the land. His diaries detail his travel through the Midwest (1834 June-Sept.) and comment on people, living conditions, villages and towns, modes of land and water transportation. Sleight traveled many miles by river (Mississippi, Illinois, Ohio and Wabash rivers) and commented on Chicago, Edwardsville, Alton, Springfield, and Jacksonville (Illinois) as well as Indiana, Kentucky, and Ohio. Another journal chiefly lists land sales (lot, location, price); details a trip through Michigan and Illinois (1835 May-Sept.); and miscellaneous accounts (1835-1836). More material relates to California (1850-1854: 57 letters; 46 pocket letterbooks; the road-guide notebook telling distances traveled and expenses; a printed hymnal; and 31 stock certificates and exchange checks), where Sleight traveled in 1850 and stayed over three years, primarily at Placerville, Aurum City, and Sacramento, before returning to Naperville (Ill.).

 

California materials discuss the trip from St. Louis to Fort Laramie; the Mormons in Utah; quartz gold mining processes, expenses, prospecting, and profits; his general store and tavern in Placerville; beginning in fall 1851, his partnership of Sleight and Morrison--Quartz Agency Exchange and General Commission Merchants at Sacramento City; then working for the Union Mining Company at Aurum City (becoming its superintendent in Jan. 1853); return to Placerville in Nov. 1853 to engage in lumber trade; commenting throughout on prices and economic conditions; social relations, health conditions, and incidents of frontier justice; relations among white Americans, American Indians, Chinese immigrants, and Europeans; climate and scenery. He also comments on business opportunities in the Puget Sound area but decides to return to Naperville.

 

Mackinac Island and Sleeping Bear Island are described by Capt. Sleight on the trip he took in company with Mr. John H. Kinzie, when he also describes an American Indian dance performed by Mr. Kinzie.

 

Some transcripts are included in the collection as well as a Masters thesis by William J. Jedlick at DePaul University (1953, 102 p.) entitled: Letters of Morris Sleight on the California Trail, 1850.

 

Notes:

Microfilm of the collection was made for the Bancroft Library in August 1958.

 

Excerpts from Captain Sleight’s letters and diaries are available in the Manuscripts Handbook in the Research Center, Chicago History Museum.

 

List of headings for the collection in the online catalog:

Sleight, Morris, 1795-1863--Archives.

Sleight, Morris, 1795-1863--Diaries.

Sleight, Hannah T. Gibbs.

Kinzie, John Harris, 1803-1865.

Union Mining Company (Aurum City, Calif.)

Commission merchants--California--19th century.

Ethnicity--California--19th century.

Families--Illinois--Naperville--19th century.

Families--New York (State)--Hyde Park--19th century.

Frontier and pioneer life--California.

Frontier and pioneer life--Illinois.

Farmers--Illinois--19th century.

Gold mines and mining--California--19th century.

Hanging--California--19th century.

Mormons--Utah--19th century.

Overland journeys to the Middle West.

Overland journeys to the Pacific.

Prairies--Illinois--19th century.

Real estate investment--Illinois--19th century.

Travel--Middle West--19th century.

California--Gold discoveries--19th century.

California--Description and travel--19th century.

Chicago Region--Description and travel--19th century.

DuPage County (Ill.)--Description and travel--19th century.

Mackinac Island (Mich. : Island)--Description and travel--19th century.

Naperville (Ill.)--Description and travel--19th century.

 

Form/genre:

Correspondence.

Diaries.

Stock certificates.

Transcripts.

 

Added entries:

Jedlick, William J. Letters of Morris Sleight on the California Trail, 1850.

Russell, James, recipient.

Sleight, Hannah T. Gibbs, recipient.

Central Gold Quartz Mining Co.

 

List of contents of the collection:

12 folders:

folder 1           Letters, July 1834-1837

folder 2           Letter, 1850

folder 2a          Typed transcription of letters, 1850

folder 3           Letters, 1851-1852

folder 4           Letters, 1853 Jan.-1853 Sept.

folder 5           Letters, 1853 Oct.-1854 April

folder 6           Shares in Central Gold Quartz Mining Co.; exchange checks

folder 7           Pocket letter books; books 1-20

folder 8           Pocket letter books; books 21-46

folder 9           Diaries/journals

folder 10         Misc. items in envelopes: road guide 1850; printed hymnal

folder 11         The letters of Morris Sleight, Masters thesis by Wm. J. Jedlick