Archives Directory for the History of Collecting in America
Archives related to: Dousman, Hercules L. (Hercules Louis), 1800-1868
| title | Dousman Family papers, 1830-1911. | repository | Wisconsin Historical Society |
| description | Papers, primarily business and financial records, of the American Fur Company’s Prairie du Chien agent and papers of his son, also Hercules Louis Dousman, including correspondence, real estate and legal documents, bills, receipts, tax records, and bank and stock statements. Also includes materials relating to land speculation and property management, especially of Nina Sturgis Dousman’s administration of the Villa Louis estate and St. Louis properties; and business interests in railroads, steamboats, lumber, gas lighting, art collecting, and horse breeding. Prominent correspondents include William B. Astor, Alexis Bailly, Henry S. Baird, Nelson Dewey, James D. Doty, John Kinzie, Juliette Kinzie, Morgan L. Martin, Josiah Noonan, Henry H. Sibley, and C. C. Washburn. Also included is a copy of "A Catalogue of the Paintings Contained in the Gallery of Herculres L. Dousman" containing 19 lithograph illustrations. |
| extent | 15.2 c.f. (38 archives boxes) |
| formats | Business Papers Financial Papers Correspondence Estate Papers Legal Papers |
| access | Contact repository for restrictions and policies. |
| record source | http://arcat.library.wisc.edu/ |
| finding aid | Register in repository. |
| acquisition information | Presented by Mrs. F. R. Bigelow, St. Paul, Minn., 1944 and 1952; by Gladys Lynch, Milwaukee, Wis., 1954; and by the Villa Louis historic site, Prairie du Chien, Wis., 1969 and 1984. |
| updated | 03/16/2023 10:29:51 |
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| title | Hercules L. Dousman Papers, 1808-1857 (bulk 1840-1857). | repository | Newberry Library |
| description | Correspondence, agreements, powers of attorney, accounts, promissory notes, etc., of Hercules Dousman, primarily relating to his fur trade business. Included are contractual agreements between Dousman, Sibley, and Rolette, and the American Fur Company (1834, 1841) and Pierre Chouteau Jr. & Co. (1842), and Dousman's statements of account (including several for the steamboat Ariel) with the firms. Also a power of attorney, correspondence, and other documents relating to Dousman's efforts to collect the debts of the defunct American Fur Company (1842-1857), and documents related to the settlement of Joseph Rolette's estate (1843-1845). Additional items include a ms. Dakota-English vocabulary, a volume of accounts with named Indians, the printed act of incorporation of the American Fur Company (1808, with certification by N.Y. governor Marcy, 1839), and a packing list of Joshua Palen's fur trade goods (1822). Biographical/Historical Note Wealthy Prairie du Chien, Wisconsin, fur trader and regional investor. Born on Mackinac Island in 1800 and educated in New Jersey, Dousman worked at a New York mercantile house as a clerk and with his father at Mackinac before coming in 1826 to Prairie du Chien. There Dousman worked as an agent of the American Fur Company in partnership with Joseph Rolette (whose widow, Jane Fisher Rolette, Dousman married in 1844). In 1834, Dousman, Rolette, and H.H. Sibley became stockholders in Ramsay Crooks' reorganized American Fur Company and contracted to run the Western Outfit for Crooks. With the assignment of that company to creditors in 1842, the trio transferred their trade, becoming the Upper Mississippi Outfit of Pierre Chouteau Jr. & Co. of St. Louis. |
| extent | 52 items |
| formats | Correspondence Legal Papers Financial Records Business Papers Printed Materials |
| access | Contact repository for restrictions and policies. |
| record source | http://www.loc.gov/coll/nucmc/ |
| acquisition information | Briggs, M.H.; purchase; 1926; 8146 - 8158; 200.00. Butler, R.L. Checklist of the mss. in the Ayer Coll., 18. Forms part of the Edward E. Ayer Manuscript Collection (Newberry Library). |
| updated | 11/12/2014 11:29:55 |
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