Guide to the Margaret Frances Case Cook Papers
Processed by Special Collections staff
Department of Special Collections
© 2003
Davidson Library
University of California, Santa Barbara
Santa Barbara, CA 93106
Phone: (805) 893-3062
Fax: (805) 893-5749
Email: special@library.ucsb.edu
URL: http://www.library.ucsb.edu/speccoll/speccoll.html
Regents of the University of California. All rights reserved.
Guide to the Margaret Frances Case Cook Papers, ca. 1901-1960
Collection number: Mss 17
Department of Special Collections, Davidson Library, University of California, Santa Barbara- Department of Special Collections
- Davidson Library
- University of California, Santa Barbara
- Santa Barbara, CA 93106
- Phone: (805) 893-3062
- Fax: (805) 893-5749
- Email: special@library.ucsb.edu
- URL: http://www.library.ucsb.edu/speccoll/speccoll.html
- Processed by:
- Special Collections staff
- Date Completed:
- 11 June 2003
- Encoded by:
- David C. Gartrell
© 2003 Regents of the University of California. All rights reserved.
Title: Margaret Frances Case Cook Papers,
Date (inclusive): ca. 1901-1960
Collection Number: Mss 17
Creator:
Cook (Margaret Frances Case)
Extent:
.2 linear feet
(1 half-size box)
Repository:
University of California, Santa Barbara. Library. Department of Special Collections
Santa Barbara, California 93106-9010
Language:
English.
None.
Copyright has not been assigned to the Department of Special Collections, UCSB. All requests for permission to publish or
quote from manuscripts must be submitted in writing to the Head of Special Collections. Permission for publication is given
on behalf of the Department of Special Collections as the owner of the physical items and is not intended to include or imply
permission of the copyright holder, which also must be obtained.
Margaret Frances Case Cook Papers. Mss 17. Department of Special Collections, Davidson Library, University of California,
Santa Barbara.
Undetermined.
Margaret Frances Case was born November 2, 1915 in Grand Rapids, Michigan. She spent her teenage years in Cooperstown, NY
at the Knox School for Girls, and maintained a regular correspondence with her father, Dr. James T. Case (1882-1960), a staff
physician at the Battle Creek Sanitarium, which was run by the health food pioneer John Harvey Kellogg (1852-1943).
Kellogg, perhaps best known as the inventor of Corn Flakes and other
"healthful" foods such as peanut butter and granola, also held a number of unorthodox ideas, such as advocating the benefits
of yogurt enemas. He also was opposed to all forms of sexual activity, even with his wife, Ella Eaton Kellogg (1853-1920).
As a result, the Kelloggs adopted over 40 children, including Helena Margaret Sargent (1883-1959), who had been born on the
Isle of Wight in England. Helena grew up to become a medical doctor herself, and eventually married Dr. James T. Case in 1908.
The letters from Dr. Case to his daughter are full of fatherly affection, as well as concern for Margaret's academic progress
and his wife's chronic ill health. After moving to Chicago, he also encourages his daughter to join a secret religious group
called "the Forum," which was led by Dr. William S. Sadler, and would later produce
The Urantia Book.
In the 1950s, Dr. Case and his wife moved to Santa Barbara, and were soon joined by Margaret and her son Geoffrey. Following
the deaths of her parents, Margaret received a letter from Dr. Sadler offering his regrets that he could tell her nothing
"about your antecedents before your adoption." It would seem that, like Helena before her, Margaret also was not raised by
her biological parents, although her father's letters give no indication of it. She died September 20, 1984 in Santa Barbara.
Scope and Content of Collection
Family correspondence, financial papers, passport, and photographs (mainly b/w family and cruise snapshots) of Santa Barbara
resident Margaret Frances Case Cook. Also, a journal inscribed to Mrs. E. E. Kellogg, wife of John Harvey Kellogg, from her
adopted daughter Helena, ca. 1901-1902. The journal, written in various hands, mostly relates the antics of three boys staying
with the many Kellogg children at Gull Lake in Michigan. Helena is mentioned as "one of the older girls." Ella Eaton Kellogg
was the superintendent of the Battle Creek Sanitarium School of Cooking, a dietician, magazine editor, and author of the books
Science in the Kitchen (1893) and
Studies in Character Building: A Book for Parents (1905).
Box 1: 1
Correspondence, ca. 1929 - 1960
Abstract: [Mainly from father James T. Case while she was at school, 1929-1934]
Box 1: 2
Knox School (Cooperstown, NY) - Alumnae Address Booklet, 1934
Abstract: [Lists Margaret Case as 1934 graduate]
Box 1: 3
Passport, 1938
Abstract: [With stamps from various countries, including Nazi Germany, for 1938 trip as a student]
Box 1: 4
Photographs, ca. 1900s to 1960s
Abstract: [Mainly b/w prints without captions, some of Margaret Cook and others, apparently family members]
Box 1: 5
Journal, ca. 1901 - 1902
Abstract: [Kellogg, Ella Eaton - Journal inscribed to her from her adopted daughter, Helena M. Kellogg (later Case)]