Correspondence between three generations of the Michel and Bartholomew families, ranging from 1847-1913. Both families were highly educated, literate, and interested in politics, which is apparent in many of their writings. Topics covered in the letters include courtships, family relations, life in California in the 1880s, female college students at Urbana and Bryn Mawr University, the 1884 presidential election, and Swedenborigan philosophy. Also includes some photographs and ephemera.

Mary Eletra Loveridge Michel (1828-1883) was born in Virginia, although her parents were natives of Massachusetts. Like many of her female descendants, Mary was an avid reader and follower of the Swedish philosopher Emanuel Swedenborg. She had a least one brother, John Loveridge, who died of illness in Kentucky. Sometime after 1847 Mary married Dr. Robert B. Michel (1824-1896), who was born in Pennsylvania to a French father and American mother and served in the Confederate Army with the 2nd Mississippi State Cavalry. Robert’s sister Elizabeth Michel Blair (1825-c.1925) married John Blair (1819-1894) in 1844. Robert also had at least two brothers, William A. Michel (who traveled to California in 1853) and James G. Michel. Robert and Mary had at least four children: Ralph, Mary, Annie, and Elizabeth. Dr. Ralph S. Michel (1851-1933) married Genevieve “Jennie” Gebhard (1871-1948). Both are buried in Springboro Cemetery, Warren County, Ohio. Annie Michel was born in Ohio in 1863 and may have married a man named Miller. Elizabeth Michel McKeown (b.1867) attended Urbana University and married John McKeown.

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