1256 Penobscot Bldg.
Detroit, Mich.

Aug.8,1942.

Dear Hugh:

This is being written from our branch office on my portable
typewriter and this is the only paper available. I have waited
until now to write you about Jacob Schieffelin because I wanted
to send you a copy of his journal and because I thought it might
prove to be rather a long letter, and I have been quite busy.
My daughter just missed breaking her neck diving last Monday
and is now parked in the hospital for several weeks, which has
helped to keep me occupied. She hit nothing except the water
but gave a reverse curve to the upper end of her spinal column
and pulled some ligaments between vertebrae, all of which has
proved quite painful and the treatment still more so. She is
now beginning to be much more comfortable.

Two or three years ago I got interested in working up a
history of Grosse Pointe, the suburb where I live and carry on
my real estate business, and whose history began with quite a
sizable French-Indian battle in 1712. In searching early land
records I ran across Jacob Schieffelin, and because I thought
the name with that exact spelling rather unusual, I wrote and
asked Bill if Jacob could be any connection of his. He replied
that he was and mentioned a journal a photostatic copy of which
I enclose. I got this from an uncle of Bill named George Schief-
felin who is connected with Scribners publishing house in New
York. The Clements Library at the University of Michigan in
Ann Arbor gave me photostats of two of Jacob's letters which it
had turned up in a collection of British headquarters papers
of the Revolutionary War. I sent these to George and he in turn
sent me the journal for the Library. After getting your letter
I wrote the Library for a copy and just got it.

Your letter sounded to me as though you were quite inter-
ested in the family history and might therefore be interested
in anything I can add to it, hence the journal and this long
letter.

In the first place -- it is clear from the journal that
Bill's great-great-grandfather was the father of your wife's
grandfather and not simply a relative and business partner as
you seem to refer to him in your letter to me. You will find
his birth recorded on page 57 and his death in Tioga County,
Pennsylvania, Dec. 30, 1880. On pages 39, 40, and 41 you will
find a description of at least part of his Michigan land,
which you refer to. When I was a small boy I used to visit
some people whose summer home was on what I am sure must have
been a part of it. You might be entertained to know that the
island he twice refers to as Bois Blanc is now generally
spoken of as 'Bob-Lo, just a slight corruption.

Assuming that you and your wife are interested and that

4

from Congress and the Indians a modest tract of about 25,000,000
acres. Askin and Schieffelin & were to earn their share by getting
deeds from the Indians, who were apparently still admitted to have
some claims to ownership, and Johnathan seems to have stood very
well with the chieftains. The eastern gentlemen went back to take
care of Congress and there ran afoul of an investigating committee
just as is done today. They were charged with having tried to
 bribe various august members of congress to vote for their grant
by offering them a few hundred acres and a great row resulted.

There is nothing in the account I read to show that the two
in Detroit had anything to do with the nefarious part of the deal,
and I am quite sure they were not even mentioned in the Congres-
sionál investigation. Be all that as it may I do not think that
Bill appreciated very much my sending him an account of it. I
trust that Mrs. Brady will not feel that I am trying to disclose
a family skeleton.

I was sorry, but not at all surprised, to learn that my
lumber company stock was worthless. Thanks very much for looking
it up for me.

I hope you and Mrs. Brady will get as much fun out of Jacob's
adventures and his journal as I have. Perhaps you can even place
Johnathan for me.

Please give my best to Ketch, Judson and Donworth. You do
not mention my one time friend Farwell Lilley. I wonder if he is
still extant.