(The Pedrick Collection is now housed at the Ripon Historical Society)
The Pedrick Collection was compiled by Sam Pedrick, a lawyer in
Ripon, who was interested in the history of the area. He
indexed much of his material, which was usually handwritten or
typed and then pasted into books he no longer needed. The
focus was the city of Ripon and surrounding area. Because there was no historical society in place while he lived, he willed his collection of historical papers to Ripon College, from which he graduated in 1891. During 1999 his papers will be rehoused in a climate controlled area of the Ripon Historical Society.
The collection contains:
Genealogy Notebooks -- photocopied
booklets with green softcovers containing the summary of
genealogical information by the main family name. Since the names
are alphabetical, there is no other index. These notebooks are
available at public libraries in the area and in Madison.
Necrology Books -- 3 or 4 -- with typed
information pasted onto books and indexed. Genealogists sometimes
need these since they are considered closer to he original source of
information than the Genealogical notebook.
Cemetery Inscriptions -- 3 or 4 books -- the
statistical data from three area emeteries -- typed and pasted onto
small books, with index of names.
Scrapbooks-- several volumes of hardcover
books with pasted in items, clippings, etc. index is in envelopes,
with handwritten references to pages of scrapbooks. Much
information on city of Ripon, local people, college activities.
Historical Collection books -- clippings etc
on local history, similar to the scrapbooks.
Miscellaneous Files -- records Pedrick kept
of local organizational activities, notes on Wisconsin Phalanx, notes
on 4th Wisconsin Regiment in Civil War, etc. These are unsorted, and
at present are in brown hardboard boxes on Range # 4.
Books from Pedrick Collection, willed to the
College. Some were added to the regular College Library collection.
Some remain to be cataloged as part of the Archives. The books are
either historical, religious books or they are books that Pedrick
used as a student while at Ripon College.
Letters to Mr. Pedrick's children. 1
unopened carton, unsorted.
Articles by Pedrick in the Ripon
Commonwealth. Approximately 3 copies of each are filed in one
box. These were primarily articles on the history of Ripon or Ripon
College for a series Pedrick did for the local paper.
Miscellaneous unsorted materials -- maps,
several file folders, etc. in one or two boxes against back wall near
file cabinets.
Photos, etc. -- unsorted and scattered
throughout the collection.
