Scope and Content Note
The family papers of Columbus Delano (1809-1896) span the years 1845-1889. The collection consists of correspondence, financial records, a photograph album, and miscellaneous material relating to Ohio and national politics and patronage, the Republican Party, western lands, railroad expansion, and personal and financial matters. Much of the material concerns Columbus Delano’s finances and political activities before and after the Civil War, but included are files pertaining to his son, John Sherman Delano, focusing on land interests in Minnesota in the 1870s and 1880s. Also in the papers is a file regarding the purchase by the United States in 1872 of the archives of the Confederate States of America. Contained in the file is a copy of a letter of 3 December 1864 from Jacob Thompson (1810-1885) to J. P. Benjamin of the Confederacy. Additional material consists of three letters with typewritten transcripts from Columbus Delano to Henry B. Curtis relating to the Mexican War and Whig politics, 1845-1846.
Other correspondents include Henry Ward Beecher, Simon Cameron, William E. Chandler, Schuyler Colfax, Roscoe Conkling, Shelby M. Cullom, Grenville M. Dodge, Hamilton Fish (1808-1893), James A. Garfield, Jay Gould, Ulysses S. Grant, Rutherford B. Hayes, Whitelaw Reid (1873-1912), and John Sherman (1823-1900).