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Francis Cragin Early Far West Notebooks, Ms 0225; Papers, Parts 1-2, Ms 0362 and 0370

Early Far West Notebooks, Ms 0225
Transcriptions, with card index, by Dorothy Price Shaw, of original Cragin notebooks at the Colorado Springs Pioneers Museum.

Searchable PDF of the transcriptions created by Mark Davis in 2017: CraginnotebookssearchablePDF

Francis W. Cragin Papers, Part 1, Ms 0362
Gift of William A. Fischer, 2002.

Biographical Note

Francis Whittemore Cragin was born in Greenville, NH on Sept. 4, 1858. His parents moved to Wisconsin in 1862 and then, when Francis was eleven, to Crawford County, KS. He attended Washburn College and later, the Polytechnic Institute of Brooklyn, NY. He studied Natural History at Harvard from 1880-1881 and received a B. S. from that institution in 1882. He was hired as chair of the Natural Sciences Department of Washburn University and taught there from 1882 to 1891. He began teaching at Colorado College in 1891 but took a leave of absence from 1892 to 1894 to serve as Assistant State Geologist of Texas. He received his Ph.D from Johns Hopkins University in 1899. After retiring from Colorado College in 1903, he pursued research and writing on a comprehensive history of the West, which was never published. He died in 1937.

Scope and Content

The collection includes articles written by Cragin during his teaching years at Colorado College, a copy of his Ph.D dissertation, a few pieces of correspondence, 3 glass plate negatives of specimens for his paleontology classes (?), and receipts for classroom materials purchased while he taught at Washburn University and Colorado College.
There are also articles written about Cragin, the most recent by William Fischer of the CC Geology Department, and the Cragin Collection housed in the Colorado Springs Pioneers Museum.

Inventory

Folder 1
3 articles written by Cragin for the CS Gazette, 1899-1900
2 articles by others, dated 1901 and 1904
1 copy Ph.D dissertation: Paleontology of the Malone Jurassic Formation of Texas, USGS, 1905

Folder 2
Cragin’s obituary from CS Gazette, 6-17-1937
1 article, “The Cragin Collection and its Problems” by Janet Lecompte, 1952
Biographical information from Cragin’s daughter, 5-28-1965
2 pages of transcriptions (copies) from Cragin’s “Early Far West Notebooks”
History of the Cragin Collection by Dorothy E. Smith, Curator, Pioneers Museum, 1969
“Francis W. Cragin: an Appreciation” by R. T. Walker, undated
Photocopy of article on the Cragin Collection by Dorothy Shaw, Colorado Magazine, undated

Folder 3
Notes and correspondence (5 items)

Folder 4
6 receipts relating to the Kansas meteorite purchase, all dated 1890
1 reprint of article, “The Franceville (El Paso County, Colorado) Meteorite” from the Journal of Geology, V. 10, No. 8, Nov.-Dec. 1902

Folder 5
1 article, “Francis W. “Cragstone” Cragin and the Kiowa County, Kansas Meteorite,” by William A. Fischer, 2002
Correspondence relating to research on Cragin
Photocopy of article on Dr. F. W. Cragin, “An Early Dartmouth Doctor in the Tropics,” by Dr. James A. Spaulding in the Dartmouth Magazine Alumni, May 1931

Folder 6
Receipts, 1887-1889

Folder 7
Receipts, 1890

Folder 8
Receipts, 1891-1892

Folder 9
Receipts, 1894

Folder 10
Receipts, 1899

Folder 11
Receipts, 1901-1902

Folder 12
Students’ lab fee account, 1901-1902

Folder 13
Receipts, 1902-1903

Folder 14
3 5 x 7 glass-plate negatives. Two depict “a curious pathologic specimen of the shovel-nosed sturgeon from the Missouri River at Leavenworth, Kansas.” The other is labeled “cycad.”


Francis W. Cragin Papers, Part 2, Ms 0370
Finding aid created by Jessy Randall, July, 2005.

Gift of Alan Campbell, November 2004; Bill Fischer, a Cragin scholar, encapsulated, arranged, described, and transcribed much of the material before it arrived at Tutt Library. His notes are in Box 2, Folder 14.

Scope and Content

Cragin family letters, 1872-1911 (containing information about Washburn College, the Kiowa County Kansas meteorite, Cragin’s wife Kittie and children Margaret and Paul, the early history of Colorado Springs and Colorado College, the college faculty and building program at the turn of the century, and Cragin’s travels while interviewing early pioneers for his Western History project) LeBosquet family letters, 1869-1893 (containing information on the life of rural New England Congregational Minister John LeBosquet, his wife Martha, and their four daughters and four sons); Mary Ann LeBosquet Cragin Gillette correspondence with publishers, 1869-1900 (under the initials M.A.C. and the pseudonym Joy Allison, she wrote the 1892 novel Billow Prairie and was a frequent contributor to The Congregationalist, the Christian Endeavor, St. Nicholas Magazine); miscellaneous materials.

Inventory

Box 1

Folders 1-13: About 100 Cragin family letters, mainly from Cragin to his mother Mary Ann LeBosquet Cragin Gillette, many with transcriptions by Bill Fischer, 1872-1911.
Folder 1: 1870s
Folder 2: 1880s
Folder 3: 1890s
Folder 4: 1900 January – June
Folder 5: 1900 July – December
Folder 6: 1901
Folder 7: 1902-1903
Folder 8: 1904
Folder 9: 1905
Folder 10: 1906-1907
Folder 11: 1908-1909
Folder 12: 1910
Folder 13: 1911

Folder 14: Receipts for Colorado College classroom and laboratory supplies, with records of narrow gauge train trips Cragin scheduled, bulk 1891-1903.

Folder 15: Cragin’s tithing records for 1901 and 1902.

Box 2

About 100 LeBosquet family letters, mainly from Martha LeBosquet to her daughter Mary Ann LeBosquet Cragin Gillette, 1869-1893.
Folder 1: 1869-1874
Folder 2: 1875-1879
Folder 3: 1880-1893
Folder 4: letter fragments and undated letters, including letter written on William LeBosquet’s 1859 Sons of Temperance admission form

Folder 5: Two diaries of Susie LeBosquet, covering 1876 and 1897-1908.

Folder 6: Single diary of Mary Ann LeBosquet Cragin Gillette, covering 1895-1907, with partial transcription by Bill Fischer.

Folder 7: Correspondence between Mary Ann LeBosquet Cragin Gillette and publishers, 1869-1900.

Folder 8: Miscellaneous, including undated, unsigned notes, a handwritten copy of John LeBosquet’s will, and a notebook of names and addresses in various hands.

Folder 9: Mary Ann LeBosquet Cragin Gillette financial materials, 1897-1907

Folder 10: Photographs
From envelope labeled “Amateur pictures of Vineland & Baltimore children.” Labeled: Susie & Mary, Aunt Mary Nan Rector 1909, Aunt Mary Elisabeth & Katherine Waxler 1909, Aunt Mary Katherine Waxler 1909 – 3 yrs old Baltimore Md, Mr. Arnold of Vineland, Sophie Bailey and Bertha Bailey Irene’s two children Vineland 1909, Edna May Bailey Vineland 1909, Edna May Bailey born Jan 20 1905 Vineland 1909 Ida Morton Bailey’s little girl, Roll & Reba and some little girl that I do not know, Reba & the twins.
From envelope addressed to Mrs. M.A. Gillette: seven photographs, five of them unlabeled, two labeled: A poor picture of Eherlich house [?] …, This picture of Frank and Fan’s house ….
R.F. Volk Oconto Falls Wis [picture of house].

Folder 11: Book catalogs belonging to Cragin

Folder 12: Maps belonging to Cragin:

Reconnaissance Geologic and Topographic Map of Part of White River Quadrangle, Colorado, 1909
Reconnaissance Geologic and Topographic Map of Part of Jensen Quadrangle, Utah and Colorado, 1909
Reconnaissance Geologic and Topographic Map of Part of Danforth Hills Quadrangle, Colorado, 1909
Reconnaissance Geologic and Topographic Map of Part of Rangeley Quadrangle, Colorado, 1909
Geologic Map of the Stonewall Quadrangle, 1923
Croquis Geologico del Ex-Distrito de Mazatlan, 1924
Geologic and Structure Sections, Stonewall Quadrangle, Oklahoma, 1924
Structural Map of the Stonewall Quadrangle, Oklahoma, 1924
Bureau of Geology Faunal Chart for Stonewall Quadrangle, Oklahoma, and more, not dated
Map of the Cimarron Valley, being the Southwestern Part of Colfax County, New Mexico, not dated.

Folder 13: Pamphlets belonging to Cragin:

Albert Perry Brigham. Suggestions to Teachers Designed to Accompany a Text-Book of Geology. New York: D. Appleton and Company, 1901.
W.O. Crosby. Laboratory Guide to Elementary Lithology. Massachusetts Institute of Technology, not dated.
William Morris Davis. The State Map of Massachusetts as an Aid to the Study of Geography in Grammar and High School. Boston: Wright & Potter, 1897. Ownership signature of F.W. Cragin.
Harvard Graduates’ Magazine, Vol. 1, No. 1, October 1892.
Ales Hrdlicka. Directions for Collecting Information and Specimens for Physical Anthropology. Washington: Government Printing Office, 1904. Ownership signature of F.W. Cragin.
Lasell Seminary. Twenty-Ninth Annual Catalogue of Lasell Seminary for Young Women at Auburndale, Mass. Boston: Frank Wood, 1881.
The Production of Sand-Lime Brick in 1908. Washington: Government Printing Office, 1909.
Report of the Governor of Arizona to the Secretary of the Interior. For the fiscal year ended June 30 1908. Washington: Government Printing Office, 1908. Ownership signature of F.W. Cragin.
Timothy W. Stanton. A Comparative Study of the Lower Cretaceous Formations and Faunas of the United States. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1897. Inscribed “With the compliments of T.W. Stanton.”

Folder 14: Bill Fischer’s Cragin reference file, including his notes on this collection, a bibliography of Cragin’s published works, a photocopy of Cragin’s divorce document, a family tree, and more. With a CD of digital versions of much of this material.

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maintained by JR; last revised, 4/2017.