To Amelia Thode, 1889 April 13

The Muller-Van Bokkelen-Allison Papers contain the correspondence of Reverend Libertus Van Bokkelen, the travel diary of Reverend David Prescott Allison, a letterbook and legal papers of Louis Muller and a deed of land from John Eager Howard to August Muller.

The correspondence of Reverend Van Bokkelen is divided into incoming and outgoing letters. The incoming letters are from his fifth child, Etta, concerning her Confirmation and First Communion; and from someone with the initials JBK, who wrote to inform he/she cannot attend the reverend's daughters' wedding.

The outgoing letters were addressed to his daughter and granddaughters. The letters Reverend Van Bokkelen addressed to his daughter, Amelia Thode, were written when he visited the Western states and Alaska after his retirement. The Reverend was a guest preacher at various congregations during his visit. He gave descriptive accounts of the climate, environment, landscape and scenery of California and Alaska and the occupants of those places. During the 1880's the American West was just beginning to develop and the Reverend mentions the progression and increased value of land in his letters.

The Reverend on his visit to the West coast also wrote letters to his granddaughters. He gave detailed accounts of the living standards of the inhabitants, the climate and landscape of the West and Alaska. He wrote of the living standards of the Indians in Alaska, of the of oranges in California and of Chinese and Mexicans being used as laborers.

The Reverend David Prescott Allison travel diary chronicles the events of the trip the Reverend took to the Southern states during February and March of 1878. It gives a descriptive account of the cities he visited; noting the actions of the people, the architecture of the buildings and the landscape patterns of the cities. He started out each entry with the weather conditions. The Reverend wrote in an eloquent manner describing life on and off board ship. He also wrote of his experience of being introduced to President Rutherford B. Hayes. Along with the travel diary is a list of travelling expenses made by the Reverend.

The legal documents are those of August (father) and Louis (son) Muller. The first document is a deed of land from John Eager Howard to August Muller signed 22 June, 1850 pertaining to a piece of property along St. Paul and Centre Streets. The second document lists the Articles of Partnership among C. Morton Stewart, James E. Tate, Louis Muller and Clarence C. Whiting signed 8 October, 1869 under a five year limited partnership.

The collection also contains a letterbook of Louis Muller (1872-1874). The letterbook was written primarily in German. The entries in English, though, include invoices for the brig Mathilda and Irmaas, the S.S. Nurnburg and the S.S. Nestorian. It also contains instructions on the artificial manufacture of saltpetre, a letter asking a partner not to resign because of the disastrous year in the sugar business, a letter rehiring a bookkeeper, a letter discharging a bookkeeper for irregularities in the books, a request to a man to keep up payments on his life insurance policy and a letter to a woman warning her that the man she hired had stolen from his company.