Giles P. Ransom Family Collection (Roscoe)

Collection

Identifier: RHC-RC-275

Staff Only

Scope and Contents

Records in the Dr. Giles Paddock Ransom Family collection date from 1789 to 2009 with the majority of the records from the 1850 through 1930 time period. They document the personal and business aspects of individuals living in Rockford and Roscoe, Illinois. There are four main families represented in the collection–Jenks, Sherman, Leland, and Ransom; the Ransom family is most predominant. The other families are associated by marriage or settled near the Ransoms or both. Documents include personal correspondence, diaries, clippings, business records, deed records, school records, and lineage documentation. Some original documents are restricted do to their historical value or personal nature; however, most have copies available for public viewing. The key figures in the collection are Dr. Giles Ransom and his son, Dr. Wilmont Ransom who were best known for their medical practice and Sanitarium, which was founded by Dr. Penn Ransom (son of Giles). Giles and Wilmont were meticulous in their record keeping, both personal and business related, and the collection reflects this through their extensive letters, diaries, medical notes, and personal ephemera. A missing aspect of the collection is documentation of Penn’s life. Items relating to him are scarce throughout the collection. Addendum 1 consists of correspondences between Daniel Leland Ransom, Norman Haskins, and C.C. Forrester regarding their business with the King Fissure Mining Company and other financial endeavors. Other miscellaneous letters are from Mary Haskins, and other distant relatives of the Ransom family. Further correspondences with Daniel Leland Ransom can be found in Box 13 (Series I, Subseries D). There is also a speech regarding the President Lincoln given by Daniel Sherman, who as a newspaper editor in Ohio. Addendum 2 contains mainly photographs of individual family units from 1898 to 1981 as well as photographs of residences and churches. Also included is correspondence of the Nielson Family and letters between Robert and David Etnyre, father and son. The collection also contains electronic files of digitized photographs, correspondence, ephemera, and family genealogy that are mostly copies of what can be found in paper form in the collection.

Dates

created: 1839-2009
Other: Majority of material found in 1850s-1930s
Other: Date acquired: 06/22/2006

Conditions Governing Access

There are some restrictions on access to the collection due to preservation purposes, although copies of the materials are available for viewing in most cases.

Conditions Governing Use

Property rights in the collection belong to the Regional History Center; literary rights are dedicated to the public.

Biographical or Historical Information

Dr. Giles Paddock Ransom was born in 1824 and was an early settler to Winnebago County. He worked as postmaster in Belvidere, graduated from Rush Medical School in 1850, and briefly served as assistant surgeon for the 2nd Illinois Artillery during the Civil War. Giles Ransom was best known for his many years of medical assistance to residents of the area. He married Mahala Jenks (whose father, Solomon Jenks, resided in Roscoe and was the first physician in the Winnebago area) and the two had 6 children: Wilmont, Lydia Elizabeth, Penn, Giles Norman, Susan Grace, and Charles Art. Dr. Wilmont Leland Ransom, son of Giles, was born in 1852 and resided in the family’s Roscoe home during his youth. He attended medical school in Chicago and married Sylvia Sherman (daughter of Daniel J. Sherman) in 1889. Wilmont was also a highly respected physician, especially after the passing of his father in 1892, and his brother, Penn, in 1910. The three men had worked together to manage the Ransom Sanitarium (circa 1888-1892), a place of rest and healing specializing in mental and nervous diseases. The Sanitarium relied upon spring water and other natural methods for their medicinal properties. Wilmont was also an avid investor, engaging in many business ventures throughout his life. He promoted and centered a medical practice around the “Fidelity Rupture Cure,” invested in oil, and purchased land in South Dakota that was farmed and leased under his remote supervision. He worked to trace the family’s genealogy and was, like his father, a strong advocate of temperance. In his later life Wilmont devoted much of his time to the local Boy Scouts. Wilmont and Sylvia had two children, Daniel Leland (often referred to as Leland) and Florence. Leland studied to be an Osteopathic doctor and moved many times, eventually settling in California. He had an estranged relationship with his family for reasons that are not entirely clear, although they seemed to make amends around the time of Wilmont’s death in 1934. Florence remained in Rockford; she married Arthur Nielsen. They had 5 children: John, Nancy, Daniel, Arthur, Sylvia.

Note written by

Extent

26.50 Linear Feet

671 digital files (2.40 MB) other_unmapped

Language of Materials

English

Additional Description

Arrangement Note

The collection is divided into three series: Personal Correspondence, Volumes and Ephemera, and Business Correspondence. The first series contains the family’s personal correspondence. Each subseries represents an individual family: (A) Leland, (B) Sherman, (C) Jenks, and (D) Ransom. Notable elements are letters to brothers Solomon and Leland Jenks who were pioneers to the Rockford area, Giles and Mahala Ransom’s Civil War correspondence (located in the folders “Correspondence to Dr. Giles Ransom, 1860-1865" and “Correspondence to Mahala (Jenks) Ransom, 1860-1869"), a personal account of a Lincoln-Douglas speech, and Arthur Nielsen’s letters to his wife while on site of the Hoover Dam’s construction. For the ease of the researcher, transcriptions of many of these items can be found in Series I, Subseries C: Roscoe History, Genealogy, and Additional Research. Series two contains volumes and ephemera, including diaries, personal expense records and receipts, clippings, school reports, volumes, pamphlets, and genealogical research. The subseries are divided between items belonging to specific family members (A) and items with no known owner (B). Subseries C contains the documents relating to historical aspects of Roscoe and supplementary materials documenting the family’s history. Many items in this subseries were collected by researchers of the Ransom lineage prior to the complete processing of the collection. Included are genealogy and lineage documentation, duplicates of photographs provided by the donor, additional materials concerning the late Arthur Nielsen, and transcriptions of letters within the collection. Series three provides the business records from the family. Subseries A contains the records relating to the medical practices of Drs. Giles, Penn, Wilmont, and Daniel Leland Ransom. Items include medical school notebooks, licenses & certificates, patient logs (Physician’s Handbooks), Ransom Sanitarium records, and medical pamphlets. Although ownership and management of the Ransom Sanitarium played a significant role in these men’s lives, the records from the business are sparse. The Ransom doctors were meticulous with their records and the collection reflects this with a strong presence of “Physician’s Handbooks” and other log books for patient visits and payments. The additional subseries relate to (non-medical) business records and are organized by the individual family units: (B) Sherman, (C) Jenks, (D) Leland, and (E) Ransom. Included are deed records, receipts, business correspondence, and wills. Notable aspects of this series include Dr. Giles Ransom’s documents while serving as a surgeon in the Civil War and the correspondence and records regarding remote land ownership in South Dakota. Addendum 2 is arranged by subject in alphabetical order.