The collection is focused on the activities of family members from the early 19th century onwards. It was in the early and middle years of the 19th century that members of the Parker, Smith, Green, Hicks, and Winegar families moved to Michigan (mainly from New York) and purchased land. Among them were some of the earliest settlers in their respective townships. Members of the Parker, Smith, and Hicks families were farmers in Howell Township for several generations. Numerous family members were active in local business and civic affairs. The various branches of the family include a blacksmith (Archibald Green), farmers (Danford Parker, Emmett Parker, Robert R. Smith, Charles W. Hicks), florists (Nathan and Elmer Smith of Nathan Smith & Son), business owners (William, William S., and Frank B. Winegar, in lumbering and furniture manufacture), Civil War veterans (Danford Parker, William Winegar), a World War I veteran (W. J. Bryan Hicks), and three successive generations of teachers spanning from the 1860s to the 1960s (Mandana Hill Smith, Blanche Smith Parker, and Lois V. Parker Hicks). George Winegar and Lois Hicks Winegar, who collected genealogical and biographical records for many of the aforementioned family members, were 1952 graduates of Fowlerville High School.
From the guide to the Smith-Parker-Hicks-Winegar Family Papers, 1821-2012, 1880-1952, (Bentley Historical Library, University of Michigan)
