Elisha Whittlesey was a lawyer, United States Representative from Ohio for eight terms from 1823-1838, and comptroller of the Treasury under Taylor, Fillmore, Pierce, and Lincoln. A resident of Canfield, Ohio, Whittlesey was prosecuting attorney for the entire Western Reserve from 1807-1823, and was an officer and private secretary to Gen. Wm. Henry Harrison during the War of 1812. As a circuit lawyer, Whittlesey specialized in land cases, and his business interests were in the handling of eastern capital invested in Ohio lands. Affiliated with the Natl. Republican and Whig parties, Whittlesey was a typical conservative state leader of the 19th century, primarily concerned with economic matters affecting the growth of Ohio. Active in the American Colonization Society, he believed in expatriation as the answer to the slavery problem. The collection consists of financial papers, notes, speeches, docket books, newspaper clippings, certificates of appointment, and letters to Whittlesey. The speeches include topics such as African colonization, agriculture, the Ohio Militia, and the War of 1812. The letters include material on Brady's Leap, the Ohio Canal Fund Commissioners, the estate of Samuel Griswold, and the history of Canfield, Ohio, the Firelands and the Western Reserve. Also included are ca. 140 letters from early Ohio governors, members of the Ohio Constitutional Convention, state legislators, and soldiers during the War of 1812, mostly addressed to Elijah Wadsworth, concerning political and military matters in Ohio, particularly the Western Reserve, 1801-1857.
