Papers of the related Tylee and Willis families include receipts and other financial papers of Henry Willis (d. 1865) and Henry Willis, Jr., (d. 1895) re purchase and rent of real estate in Charleston, S.C., and buying and selling of gold and silver watches; antebellum papers include a pass, 7 Jan. 1848, documenting the hiring-out of Cato, an African American slave, signed by M[argaret] E. McMillan, "The Bearer Cato has my permission to paint for Mr. Willis, on Charleston Neck" (folder 4); letters of recommendation for John W. L. Tylee, including one dated 1 Feb. 1869 from R[amon] Salas, agent for the [La Valentina Cigar] factory located in Charleston, S.C. Letters to Henry Willis, Jr., from his wife, Carrie (d. 1898), describe her 1877 trip to visit her sister, Mrs. James Hale, in New York City; topics include 'Great Central Depot', high price of fabric and washing, growth of business on 14th Street, church services at St. Mary the Virgin, St. Thomas, Trinity Cathedral, 'Dr. Cook's church on Madison Avenue', and 'Dr. Hall's church on 55th Street', a trip to New Jersey on 'the Elevated Road which runs by steam', visits to the construction site of the Brooklyn Bridge, the Equitable Life Insurance Building, the new post office, and Tiffany's. Letters between J.W.L Tylee's wife, Eliva ("Viney") Willis Tylee and family members in Charleston, S.C., during her trip to visit her sister, Mrs. Carrie Willis Flynn, in Jersey City, N.J. Includes letter, 10 July 1881 to 'Viney' from Witherspoon Phillips, her brother-in-law, re: the cancellation of 4th of July celebrations in Charleston due to an assassin's shooting and injury of President Garfield on July 2nd, "the fourth of July was a very a quiet day with us in Charleston in consequence of the President's misfortune, the parade was postponed also the fireworks which was to have taken place on the Citadel Green"; and letter, 30 Aug. 1881 from Conrad Wienges [Flynn] in Jersey City to his uncle, J.W.L. Tylee re: Viney's death and his inability to ship the casket aboard the steamer Delaware due to the absence of a health permit from Charleston. Letters, May-Nov. 1905 from T[homas] P. McK[ellar], Greenwood, S.C., to Miss Leila "Polly" Parrott in Darlington, S.C. re their upcoming marriage and her efforts to secure a teaching position near Greenwood; volumes consist of account book, 1854-1859, of Henry Willis, Sr.; autograph book, 1884-1887; and credit book, Mar.-Oct. 1895 and 1898, of Mrs. Carrie Willis with F[erdinand] von Oven, a grocer in Charleston, S.C. [volumes in folders 53-55.]
