Calvin C. Clawson papers

Family and business correspondence; family photographs; photographs of mining properties and sites in the vicinity of Bonanza and Custer, Idaho; business records; diaries; autograph books; scrapbooks; artwork; greeting cards; invitations; business and calling cards; annotated books; and memorabilia. Most of the correspondence is to Czarina Clawson from family and friends, or family correspondence saved by her. Six pocket diaries record a journey through Yellowstone (1863).

The collection consists of the family papers, business records, and memorabilia (1829-1939) of Calvin C. Clawson, his wife Czarina, and their son, Llewellyn. The family moved to the Bonanza, Idaho, area in 1879. The Clawsons were community leaders and were active in mining enterprises, the newspaper business, and politics. The materials in the collection include: personal correspondence; business records; papers relating to Llewellyn Clawson's estate; greeting cards, calling cards, business cards, invitations, and programs. The bulk of the correspondence is comprised of letters written to Czarina Clawson from family and friends. No correspondence between Calvin and Czarina Clawson exists in the collection. There is also a significant amount of correspondence to Czarina's mother, Louisa Fry Llewellyn from Louisa's mother Roxana Fry, her sister Hopey, and her son William Llewellyn. Family relationships can be found in Box 1, Folder 1.

The materials in the collection were donated to the Idaho State Historical Society on three occasions--in 1966, by Mrs. Barzilla Clark; in 1969, by M.T. Merrill; and in 1989, by brothers M.T. Merrill and William Merrill. The three donations were merged into one collection in 1990. The Merrill family lived near, and were friends of, Llewellyn Clawson. Llewellyn willed his family papers and heirlooms to Esther Merrill (Mrs. Clifford D.) and the Merrill family preserved the Clawson materials for many years before donating them to the ISHS. The family Bible and an engraved silver tea service given to Calvin and Czarina Clawson on the occasion of their twenty-fifth wedding anniversary, April 26, 1883, have been transferred to the Idaho State Museum collections. Genealogical information in the Bible has been photocopied (Box 1, Folder 1).

Calvin C. Clawson was born July 14, 1834, in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, a son of Isaac Sturgis Clawson and Catharine A. Schnatterly Clawson. The family later moved to Monroe, Wisconsin. In a diary Calvin kept when he was a young man, he refers to his work in the printing trade (Box 3, Folder 1). According to Czarina Clawson's obituary (Box 1, Folder 1), after their marriage they lived in Lecompton, Kansas Territory, where Calvin worked in the newspaper business. In 1860, they moved to the "Pikes Peak" area [Colorado]. In 1862, they returned to Monroe, Wisconsin, where their only child Llewellyn was born. The couple moved several times (see Czarina's obituary) before Calvin settled in Bonanza, Idaho, in the spring of 1879. Czarina and Llewellyn joined him in the fall of 1879. Calvin was active in the newspaper business and was the editor of the Ketchum Daily Keystone after he purchased the newspaper in 1884. His obituary lists his activities as a reporter for the Yankee Fork Herald (Custer, Idaho); the Prospector (Custer, Idaho); the Graphic (unknown); the Idaho Daily Statesman (Boise, Idaho); the Idaho World (Idaho City, Idaho); and the Silver Messenger (Challis, Idaho). His byline in the Silver Messenger was "Graph." In addition to his newspaper interests, he was involved in mining ventures in the Yankee Fork area; was a representative from Blaine County, Idaho, in session 4 (1897-1898) of the Idaho legislature; and was an assistant commissioner from Idaho for the World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago in 1893.

His obituary indicates he was instrumental in the designation of Yellowstone as a national park. Calvin Clawson kept six small pocket diaries of his journey through the Yellowstone area in May 1863 (Box 3, Folder 1). He died May 15, 1911, at his home near Bonanza.

Some diaries kept by Calvin Clawson are not in this collection. Excerpts from one of his diaries was printed in an article by Barzilla W. Clark in the Idaho Daily Statesman (Boise, Idaho), July 4, 1926, Section 2, p.2, c.1-2, "Calvin Clawson's Diary Tells of Killing of Michael Jordan." Other Clawson diary excerpts were printed in the Statesman on November 8, 1925, Section 2, p.2, c.1, "...Petrified Forest in Custer"; and on December 6, 1925, Section 2, p.2, c.1, "Gem State Pioneer Miner Goes East in '74 to 'sell Idaho'".

Czarina Fuller Llewellyn Clawson (nicknamed "Zack") was born January 29, 1840, in Pike, New York. She was the daughter of Joseph H. Llewellyn and Louisa Fry Llewellyn. In an inscription on the flyleaf of a book of hymns, she writes that she was named for Czarina Fuller, the daughter of a minister in Elbridge Onodaga County, New York. When she was eight years old her family moved to Monroe, Wisconsin. She married Calvin C. Clawson on April 26, 1858, in Monroe. According to her obituary, she was knowledgeable about newspaper work [and] "...could furnish her own copy and put it in type...". She was a correspondent reporter for several newspapers, including the Butte Miner (Butte, Montana), the Challis Messenger (Challis, Idaho), and the Ketchum Keystone (Ketchum, Idaho). Czarina wrote under the bylines "Dona," "Zack," "C," and "Mrs. Cal Clawson." Her scrapbooks (Box 3) contain some of her newspaper columns. Mention is also made in her obituary of her writings describing "...the Upper Salmon, Wood River and Sawtooth counties with intention of illustration and publication in book form...". With the exception of one page (Box 1, Folder 1), none of Czarina's manuscripts are included in this collection; nor is a diary she kept of a trip "across the plains" she made in 1860 (mentioned in her obituary). She was an accomplished artist and a few of her sketches can be found in Box 6, Folder 4. Czarina was appointed as an assistant commissioner for Blaine County for the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago. (Her husband, Calvin, was assistant commissioner for the Exposition from Custer County.) She died at her home near Bonanza, Idaho, on February 14, 1905.

Llewellyn Clawson was born on December 11, 1862, in Monroe, Wisconsin, the only child of Czarina and Calvin C. Clawson. Llewellyn was assayer for the General Custer mine and mill; president of the Letha-Corona Mining Company; superintendent of the Custer Consolidated Deep Mining and Power Company; and director for the Atlas Mining Company, Ltd. All of his mining interests were in the Yankee Fork District. He also served as a justice of the peace in Custer County from 1931-1933. Until a few years before his death, he was the watchman at the Sunbeam Dam on the Salmon River, Custer County, Idaho. Llewellyn Clawson died on February 4, 1939, in Salmon, Idaho.