Correspondence from Francis J. Schleicher, 1913-1919

The papers of the Van Cleef family of Ithaca, New York, include a history of Jan Van Cleef and his descendents (1909). Financial records and contracts of Alexander Van Cleef the father of Mynderse Van Cleef are contained within this collection. Most of the Van Cleef family papers contain Mynderse?s correspondence, briefs, Supreme Court documents, court case materials, agreements, accounts, memorandas, printed items, and other materials concerning estate settlements of Joseph Esty, Leonard Treman, Frederick Lovejoy and others, property transferals, and various business concerns, including the Lyceum Theatre Company, the Ithaca Independent Telephone Company, the Ulysses Light Company of Trumansburg, New York, the Ovid Light Company, the Associated Glass and Electric Company, the Cayuga Power Corporation; the Ithaca Street Railway Company, and the Ithaca Water Works, Cayuga Lake Cement Corporation as well as Van Cleef's relations with Eastern investors and Western land agents, his election to and service on the Cornell University Board of Trustees, and his donation of a bandstand to the village of Seneca Falls (1924) as a memorial to Lawrence Van Cleef; Mynderse Van Cleef's notes on Andrew Dickson White's modern history lectures (1872-73) and photograph albums of Cornell students and faculty (1870s); five scrapbooks (1900-1913) of Eugenia and Jeannette Van Cleef containing personal mementos reflecting social life at Ithaca High School and Cornell, and other memorabilia; personal and family papers, including the estate papers of Elizabeth Van Cleef; correspondence, letter book, receipts, and estate papers of Frederick Lovejoy; drawings of Kappa Alpha fraternity; and blueprints. Also, vouchers for construction of the Mynderse Van Cleef family residence on University Avenue, in Ithaca, NY.

Correspondence can be found from Mynderse Van Cleef to Charles Blood, Leonard Treman, C.E. Treman and other important Ithaca businessmen. Letters from Cornell Presidents, Andrew Dickson White, J.G. Schurman and Livingston Farrand are also included in this collection. Correspondence includes letters from M. Van Cleef from Albert Mann, Dean of Cornell University?s College of Agriculture concerning Cornell University court cases. A 1919 letter between Dean Mann, President J. G. Schurman and Mynderse Van Cleef discusses the proposed separation of the College of Home Economics as a separate school within Cornell. A few letters from Martha Van Rensselaer, the Dean of the College of Home Economics can also be found within this collection. Correspondence from Andrew Carnegie, Supreme Court representatives and other government officials are also within this collection.