Papers pertaining to the family of Illinois U.S. Representative John R. Eden (1826-1909). The majority of the material primarily concerns John R. Eden’s daughter Rose, her husband Ivory J. Martin, and their children. The papers also contain correspondence and material relating to the Taylor and Pifer families, who were the in-laws of Rose and Ivory’s son, Robert W. Martin. (Robert Martin married Ruth Pifer, daughter of Hattie Taylor and Finley Pifer).

Letters of Ivory J. Martin of Sullivan, Illinois, to his daughter Olive Eden Martin, while she was a student at the University of Illinois, and later when she lived and taught in LaSalle, Illinois. Also includes a few letters to Olive from her mother, Rose Eden Martin, siblings, and friends. The letters are published in R. Eden Martin’s 2017 book, As Ever: The Letters of I. J. Martin to His Daughters: Olive Eden Martin and Mabel Martin George.

Correspondence, estate papers, family records, farm related accounts, diaries, cards, scrapbooks, yearbooks, oral histories, and photographs of the Steele and Winters families. Both families were early homesteaders and farmers in rural northwestern Illinois, settling in and around Bureau, Sangamon, and Winnebago Counties in Illinois in the early 1800s. Their extended families continue to live and farm in these areas to the present day.