Collections : [Yale University -Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library]

Business Papers consist of correspondence (chiefly incoming, though also including retained copies of some outgoing letters) and financial records (chiefly bills and statements). Correspondence includes letters from colleagues, clients, and prospective settlers, relating to legal matters and cases, to economic conditions in the Dakota Territory and South Dakota, and to real estate prospects and transactions. Of particular interest is correspondence from mortgage and wholesale companies (for whom Fisk worked as a collections agent) and from individuals seeking relief from debt, documenting the economic conditions in the Dakota Territory and South Dakota in the context of rapid settlement, widespread mortgages, and the Panics of 1893 and 1907.