This series contains personal and family records of William L. and Caroline Burton Honnold. With few exceptions (Diplomas and awards; Honnold, William L., Writings; Oak Park Cemetery, Claremont; and Safe deposit box A1012) the materials cover the period prior to 1931; similar materials for the period 1931 onwards are to be found in Series 4: Chronological files. The earliest records relate to the Rev. Robert Honnold, and include his diary, letters to his second wife, Mary Norris, sermons and other writings, and his 1862 appointment as as orderly sergeant in the Illinois Volunteers, as well as a letter to his widow from the physician who treated him for cancer, with a tintype of him after treatment, documenting in graphic detail the primitive nature of medical treatment for cancer in the mid-19th century. The Asbury Life Insurance Company file relates to the liquidation of an insurance company that held a policy on the Rev. Honnold's life that it had apparently failed to honor at the time of his death. Family papers include correspondence with Paul M. Folckemer, husband of Honnold's only full sister, Mary, and more extensive financial records and correspondence of Caroline's elder sisters, Mary Burton Curtis and Jessie A. (Burton) Shipman, whose financial affairs Honnold managed from at least the early 1920s. The series also includes correspondence with Charles Goodrich Shipman, MD, Jessie's husband, with whom Honnold had invested in a project to develop residential properties in Santa Monica, California. Honnold's personal papers include his diplomas and awards; a blueprint of the couple's modest first house in Hibbing, Minnesota; life insurance policies from Honnold's earliest years as a mining engineer until 1931; and passports for both William and Caroline for the years the couple lived in South Africa through 1930. The Bekins Van and Storage file reveals the cost of shipping the couple's furniture from South Africa and of storing it until their Bel Air house was completed in 1925, a period of almost ten years. Extensive files give a complete accounting of the costs, and plans (unfortunately incomplete) for the building of the Honnolds' Bel-Air residence. The Automobile and chauffeur files, with receipts for petroleum purchases, servicing, and repairs, give a rare view into the real costs of owning an automobile in Los Angeles in the 1920s. These, in conjunction with the Travel and tours file, also provide insight into the nature of long distance automobile travel (inter alia, to the Honnolds' summer retreat in Meeker, Colorado) in the same time period. Additional materials in the series document the relationship between the Honnolds and their long-time principal servants, chauffeur Joe Silvera, and housekeeper Josephine Sullivan: Silvera served with the Honnolds from at least 1925 through Caroline Honnold's death in 1954, and Sullivan (1876-1949), who had served with the Honnolds in South Africa, was brought over to the United States by them in 1923/1924, serving until her death in 1949. Other materials record Honnold's continued interest, both family and business, in his home town of Camp Point, Illinois, as well as both his and Caroline's plans for their final resting place in Oak Park Cemetery, Claremont. Caroline's letters to Honnold during a six-month trip from South Africa to Camp Point and Ely, Minnesota--with stops in London and New York outbound, and Paris and London on the return--reveals her affection for her husband. Lastly, the series contains copies of most of Honnold's writings, including his 1908 paper, The Negro in America, delivered before the Fotrnightly Club in Johannesburg, South Africa, and several versions of a paper on South Africa first delivered before the Sunset Club in Los Angeles in January 1935, and periodically revised thereafter. Honnold's "Diary of a deep-sea fishing cruise on the yacht Samona II, October 25th (Wednesday) to November 8th, 1933", with Herbert Hoover, with photographs, can be found in Series 3: Chronological files for 1933, in Box 26, Folder 33. Additional copies of both these works are to be found in the "Biographical sketches" folders among the chronological files for various years.