This series contains correspondence, journals, accounts, diaries, and other materials created by members of the McPherson family other than William McPherson (1885-1964) or his father, Stephen McPherson (1839-1917). The oldest items relate to William McPherson's grandfather, William McPherson (1797-1883), and include a journal and account book with entries from 1869 to his death in 1883; the items laid in include documents relating to the church and burial ground at Chaumont, New York, for 1844-1847 and 1865. The bulk of the remaining materials in the series relate to three of his children, Mary Jane (1827-1891), Robert (1841-1917), and Harriet (circa 1844-1929) McPherson. The earliest of these documents is an 1848 letter to Mary Jane from a relative (exact genealogical relationship as yet undetermined) in Manchester, New Hampshire. Two documents relate to Robert McPherson, William McPherson's uncle and his father's colleague in McPherson Brothers raisin business and the failed town of McPherson: (1) an 1864 deed to property in the town of Silver Mountain, Alpine County, California, and (2) a cash book, 1902-1902, kept by him as Southern Pacific Railroad station agent at McPherson. The two letters from Harriet McPherson and her unidentified husband give details of family life in "Irving", an as yet unidentified locality in the Midwest, during the Civil War. The series also includes two items relating to William McPherson's brother, Vincent (1883-1962): (1) a diary for 1899, and (2) a playbill of the "Class of '03" production of Shakespeare's Merchant of Venice, with his brother William McPherson as Shylock. Additional materials relate to William Gregg McPherson (1830-1908), cousin of Mary Jane, Robert, and Harriet, and to his wife, Lydia Crane (1838-1915). Of particular interest to the study of Orange County history are the clippings of Crane's column, "Letter from Southern California", which appeared in the Burlington [Vermont] Free Press, between 1875 and 1877. Additional materials include receipts for property, poll, and road taxes; papers relating to McPherson's participation in an 1877 scheme by the St. Louis Canal and Irrigating Company to construct a canal in the Gila River valley, in Maricopa County, Arizona; and specifications (marked in a later hand, "Mrs. W. G. McPherson") by Carl G. Jorn, Orange, California, for a residence.