The S.F. Peaslee Papers contains business papers belonging to Silas Foster Peaslee (1849-1938), a surveyor and manager of timberlands who supervised Maine and New Hampshire lands owned by the estate of E.S. Coe and the heirs of David Pingree. The papers contain administrative records which detail the management of those lands.

Some materials in the collection post-dates Peaslee’s retirement. These materials likely appear in the collection because successor organizations, such as The Seven Islands Land Company, interfiled their own records with Peaslee’s records when they shared subjects. To preserve the original order of the materials, they have not been moved. The collection has been divided into three series.

Series I. Correspondence contains business correspondence sent or received by S.F. Peaslee. The correspondence covers a variety of topics including: the sale of stumpage on Coe-Pingree lands; the offering or renewal of leases to private and corporate renters; the administration of land maintenance projects, including road upkeep and pest management; and other related topics. The series has been divided into two subseries.

Subseries A. Received contains correspondence received by Peaslee. Subseries B. Letter Books is comprised of letter books, which contain copies of correspondence sent by Peaslee.

Series II. Operational Records contains operation records kept by Peaslee. It contains a variety of materials, including bills and receipts, memorandum and lease notebooks, exploration journals, and histories of logging in Maine and New Hampshire townships written by Peaslee. The series has been divided into four subseries.

Subseries A. Bills and Receipts contains bills and receipts received by Peaslee. They document expenses incurred in various land management projects, including costs for surveyors, log scalers, and other operational costs. Subseries B. Memorandum and Lease Books contains notebooks created by Peaslee. The memorandum books contains Peaslee’s general notes from 1892-1926. Earlier notebooks tend to contain land surveys and other exploration notes completed by Peaslee, while later notebooks deal with managerial concerns. Lease books record the terms of leases on various Pingree-Coe lands. Subseries C. Exploration Journals contains survey books created by various surveyors during explorations of Pingree-Coe lands. The journals detail land topography, water, and the availability and type of timber. The “T # R #” in the titles of many of the journals refers to the public land survey system of township and range. Some of these journals predate Peaslee’s management and were likely passed on to Peaslee from Coe’s records. Subseries D. Township Histories contain details on historic lumbering operations in various townships in Oxford and Franklin County, Maine and Coös County, New Hampshire. These were chiefly written by S.F. Peaslee either directly preceding his retirement or soon after it. A few of the histories date to the 1940s and 1960s. These were likely filed alongside Peaslee’s histories by successors. To retain the original order of the material, they have not been removed.

Series III. Other Records contain a notebook handwritten by Peaslee detailing the personal histories of the residents of his home town of Upton, Maine in 1899; a 1974 typed copy of that notebook and correspondence detailing an attempt to find a home for it in Maine historical societies; and a 1906 map of Upton, Maine.