The diaries are written by Frederic Millen who was born on July 4th, 1891 Sussex County New Jersey, and died in May 1954 Passaic New Jersey. His diaries range from 1906 to 1922 in which he writes about his school days in the early diaries and writes about his adulthood in later ones. Frederic documented his life for his friends and family who live close and far away from him. He also documented the weather, how his day went, and his plans while living in New Jersey in the early 1900s.The diaries after 1915 detail his married life with Mabel Beckley Millen (1893-1980). They got married in June 1915. The bulk of these letters were conversations between the Millen family, Stiles family, N.M. Drake, and business associates. In letters from Mabel to her adult son Frederic Newton Millen she would write about updates on the family, weather, medicine, and stories of the family. He lived far from home in different places including for a time in Texas. There are also letters from his father, Frederic to him. Frederic would often write to not only his son but his brothers who are included in this collection. He would discuss business, how they were doing, how he missed them, and hoping they would visit soon.

Frederic had 6 siblings, three of whom were featured in the letters. Stiles Millen, born in 1880 and died in 1966 was the older brother of Frederic who lived in Endicott New York with his wife Grace Satterly Millen, and their children. There are letters between Stiles and his brother Frederic in the collection. As technology progresses, the letters were handwritten originally and then later from a typewriter. There are also letters from Annie Grace Millen (1916-2015), the fifth child of Grace and Stiles Millen. She wrote from Korea to her grandfather Elias Newton Millen and her brothers about teaching English to Koreans and how they reacted. Another brother of Frederic and Stiles, Roger Millen (1887-1955) is mentioned in the diaries. Frederic’s sister Evelyn Millen (1882-1966) is mentioned in the 1908 diary dedication, “To my sister who performs God’s work in Korea”.

There are letters from Frederic, Stiles, Roger, and Evelyn’s parents. Elias Newton Millen (1852-1932) would write to his grandchildren to see how they were doing. Letters from Eugenia Ashfield Stiles Millen (1852-1911) were also written to her grandchildren to see if everyone was healthy and to see about their adventures. She also wrote to her daughter-in-law Mabel Millen. There is a total of fifteen letters between Mabel and her friend N.M. Drake. He was a veterinarian in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. They had long exchanges about medications who and why they were taking them, and also trades for medicine.

In many older letters, they are from a mother to a son but it is unknown which mother and son. In the ledger, it contains records of the oil budget for people in town or from the area and how long their tabs were along with records of payments. The manuscript, contains newspaper clippings from New Jersey shipwrecks that inspired the storyline which was about a love interest John and Barbara who were in a lifeboat strained. The miscellaneous papers are a variety of receipts, taxes for the town of Newton, the will for Elias Millen. These various miscellaneous papers from the Stiles family, Millen family and other unknown families.