Excerpts from minutes of "the regular monthly meeting held in their hall July 4, 1887" concern the election of J. Powell Reid as treasurer of the Mechanics' Union No. 1. The Mechnic's Union No. 1 was a trade union organized in Charelston in 1869.
Samuel Stent Miller apprenticed himself to Gabriel Manigault Bounetheau, a Charleston (S.C.) printer, for a period of five years. Gabriel Manigault Bounetheau was a Justice of the Peace, Clerk of Council, and a printer with an office at 3 Broad Street, according to the Charleston City Directory of 1806.
Papers include vouchers, receipts, and business letters (1884-1921) of Riley's foundry and machine works, political letters (1895-1903), and letters concerning the Hibernian Society (1896). Also includes a copy of the specifications (1894) of labor and material to be used in repairs to the U.S. Custom House, Charleston, S.C.
Records include correspondence, lists of dues-paying members, and receipts. The names of Carl Metz, R. Emmett Vaughan, and Charles F. Hencken, president, secretary, and treasurer of Local No. 502, figure prominently in the records. "Musicians' Protective Association" appears as part of the name of the local in many records.
The bulk of the material relates to the payment of dues to the union, and some records concern the rental of the German Artillery Hall for the organization's meeting and for concerts by the Metz Band.