This small collection of family papers centers around Dr. Benjamin Bennett Briggs (1827-1893) whose 1849 diary chronicles his account of moving from Ohio to California by covered wagon. Briggs was the great-great-grandfather of the collection's donor, Dr. Chester Ward. In addition to the diary, the collection includes a small account book/diary from 1862--also kept by Briggs--as well as a number of letters to and from family members and photographs of family members across multiple generations. There are also a few Presbyterian missionary materials because Benjamin's daughter, Irene, married Samuel Lawrence Ward; they went to Persia as missionaries of the Presbyterian Church from 1876 to 1897. Other noteworthy items in the collection include a very small (and fragile) Arabic prayer book and an 1896 book of "pressed flowers from the Holy Land" in excellent condition.