DAVID JUDSON WINTON:

David Judson Winton was born in Wausau, Wisconsin, in 1897, the son of Charles Joel Winton and Helen Smith Winton. His sister, Helen Winton Jones (Mrs. Carl Waring Jones), was born in 1890, and his brother, Charles Joel Winton, Jr., was born in 1899. David Winton married Katherine Decker, daughter of Edward W. Decker, in 1921. Three children were born to them: Margaret (Mrs. Clifford F. Anderson) in 1922; Katherine (Mrs. Rowland Evans) in 1925; and David Michael in 1928.

Winton's elementary education began in the public schools of Wausau and was continued at the Emerson Public Grade School in Minneapolis after the family moved there in 1909. He finished his elementary education at Blake School in 1916, and in 1916 he entered Princeton University. His formal education was interrupted in May 1917, when he joined the American Field Service Ambulance Corps, serving in France with the French army. Later he served in the Tank Corps of the A.E.F., was wounded, and was awarded the DSC and the purple heart. After his discharge from the American army in 1919, he returned to Princeton and was graduated in 1920 with his regular class. The Princeton degree was given by special faculty dispensation of three sets of final exams in place of the customary eight sets.

A member of a family that had been in the lumber business for a generation, David Winton became a lumberman. He began his career working in logging camps and finally settled in Minneapolis where he became head of the Winton companies with his brother Charles. Among the Winton companies were the Winton Lumber Company, Winton Company, The Pas Lumber Company Ltd., United Lumber Yards, Winton Lumber Sales Company, Kenwood Oil Company, Amador Lumber Company, Winton Oregon Timber Company, Addison Oil Company, Baldridge Logging Company, Inc., and Siskiyou-Minnesota Timber Company. He also served on the boards of several other organizations, including Consolidated Freightways and the Spokane International Railway Company. He became receiver of the Exchange National Bank of Coeur d'Alene, Idaho, in 1933, which paid out 100 cents on each dollar deposit. Winton was director of the old National Bank Corporation of Spokane.

During the 1940s he took leave from directing the Winton firms and served the U.S. government. He was chief of the Pulp and Paper Division of the War Production Board in 1942; chief of the WPB lumber mission to England in 1943; director of Region 12 of WPB in 1944; special assistant to the chairman of WPB in 1945; special assistant to the Assistant Secretary of State in 1947; and deputy to the Assistant Secretary of the Army in 1949. He was a member of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade Conference held in Geneva, Switzerland in 1961-1962.

Winton was a trustee of a number of other organizations. Among them were Blake School, where he was Vice President for some years, and Macalester College, where he was Board Chairman for some time. He was Chairman of the Board of the National Policy Committee; Trustee of Washburn Home; Vice President of the Minnesota Historical Society; Trustee of Forest History Foundation; Trustee of Minnesota Association for Mental Health; a member of the U.S. National Committee for the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization; and a member of United World Federalists and the Atlantic Union Committee. He was a member of the Canadian-American Committee and the British-American Committee and also a Trustee of the National Planning Association. He was a founding member of the Minnesota Citizens Committee on Crime and Delinquency.

The biographical data given above was drawn from the papers and from conversations with David Winton.

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Covering both the personal and business aspects of Winton's life, the papers contain a wide variety of materials. The main categories which occur in the collection are: items concerning his support of educational institutions, particularly Macalester College; materials pertaining to his work in and support of social, charitable, and governmental organizations, including a large quantity concerning the National Planning Association; materials covering his successful lumbering career, both through the companies he owned and operated and the trade organizations in which he was a member; items showing his great concern about the U.S. economy; materials pertaining to his governmental service during World War II; and items concerning many of his personal friendships. The materials themselves consist mainly of correspondence, financial records, minutes of meetings, reports, photographs, news releases and clippings, and explanatory and descriptive brochures.

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These documents are organized into the following sections:

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Availability:

The collection is open for research use.

Preferred Citation:

[Indicate the cited item and/or series here]. David J. Winton Papers. Minnesota Historical Society.

See the Chicago Manual of Style for additional examples.

Accession Information:

Accession number: 10,093; 12,098

Processing Information:

Processed by: Lucile M. Kane and revised by Cheryl N. Thies, 1977

Catalog ID number: 09-00039260

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The general files, 1929-1973, are arranged chronologically by year. Within each year they are filed alphabetically. The files contain miscellaneous materials which occurred in such small quantities that they did not make necessary a separate folder for each subject. Those which appear most frequently or in which Winton showed a great interest are noted in the container list.

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The subject files, 1931-1973, are arranged alphabetically. They contain those files which were voluminous enough to fill one or more folders. These are consolidated so that all materials on a particular subject are found together. The container list gives a detailed description of these files. Where there is no description following a listing it indicates that it contains only personal correspondence.

The major topics found in the subject files are Winton's personal life, in files concerning his family and many friends; his business and forestry interests, including numerous papers concerned with the Winton Lumber Company and the various other companies owned by the Winton family; his many civic and cultural connections, especially his service on many committees and commissions at the local, national, and international levels; his service to the local, state, and national government, particularly through his work in several different positions during World War II; and his great interest in education, shown mainly through his support of his alma mater, Princeton University, the University of Minnesota, and Macalester College, St. Paul.

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The Winton Lumber Company records are also in the Minnesota Historical Society manuscript collections.

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This collection is indexed under the following headings in the catalog of the Minnesota Historical Society. Researchers desiring materials about related topics, persons or places should search the catalog using these headings.

Topics:

Charities -- United States.

Education -- United States.

Forests and forestry -- United States.

International organization.

Lumber trade -- United States.

Tariff.

World War, 1914-1918.

World War, 1939-1945.

Places:

Boundary Waters Canoe Area (Minn.).

Minnesota -- Politics and government.

United States -- Economic policy.

United States -- Politics and government.

Persons:

Andersen, Elmer L., 1909-2004.

Andersen, Clifford.

Anderson, Eugenie Moore, 1909-.

Binder, Carroll, 1896-1956.

Fraser, Donald M. (Donald MacKay), 1924-2019.

Freeman, Orville L.

Humphrey, Hubert H. (Hubert Horatio), 1911-1978.

Keve, Paul W.

McCarthy, Eugene J., 1916-.

Patton, George S. (George Smith), 1885-1945.

Semmes, Harry H. (Harry Hodges), b. 1892.

Upgren, Arthur R.

Voorhees, Tracy S. (Tracy Stebbins), 1890-1974.

Winton, Charles Joel, 1862-1934.

Winton, Charles Joel, 1899.

Organizations:

Addison Oil Company (Minneapolis, Minn.).

Amador Lumber Company (Martek, Calif.).

American Assembly.

American Universities Field Staff.

Atlantic Council of the United States.

Baldridge Logging Company (Hobart, Wash.).

Bar-None Boys Ranch

Blake School (Hopkins, Minn.).

Boy Scouts of America.

Chamber of Commerce of the United States of America.

Citizens League (Minneapolis, Minn.).

Citizens Mental Health Association of Minnesota.

Committee for National Trade Policy (U.S.).

Committee for Economic Development.

Consolidated Freightways, inc.

Foreign Policy Association. Minneapolis Branch.

Forest History Society.

Institute for International Order.

Kenwood Oil Company (Tulsa, Okla.).

Macalester College.

McGraw-Hill Publishing Co., inc.

Minneapolis Council of Social Agencies.

Minnesota Association for Mental Health.

Minnesota Citizens Council on Delinquency and Crime.

Minnesota Historical Society.

National Lumber Manufacturers Association.

National Planning Association.

National Policy Committee (U.S.).

Princeton University.

Reconstruction Finance Corporation.

Red River Lumber Company.

Siskiyou-Minnesota Timber Company.

The Pas Lumber Company (The Pas, Man.).

Timber Engineering Company.

UNESCO.

United Hospital Fund of Minneapolis and Hennepin County.

United Lumber Yards (Modesto, Calif).

United Nations.

United States. War Production Board.

United World Federalists (U.S.).

University of Minnesota.

Washburn Memorial Orphan Asylum (Minneapolis, Minn.).

Winton Lumber Company.

Winton Lumber Sales Company (Minneapolis, Minn.).

Winton Oregon Timber Company.

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