P. J. SMALLEY:
An Inventory of His Papers at the Minnesota Historical Society
Manuscripts Collection
OVERVIEW
| Creator: | Smalley, P. J. (Palemon Jared), 1842-1912. | |
| Title: | P. J. Smalley papers, | |
| Dates: | 1863-1944 (bulk 1887-1912). | |
| Abstract: | Autobiographical memoirs ([1900-1902]), correspondence (1863-1912), articles and addresses ([1894-1911]), scrapbooks of editorial columns (1887-1906), obituaries and news clippings (1912 and 1944), and additional papers of a Union soldier, lawyer, newspaper publisher, editorialist, and secretary of the Minnesota Democratic State Central Committee related to his service in the Civil War, party politics and economic policy during the 1890s, and his thought as an editorial columnist. | |
| Quantity: | 2.0 cubic feet (2 boxes and 1 oversize folder). | |
| Location: | See Detailed Description for shelf locations. |
BIOGRAPHICAL NOTE
Palemon Jared Smalley was born on December 25, 1842 in Williamsburg, New York, the first of four sons born to Edmund Jewett Smalley and Frances Frick. At the age of four, Smalley's father moved the family to Sheboygan, Wisconsin and Smalley grew up on a number of farms and fledgling enterprises between Sheboygan, Lyndon, and Manitowoc until 1857 when Smalley's father bought a foundry in Manitowoc. Shortly thereafter Palemon Jared Smalley left the school he was attending in Sheboygan, joined his family in Manitowoc, and began studying law as a clerk in the office of William Nichols. In 1859 Smalley went to Caledonia, Minnesota to look at a parcel of land his father had bought near Yucatan. He stayed in Caledonia two years working variously as a court transcriber, a clerk for the county board, and a teacher before he returned to Nichol's law office in Manitowoc.
During the Civil War, Smalley enlisted with Company C of the Fourth Regiment of the Wisconsin Volunteer Infantry that was attached to the Army of the Gulf and took part in the occupation of New Orleans and the Red River expedition. When the 15th infantry regiment of the Corps d'Afrique was organized in August 1863, Smalley transferred to that unit as its regimental quartermaster and remained with that unit through its subsequent designations as the 5th Regiment Engineers and the 99th Regiment of the U.S. Colored Infantry. Smalley spent the majority of his service as a clerk having first been assigned to the headquarters of General Henry Hayes Lockwood, then as an assistant to various quartermasters until he eventually served as the depot quartermaster in Alexandria at the closing of the war. He was mustered out in April of 1866.
On March 21, 1865 Smalley married Emma Girault Winburn, whom he had met while quartered in her mother's boarding house on Tchoupitoulas Street in New Orleans. Following his military service Smalley floated between a number of professions first moving back to Manitowoc, Wisconsin where he worked as a partner in his father's foundry and as a teacher; to New Orleans where he worked for the Freedmen's Bureau during 1868; to St. Louis during 1869 where he unsuccessfully tried to open a law office but where he also began writing editorial columns; and finally back to Manitowoc in 1870 where he sold farm implements for his father, worked again in the family foundry, and practiced law more successfully by collecting claims for the Smalley manufacturing company.
In 1875 Smalley moved his family to Caledonia, Minnesota where he practiced law in partnership with James O'Brien. Smalley dissolved this partnership in 1878 when he bought the Caledonia Argus and began the work of a newspaper publisher and editor, work for which he considered himself "best fitted." Under his direction, the Argus achieved a statewide reputation for honest reportage and forthright, independent editorial opinion.
In 1891 Smalley served as clerk for the Minnesota House of Representatives and the family moved from Caledonia to St. Paul. About the same time Smalley became secretary for the State Central Committee of the Minnesota Democratic Association and also wrote editorial columns for the St. Paul Daily Globe. He continued with the Globe as it underwent several changes in management until the summer of 1898. Following his departure from the Globe he was appointed secretary of the Dairy and Food Commission by Governor Lind in 1899, and then joined the staff of the St. Paul Dispatch in 1900. In 1906 the family moved to Sioux City, Iowa where Smalley had accepted a position as associate editor of the Sioux City Tribune. Smalley returned to St. Paul in 1911 due to an illness and died on November 26, 1912 following a surgical operation. Prior to his death he wrote a series of articles for the Minnesota Tax Commission.
Smalley had ten children, nine of whom survived him: Victoria (b. October 28, 1866), Edmund Walker (b. December 27, 1867), Henry Read (December 27, 1867-1868), J. Frank (b. August 1870), George (b. June 1872), Flora (b. November 1874), Harvey D., Maude G., Lotta C., and Ralph E. Emma Winburn Smalley died in St. Paul on April 7, 1924.
SCOPE AND CONTENTS
The collection consists of the autobiographical memoirs ([1900-1902]), correspondence (1863-1912), articles and addresses ([1894-1911]), scrapbooks of editorial columns (1887-1906), obituaries and news clippings (1912 and 1944), and additional papers of a Union soldier, lawyer, newspaper publisher, editorialist, and secretary of the Minnesota Democratic State Central Committee. The majority of the papers are related to his service in the Civil War, party politics and national economic policy of the 1890s, and his thought as an editorial columnist.
The correspondence includes letters from such prominent political figures as Grover Cleveland, Henry George, Robert M. LaFollette, Elihu Root, and J. Sterling Morton dealing mainly with the Democratic party's stand on tariff revision. Articles and speeches address the topics of free trade, bimetallism, Democratic party principles, Minnesota taxation, and public financing of education. Democratic party materials include a letterpress book largely concerning patronage (1893-1894); a record book concerning postmasterships (ca. 1893); a ledger (1892-1896); minutes of the State Central Committee and of the state conventions (1892-1894); and clippings on the Minnesota Democratic platform of 1890. The scrapbooks contain newspaper columns Smalley wrote while publisher of the Caledonia Argus as well as those he wrote for the St. Paul Dispatch.
Smalley's 170-page autobiography (1900, 1902) offers observations on frontier life in Wisconsin and Minnesota (1847-1860); information on his Civil War service with the Fourth Wisconsin Infantry at New Orleans, Louisiana (1862), on General Henry W. Halleck's invasion of the Red River Valley of the South (1863), his service as an officer in the 99th U.S. Colored Infantry (1863-1866), and his observations of graft and war profiteering; his experiences with the Freedmen's Bureau in the South (1868); the family's foundry work in Manitowoc, Wisconsin (1869-1875); his law practice (1869-1889) and newspaper career (1880-1891) in Caledonia, Houston County (Minn.); and his life in St. Paul, where he served as clerk of the Minnesota House of Representatives (1891), secretary of the Dairy and Food Commission (1899-1900), officeholder in the Minnesota Democratic Association (1890s), and editorial writer for the St. Paul Daily Globe and the St. Paul Dispatch (1891-1906).
ADMINISTRATIVE INFORMATION
Availability:
The collection is open for research use.
Preferred Citation:
[Indicate the cited item here]. P. J. Smalley Papers. Minnesota Historical Society.
See the Chicago Manual of Style for additional examples.
Accession Information:
Accession numbers: 6,707; 7,674; 7,687; 8,128; 8,167; 8,845; 9,040; 15,450
The autobiographical memoirs and the scrapbooks were previously cataloged as separate items within the Minnesota Historical Society book collection. The memoirs were added to the manuscripts collection of the P. J. Smalley Papers in 1960 and the scrapbooks were added in 2001.
Processing Information:
Processed by: Monica Manny Ralston, August 2001
Catalog ID number: 09-00039376
DETAILED DESCRIPTION
| Box | |||||||||||
| 147.K.14.3B | 1 | Autobiography and excerpts, [1900 and 1902]. | |||||||||
| The memoirs are a 170-page typescript, mimeograph copy of the two-part autobiography written by Smalley in 1900 and 1902 and later edited by his daughter Flora. Through circumstances and occasional misfortune Smalley had pursued many different vocations throughout his life including those of freighter, teacher, clerk, Civil War soldier, manufacturer, bureaucrat, lawyer, independent newspaper publisher, and editorialist. Because he was a curious, thoughtful man and because he was a professional writer, Smalley's memoirs contain candid observations, reminiscences, and anecdotes that comprise a significant digest of most phases of American experience during the last half of the eighteenth century. | |||||||||||
| The first part, presumably written in 1900, describes his frontier childhood on the farms and in the schools near Sheboygan and Manitowoc, Wisconsin; his coming of age in Caledonia, Minnesota; his military service during the Civil War; his education as a lawyer; and his attempts at various occupations during the period of reconstruction up until 1875 when he moved to Caledonia, Minnesota to practice law with James O'Brien. The second part, written in 1902, picks up where the first ended and describes Smalley's life as publisher and editor of the Caledonia Argus, the newspaper's editorial influence on local politics during the 1880s and 1890s, his conversion as a free trader to the Democratic party, his work as an editorialist for St. Paul newspapers, and the death of his father. The second part also includes entertaining sketches of a trip to Deadwood, South Dakota in 1882 to care for a brother stricken with typhoid fever, of the national Democratic convention in Chicago in 1892, and of a west coast train trip in 1894 with a group of agricultural editors. | |||||||||||
| Smalley's narrative covering the Civil War period, based partly on his diary of the time, contains eyewitness accounts of famous events and people, tells of accounts of civilian and military graft and war profiteering, and affords a realistic, often unheroic, picture of Civil War conditions on and off the battlefield. Specific incidents recalled by Smalley include the mustering of the regiment at Racine, Wisconsin (pages 48-49), the regiment's first experience with army rations (pages 51-52), a claim submitted by General Neal Dow for costs associated with salvaging the chain strung across the Mississippi at Fort St. Philip (page 68), General Benjamin F. Butler's issuance of Order No. 10 (page 68), the attempt to dig a canal at Vicksburg (pages 79-81), the assault on Port Hudson (pages 90-93), the appropriation of cotton by Admiral Porter (page 101), the building of a dam on the Red River to save Porter's fleet during its retreat from Alexandria (pages 102-103), a warehouse explosion in Mobile due to the mishandling of percussion shells (pages 113-114), and an attempt by a cotton merchant to bribe Smalley while he acted as post quartermaster in Alexandria (page 116). | |||||||||||
| Following the war Smalley returned to Manitowoc, Wisconsin and worked for a short while as a partner in his father's foundry, as a teacher, and continued his law studies. In December 1867 he returned to New Orleans to join his wife and worked as an agent for the Freedmen's Bureau in the parishes of St. Bernard and Plaquemines. Recollections from this period include observations about the labor contracts between planters and freedmen and about the exploitation of Negro voters by carpetbaggers during the 1868 election (pages 125-128). | |||||||||||
| In addition to the autobiography are an excerpt about Benjamin F. Butler and an excerpt about the evacuation and occupation of New Orleans. Smalley's recollections about Butler includes descriptions of how he profited from sugar and cotton seizures. A portion of the New Orleans excerpt was written by Smalley's wife, Emma Winburn. Another portion was extracted from a diary kept by a private in Company E of the 8th Louisiana Regiment named Lessia Sandez which Smalley found a year later in Alexandria. These portions provide descriptions of the spiking of Confederate cannon, the burning of cotton, and the looting of stores and warehouses along the levee. | |||||||||||
| Correspondence, 1863, 1891-1912. | |||||||||||
| All the letters except those dated 1863 and 1912 were written to Smalley from many prominent political leaders throughout the country during the time when Smalley was secretary of the Minnesota Democratic State Central Committee. Incoming letters primarily concern the party's stand on tariff revision, particularly in relation to the passage of the Wilson-Gorman Tariff Act. Many of these letters were written to respond to editorials that Smalley forwarded from the Saint Paul Daily Globe. The correspondence also includes copies of letters circulated either by Smalley as secretary of the Democratic State Central Committee or by the Committee's chairman concerning meetings, conventions, delegates, and elections. Some of the more interesting incoming letters are described below. | |||||||||||
| A handwritten letter from Jefferson Davis in Richmond, Virginia to Major Emile Lasere [La Sere] in Alexandria, Louisiana dated September 5, 1863 acknowledged Lasere's resignation as major and quartermaster of the 10th Regiment of the Louisiana Infantry and commented upon Lasere's request of an appointment for his nephew Sergeant E. J. O'Brien as lieutenant of artillery. No explanation for how this letter came into Smalley's possession is evident within the collection. | |||||||||||
| A letter written by Franklin K. Lane from his San Francisco law office to P. J. Smalley on December 21, [189?] stated Lane's belief "that a political breakup is coming and new parties will be borne -- one very radical, the other mildly so." | |||||||||||
| A letter written by Grover Cleveland from Buzzards Bay, Massachusetts to P. J. Smalley on July 5, 1891 responded to an editorial that Smalley forwarded regarding the free coinage of silver, Cleveland's pending nomination, and Cleveland's alliance with the Democratic platform. Three subsequent letters dated August 7, August 16, and September 8, 1891 responded to Smalley's request to publish Cleveland's letter of July 5. Smalley's Globe columns dated June 6, 1891 and February 4, 1892 were photocopied from his scrapbooks and added to the correspondence file to aid in the interpretation of these letters. | |||||||||||
| Henry Watterson of the Louisville Courier-Journal wrote from the Palace Hotel in San Francisco, California, on April [2], 1894 to compliment Smalley for an address he wrote and to comment on the "sheer suicide" of senate amendments to the Wilson tariff bill. | |||||||||||
| Congressmen John DeWitt Warner in a letter dated April 13, 1894 and Tom L. Johnson in a letter dated April 14, 1894 both thank Smalley for his letters and editorial of March 21, 1894 about the manner in which the Wilson tariff bill betrayed the Democratic platform. Johnson remarked that "the address did have a very marked effect on one Senator (Morgan) to the extent of forcing him to explain his position" while Warner commented on the advisability of the Democratic press leading a "demand that Congress remain in session until the 4th of next March, if necessary, and that the House make no concession--presuming that if this course is taken the press and the public will look out for the elections, and stating that if it is not taken, and any compromise of the people's interests is submitted to, the press and the pubic will see to it that political death is visited upon any one who connives at the treachery." Copies of Smalley's outgoing letters to Warner and Johnson are included in his letterbook as secretary of the Minnesota Democratic State Central Committee. | |||||||||||
| The economist Henry George wrote to Smalley on December 31, 1894 to thank the Minnesota Democratic Association for "the ringing address which is the only bright spot the Genius of True Democracy can rejoice at in a year of deserved disaster to the Democratic party." | |||||||||||
| Secretary of Agriculture J. Sterling Morton, in a lengthy letter dated November 16, 1895, commented on the potential impact that the five Democratic senators who "scuttled" the tariff reform bill would have on the 1896 elections and stressed the importance of "a platform declared definitely for commercial freedom and sound money." He commented further upon the impracticality of a free trade system and stated his opinion in favor of revenue tariffs on tea, coffee, and sugar; an increased beer tax; and the restoration of a stamp tax. A subsequent letter dated November 26, 1895 gave Smalley permission to publish Morton's letter of November 16. | |||||||||||
| Several letters were penned by Robert M. LaFollette between 1904 and 1910 including one written on December 12, 1904 to thank Smalley for his congratulatory expressions following the 1904 Wisconsin elections. Another letter dated November 11, 1908 thanked Smalley for his Sioux City Tribune editorial that endorsed LaFollette's weekly journal and stated that LaFollete had "unbounded faith in the people of this country and know that when they understand how little, real representation they have been getting, no power will be strong enough to withstand their demands for a change... " | |||||||||||
| The final piece of correspondence was a letter written by Laurence C. Hodgson of the St. Paul Daily News to Miss Smalley, December 3, 1912, that contained condolences upon Smalley's death. | |||||||||||
| Reserve 74 | Autograph correspondence, 1891-1907. | ||||||||||
| Original letters within the correspondence bearing autographs of Jefferson Davis, Grover Cleveland, J. Sterling Morton, and Elihu Root were separated into a reserve portion of the Smalley collection for preservation purposes. Photocopies of the original letters were replaced within the main body of correspondence. | |||||||||||
| Box | |||||||||||
| 147.K.14.3B | 1 | Articles and addresses, undated and [1894-1911]. 2 folders. | |||||||||
| Includes a variety of articles that may have been used as newspaper editorials as well as a number of addresses made before local clubs. Topics included party primaries, democratic government and processes, the Democratic party and what it means to be a Democrat, the single tax issue, bimetallism, tariff taxation and business interests, free trade and relations with Canada, the 1900 presidential election, compulsory funding for public education, government graft, and the dairy and food industry. A series of sixteen articles grouped under the title "Taxation in Minnesota" were written for the Minnesota Tax Commission and intended for newspaper publication. The articles individually address the subjects of revenue sources, general property taxes, assessments, county equalization boards, the state commission, levies, collection, taxation rates, intangible personal property taxes, and the mortgage registry tax. | |||||||||||
| Obituaries, memorial poem, and news clippings. 1912 and 1944. | |||||||||||
| Includes clippings about Smalley's death that were published in Saint Paul and Sioux City newspapers and a poem memorializing his life that was written by Laurence C. Hodgson. Also includes a news clipping about the St. Paul Informal Club of which Smalley was a member. | |||||||||||
| Minnesota Democratic Association: | |||||||||||
| Miscellaneous, undated and 1890. | |||||||||||
| Includes newspaper clippings concerning the 1890 Democratic platform and undated charts showing the seating arrangements for a party convention. | |||||||||||
| Letterpress book, December 22, 1893-December 17, 1894. | |||||||||||
| Contains copies of Smalley's outgoing letters as secretary of the Democratic State Central Committee. Most of the letters deal with routine party matters, particularly in relation to patronage and the appointment of postmasters. A few lengthier letters offer criticisms of James J. Hill's controlling influence of the party, of dissension among party leaders, of the tariff reform bill, and of the Grover Cleveland administration. | |||||||||||
| Ledger, [1891]-1896. | |||||||||||
| Includes entries for Association cash expenditures and credits, 1892-1896 as well as entries for expenditures and subscriptions related to the Association's promotion of St. Paul as the site for the 1892 national convention. | |||||||||||
| Record book, [circa 1893]. | |||||||||||
| Contains a list of individuals endorsed by the party for postmasterships. Also contains lists for each county that detail its post offices and Democratic postmasters, the locations, titles and editors of Democratic newspapers, and the names of members of the state association. Smalley used a code beside members' names to indicate whether or not individuals were local office holders, whether or not they supported the free trade and single tax issues, whether they were young or old, and that gave additional characteristics. The code is included on the back of an Association banquet admission card kept at the front of the volume. | |||||||||||
| Folder | |||||||||||
| +265 | 1 folder | Minutes, Minnesota Democratic State Central Committee, February 16, 1892-August 2, 1894. | |||||||||
| Also includes minutes of a delegate convention held March 31, 1892, a nominating convention held August 3, 1892, and a record of the state platforms adopted during those meetings. | |||||||||||
| Scrapbooks of editorials: | |||||||||||
| The scrapbooks contain newspaper clippings of editorial columns primarily written by Smalley during the time he published the Caledonia Argus and while he was on the staff of the St. Paul Dispatch. The first volume also includes articles written by Smalley that appeared in other Twin Cities area newspapers as well as articles about Smalley, members of the Smalley family, and the Smalley Manufacturing Company that appeared in both Minnesota and Wisconsin newspapers. Volumes documenting the period when Smalley wrote for the St. Paul Daily Globe are missing from the collection, however a microfilm edition of that newspaper is available in the Minnesota Historical Society newspaper collection. | |||||||||||
| Box | |||||||||||
| 147.K.14.3B | 1 | Volume 1, February 12, 1887-April 1895. | |||||||||
| Volume 8, March 1, 1901-January 22, 1902. | |||||||||||
| Box | |||||||||||
| 147.K.14.4F | 2 | Volume 9, December 8, 1902-September 17, 1903. | |||||||||
| Volume 10, September 18, 1903-August 11, 1904. | |||||||||||
| Volume 11, August 12, 1904-June 30, 1905. | |||||||||||
| Volume 12, July 1, 1905-May 31, 1906. | |||||||||||
CATALOG HEADINGS
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:
- Education -- Minnesota.
- Education -- Wisconsin.
- Editorials -- Minnesota.
- Frontier and pioneer life -- Minnesota.
- Frontier and pioneer life -- Wisconsin.
- Patronage, Political -- Minnesota.
- Political conventions -- Minnesota.
- Postmasters -- Minnesota.
- Red River Expedition, 1864.
- Silver question.
- Slavery -- United States.
- Tariff -- United States.
- Taxation -- Minnesota.
- Taxation -- United States.
- Persons:
- Banks, Nathaniel Prentiss, 1816-1894.
- Butler, Benjamin F. (Benjamin Franklin), 1818-1893.
- Cleveland, Grover, 1837-1908.
- Custer, George A. (George Armstrong), 1839-1876.
- Cutcheon, F. W. M.
- Davis, Jefferson, 1808-1889.
- Dow, Neal, 1804-1897.
- Farragut, David Glasgow, 1801-1870.
- George, Henry, 1839-1897.
- Grant, Ulysses S. (Ulysses Simpson), 1822-1885.
- Harter, Michael D, (Michael Daniel), 1846-1896.
- Hill, James J. (James Jerome), 1838-1916.
- Hodgson, Laurence C. (Laurence Curran), 1874-1937.
- Hubbard, Elbert, 1856-1915.
- Johnson, Tom Loftin, 1854-1911.
- La Follette, Robert M. (Robert Marion), 1855-1925.
- Lane, Franklin K.
- MacVeagh, Franklin, 1837-1934.
- McPherson, James Birdseye, 1828-1864.
- Morton, J. Sterling (Julius Sterling), 1832-1902.
- Paine, Hulbert Eleazer.
- Porter, David D. (David Dixon), 1813-1891.
- Root, Elihu, 1845-1937.
- Smalley, Edward H., b. 1852.
- Smalley, E. V. (Eugene Virgil), 1841-1899.
- Smalley, Flora M.
- Smalley, Victor Herbert, b. 1877.
- Watterson, Henry, 1840-1921.
- Wilson, Thomas, 1827-1910.
- Wilson, William Lyne, 1843-1900.
- Windom, William, 1827-1891.
- Organizations:
- Democratic Party (Minn.). State Central Committee.
- Informal Club (Saint Paul, Minn.).
- United States. Army. Colored Infantry Regiment, 99th (1864-1866).
- United States. Army. Wisconsin Infantry Regiment, 4th (1861-1863).
- United States. Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen, and Abandoned Lands.
- Places:
- Caledonia (Minn.).
- Deadwood (S.D.).
- Minnesota -- Newspapers.
- Manitowoc (Wis.).
- Sheboygan (Wis.).
- New Orleans (La.) -- History -- Capture, 1862.
- United States -- History -- Civil War, 1861-1865 -- Campaigns.
- United States -- Politics and government.
- Document Types:
- Reminiscences.
- Titles:
- Caledonia argus (Caledonia, Minn.).
- St. Paul daily globe.
- St. Paul dispatch.
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