Walter Hugh Miller Papers, (K0391)

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

PRELIMINARY INVENTORY K0391 (KA1107) WALTER HUGH MILLER PAPERS This collection is available at The State Historical Society of Missouri Research Center- Kansas City. If you would like more information, please contact us at [email protected]. Introduction Approximately 1 cubic foot. The Walter Hugh Miller Papers consist of photocopies of scrapbook materials and films concerning Kansas City, Missouri, political boss, Tom Pendergast. Thomas Joseph Pendergast was born on July 22, 1872, in St. Joseph, Missouri, to Michael and Mary Reedy Pendergast. During the 1890s, Pendergast worked in a tavern owned by his brother James in the West Bottoms of Kansas City, Missouri. James Pendergast, an alderman for Kansas City, is credited with tutoring his younger brother in the diversities, advantages, and strategies of Kansas City’s political scene. Pendergast served as an alderman for Kansas City between 1911 and 1916, when he stepped down from the position in order to focus his efforts on consolidating the factions of the Jackson County Democratic Party. Pendergast controlled the political scene of Kansas City and Jackson County, Missouri, beginning in 1925 until his falling out with then Missouri Governor Lloyd C. Stark in 1939. Pendergast married Carolyn Elisabeth Dunn Snider on February 3, 1911, in Kansas City, Missouri. He died on January 26, 1945, and is buried at Calvary Cemetery in Kansas City, Missouri. Donor Information The papers were donated to the University of Missouri by Joann Farris on November 20, 2000 (Accession No. KA1107). Copyright and Restrictions Materials in this collection may be protected by copyrights and other rights. See Rights & Reproductions on the Society’s website for more information about reproductions and permission to publish. Related Collections Thomas J. Pendergast, Jr. Papers (K0316) Location Note The collection is stored offsite and will need to be retrieved before viewing. Box List Box 1 Un-inventoried materials .

Copy Link

Recommended publications

Politics and Pandemic in 1918 Kansas City
POLITICS AND PANDEMIC IN 1918 KANSAS CITY A THESIS IN History Presented to the Faculty of the University of Missouri-Kansas City in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree MASTER OF ARTS by SUSAN DEBRA SYKES BERRY M.L.I.S., University of Iowa, 1998 B.S.N., University of Florida, 1989 Kansas City, Missouri 2010 ©2010 SUSAN DEBRA SYKES BERRY ALL RIGHTS RESERVED POLITICS AND PANDEMIC IN 1918 KANSAS CITY Susan Debra Sykes Berry, Candidate for the Master of Arts Degree University of Missouri-Kansas City, 2010 ABSTRACT The 1918-1919 Spanish influenza was the deadliest pandemic in history and citizens of Kansas City died in larger numbers due to politics. Kansas City government was under the control of two powerful political bosses, Democrats Tom Pendergast and Joe Shannon, who had an uneasy agreement to split the cities’ patronage jobs equally between them. This arrangement created a dysfunctional and unwieldy public health response to the pandemic which occurred at the end of 1918. Since the public health response was so inadequate, quasi-governmental institutions tried to step into the vacuum. The Chamber of Commerce, the Metropolitan Life Insurance Company, and the American Red Cross were much more influential and active in Kansas City than in most cities during the pandemic, and their leadership ensured that Kansas City would not be remembered in history as having the worst response in the country. This abstract of 141 words is approved as to form and content. ___________________________________ Lynda Payne, Ph.D. Associate Professor Department of History ii The undersigned, appointed by the Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences, have examined a thesis titled “Politics and Pandemic in 1918 Kansas City,” presented by Susan Debra Sykes Berry, candidate for the Master of Arts degree, and hereby certify that in their opinion it is worthy of acceptance.
[Show full text]
Political Party Machines of the 1920S and 1930S: Tom Pendergast and the Kansas City Democratic Machine
Political Party Machines of the 1920s and 1930s: Tom Pendergast and The Kansas City Democratic Machine. BY JOHN S. MATLIN. A thesis submitted to the University of Birmingham for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. Department of American and Canadian Studies, School of Historical Studies, University of Birmingham. September, 2009. Table of Contents. Page No. Acknowledgments. 3. Abstract. 5. Introduction. 6. Chapter 1. A Brief History of American Local Government until the end of the Nineteenth Century. 37. Chapter 2. The Fall and Rise of Political Party Machines in the Progressive Era. 51. Chapter 3. Theories of Political Party Machines and Their Core Elements. 81. Chapter 4. “Bossism”: The Need for Strong Leadership. 107. Chapter 5. Patronage: The Boss’s Political Capital and Private Profit. 128. Chapter 6. Challengers to the Machine: Rabbi Mayerberg, The Charter League and Fusion Movement. 145. Chapter 7. Challenges from the Press. The Self-Appointed Role of Newspapers as Moral Watchdogs. 164. Chapter 8. Corruption: Machines and Elections. 193. Chapter 9. Corruption: Machine Business, Organized Crime and the Downfall of Tom Pendergast. 219. Chapter 10. Political Party Machines: Pragmatism and Ethics. 251. Conclusion. 264. Bibliography. 277. 2 Acknowledgments It is a rare privilege to commence university life after retirement from a professional career. At the age of 58, I enrolled at Brunel University on an American Studies course, assuming that I would learn little that I did not already know. My legal life had taken me to many of the states of America numerous times over the previous forty years. My four years at Brunel as an undergraduate and post-graduate opened my eyes about the United States in a way I had not thought possible.
[Show full text]
Beautiful and Damned: Geographies of Interwar Kansas City by Lance
Beautiful and Damned: Geographies of Interwar Kansas City By Lance Russell Owen A dissertation submitted in partial satisfaction of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Geography in the Graduate Division of the University of California, Berkeley Committee in charge: Professor Michael Johns, Chair Professor Paul Groth Professor Margaret Crawford Professor Louise Mozingo Fall 2016 Abstract Beautiful and Damned: Geographies of Interwar Kansas City by Lance Russell Owen Doctor of Philosophy in Geography University of California, Berkeley Professor Michael Johns, Chair Between the World Wars, Kansas City, Missouri, achieved what no American city ever had, earning a Janus-faced reputation as America’s most beautiful and most corrupt and crime-ridden city. Delving into politics, architecture, social life, and artistic production, this dissertation explores the geographic realities of this peculiar identity. It illuminates the contours of the city’s two figurative territories: the corrupt and violent urban core presided over by political boss Tom Pendergast, and the pristine suburban world shaped by developer J. C. Nichols. It considers the ways in which these seemingly divergent regimes in fact shaped together the city’s most iconic features—its Country Club District and Plaza, a unique brand of jazz, a seemingly sophisticated aesthetic legacy written in boulevards and fine art, and a landscape of vice whose relative scale was unrivalled by that of any other American city. Finally, it elucidates the reality that, by sustaining these two worlds in one metropolis, America’s heartland city also sowed the seeds of its own destruction; with its cultural economy tied to political corruption and organized crime, its pristine suburban fabric woven from prejudice and exclusion, and its aspirations for urban greatness weighed down by provincial mindsets and mannerisms, Kansas City’s time in the limelight would be short lived.
[Show full text]
Franklin Roosevelt, Thomas Dewey and the Wartime Presidential Campaign of 1944
POLITICS AS USUAL: FRANKLIN ROOSEVELT, THOMAS DEWEY, AND THE WARTIME PRESIDENTIAL CAMPAIGN OF 1944 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. POLITICS AS USUAL: FRANKLIN ROOSEVELT, THOMAS DEWEY AND THE WARTIME PRESIDENTIAL CAMPAIGN OF 1944 A dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy By Michael A. Davis, B.A., M.A. University of Central Arkansas, 1993 University of Central Arkansas, 1994 December 2005 University of Arkansas Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. ABSTRACT This dissertation examines the U.S. wartime presidential campaign of 1944. In 1944, the United States was at war with the Axis Powers of World War II, and Democrat Franklin D. Roosevelt, already serving an unprecedented third term as President of the United States, was seeking a fourth. Roosevelt was a very able politician and-combined with his successful performance as wartime commander-in-chief-- waged an effective, and ultimately successful, reelection campaign. Republicans, meanwhile, rallied behind New York Governor Thomas E. Dewey. Dewey emerged as leader of the GOP at a critical time. Since the coming of the Great Depression -for which Republicans were blamed-the party had suffered a series of political setbacks. Republicans were demoralized, and by the early 1940s, divided into two general national factions: Robert Taft conservatives and Wendell WiIlkie "liberals." Believing his party's chances of victory over the skilled and wily commander-in-chiefto be slim, Dewey nevertheless committed himself to wage a competent and centrist campaign, to hold the Republican Party together, and to transform it into a relevant alternative within the postwar New Deal political order.
[Show full text]
Who Is Judge Truman?"
"WHO IS JUDGE TRUMAN?": THE TRUMAN-FOR-GOVERNOR MO VEM ENT OF 1931 FRANKLIN D. MITCHELL According to his detractors, Harry S. Truman was an obscure county judge elevated to the eminence of United States Senator by the powerful Pendergast political machine. This characterization of Truman's rise in politics has received corrective revision in the work of able biographers and scholars. Far from being a political unknown when he won his first senate race in 1934, Truman had awide circle of acquaintances in both met ropolitan Kansas City and rural Missouri. Furthermore, while his success in 1934 rested to a considerable degree upon the support of Tom Pender gast1 s organization in Kansas City, Truman's own assets played an impor tant role in his nomination and election to the United States Senate. * But one important episode in Truman's rise to prominence in politics has been neglected. In 1931 friends of Jackson County's popular presiding judge participated in a movement to secure for Truman the 1932 gubernato rial nomination of Missouri Democrats.2 By making both Truman and his record well known to outstate Missourians, his supporters hoped to impress leading Democrats — especially Kansas City boss Tom Pendergast — with 3 the desirability of backing the judge from Independence for governor e Tru man himself took an active part in the spirited effort friends made in his behalf during the spring of 1931, but Pendergast's support and the Demo cratic gubernatorial nomination went to Francis M. Wilson, the party's unsuccessful nominee for governor in 1928. Although limited in scope and destined for failure, the Truman-f or-Governor boom nevertheless repre sented a significant step upward in Truman's rise to political prominence.
[Show full text]
St. Louis Enquirer.4 the Thirty-Eight-Year-Old Editor's Rapid Rise to Respectability in Missouri Inspired an Infatuation with His New Home
MISSOURI HISTORICAL REVIEW THE STATE HISTORICAL SOCIETY OF MISSOURI, COLUMBIA THE STATE HISTORICAL SOCIETY OF MISSOURI The State Historical Society of Missouri, heretofore organized under the laws of the State, shall be the trustee of this State-Laws of Missouri, 1899, R.S. of Mo., 1969, chapter 183, as revised 1978. OFFICERS, 1995-1998 H. RILEY BOCK, New Madrid, President JAMES C. OLSON, Kansas City, First Vice President SHERIDAN A. LOGAN, St. Joseph, Second Vice President VIRGINIA G. YOUNG, Columbia, Third Vice President NOBLE E. CUNNINGHAM, Columbia, Fourth Vice President R. KENNETH ELLIOTT, Liberty, Fifth Vice President ROBERT G. J. HOESTER, Kirkwood, Sixth Vice President ALBERT M. PRICE, Columbia, Treasurer JAMES W. GOODRICH, Columbia, Executive Director, Secretary, and Librarian PERMANENT TRUSTEES FORMER PRESIDENTS OF THE SOCIETY WILLIAM AULL III, Lexington LEO J. ROZIER, Perryville FRANCIS M. BARNES III, Kirkwood ROBERT C. SMITH, Columbia RUSH H. LIMBAUGH, Cape Girardeau Avis G. TUCKER, Warrensburg TRUSTEES, 1993-1996 HENRIETTA AMBROSE, Webster Groves GEORGE MCCUE, St. Louis LAWRENCE O. CHRISTENSEN, Rolla GARY W. RUST, Cape Girardeau ROBERT S. DALE, Carthage WALLACE B. SMITH, Independence FREDERICK W. LEHMANN IV, Webster Groves TRUSTEES, 1994-1997 ILUS W. DAVIS, Kansas City DALE REESMAN, Boonville JOHN K. HULSTON, Springfield ARVARH E. STRICKLAND, Columbia JAMES B. NUTTER, Kansas City BLANCHE M. TOUHILL, St. Louis BOB PRIDDY, Jefferson City HENRY J. WATERS III, Columbia TRUSTEES, 1995-1998 WALTER ALLEN, Brookfield R. CROSBY KEMPER III, St. Louis JAMES A. BARNES, Raytown VIRGINIA LAAS, Joplin VERA H. BURK, Kirksville EMORY MELTON, Cassville RICHARD DECOSTER, Canton DOYLE PATTERSON, Kansas City EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE Eight trustees elected by the board of trustees, together with the president of the Society, consti tute the executive committee.
[Show full text]
My New Cover.Pptx
Underground Economies: Infrastructure, Equity, andAccess in Kansas City 1871-1939 Julia Barnard The first sewers were built in infrastructure was established and Kansas City in 1871 and, until around improved, and for what ends. 1920, when the city began to gear up for Kansas City 1871-1920s the Ten-Year Plan, the city did not invest The first sewers in Kansas City in any substantial way in the sewers and were constructed in 1871. The well- water systems. The Ten-Year Plan, a known City Beautiful Movement had partnership between the Kansas City transformed Kansas City's suburban Chamber of Commerce and the districts into lovely subdivisions with Pendergast political team, expanded green spaces and single-family homes, Kansas City's waterworks and sewer equipped with toilets and water coverage system and drew money during the yet in 1910, many of Kansas City's urban Depression toward the metropolitan city poor in the West Bottoms and the larger on the rocky bluffs. The Plan can help us Northwest District were still without understand the real impetus behind sewers and other basic sanitary services, public works projects in Kansas City and let alone planned neighborhoods (Figure the way in which these projects changed 1). I will argue that the Ten-Year Plan the social geographical distinctions in the unknowingly participated in the city. The Plan, that Kansas City passed correction and the institutionalization of during the 1930s and that became a some of these inequalities. Not for blueprint for the national New Deal. environmental reasons, but rather for I present the Ten-Year Plan as an personal profit and development during a example of a successful re-imagining of time of great economic stress.
[Show full text]
Matthew K. Partin (1952-2012) Collection (K1254)
THE STATE HISTORICAL SOCIETY OF MISSOURI RESEARCH CENTER-KANSAS CITY K1254 Matthew K. Partin (1952-2012) Collection 1919-2005 15 cubic feet Research notes and materials collected for a book concerning Harry S. Truman's early political life, federal prosecutions of election fraud, Tom Pendergast and his political machine, and Kansas City police. BIOGRAPHY: Matthew Partin was born August 13, 1952 in Kansas City, the son of Beverly and William Partin. He attended St. Peter’s School, Rockhurst High School and the University of Missouri-Kansas City. He received his law degree from the University of Missouri-Kansas City School of Law. Matthew practiced law with his father at the firm of Partin and Partin, P.C.. PROVENANCE: This gift was received from Beth Partin, Dorothy Partin, and Russ Partin as accession KA2078 on September 11, 2012. COPYRIGHT AND RESTRICTIONS: The Donor hereby gives and assigns to the Society all rights of copyright which the Donor has in (a) the Papers and in (b) such of their works as may be found among any collections of papers or records received by the Society from others, with the following exception: book manuscript authored by Matthew K. Partin. PREFERRED CITATION: Specific item; folder number; Matthew K. Partin (1952-2012) Collection (K1254); The State Historical Society of Missouri Research Center-Kansas City [after first mention may be abbreviated to SHSMO-KC]. SHSMO-KC November 25, 2013 PRELIMINARY K1254 Matthew K. Partin (1952-2012) Collection Page 2 CONTACT: The State Historical Society of Missouri Research Center-Kansas City 302 Newcomb Hall, University of Missouri-Kansas City 5123 Holmes Street, Kansas City, MO 64110-2499 (816) 235-1543 [email protected] http://shs.umsystem.edu/index.shtml DESCRIPTION: Research notes, photocopies of news articles, books, and other material relating to Partin’s research for a novel on Harry S.
[Show full text]
Kansas City, Missouri: the Experience of a Major Midwestern City Under Council Manager Government
Kansas City, Missouri: The Experience of a Major Midwestern City Under Council Manager Government Max J. Skidmore Background years. Along with notable corruption there was Kansas City, Missouri, a city of somewhat considerable civic progress. fewer than 500,000 inhabitants in a metropolitan Kansas City therefore presents a unique and area of nearly two million, adopted the council- especially interesting set of circumstances. These manager form of government in 1925. On the 3rd circumstances offer a fertile field of study to iden- of November that year, municipal elections deter- tify the strengths and weaknesses of “profes- mined the members of the new council who sional, non-partisan, government.” That form of assumed their seats on 10 April 1926 (Ellis 65). It government now has been on the American scene has been a council-manager city ever since. The so long that it seems almost traditional, despite its city also has a colorful history of “boss” politics. rejection of many of the principles that constitute The notorious Pendergast Machine dominated accepted American governmental practice. Kansas City politics for decades, and was a major factor in stimulating the reform efforts that led to Council-Manager Government the adoption of “non-partisan, professional” gov- Council-manager government more closely ernment. resembles the structure of a modern corporation Dashing the hopes of the reformers, Thomas than it does the classic separation of powers arrange- J. Pendergast-“The Boss”-rose to the height of ment with discrete legislative, executive, and his power following the adoption of the new judicial branches. This is deliberate, and is based on the assumption that running a city requires not charter.
[Show full text]
John Lazia Crime Figure 1896-1934
Missouri Valley Special Collections John Lazia Crime Figure 1896-1934 by Daniel Coleman Author William Reddig, in Tom’s Town, describes John Lazia as “one of the most successful and probably the most discussed citizen of Kansas City.” Along with Tom Pendergast and City Manager H. L. McElroy, Lazia completed the era’s triumvirate of power. Of the three, Lazia’s character was probably described most accurately by anti-Pendergast activist Rabbi Samuel Mayerberg when he admonished Kansas Citians for having placed their government in “the hands of crooks and racketeers.” He was born John Lazzio in 1896 to Italian immigrant parents living in the crowded section of Kansas City known as Little Italy—the north side neighborhood just east of the City Market. With no formal education past the eighth grade, Johnny Lazia, as he became known, might have pursued the career of peddler or laborer common to many of his peers. Instead, he applied his considerable intelligence to a more sinister calling, but one that promised quicker and greater returns. He was arrested as a juvenile for a variety of crimes, including petty theft and gambling, and at age 18, was sentenced to serve 12 years at the Missouri State Penitentiary for robbery. His release less than nine months later was made possible only by legal manipulations at high levels, indicating that Lazia had already made important connections with people who operated in the shadowy world between the criminal and civil. Lazia cultivated a persona of respectability throughout his 20s, marrying wife Marie in 1924, and solidifying a base of support in the north side.
[Show full text]
Alderman Jim Pendergast Lyle Wesley Dorsett
ALDERMAN JIM PENDERGAST A THESIS IN H1stot'y Pt'esented to the Faou1ty of the Univet'sity of Kansas City in pat'tiel fulfillment of the t'equirements of the degree of MASTER OF A~TS by LYLE WESLEY DORSETT B.A., University of Kansas City" 1960 -. ............ -- - Kansa-s' City; Missouri 1962 ABSTRACT James Pendergast came to Kansas City in 1876 from St. Joseph~ Missouri. After working for several years as a laborer, Pendergast entered the saloonkeeping business in the West Bottoms, the heart of Kansas City's industrial and commercial district. He became interested in local politics soon after coming to Kansas City. An extremely generous man, Pendergast, who was always helping the needy, became popular with the Irish, Italian and native American laborers who inhabited the West Bottoms. In 1892, the working class dwellers in the First Ward, which encompassed tbe West Bottoms, elected James Pendergast to tbe lower house of the dity council. Alderman Jim, as Pendergast became known, was re-elected eight times in succession to the lower house from the First Ward. Between his first election in 1892, and his retire ment from politics in 1919, Pendergast reigned supreme in the First Ward. His polltical power, however, transcended the boundaries of the First Ward which he represented in the city council. Alderman Jim's popularity and polltical adeptness helped him extend his po11t1cal machine from its base in the West Bottoms, lnto the North end. By the turn of the century, Jim Pendergast had 103623 eatablls.hed himself IS the boss of s large area of Kansas City.
[Show full text]
Myth of the Wide-Open Town Virgil W
Journal of Criminal Law and Criminology Volume 39 | Issue 3 Article 2 1948 Myth of the Wide-Open Town Virgil W. Peterson Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarlycommons.law.northwestern.edu/jclc Part of the Criminal Law Commons, Criminology Commons, and the Criminology and Criminal Justice Commons Recommended Citation Virgil W. Peterson, Myth of the Wide-Open Town, 39 J. Crim. L. & Criminology 288 (1948-1949) This Article is brought to you for free and open access by Northwestern University School of Law Scholarly Commons. It has been accepted for inclusion in Journal of Criminal Law and Criminology by an authorized editor of Northwestern University School of Law Scholarly Commons. THE MYTH OF THE WIDE-OPEN TOWN Virgil W. Peterson The following was delivered as an address by the author on June 30 in Miami be- fore the newly-organized Law Enforcement Institute of Dade County, Florida. Mr. Peterson is Operating Director of the Chicago Crime Commission. He is an Associate Editor of this JOURNAL. In our last volume he published two major articles: "Why Honest People Steal," in Number 2 (July-August, 1947) and "Facts and Fancies in Crime Prevention," in Number 5 (January-February, 1948).-EDITOR. Government consists of institutionalized social relations. And according to some of our most learned scholars on government, all social relations are "myth-born and myth-sustained." In the field of municipal government, a myth has been developed and sustained in many cities that a wide-open town policy is good for business; it increases wealth, prosperty and happiness; the gov- ernment that pursues the wide-open town policy is a good one and is deserving of public support.
[Show full text]