Information Sheet

 

R         Whitledge, Thomas Benson, 1844‑1917.

276                  Papers, 1874‑1916.

                                    Twenty-two folders.

 

THIS COLLECTION IS IN OFF-SITE STORAGE. AT LEAST TWO DAYS' ADVANCE NOTICE IS REQUIRED FOR ITS USE BY RESEARCHERS.

 

These are letters to Thomas B. Whitledge, an attorney and politician in St. Marys, Ste. Ge­ne­vieve County, Missouri.  Correspondents include Edward A. Rozier, Benjamin B. Cahoon, and Richard C. Kerens.  Subjects include levee districts, railroads, oil exploration, and the Repub­li­can Party.  Topics in the latter category include patronage, religious toleration, and the Taft/Roosevelt split of 1912.

Thomas Benson Whitledge was born on 1 June 1844 in Pike County, Missouri.  His father, for whom Whitledge was named, had died about three weeks previous, and Whitledge was raised by his widowed mother and elder brothers and sisters.  As a young man he made an overland jour­ney to California, but he returned to Missouri to become a steamboat clerk on the Mississippi River.  On 26 January 1875 he married Sarah Fairchild Gilbert of Cairo, Illinois. They estab­lished residence in St. Marys, Ste. Genevieve County, Missouri, which had been founded by Sarah’s fa­ther, Miles F. Gilbert.  She died on 28 December 1905, and Whitledge never re­mar­ried.  He died at Hot Springs, Arkansas, on 17 May 1917, and is buried beside his wife in St. Marys.

While working on the river Whitledge studied law, and was admitted to the Missouri Bar in 1880.  He built a successful practice and became active in the Republican Party, running unsuc­cessfully for the U.S. House of Representatives in 1892.  He was elected to the Missouri Senate in 1910 and was re‑elected in 1914.  A political conservative, he supported the renomi­nation of Wil­liam Howard Taft in 1912.

The Whitledge papers deal mostly with his legal and political careers.  There is also some family correspondence, largely from his elder brother, Ralph J. Whitledge, a former river boat pi­lot and captain who was on the St. Louis, Missouri, Harbor and Wharf Commission and was a Super­visor for the U.S. Steam‑Vessel Inspection Service, and his in‑laws, the Gil­berts of Cairo, Illinois.

The papers which deal with Whitledge’s law practice are for the most part routine, although they do concern themselves with such topics as levee districts (particularly Perry County, Mis­souri, Levee District No. 1), railroads (especially the Saline Valley Railroad Company, the St. Louis­-San Francisco Railway, and the Southern Missouri Railroad Company), and pe­troleum ex­plora­tion in Ste. Genevieve County.

Whitledge’s political papers will doubtless be of the most interest to researchers.  They deal with Republican Party patronage, strategy, and ideology, particularly in the city of St. Louis, Ste. Genevieve County, and sur­rounding areas.  Whitledge seemed to have consider­able influence in party affairs, and was a voice for moderation, accommodation, and toleration.  His correspon­dence from U.S. District Attorney Edward A. Rozier, B. B. Cahoon, and Rich­ard C. Kerens is particu­larly instructive in this area.

Prominent correspondents, and other names mentioned in the Whitledge papers, in­clude John L. Bogy, Samuel Bond, Benjamin Benson Cahoon, Archibald H. Cashion, Politte Elvins, Chauncy I. Filley, James D. Fox, Herbert S. Hadley, Henry Clay Horner, Louis Houck, Richard C. Kerens, Charles A. Killian, Joseph McCoy, Thomas K. Niedringhaus, John V. Noell, Joseph C. Pratt, John H. Reppy, Edward Amable Rozier, J. W. Scanlan, M. R. Smith, Ralph E. Sprigg, George Steel, and Moses Whybark.

The Whitledge papers consist almost entirely of letters addressed to Thomas B. Whitledge; copies of his outgoing correspondence are rare.  The letters are filed in chrono­logical order.

 

 

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