George Lawson Sheldon papers

Collection

Identifier: CPRC-026

Staff Only

Scope and Content

The George Lawson Sheldon Collection features a variety of materials that Sheldon accumulated during his political career. Eight cubic feet of material makes up the collection. The collection has numerous copies of newspaper articles about Sheldon’s various political interests. Sheldon saved most of his political and party correspondence, and the collection houses the letters. Other letters and greeting cards constitute Sheldon’s correspondence with family and friends. A fair amount of this correspondence is between Sheldon and contacts from his home state, Nebraska, where he served as governor before moving to Mississippi. The collection contains Sheldon’s family bible and his poetry. Meeting minutes, party briefs, and resolutions make up most of Sheldon’s party materials in the collection. Sheldon’s political items include voting records for Mississippi Counties, advertising for local campaigns. Items related to presidential campaigns during Sheldon’s life include brochures advocating for and against candidates. Printed items come mostly from Sheldon’s political and party materials. The date range of the collection begins in 1928 and ends in 1961. The collection follows Sheldon’s political career from his post as Collector of Internal Revenue for Mississippi to his involvement within the Independent Republican Party. During Sheldon’s political career his most frequent correspondents are his aide Lamont Rowlands, E. M.C. Hawkins, and fellow member of the Independent Republican Party Charles Ulysses Gordon. Another important name in the collection is Perry Howard, the leader of the National Republican Party delegation in Mississippi. Sheldon and Howard engaged in a thirty-year dispute over which Republican party would represent Mississippi’s Republican delegation at the Republican National Convention. Because the material covers the entirety of the Great Depression from 1929 until it ended at the start of World War II, Sheldon has opinions on all of Franklin D. Roosevelt’s policies and elections.

Dates

1922 - 1961
Majority of material found within 1928 - 1960

Creator

Sheldon, George Lawson, Governor, 1870-1960 (Person)

Biographical

George Lawson Sheldon was born May 31, 1870 in Nebraska. He joined the Nebraska 3rd Volunteer Infantry, and was a veteran of the Spanish-American War. He attended Harvard, and graduated in the class of 1893. Sheldon served as the governor of Nebraska in the first half of his political career. Sheldon was a traditional Republican who believed in protecting small independent farmers (although not necessarily that every farmer had to be a small one). He favored minimal government interference in the daily lives of American citizens. Later, as the early twentieth century progressed, he came to distrust communism and those government foreign policies that he suspected of aiding foreigners at the expense of Americans. He moved to Mississippi and bought land in order to settle into large-scale farming life. As a popular Republican landowner, Sheldon served in various political offices in Mississippi. His tenure as a member of the Mississippi House of Representatives from 1920 until 1924 predates the collection. The collection begins in 1928, just before Sheldon took the position of Collector of Internal Revenue for Mississippi. He held the post from 1930 until 1933. Sheldon made unsuccessful bids for the governorship of Mississippi and both the Mississippi and United States senates. Though Sheldon did not become the governor of Mississippi, he was widely known as former Nebraska governor. It should be noted that people who wrote to Sheldon while he lived and worked in Mississippi often addressed him as “governor” even though that was not his official title. Sheldon supported Hoover’s candidacy, and despised Franklin D. Roosevelt. Sheldon lived through the political transitions that the Democrats and Republicans faced in the south from the 1930s until the 1960s; moreover, he actively participated in them. When he retired from political office, he kept busy by serving as the secretary for the Independent Republican party. Sheldon played an integral role in the formation of the Independent Republicans, and actively served in the party administration until his death. The Independent Republicans considered him their founder. Sheldon died at the age of eighty-nine on April 4, 1960.

Extent

8.0 Cubic Feet

Language of Materials

English

Additional Description

Series Arrangement

The George Lawson Sheldon Collection is stored in eight boxes. The collection is further subdivided into eight series: printed election materials, news clippings, printed party materials, party correspondence, election materials (mostly local, not to be confused with party material), the Perry Howard case, office correspondence, and personal items. Within each series, materials are arranged chronologically from 1928 until 1961. The printed election materials are mostly brochures for presidential elections, explanations of candidate policies, and refutations of candidates. The newspaper clippings vary widely, but most focus on political issues. They also contain announcements of calls to county and state Republican conventions for both the Independent “Lily White” Republicans and National “Black and Tan” Republicans. The Perry Howard case appears frequently, as do commentaries on the actions of Franklin D. Roosevelt during his presidency. The printed party materials are comprised of brochures regarding the Independent and National Republican parties. The general party correspondence is mostly made up of letters from Sheldon’s constituents and communication between members of the Independent Republican party. Calls to conventions form a large part of this series. The local election materials are primarily postal advertisements for elections. Local election materials also include the voting tallies by county within Mississippi. The Perry Howard series includes important mentions of Perry Howard within other correspondence, as well as briefs of the legal case in which he was involved. The sixth series contains most of the correspondence that Sheldon received in the course of his duties as Mississippi politician. This consists mostly of requests for jobs and attached recommendations. Sheldon’s personal items make up the seventh series. This is primarily his personal correspondence with his family and friends, greeting cards, poetry, and the family bible.