Message to the Legislature, 1929

File — Box: 1, Folder: 4

Staff Only

Scope and Content

From the Collection: The Walter J. Maddock Papers contain a variety of items related to his life, although political items are few. The collection has been organized by the type of document in one alphabetical sequence. The primary items are the diary kept at the Red Rose farm near Northwood and a scrapbook from the 1890s and early 1900s.

In the Cards folder contains Mr. Maddock’s draft registration card (1918), campaign cards, a school souvenir card where he taught, and a card from a Nonpartisan League banquet given in 1917 at Bismarck, N.D. in honor of A.C. Townley.

There are certificates of his graduation from school in 1899, a 1904 teacher contract in Grand Forks County, and his 1920 certificate of election to the North Dakota House of Representatives. Placed in oversize collection Mss 1596.13 is his 1926 certificate of election as Lieutenant Governor and the 1951 North Dakota Senate Memorial Resolution.

One of the few politically related items is a copy of Gov. Maddock’s message to the North Dakota Legislature in 1929. Among other topics he mentions the death of Gov. A.G. Sorlie, recommends former Senator Edwin Ladd for Statuary Hall in the United States Capitol, highway development, Missouri River diversion project, Bank of North Dakota, and the farm problem.

The Red Rose Farm diary, a bound ledger, has inscribed in the front that was kept by W.J. Maddock, beginning July 18, 1903. For most days there are short entries, written in the first person, on the activities of family members on the farm near Northwood, N.D. The diary entries run rather consistently to April 22, 1907. There is then a break, both in terms of empty pages and time, until resumes entries on July 1,1912 after he had moved to near Plaza, Mountrail County, N.D. to farm. These entries primarily document the activities on the farm, especially the work done by the children. These entries end in December of 1912. Again there is a short break and additional entries begin May 1, 1913 and run to January 1914. On the last page is land rental agreement between W.J. Maddock and S.H. Cook, dated December 17, 1903. The agreement relates to a three-year lease of farmland by Maddock, located near Berthold in Ward County, N.D.

The scrapbook appears to have been compiled by Walter Maddock in the late 1890s and early 1900s and contains local newspaper clippings, play programs in which he as a cast member, wedding, dance and organization invitations, calling cards, and a few items of poetry and writing. There are also copies of what appear to be student newspapers, one called The College Gazette of Grand Forks (1901), and The Boomerrang (no date). There is also an issue of The Marilog (Vol. 1, no. 1) issued in Bismarck, N.D. on Sept. 28, 1934. All of these issues are mimeograph copies. Finally there is a notarized document of March 5, 1908 by O.T. Peterson, M.D. stating that Jeremiah Dore died on Nov. 8, 1905.