Walter J. Maddock Papers

Collection

Identifier: Mss 68

Staff Only

Scope and Content

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.

Dates

1899-1929.

Creator

Maddock, Walter J., 1880-1951. (Person)

Access

The collection is open under the rules and regulations of the NDSU Archives.

Copyrights

Copyrights to this collection remain with NDSU Archives.

Biographical sketch

State legislator and governor of North Dakota (1928-1929), of Grand Forks, N.D.

Biography

Walter J. Maddock was born near Northwood, N.D. on September 13, 1880, the son of Patrick and Ellen (Dore) Maddock. His parents were early settlers in the area and farmed in Washington Township. They had 12 children of whom Walter was the eldest. He grew up on the family farm and attended the Northwestern Business College. He farmed at Northwood, Berthold and in 1908 moved to Plaza, N.D. On October 30, 1906 he married Marguerite Tierney of Grand Forks, and they raised five children, Wallace J., Jerome, Dore P. V., Bernard, and Marguerite.

Walter Maddock was active in various farmer cooperative organizations. He also served on the board of the Farmers Union grain Terminal Association for ten years. In 1914 he was elected to the North Dakota House of Representatives and served in the 1915 through 1923 sessions, a member of the Nonpartisan League. In 1924 and 1926 he was elected lieutenant governor of North Dakota. With the death of Gov. Arthur Sorlie in August 1928, Maddock became governor and served the remained of his term. He was defeated in the 1928 election for the office. He returned to the family farm at Plaza.

In 1933 he was appointed senior administrative officer of the regional Agricultural Adjustment Administration, and in 1937 he headed the newly established federal Farm Security Administration (becoming the Farmers Home Administration in 1946), living in Bismarck, N.D. Walter J. Maddock died January 25, 1951. Mrs. Maddock died in March 1947.