Melvin A. Hildreth Papers

Collection

Identifier: Mss 654

Staff Only

Scope and Contents

The Hildreth collection consists of correspondence, attorney dockets, case files, financial records, and various subject files. The bulk of the Correspondence Series is the letterpress collection of outgoing correspondence from 1893 to 1909 which is quite complete. This collection fully documents Mr. Hildreth's career for this time period. Almost all is typed thus facilitating reading. Only two folders of incoming correspondence, 1894, 1896, and 1923, to 1926, have been preserved and are very scattered. The State Bar Association of North Dakota correspondence includes both incoming and outgoing letters from 1932 to 1935 and is very complete. It deals mainly with the membership problems of the American Bar Association in North Dakota including its delinquent members and the national headquarters. The remainder of the correspondence, which is very complete, consists of Mr. Hildreth's official correspondence while serving as president of the State Bar Association of North Dakota from 1935 -1936. The attorney docket ledgers basically cover most Mr. Hildreth's career from 1884 to 1943 although there is overlapping of years. Most of the volumes include an index to the cases with all actions taken listed for each case. Another major series is the Court Case Papers Series. The major case papers include those of Katherine Rotenburg vs. Arthur Fisher, and Mr. and Mrs. Fisher (1926-1927) for which Mr. Hildreth represented the defendants; Myron R. Kent, whom he defended (1894), and the Movius Land and Loan Company, et. al. of Lidgerwood, North Dakota (1925-1927), whom he also defended. The papers of each case have been organized alphabetically by type of document and all are quite complete. Other cases include the transcripts for Henry von Bank (1918), Kate Richards O'Hare (1917), and A.D. Weeks, et. al. vs. Charles Hetland and City of Fargo (1924). The financial ledgers cover only the years 1891 to 1893 and 1904 to 1910. They are mainly business related although some do contain personal expenses. The Subject Files Series, arranged alphabetically, cover many aspects of Mr. Hildreth's career. It includes pamphlets on the 1924 Davis-Bryan presidential campaign, prohibition and other miscellaneous topics including a copy of Townleyism Unmasked. There are six law notebooks of his son Melvin from while attending Columbia University from 1914 to 1916. The scrapbooks, composed of newspaper clippings and some pamphlets, deal primarily with political topics mainly national, New York and the Democratic Party. Other topics include North Dakota, especially early statehood, women's suffrage, and death of former President Ulysses S. Grant, and legal articles. Several of the scrapbooks have indexes. The newspaper clippings, arranged by subject, are not very extensive. There are also several of Mr. Hildreth's speeches and various State Bar Association of North Dakota publications.

Dates

1884-1937.

Creator

Hildreth, Melvin A., 1859-1944. (Person)

Access

The collection is open under the rules and regulations of the Institute.

Copyrights

The Institute does not own the copyrights.

Biography

Melvin A. Hildreth was born in Watertown, New York on October 27, 1859, the son of Curtis L. and Sara Ann (Luther) Hildreth. Educated in the public schools and Whitestown Seminary, he was certified as a teacher. He studied law in the office of Mullen and Griffen at Watertown and was admitted to the bar in 1883. Mr. Hildreth moved to Fargo, North Dakota in 1888 and in 1889 was married to Luella Davis of Booneville, New York. Melvin Hildreth served in the Spanish-American War in which he was judge advocate of the First Manila Command, Philippines. Active in the National Guard, he was appointed inspector general of the North Dakota unit from 1905 to 1908. He was city attorney of Fargo from 1892 to 1894 and again 1902 to 1904, and from 1914 to 1923 was a U.S. District Attorney. Mr. Hildreth was president of the trustees of the State Hospital at Jamestown for six years. He maintained an active law office in Fargo until 1943. He died January 13, 1944 in Fargo and was buried at Arlington National Cemetery. Mrs. Hildreth died June 13, 1937. Mr. and Mrs. Hildreth were the parents of two children, Mildred and Melvin D. Hildreth. Mr. Hildreth was one of the founders of the North Dakota Democratic Party in 1889, and twice ran for a congressional seat. He gave the seconding speech in 1908 for William Jennings Bryan at the Democratic National Convention. Mr. Hildreth was a member of the Episcopal Church, a Master Mason, National Rifle Association, state and national bars, and a life member of the Spanish-American War Veterans. Mr. Hildreth gained a reputation throughout the state for his courtroom presentations. One of his more wellknown cases was the prosecution of Kate Richards O'Hare in a war-time espionage case.