Manuscripts Collection
Herbert E. Wheaton was born in Janesville, Minnesota on July 14, 1871, the son of
Hudson and Fannie E. (Boehm) Wheaton. He graduated from the Wisconsin State Normal
School at LaCrosse, following which he worked in the Hokah public school as a
teacher (1898-1910) and principal (1910-1912). In 1912 he became editor and
publisher of the
Wheaton also served as mayor of Hokah (1938-1940), represented the first district in the Minnesota House of Representatives (1940-1941), and was active in newspaper associations and in the Republican Party.
He married Louisa E. Wiegand [Allie Snure] (d. 1925) in 1898, her sister Matilda E. Snure [Tillie] in 1928, and Sophie Kaemerling Arnold in 1934. Wheaton died in Caledonia on July 27, 1954, and was survived by his wife Sophie, a son (Herbert H., Fresno, California), and three daughters (Gladys Ahrens, Cleveland; Marilouise Jackson, Birmingham, Michigan; and Dorothy Tinsley, Arlington, Texas).
Papers include correspondence, newspaper opinion pieces and other articles (1931-1954), poems submitted to the newspaper (undated, 1942, 1949), a diary 1894-1896) of Wheaton's father Hudson, and a Hokah public school principal's pupil record (1906, 1910). The collection also includes family correspondence and related materials, printed materials, and correspondence and papers from various businesses and from his teaching career that were all originally filed with the Herschel V. Jones and family papers.
Microfilmed holdings of the
Accession number: 7166; 16,323
Processing and cataloging of this collection was supported with a Basic Project
grant awarded by the National Historical Publications and Records Commission
Catalog ID number: 001737420
Obituaries of Wheaton, and biographical sketches of him and his father from various published sources, supplemented by typed extracts of information from the Minnesota state census (1885, 1895).
The series of correspondence documents Wheaton's succesive careers as teacher, insurance agent, and country newspaper owner and editor, as well as his Republican Party activities and his relationships with his children.
The undated materials include the constitution of the Houston County Press
Club, a petition for rural free mail delivery to Hokah, a letter from
Republican legislator Roy E. Dunn on political matters, and a pamphlet
entitled
The 1888-1898 materials largely document Wheaton's teaching career and include credentialing certificates (1888-1894) and letters of recommendation. There are also a few press-related items, an Odd Fellows certificate (1896-1898), and a First District Republican Convention (1896) badge. The 1915-1921 papers are largely concerned with his local insurance agency.
Materials from the 1930s through 1946 consist largely of letters commenting
on articles and poems appearing in the paper, commentary on local and state
political matters and other current events (especially in Hokah and
LaCrosse), and business and accounting matters regarding the newspaper.
Included are a letter (April 7, 1931) upon the 75th anniversary of the
The later correspondence continues the themes from the earlier period including a fair number of letters concerning the 1948 elections. As was the case in the political letters from the previous decade, the postwar correspondence reveals opinions of the Republican Party's conservative wing within the state and national party organizations, with particularly bitter feelings against Harold Stassen and his supporters. A letter (November 7, 1951) from Robert Taft thanks Wheaton for supporting his potential presidential campaign. Several leaflets express antisemitic or isolationist sentiments.
Typescript articles written by Wheaton, presumably for the
Articles on local, national, and world political affairs, many of them from
the
The diary (December 20, 1894-April 1, 1896), kept by Wheaton's father,
contains brief entries concerning the weather; family events; holiday
celebrations; social activities including meetings of the Grand Army of the
Republic, the Women's Relief Corps, and the Odd Fellows lodge; lectures and
dramatic presentations; Knute Nelson's election to the U.S. Senate (January
23, 1895); his sons' ownership of the
The last two pages in the volume contain very brief entries for 1909-1915 by an unknown diarist.
Very brief records kept by two departing principals of the Hokah common school, in order to provide an adequate record for their successors with regard to promotional recommendations for individual students and similar matters.
Includes Darn EZ Laboratories and Wheaton Laboratories materials.
Includes poems by Henry Peck, another name used by H. E. Wheaton.
Includes correspondence concerning Wheaton's wife Matilda, who was a resident of a state hospital for the insane in 1929.
Includes letters from Matilda Wheaton written in 1947 from a hospital in Rochester.