Title: Horace J. Mellum Papers
Inclusive Dates: 1882-1961

Creator:

• Mellum, Horace J., 1876-

Call Number: Parkside Mss 13; PH Parkside Mss 13 (3); Parkside Tape 4; Audio 948A

Quantity: 0.6 cubic feet (2 archives boxes), 1 tape recording, and 0.1 cubic feet of photographs (1 oversize folder)

Repository:

Housed at the Archives & Area Research Center, Library/Learning Center, University of Wisconsin-Parkside; owned by the Wisconsin Historical Society, Division of Library, Archives, and Museum Collections

Archival Locations:

UW-Parkside Library / Parkside Area Research Ctr. (Map)

Wisconsin Historical Society (Map)

COLLECTION MAY BE STORED OFF-SITE: see catalog entry to request materials and for additional information.

Abstract:

Papers of Horace J. Mellum, secretary and general attorney of the Nash-Kelvinator Corporation, Kenosha, Wisconsin. Consisting primarily of correspondence, speeches, and autobiographical writings, the collection best documents Mellum's youth in Chicago, his military service, and his professional and civic activities. Also included is a tape-recorded 1961 interview about his life, a scrapbook commemorating his 75th birthday in 1951, and photographs from his career. The collection includes information on the Morgan Park Military Academy, Chicago, from which Mellum graduated in 1892 and whose alumni association he later headed; his service in the Santiago campaign in Cuba in 1898; organization of the Kenosha Provisional Battalion (First Separate Battalion, Wisconsin State Guard Reserve) which he served as Major, 1917-1920, and his subsequent years in the Wisconsin National Guard; activities on behalf of vocational rehabilitation including serving as president of the Wisconsin Association for the Disabled, 1926-1931; membership on the Wisconsin advisory committees on workmen's compensation and unemployment compensation, 1920-1951; and numerous speeches delivered for the National Association of Manufacturers, Kenosha organizations, and other groups.

Language: English

URL to cite for this finding aid: http://digital.library.wisc.edu/1711.dl/wiarchives.uw-whs-pks0013

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Horace Jay Mellum was born to Norwegian parents, Ole Halvar Mellum and Anna Louisa Aspaas Mellum. He attended Chicago public schools, Chicago Business College, Morgan Park Military Academy, and Northwestern Military Academy, Highland Park, Illinois. In 1895, Mellum enlisted in Company M, First Infantry, Illinois National Guard, where he served until 1908. This service sent him to Cuba in 1898 in the Santiago campaign.

Employed as a stenographer for the Griffin Wheel Company, Chicago, Mellum attended evening classes at the John Marshall Law School and received his LL.B. degree in 1910. He engaged in a general law practice until 1916 when he was hired as secretary of the Thomas B. Jeffery Company, a Kenosha, Wisconsin, auto manufacturer which evolved into Nash Motors and the Nash-Kelvinator Corporation. He remained with the company until his retirement at age 75 in January 1952.

During his years in Kenosha, Mellum was active in professional, military, and civic organizations. Affiliated with the Kenosha Boy Scouts, the Chamber of Commerce, and various Masonic orders, he resumed his military interest by helping organize and becoming the head of the Kenosha Provisional Battalion, 1917-1920, a unit formed to replace National Guard troops serving in World War I which performed guard and ceremonial duties and provided pre-enlistment training to soldiers. He remained in the National Guard until 1941 when he retired with the rank of colonel.

Mellum developed expertise in worker safety and vocational rehabilitation and from 1926 to 1931 was president of the Wisconsin Association for the Disabled, an organization devoted to aiding crippled children and disabled adults. From 1920 to 1951, he served on the state advisory committees on workmen's compensation and unemployment compensation and on his retirement was made an honorary life member of the latter by the Industrial Commission of Wisconsin. A member of the Automobile Manufacturers Association, he also served as vice president of the Wisconsin Manufacturers Association for several years. Mellum was a talented public speaker and presented many speeches on patriotic and automotive topics to Kenosha organizations and trade groups.

Married to Nellie Eleanor Miller, of Winterhur, Switzerland, on June 24, 1903, Mellum had one son, Horace J., Jr. After retirement, he returned to Chicago and became active in the Chicago Bar Association.

The Mellum Papers consist of correspondence, speeches, brief diary entries, autobiographical and other writings, and a tape-recorded interview. Organized into a file of general correspondence and other papers and into several subject files, the papers present a picture of a man of integrity and civic consciousness. However in many areas, the materials are rather fragmentary and ceremonial in nature. They best document Mellum's youth and his military activities.

The General Correspondence includes both business and personal correspondence and contains letters to his mother written while Mellum was in school and in Cuba, papers on the Morgan Park Military Academy Alumni Association, and many letters concerning civic appointments and speeches. A few speeches are filed here with related correspondence rather than in the Subject File. Other non-correspondence items include typed diary entries from his weeks in Cuba, conference and dinner programs, certificates, and report cards.

Acquisition Information

Presented by Horace J. Mellum, Chicago, Illinois, 1958-1961, and by John A. Conde, Detroit, Michigan, 1958. Accession Number: M-68, M-101, M60-195, M61-25, M61-46 (1, 2, 3)

Processing Information

Processed by Karen Baumann, February 4, 1984.

Parkside Mss 13 Box   1 Folder   1-3	General Correspondence and Other Papers, 1882-1961
	Subject File
Box   2 Folder   1	American Association of Motor Vehicles Administrators Dinner and Speech, 1950
Box   2 Folder   2	Autobiographical Summaries
Box   2 Folder   3	Autobiography: “The Centennial Kid”
Box   2 Folder   4	“Historical Highlights of Nash Motors,” 1946
Box   2 Folder   5	Kenosha Provisional Battalion, 1917-1920
Box   2 Folder   6	Retirement from Nash, 1952
Box   2 Folder   7	Speeches, 1923-1951
Box   2 Folder   8	Wisconsin Association for the Disabled, 1926-1950
Parkside Tape 4/Audio 948A	Tape-recorded interview with Mr. Mellum about his life, conducted May 19, 1961, by Bill Schereck of the Historical Society staff
PH Parkside Mss 13 (3)	Photographs from his career