Title: Joseph Weeks Babcock Papers
Inclusive Dates: 1864-1922

Creator:

• Babcock, J.W. (Joseph Weeks), 1850-1909

Call Number: Wis Mss KP; PH 2595

Quantity: 1.7 cubic feet (4 archives boxes and 1 flat box) and 28 photographs (1 folder)

Repository:

Wisconsin Historical Society, Division of Library, Archives, and Museum Collections

Archival Locations:

Wisconsin Historical Society (Map)

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

Abstract:

Family papers of Joseph Babcock, a lumberman and politician of Necedah, Wisconsin, consisting of family correspondence to and from Babcock; Mary F., his wife; Charles Ebenezer, their son, also a prominent businessman of Necedah; and Eva F., Charles' wife. J.W. Babcock's correspondence also consists of letters to Richard Goodell, a Republican from Platteville, while Babcock served as the Republican U.S. Representative from Wisconsin's Third District. Topics focus on the help Babcock requested from Goodell while politics required him to stay in D.C. during his re-election campaign and Goodell's search for legal work after passing the bar exam. There are also reminiscences of the elder Babcock written by Barney, a volume containing data on Third District Republican conventions, and several ledgers and cash books pertaining to a real estate venture of Charles Babcock and Harry Barney. Photographs include portraits of family, friends, and associates of Babcock, circa 1880-1890.

Language: English

URL to cite for this finding aid: http://digital.library.wisc.edu/1711.dl/wiarchives.uw-whs-wis000kp

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Joseph Weeks Babcock, for fourteen years a Republican congressman from Wisconsin's Third District, was born in Swanton, Vermont, March 6, 1850. He was named in honor of his maternal grandfather, Joseph Weeks, a congressman from New Hampshire, and for many years was known by his forebear's last name. When Babcock was five years old his family moved to a farm in Butler County, Iowa. Not long after, they removed to Cedar Falls, Iowa, where the father operated a lumber business. After attending Mount Vernon College, Babcock worked in his father's business. In 1872 he entered the employ of the Ingram, Kennedy and Day Lumber Company of Dubuque. Six years later when the firm Weston, Burch & Co. purchased his father's company, Babcock returned to work for the firm in a junior capacity. He succeeded to such a degree that six years later he purchased an interest, changing the name of the firm to Burch and Babcock. In 1881 Burch and Babcock purchased the Necedah Lumber Company, and Babcock moved to that city to manage the firm. In subsequent years Babcock prospered, ultimately becoming one of Wisconsin's wealthiest men.

Babcock's political career began in 1888 when he was elected to the Wisconsin legislature. Four years later he was elected to Congress. In Washington he chaired the District of Columbia Committee and served on Ways and Means. From 1894 to 1904 he was chairman of the National Republican Congressional Campaign Committee. As such, he gained national prominence by successfully managing six consecutive national Republican campaigns. Babcock was also a political broker in Wisconsin, and in 1900 he was instrumental in securing the election of Robert M. La Follette Sr., as governor. Within two years, however, the two men had split over the issue of primary elections, and in 1906 La Follette's opposition was a key factor in Babcock's electoral defeat. Babcock died April 27, 1909.

Babcock married Mary A. Finch of Lyon, Iowa in 1867. She died of cancer in 1899. The couple had one son, Charles Ebenezer, and an adopted daughter, Amelia M. Reed.

Charles E. Babcock was born on November 11, 1868 in Cedar Falls, Iowa. He graduated from Oberlin College and the University of Michigan law school, although he never practiced. Instead, when his father went to Washington, Charles managed the Necedah Lumber Company. By the end of the century the firm had cut all of its timber, and Charles moved into other commercial operations in Necedah including real estate and banking. He married Eva Fuller in 1894. Charles Babcock died in an automobile accident in 1926.

Joseph Babcock achieved prominence in both national and Wisconsin politics, and the Babcock papers include both family and political correspondence. Included is correspondence between Joseph, Charles, Mary, and Eva Babcock, and provide an intimate view of Joseph Babcock as he grew from a youth of modest means into a nineteenth century man of great wealth and power. Charles Babcock, too, is revealed as a young man raised with the advantages that wealth offered. Most notable are letters written by Joseph while traveling for a lumber company in Iowa in the 1870s; letters from Babcock to Harry Barney, his secretary, during a trip to Europe in 1901; social correspondence relating to life in Washington, D.C.; and letters to and from Charles while a student at Oberlin College and the University of Michigan law school and later while traveling in Europe.

J.W. Babcock's correspondence also consists of letters to Richard Goodell, a Republican from Platteville, while Babcock served as the Republican U.S. Representative from Wisconsin's Third District. Topics focus on the help Babcock requested from Goodell while politics required him to stay in D.C. during his re-election campaign and Goodell's search for legal work after passing the bar exam. There are also reminiscences of the elder Babcock written by Barney, a volume containing data on Third District Republican conventions, and several ledgers and cash books pertaining to a real estate venture of Charles Babcock and Harry Barney.

Photographs include portraits of family, friends, and associates of Babcock, circa 1880-1890.

The Historical Society Library holds a microfilmed scrapbook of clippings about Joseph W. Babcock.

Acquisition Information

Presented by Eva Babcock, Necedah, Wisconsin, date unknown and 1939; Harry W. Barney, 1939; and Curtis Fuller, Evanston, Illinois, September 1, 1959 and May 8, 1963. The cashbook was added in 1989. Accession Number: M59-167, M63-83, M2015-019

Processing Information

Additions made and collection reprocessed by Carolyn J. Mattern, January 1984.

Wis Mss KP Box   1 Folder   1-6	Family correspondence, 1864-1916
Box   1 Folder   7	Third Congressional District record book, 1900-1906
Box   1 Folder   8	Biographical information
	Babcock-Barney financial papers
Box   2 Folder   1	Miscellaneous loose papers
Box   2 Folder   2-3	Cash books, 1896-1906
	Ledgers
Box   2 Folder   4	1896-1906
Box   3 Folder   1	1904-1906
	Unidentified ledger pages
Box   3 Folder   2	1878-1881
Box   3 Folder   3	1889-1894
Box   4	Charles E. Babcock cashbook, 1890-1922
Box   5 Folder   1-2	Political correspondence, 1898-1907
PH 2595	Photographs