Title: John Goadby Gregory Papers
Inclusive Dates: 1846-1946

Creator:

• Gregory, John Goadby, 1856-1947

Call Number: Milwaukee Mss 94; PH 6648

Quantity: 1.6 c.f. (4 archives boxes) and 1 photograph (1 folder)

Repository:

Housed at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee Libraries’ Archives Department / Milwaukee Area Research Center; owned by the Wisconsin Historical Society, Division of Library, Archives, and Museum Collections

Archival Locations:

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

UW-Milwaukee Libraries, Archives / Milwaukee Area Research Ctr. (Map)

Abstract:

Papers of John Goadby Gregory, a Milwaukee journalist, editor, Republican politician, and local historian. The majority of the papers consist of incoming correspondence, mainly to Gregory, with a few drafts of replies. Letters in the 1850s to Gregory's father, a Milwaukee pioneer and promoter, discuss prospects of the fur trade, Wisconsin land speculations, and proposals to encourage planned immigration to the area from England and Scotland. Letters addressed to William E. Cramer, founder and publisher of the Milwaukee Evening Wisconsin, during the latter half of the nineteenth century, and letters in 1898 to journalist Alexander Thomson discuss political topics. The collection also includes some correspondence of Mrs. Cramer with Mrs. Lydia Ely, Gaetano Trentanove, and other artists and sculptors.

Language: English

URL to cite for this finding aid: https://digital.library.wisc.edu/1711.dl/wiarchives.uw-whs-mil00094

John Goadby Gregory, journalist and historian, was born in Milwaukee July 11, 1856, and spent his entire life there, dying on April 12, 1947. His father, John Gregory, of Irish birth, had come to the United States as secretary of the Irish National Emigration Society and in 1849 settled in Milwaukee. There he published in 1853 a small volume, Industrial Resources of Wisconsin, which was widely circulated and undoubtedly an influence in directing settlement to the Wisconsin region.

Young Gregory attended the Milwaukee city public schools but obtained most of his education through carefully directed instruction at home and the use of the large collection of books in his parents' library. In 1871, at the age of fifteen, he started work in a printing office and throughout the remainder of his long life was connected with printing, publishing, and writing. He worked as a printer, 1871-1878, was editor and leading editorial writer for Milwaukee newspapers beginning in 1880, editor-in-chief of the Milwaukee Evening Wisconsin, 1905-1918, and in later years was author and editor of a number of historical articles and books.

The Milwaukee Evening Wisconsin, with which Gregory was associated for about forty years, was one of the city's leading newspapers. In 1848 William E. Cramer had founded the newspaper and, although he lost both hearing and sight in his last years, he continued as editor until his death in 1905. For about the last twenty years of his life he spent weeks at a time at nearby Pewaukee. From there he wrote frequently to Gregory, outlining newspaper policy, sending editorials which Gregory checked or completed before publishing, and commenting generally on newspaper affairs and public events. After Cramer's death the newspaper was continued until 1918 by his widow, Mrs. Harriet L. Cramer, a well-known Milwaukee philanthropist and art patron, with Gregory as editor, a position he had virtually filled since 1889.

The Gregory correspondence reflected the multifarious happenings in a period of rapid expansion in the history of the United States. As a newspaperman, Gregory was in close contact with developments. But he was far more than a passive recipient of information. A man of varied interests, a native Milwaukeean, a congenial companion, a popular speaker, a “joiner,” a poet, journalist and historian, a politician with more than local influence, a Unitarian who served for years as trustee of Marquette University, Gregory took an active part in the life of his city and state, a participation that is faithfully mirrored in his correspondence.

In 1918 the Evening Wisconsin was sold to the Hearst interests and Gregory's long connection with newspaper work ended. For a year he was professor of journalism at Marquette University. In 1919 he was appointed secretary of the War History Commission in Madison, working with the State Historical Society in collecting and editing records of World War I for publication. In 1925 the position was discontinued and Gregory undertook the preparation of a biography of former governor Emanuel Philipp. Next he turned his hand to writing and editing a series of local and regional histories for commercial publication: History of Milwaukee (four volumes, 1931); Southeastern Wisconsin (four volumes, 1932); Southwestern Wisconsin (four volumes, 1932); and West Central Wisconsin (four volumes, 1933).

The collection consists largely of incoming letters but there are occasional drafts of replies. Besides Gregory's own correspondence there are small groups of papers of three other persons: some early letters addressed to the elder Gregory in the 1850s; scattered political letters written to William E. Cramer; and, mainly around the year 1898, a number of letters to Alexander M. Thomson, a fellow journalist who was preparing a political history of Wisconsin but died before the volume was completed. All these letters have been filed in one chronological sequence. (See the partial index in the appendix to this finding aid.) However, because of their fragile condition and the fact that many of them are not dated, one group of letters written to Gregory have been placed in separate folders--those written by William Cramer and Harriet Cramer, together with a few pieces of Cramer family correspondence.

The incoming correspondence contains a quantity of letters from prominent Milwaukeeans: social notes, requests for publication of items, appreciations of newspaper notices. It is impossible to list all of these writers; their letters were, for the most part, of only passing importance. Correspondence with fellow club members is more numerous. Gregory was a member of the Milwaukee Typographical Union, the Milwaukee Press Club, the Old Settlers Club, the City Club, the Phantom Club, the Sunset Club, the Parkman Club, the Wisconsin Academy of Arts and Science, the Wisconsin Archeological Society, and the State Historical Society, and held offices in many of these organizations. His papers contain invitations, programs, brochures, and correspondence on social affairs, dedications, reunions, club meetings, conventions, and promotional work connected with these and various other social, professional, and cultural organizations.

Among the fellow club members who corresponded with Gregory were sons or close relatives of several men who had been prominent in the history of Wisconsin: S.M. Booth of Chicago, Paul D. Carpenter of a Milwaukee law firm, George H. Paul writing from various places, and George R. Peck of Chicago. There are several letters from two Americans in foreign service: Francis B. Keene of Geneva, Switzerland, and Rome, and Walter E. Gardner of Rotterdam, Netherlands. Neal Brown of Wausau, a member of the Phantom Club, expressed his views on newspaper items in two or three letters and Eugene W. Chafin, national candidate for President on the Prohibition ticket, wrote two or three brief notes.

Mrs. Cramer's patronage of the arts was no doubt instrumental in turning the attention of the Evening Sentinel to the encouragement of the study and production of art in Milwaukee. A number of artists and sculptors who produced paintings, water colors, and statuary around the turn of the century are represented in the Gregory correspondence. Mrs. Lydia Ely, remembered chiefly for her water colors, consulted with Gregory on publicity and patronage. Gaetano Trentanove, the Italian sculptor who made the statue of Father Marquette for Statuary Hall in Washington, D.C., and of other figures of historic Americans, corresponded with Gregory over a period of fifteen years, writing from his studio in Florence, Italy, and from various American cities.

From his early youth Gregory was interested in writing. In 1892 he published a slender volume of verse, A Beauty of Thebes, and throughout his life he continued to compose verses for special occasions. As newspaper editor and writer, Gregory was besieged by aspiring writers of poetry and prose seeking advice and assistance in perfecting and publishing their productions. The collection contains a few of such offerings and their accompanying letters as well as some from more competent writers, such as Bernard I. Durward. In 1895 Gregory helped found the Parkman Club, an organization devoted to research and writing on the history of the Old Northwest. His correspondence contains letters from a number of fellow members regarding their studies and publications. Among them are about a dozen from the Chicago collector and bibliophile, John Thomas Lee. An equal number, written at long intervals between 1893 and 1923, are from the popular Milwaukee novelist, General Charles King.

Throughout the entire collection there are letters from newspapermen, some of whom remained journalists and publishers all of their lives, others who branched out into allied fields. Among these writers are Zona Gale of Portage, Amos P. Wilder of Madison, John G. Pyle and Harlan P. Hall of St. Paul, Minnesota, and Frank Flower who produced promotional literature from Superior and a number of other cities. There are also letters from Peter van Vechten and his son of the same name, mainly on historical subjects, and William F. Hooker, the popular “Bill Hooker” of twentieth-century Milwaukee. Between the years 1941 and 1946, Chase S. Osborn and his adopted daughter and secretary, Stellanova, wrote some forty brief letters to Mrs. Gregory whom Osborn had known when they were both newspaper writers in Milwaukee fifty years earlier.

Although Gregory never held political office, he was deeply interested in political activities and attended a number of national party conventions. In his youth he was a Democrat (His first wife, Caroline Strong Paul who died in 1891, was a sister of George H. Paul, a leading Wisconsin Democrat.), but the newspaper Gregory edited was a stronghold of Stalwart Republican principles and in the 1890s he became a Republican. For ten years, beginning in 1894, he was a member of the Republican County Committee, representing the First Ward of the city. His papers for those years in particular, but running through most of the collection, deal with party politics: local campaigns and patronage, contributions, speeches, selection of delegates, issues, and personalities.

There are letters from a number of political leaders of state and national prominence, many of them addressed to Gregory himself, but also a number written to William E. Cramer and to Alexander M. Thomson whose Political History of Wisconsin was published posthumously in 1898.

Among the letters from political leaders are occasional ones from members of the House of Representatives: Victor Berger, John J. Esch, John Jenkins, John Fox Potter, S.S. Barney, and Joseph W. Babcock, and more numerous ones from Theodore Otjen and William H. Stafford of Milwaukee. At least five Wisconsin governors appear in the collection: C.C. Washburn, William R. Taylor, William D. Hoard, Francis E. McGovern, and George W. Peck, and the Democratic New York governor, Horatio Seymour of Utica. There is a letter to Cramer from each of the following United States Senators: Matthew H. Carpenter, Timothy O. Howe, and John Sherman, and about a dozen to Gregory between the years 1894 and 1906 from John C. Spooner.

There are several letters discussing anti-La Follette measures written by various Stalwart leaders; those from William D. Connor of Marshfield in the election years 1906 and 1908 and fairly numerous. In the early years of World War I, L.T. Crabtree of Crandon and Reinhardt Rahr of Manitowoc wrote presenting their views of the state political situation and the war.

His papers contain but slight material on his work after leaving the newspaper business. The rough draft of his unpublished Philipp biography is in the collection. There is also occasional correspondence with local writers in various sections of southern Wisconsin dealing with their preparation of material for the historical volumes he was compiling or editing, and some correspondence with the publishers, S.J. Clarke Company of Chicago.

Four bound volumes which are included in the Gregory papers are described in the contents list below.

The photograph is of members of the Milwaukee County Historical Society taken on August 30, 1940.

Acquisition Information

Purchased, A12884, A12885, December 9 and 31, 1954.

Milwaukee Mss 94	Correspondence
Box   1-2	Chronological correspondence, 1846, 1853-1946, undated
Box   3 Folder   1-2	With William E. and Harriet Cramer, 1892-1906
Box   3 Folder   3	Miscellaneous Materials including Biographical Notes, Speeches, and Articles, undated
Box   3-4	Notes and materials used in preparation of the biography of Emanuel Philipp
Box   4 Volume   1	Ladies' Association for the Relief of Soldiers' Families, constitution and minutes, 1863-1864
	Wisconsin Soldiers' Home
Box   4 Volume   2	By-laws and minutes, 1865-1867
Box   4 Volume   3	Brief history of the Home; and two speeches memorializing Mrs. John Plankinton and Mrs. Henrietta Caroline Rogers Cleaver Note: The author of these speeches is unknown.
Box   4 Volume   4	Notebook
PH 6648 Folder   1	Photograph of Milwaukee County Historical Society members, August 1940

Correspondent	Date(s)
Abbot, Edwin H.	1889 January 1
Barney, Samuel S.	1899 April 3
	1902 March 18
Berger, Victor L.	1926 May 27
	1928 May 1
Booth, S.M.	1897 March 15
	1897 March 17
	1904 August 16
	1905 January 30
Borwn, Neal	1913 November 19
	1915 May 28
	1916 February 14
Brown, Olympia	1910 October 28
Carpenter, Matthew H.	1872 June 11
Chafin, Eugene W.	1911 May 24
	1915 February 20
	1915 May 15
Connor, W.D.	1906 May 24
	1906 May 25
	1906 September 10
	1908 March 26
	1908 August 11
Crabtree, L.T.	1914 June 15
	1916 September 27
	1919 January 5
Durward, Bernard I.	1890 October 14
	1890 December 16
	1892 June 19
	1892 July 22
	1892 November 11
Ely, Lydia	1889 June 10
	1890 February 5
	1892 February 1
	1895 July 17
	1895 September 3
	1910 July 16
	1914 January 20
Esch, John G.	1895 February 27
	1896 June 3
Flower, Frank A.	1893 July 31
	1893 August 7
	1893 October 4
	1895 January 26
	1895 May 15
	1895 May 23
	1895 August 31
	1895 September 13
Gale, Zona	1895 June 28
	1916 June 30
Gardner, Walter E.	1890 February 23
	1890 October 11
Hall, Harlan Page	1897
Hoard, William Dempster	1897 December 29
	1898 April 1
Hooker, William F.	1917 February 5
	1924 February 8
	1924 April 2
	1924 April 10
Howe, Timothy O.	1872 December 23
Hunter, A.G.	1880 February 10-March 24
Keene, Francis B.	1906 January 20
	1906 April 20
	1930 February 6
King, Charles	1893 May 19
	1894 August 21
	1903 September 7
	1908 June 3
	1911 January 11
	1914 July 29
	1916 April 3
	1916 December 15
	1917 February 25
	1919 October 14
	1920 September 9
	1923 November 21
	no date
Lapham, Julia A.	1897 February 18
Lee, John Thomas	1910 February 23
	1923 May 31
	1923 June 9
	1923 June 13
	1925 August 27
	1927 August 15
	1927 December 10
	1928 March 14
	1929 May 28
	1929 June 5
	1929 July 22
	1929 July 27
	1932 March 22
Lusk, Grace	1918 March 14
Lyon, William P.	1898 May 11
Otjen, Theobold	1896 February 8
	1896 February 17
	1896 April 27
	1897 May 20
	1898 February 1
	1898 April 8
	1898 November 26
	1900 March 8
	1902 March 12
	1903 February 16
	1903 April 4
	1904 March 18
	1906 February 2
Park, R.H.	1885 May 13
Paul, George H.	1885 February 5
	1901 May 24
Payne, H.C.	1902 January 17
Peck, George W.	1893 September 13
	1904 March 23
Potter, John Fox	1898?
Rahr, Reinhardt	1914 November 9
	1914 November 20
	1914 December 2
	1914 December 12
Seymour, Horatio	1874 December 30
	1883 October 29
Sherman, John	1888 April 23
Spooner, John C.	1894 November 8
	1894 December 4
	1895 March 2
	1896 May 23
	1896 June 9
	1897 May 29
	1897 June 14
	1899 February 25
	1899 February 27
	1903 March 19
	1906 June 14
Stafford, William H.	1902 September 13
	1907 September 26
	1910 July 28
Taylor, William R.	1897 June 10
	1897 June 25
	1897 October 30
Trentanove, Gaetano	1893 September 24
	1893 October 19
	1893 December 11
	1894 January 26-June 26
	1895 January 28-July 18
	1899 March 27
	1907 January 8
	1908 April 4-September 7
Van Vechten, Peter	1898 February 20
	1899 March 30
	1907 January 31
	1907 November 16
	1908 February 15
	1910 March 4
Von Bergen, Hattie	1893 November 23
	1894 March 29
	1903 October 21
Washburn, C.C.	1874 September 18
Wilder, Amos P.	1895 January 24
	1895 February 21
	1895 September 11
	1896 July 17