Title: Hazel Lee Davies Papers
Inclusive Dates: 1895-1976

Creator:

• Davies, Hazel Lee, 1890-1980

Call Number: Mss 363; PH Mss 363; Micro 883

Quantity: 1.0 cubic feet (3 archives boxes), 2.2 cubic feet of photographs (1 archives box, 1 card file box, and 4 flat boxes), 2.9 cubic feet of negatives (7 negative boxes and 1 folder), and 1 reel of microfilm (35 mm)

Repository:

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.

Wisconsin Historical Society (Map)

Abstract:

Diaries, correspondence, family papers, and photographs of Hazel Lee Davies, a graduate nurse from Hortonville, Wisconsin, who from 1918 to 1947 worked as a clerk and statistician-economist for the U.S. Coal Commission of the Bureau of Mines. Included are girlhood letters and a 1906 senior class-meeting notebook from Jennings Seminary in Aurora, Illinois, and the Chicago Training School, both girls' boarding schools; letters and reminiscent articles about nursing and nurses' training, circa 1908-1918, at St. Luke's Hospital, Racine, Wisconsin; and files on homes in Florida and Lake Tomahawk, Wisconsin. Among the correspondence are letters from Davies' niece, Lt. Col. Frances M. McClurkin, an Air Force nurse, 1955-1975, who was stationed in Japan and the Philippines; and letters from German and English women after World War II. On microfilm is a scrapbook which includes material on the National Recovery Administration, the United Mine Workers and John L. Lewis, employment discrimination against married women, and World War II. Family papers include a notebook of John R. Davies, Hazel Davies' husband's grandfather, concerning his invention of a pressed paper railroad car wheel, and genealogical information on the Robert E. Lee family, believed to be relatives of Davies' husband.

Language: English

URL to cite for this finding aid: http://digital.library.wisc.edu/1711.dl/wiarchives.uw-whs-mss00363

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Hazel Inez (Lee) Davies, graduate nurse and statistician-economist with the U.S. Coal Commission of the Bureau of Mines, was born March 5, 1890 at Ogdensburg, Wisconsin. Her parents, William John Lee and Myrtle Evelyn Carter, operated the Ogdensburg House until 1894 when they separated. Hazel Lee graduated from Jennings Seminary, an Aurora, Illinois, boarding school, in 1906. The next year she entered nurses training at Palmyra Springs Sanitarium in Palmyra, Wisconsin. Dissatisfied with the training she was receiving she transferred in 1908 to St. Luke's Hospital School of Nursing in Racine, from which she graduated on December 24, 1909. (There were no state board examinations then, so she could not use the title, RN.) She left St. Luke's a few months after graduation for private duty nursing. About 1913 she initiated a St. Luke's Hospital School of Nursing Alumni group, which in time became a formal alumni association whose scholarship fund has since been named for her. On October 18, 1912 Miss Lee married George Gibson Davies (1879-1963) of Racine. This marriage was to last nearly 51 years until his death on October 13, 1963.

After her husband began work with the Department of the Interior in Washington, D.C., in 1918, Hazel Davies also took a position with the government, first as an office worker and, subsequently, associated with each successive agency dealing with the coal industry. She retired in 1947 as statistician-economist with the Bureau of Mines. In 1952-1953 she spent about six months as a real estate agent in the Washington, D.C., area but found this not worth the effort expended. The couple moved to Winter Haven, Florida, in 1954, and after 1947 retained summer homes in the Oneida-Vilas counties area of Wisconsin, one at Lake Tomahawk and from 1956 one on Lake Shishebogama near Minocqua. For three summers Hazel Davies worked as a tour guide for naturalist-anthropologist author Alonzo Pond in his Wisconsin Gardens. The Gardens adjoined the Birchwood-Pines Community of which Davies'cabin had originally been a part. Her leisure was absorbed in fishing, photography, social evenings of cards and conversation or at the “movies,” and women's clubs offices and activities. At the age of 65, Hazel Davies took up painting. She attended classes, entered her paintings in art and craft shows, and received commissions for her work. Several photographs of her paintings have been transferred to the Visual Materials Archives of the Historical Society along with her photo albums and other photographs.

The Davies had no children. After George Davies's death in 1963, shortly after their return from their summer home in Wisconsin, Hazel Davies continued to spend her winters in Florida (now in Clearwater), and until 1978 her summers in Minocqua. She died April 5, 1980 in Florida.

The Papers offer an uneven picture of a professionally and socially active woman whose life and values may have been similar to many twentieth-century women with similar educational and social experiences.

The Diaries are perfunctory. Although Mrs. Davies made entries with almost unbroken daily regularity from 1937 through 1975, the entries are very short due to the restrictions of space in the small five-year diaries she used most often. They concern the weather, dates with her hairdresser, house hunting, frustrations of packing to travel or move residences, and minor health setbacks of herself and her husband. There is little of what she felt or believed, and what is recorded is not pursued. Her Republican political leanings can be noted, as can holiday gifts and menus, from whom cards were received on her birthday and anniversary, and significant moments in her life and in the lives of friends and relatives. She mentions outstanding national and international events, but seldom her reaction to them. The early diaries are more catholic through the 1940s, the period of her own involvement in the federal bureaucracy. Here there are brief descriptions of her work situation, of coal price hearings, employment discrimination against women, and of events relating to the war (1939-1945). For the most part, however, the diaries are personal and limited social history.

The Correspondence, letters from relatives, friends, and associates, makes up about one-half of the collection. Mrs. Davies kept very few copies of the letters she wrote, but the incoming letters are often interesting and as varied as Hazel Davies's interests. It is an intermittent file but spans most of her life. A February 21, 1944 letter filed under General Correspondence from Hazel Davies to Malvina Lindsay, a Washington Post correspondent, shows a little of Mrs. Davies's style and philosophy in a discussion of the home front during World War II. In this file also are two letters (1948, 1949) from a German Ph.D., Frau Helene Weltring, mentioning the Marshall Plan and Germany's postwar struggle. Letters to George Davies are from his mother late in her life, an 1885 letter from an aunt written as a story for the then six year-old George, and a card dating from his retirement, November 30, 1948. The correspondence with Jane (Gore) Ready, Hazel Davies's half-sister, includes a few letters from Jane Gore's childhood and one from Hazel Davies to her sister returned-to-sender after Jane Ready's death in 1976.

Jennings Seminary correspondence, 1903-1907, includes letters from students, a letter of reference from the principal, clippings, and the 1906 senior class-meeting notebook. A fire destroyed the upper floors of the building on March 18, 1906, two months before Hazel Davies graduated, and the senior class was moved to the Chicago Training School for the remainder of its last term. There is some mention of this facility in the file also. The material in this file gives an exceptionally clear picture of boarding school life and the scholarly and social interests and activities of young women during the first decade of the twentieth-century.

Lake Tomahawk correspondence is a very general file also including notes, drafts, and clippings relating primarily to articles Mrs. Davies wrote about Lake Tomahawk environs and personalities for the Lakeland Times (Minocqua). Mrs. Davies's letters and articles in the St. Luke's Hospital School of Nursing Alumni Association correspondence reveal as much about her life from 1908 to 1918 and after 1957 as they do about St. Luke's Hospital School of Nursing in the early period. Included are a nursing school brochure, circa 1950s; a list of all graduates to 1962; by-laws of the group; programs; and newsletters. Grothem Oertling had been an office clerk in Mrs. Davies'coal commission office before entering the army in February 1943. His letters from Miami and Ohio discuss his army training in some detail and report on gossip from the coal commission office. The caption, “Kings of the Broad Highway,” on a postcard, January 5, 1944, “reflects so much that we feel inside of ourselves,” Oertling writes after completing his officer's training. Oertling was married to Frances Reynolds, daughter of North Carolina Senator, Robert Rice Reynolds (Dem.).

Lt. Col. Frances M. (Ready) McClurkin, the daughter of Jane (Gore) Ready and a registered nurse, enlisted in the United States Air Force in 1955. During the Vietnam War, as her final assignment, she served as commanding officer of Clark Air Force Hospital, Philippines. Her letters to her aunt begin in 1935 when she was ten and continue through 1975. Her work, travels, assignments, promotion, marriage, all facets of her career as an army air force nurse are mentioned in her letters. Letters from Relatives and Friends include those letters written by a girlhood friend from Hortonville, Wisconsin, letters from Hazel Davies's nieces, Jeanette and Isabelle Ready, her grandnephews and nieces, and from her father and his wife from Irma, Wisconsin. Dorothy (Rosser) Neill was a Lancashire County, England, librarian who in 1950 at age 42 began a correspondence with Hazel Davies through the British-American Friendship organization. Their correspondence continued at least through 1973 and includes an autobiographical letter from Hazel Davies in 1950 and discussions of conditions in England and the lives and philosophies of the two women. The correspondence dealing with the Women's Club of Ashton Heights, Virginia, includes historical notes about the founding of the club and its early years by Hazel Davies, and other fiftieth-anniversary letters and program plans.

Family Records consist of legal and official documents, lists, budgets and other family papers. None of these files except the Records of the Tomahawk Home are comprehensive. John R. Davies's notebook (filed in box 2, folder 13) consists of notes on construction and cost of a pressed paper railroad car wheel he invented and which tested out successfully at Pullman, Illinois. Samples of the pressed paper used in the wheel have been sent to the State Historical Society Museum. John R. Davies, a foundryman, was the grandfather of George G. Davies (Hazel Davies' husband) and the father of John E. Davies, whose estate papers are also filed here. The Biographical and Genealogical records, a collection of clippings, booklets and photographs, relate primarily to Robert E. Lee and the Lee family of Virginia, for Hazel Davies's father was believed to be descended from a cousin of General Robert E. Lee. Included also are typed and handwritten notes and biographical sketches relating to Hazel Davies, John R. Davies, Myrtle Carter and William John Lee. The Doodles, Poems and Weather Calendars and the Sketches are those done by Hazel Lee as a child. There is one sketch of a “typical boarding school scene” done at Jennings Seminary. Miscellany includes notes on the collection prepared by Hazel Davies to accompany her gift of the papers to the Historical Society. Additional notes penned by Mrs. Davies have been attached to the documents she described throughout the collection.

The Scrapbook has been microfilmed due to its deteriorating condition. (The original has not been retained.) It contains poems and maxims of special meaning to Mrs. Davies as well as letters, newspaper clippings and memorabilia from and about the Davies and Ready families, and is most informative for the period the Davies lived and worked in Washington, D.C. There is material relating to the U.S. Coal Commission, employment discrimination against married women, the National Recovery Administration, the United Mine Workers, World War II, and John L. Lewis. There are several more of Malvina Lindsay's bylined articles pasted to pages of the scrapbook.

Visual Materials include photographs and negatives, 1872-1970s, consisting primarily of albums compiled and made by Hazel Lee Davies, including images of her family, friends, school, work, and travels. Albums and other photographs are well-identified. A small amount of ephemera and postcards are included; some postcards were received from friends and family and include correspondence. Photographs include cabinet cards and a small number of tintypes. Negatives, circa 1911-1970s, consist primarily of nitrate and correspond in large part to prints contained in the albums.

Acquisition Information

Presented by Hazel L. Davies, Minocqua, Wisconsin, 1975 and 1976; and Frances M. McClurkin, Kaneohe, Hawaii, 1980. Accession Number: M75-222, M75-314, M75-395, M75-613, M76-572, M80-223

Processing Information

Processed by Mark Thiel and Joanne Hohler, January 1982.

Mss 363	Diaries
Box   1 Folder   1-8	1937-1968
Box   1 Folder   9-11	1967-1975
	Correspondence
Box   2 Folder   1	General, 1907, 1944, 1948, 1952, 1969-1971, undated
Box   2 Folder   2	George G. Davies, 1885, 1941-1942, undated
Box   2 Folder   3	Jane (Gore) Ready, 1918-1919, 1975-1976.
Box   2 Folder   4	Jennings Seminary, 1903-1907, undated
Box   2 Folder   5	Lake Tomahawk, 1914, 1948, 1970-1971
Box   2 Folder   6	St. Luke's Hospital School of Nursing Alumni Association, 1954, 1957-1975, undated
Box   2 Folder   7	Grothem Oertling, 1943
Box   2 Folder   8	Frances Ready McClurkin, 1935-1975, undated
Box   2 Folder   9	Relatives and Friends, 1900, 1922, 1930-1976
Box   2 Folder   10	Dorothy (Rosser) Neill, 1950-1973, undated
Box   2 Folder   11	History of Women's Club of Ashton Heights, Virginia, 1974
	Family Records
Box   2 Folder   12	Personal Documents of George Davies, 1918, 1920-1921, 1940, 1944, 1962-1964
Box   2 Folder   13	John E. Davies Estate Papers and Notebook of John R. Davies, 1893, 1942-1950
Box   2 Folder   14	Household and Legal Records, 1895, 1913-1915, 1932
Box   3 Folder   1	Records of Lake Tomahawk Home, 1946-1955
Box   3 Folder   2	Biographical and Genealogical Records, 1920-1974, undated
Box   3 Folder   3	Doodles, Poems, and Weather Calendars, 1900-1904
Box   3 Folder   4	Sketches, 1904-1906
Box   3 Folder   5	Miscellany, 1861, 1937, 1975
Micro 883 Reel   1	Scrapbook Scope and Content Note: Contains correspondence and clippings pertaining to the U.S. Coal Commission, Employment Discrimination Against Married Women, Davies Family, Ready Family, National Recovery Administration, United Mine Workers, World War II, and John L. Lewis, 1923-1959.
PH Mss 363	Visual Materials
	Photographs
	Family and friends
Box   1 Folder   1	Album page photographs, 1950s-1970s
Box   2 Folder   1	Davies, Hannah R., 1872
Box   1 Folder   2	Flower photographs by Ruth (Davies) Allison
Box   1 Folder   3	Friends of Hazel L. Davies, 1960s
Box   1 Folder   4	General
Box   1 Folder   5	Hale, Nancy Lee and family
Box   1 Folder   6	Jennings seminary graduating class, 1906
Box   1 Folder   7	Kristof, Jeanette Ready
Box   1 Folder   8	Kristof family, Leopolis, Wisconsin
Box   1 Folder   9	Ready, Frances and family
Box   1 Folder   10	Ready, Isabelle
Box   1 Folder   11	Ready, Jane and Frank and family, Leopolis, Wisconsin
Box   1 Folder   12	Rosser, Dorothy
	Florida
Box   1 Folder   13	Bayview Gardens, Clearwater, 1968-1970
Box   1 Folder   14	Sun City, 1963-1966
Box   1 Folder   15	Winter Haven, 1950s-1960s
	Sprucepine Farm, Fairfax County, Virginia
Box   1 Folder   17	1930s
Box   1 Folder   18	Remodeling
Box   1 Folder   19	Transparencies
Box   1 Folder   20	Stratford and Williamsburg, Virginia, 1920s-1930s
Box   1 Folder   21	U.S. Bureau of Coal Mines staff, 1940s
	Wisconsin
Box   1 Folder   22	Birchwood Pines and Minocqua
Box   1 Folder   23	Menominee Indian Fair, 1948
Box   1 Folder   24	Woodzicka's Sunflower Resort, Tomahawk Lake
	Albums
Box   3	Unnumbered album, 1878-1935 Note: Portraits of family and friends.
Box   4	Album 1, 1894-1911 Note: Family photographs and Hazel Lee's life at school.
Box   5	Album 2, 1911-1918 Note: Racine, Wisconsin.
Box   6	Album 3, 1918-1929 Note: Primarily Washington, D.C., including General John Joseph Pershing leading a parade and President Warren G. Harding and First Lady Florence Harding at the White House
Box   6	Album 4, 1929-1950 Note: Washington, D.C., photographs of co-workers.
Box   6	Album 5A, 1947-1951, Lake Tomahawk home
Box   5	Album 5, 1947-1963 Note: Lake Tomahawk and Florida
	Ephemera
Box   1 Folder   25	Announcements and invitations
	Postcards
Box   2 Folder   2	Received from Dorothy Rosser
Box   2 Folder   3	Received from family
Box   2 Folder   4	Collected
	Negatives Note: Negatives have been re-sleeved; any information on original folders or sleeves, when provided, has been retained.
Box   7	Primarily Racine, Wisconsin, circa 1911-1922
Box   8	Primarily Washington, D.C. and Virginia, circa 1920s
Box   9-10	Primarily Virginia, circa 1920s
Box   11	Florida, Virginia, and Wisconsin, 1917-1960s
Box   12	Wisconsin, 1949-1960s
Box   13	Florida, Virginia, Washington, D.C., and Wisconsin, 1952-1967
Box   1 Folder   26	35 mm negatives