The Paul Papers are comprised primarily of correspondence and other documents, arranged in a single chronological run. At the end of the collection is an 1869 list of newspapers and bank deposit books from the 1880s.
His papers up to 1860 include many family letters, written by his sisters and other relatives, including his uncle, Daniel J. Paul, who corresponded with him concerning the financial affairs of the Burlington newspaper. This apparently was a closely-knit family, although there is no mention of the parents, and some indication that both were dead.
There are many letters in the year 1851 to and from his first wife after he had come to Kenosha and while she was still in Vermont; and to and from her at Fond du Lac, where she and their two children lived with her parents during the last years of her life when she was afflicted with tuberculosis. Woven into these letters is material relative to home life in those early years in Wisconsin.
Pertaining also to these years are accounts of mail sent, reports, and miscellaneous records for the Kenosha post office, where Paul was postmaster from 1853 to 1861. There is in these years some mention briefly of the Barstow-Bashford controversy (Paul seems to have been a Barstow supporter), and a list of voters in the first ward in Kenosha in November, 1855. There are letters in regard to state and local campaigns (for instance, the campaign of 1852), and this interest and activity of Paul in local politics wherever he was shows itself in the papers all through his lifetime. There are some business papers concerning subscriptions, printing, and negotiations for purchase of the Milwaukee Daily News, with which Paul became connected after leaving the Kenosha post office in 1861.
There are a number of letters of more than usual interest which should perhaps be mentioned, including several written in description of Madison, the legislature, and political figures during the session of 1853, while Paul was assistant secretary of the senate. There is a letter from his brother Edward describing San Francisco in 1849, as well as two or three written to Mrs. Paul in Vermont by a friend, describing in detail her work as preceptress at a girls' school at Little Falls, New York. Several letters written on the way to Kenosha via the Great Lakes in 1851 are interesting, as are one or two descriptive of Kenosha at that early day. There are also letters to and from the second Mrs. Paul in 1855 and 1856 while she was in Racine.
Letters in the sixties are generally fewer, short, and more routine. There are several written from New York in 1861 when Paul was for a few months an editorial assistant to Fernando Wood, and one or two of particular interest concern the arrest of a Democrat at Fond du Lac (W. Strong, father of the first Mrs. Paul). A letter from Edward Paul in New York after Lincoln's election is interesting. Of more than ordinary interest are several letters written from Washington by Congressman C. A. Eldredge on relations between President Johnson and Congress in 1866. There are some letters from Mariana Paul Lecher, Paul's daughter and the wife of an employee in the Internal Revenue Department in New Orleans in 1869.
The material of the seventies and eighties deals among other things largely with university affairs, for Paul was a member of the board of regents from 1874 until his death, and was most of that time president. Much of the information on this subject relates to the building program of the eighties, and the resignation of President Bascom.
Many of the papers belonging to the years of Cleveland's first administration concern the Milwaukee post office, where Paul was postmaster for four years. As is common in the papers of all public men, there are many letters requesting jobs. Some of the material pertains to administration of the civil service law in the early years of its existence. There is some material concerning appointments to other postmasterships in Wisconsin, since Paul was usually consulted concerning such appointments. Copies of the letters of recommendation which Paul submitted while his application for the office of postmaster was pending are here. One gets a good picture of procedure used in dismissing a popular postmaster when a new administration nationally came into office.
Besides University and Milwaukee post office affairs, there are several letters on strategy from the chairman of the Democratic National Committee in 1872 when Paul was state chairman for Wisconsin. Other items include letters from 1874-1876 when Paul was railroad commissioner during operation of the Porter Law and injunction suits; some letters regarding the Milwaukee Cement Company of which corporation Paul was secretary; investigation of the Milwaukee County Insane Asylum in the eighties; and a memorial and some letters concerning reimbursement to the builders of the capitol for work in rebuilding after the disaster of 1882. A letter dated August 8, 1874, from C.L. Sholes is interesting as probably being one of the earliest typed letters.
The Milwaukee Post Office Records, 1885-1889, consist almost exclusively of duplicate form reports submitted quarterly to the Post Office Department. In each group of quarterly reports, there are letter carriers, accounts and receipts for salaries, also salary receipts from railway clerks and office employees; monthly and quarterly lists of expenses, accompanied by vouchers; tabulations of sales and envelopes, postal cards, money orders, rentals for post office boxes, fees for registered letters, itemized lists of postage collected on newspapers and periodicals, and miscellaneous official correspondence such as authorization of purchases or correction of errors, receipted inventories of equipment and supplies received in 1885 on becoming postmaster, similar lists for equipment turned over in 1889, rosters of employees, and payrolls.
There is little or no information concerning his work as editor of the Milwaukee Daily News in the 1860s, or of his activities as member of the Milwaukee charter commission, or as member of the Milwaukee school board in 1870, and superintendent in 1871. There is practically nothing about his work during the two terms he spent in the state senate, where he sponsored bills for the establishment of the office of commissioner of health for Milwaukee, establishment of the Milwaukee County Insane Asylum, and establishment of the State Industrial School for Girls; nor of his work at various times as member of the Democratic National Committee for Wisconsin, and as delegate on four occasions to the Democratic National Convention.
There are valuable letters in this collection from Marvin Bovee, C. C. Sholes, E. W. Keyes, C. A. Eldredge, J. R. Sharpstein, Governor W. R. Taylor, E. G. Ryan, J. A. Osborn, John W. Hoyt, William F. Vilas, J. C. Spooner, Dorman B. Eaton, Ellis B. Usher, Judge John A. Bryan, and A. P. Edgerton, president of the United States Civil Service Commission; and letters of routine nature from Carl Schurz, Lucius Fairchild, John Bascom, T. C. Chamberlin, R. G. Thwaites, C. C. Washburn, Alexander Mitchell, J. R. Doolittle, Nehemiah Joy, W. Strong, Levi Hubbell, H. D. Barron, J. Hadley, A. McArthur, A. Marshall, L. C. Draper, Sylvanus Cadwallader, John B. Allen, H. B. Hinsdale, Patrick Cosgrave, J. T. Marston, J. M. Coe, A. D. Smith, Volney French, Philo White, Horatio Parker, J. A. Noonan, Marvin H. Barr, H. N. Smith, George W. Peck, R. I. Bashford, C. L. Sholes, H. S. Tenney, Wendell Anderson, C. W. Fitch, George B. Judd, John Johnston, N. B. Van Slyke, William P. Lynch, I. M. Weston, Gabe Bouck, Isaac Van Schaick, Allan D. Conover, B. F. Armstrong, Timothy O. Howe, E. S. Bragg, G. W. Bird, John G. McMynn, R. H. Dana, and D. G. Wells.
Considering the prominence of Paul in Wisconsin, and his apparent popularity in a personal way with all parties, these papers are rather disappointing in the material they contain. They are not a collection of material of first-rate importance even for the study of Wisconsin history, although there is in them much valuable material for the years 1851-1889. The collection may be said to be of particular importance for the study of the local history of southeastern Wisconsin, especially for early Kenosha, and for Milwaukee after 1861. A student of university affairs for the late seventies and the eighties should find useful material here, as should anyone working on civil service under Cleveland. The value of the collection as a whole is diminished very considerably the fact that we do not have copies of letters sent by Paul.
