Series: Edward Seymour Howard “Ned” Martindale (1861-1924). Papers, 1870-1924
Biography/History: Edward Martindale, who was known as Ned, was born 23 November 1861. He was plagued with eye problems as a youth but eventually managed to study law, first with the firm of M. P. Wing and G. C. Prentiss of La Crosse, later at the University of Virginia Law School at Charlottesville. He practiced law in La Crosse for a while, with Edwin C. Crane at one time and with his brother Stephen IV around 1890. In the late 1880s and perhaps again later he traveled in the southeastern United States and along the Atlantic Seaboard selling books for law book publishers. Around 1892 he seems to have opened his own law firm in Washington, D.C., and from around 1905 to 1907 he appears to have been practicing in Connecticut. From 1909 to 1921 he had a law practice in Duluth, Minnesota. In 1921 he moved back to Washington, D.C., where he was at the time of his self-inflicted death on 28 February 1924. Ned Martindale never married.
Scope and Content Note: Ned's Personal Correspondence is exclusively outgoing to family and relatives. Ned was particularly eloquent, literate, and interested in politics, places, and current events--all of which are reflected in his correspondence. His letters contain colorful descriptions of places he visited, people he met, discussions he had, political events in the nation's capital, and so forth. Of particular interest perhaps are his reflections on conditions in the South and Southeast in the last quarter of the nineteenth century. His Business Papers include receipts, business cards, money orders, life insurance papers, and one miscellaneous clipping of a letter he sent to the editor of the Duluth News Tribune. Genealogy Correspondence consists of letters about family history between Ned and various Martindales, many of whom were quite distantly related. The Estate papers contain letters and telegrams about Ned's death and. the circumstances surrounding it as well as life insurance papers. Additional papers received at the Archives after the rest was organized is in Box 24A.

Personal Correspondence, 1875-1924

Stephen and Katharine H. Martindale III (parents), 1875, 1882-1905

Anna Martindale (sister), 1879-1924

Stephen Martindale (brother) and family, 1885-1924

Postcards, 1913-1923

Business papers, 1870-1924

Additional Business papers

Business correspondence, 1893-1898

Business records, especially Briggs Lock-Joint Bricks

Law cases handled, 1892-1897

Catalogs of publishing firm for which he was agent

Miscellaneous manuscripts and undated material

Genealogy correspondence, 1894-1895

Estate, 1924-1925