The documents in the collection date from 1919 through 1930 and document McDonald's work with Wisconsin utilities. The papers document the business practices of two power companies, Badger Electric Service Company and Badger Light and Power, and McDonald's legal work on behalf of other companies in which he was not as fully involved. The papers consist of correspondence, legal contracts, financial documents, news clippings related to utility companies, stock and bond certificates, maps, photos, negatives, spreadsheets, and blueprints.
Each folder in the collection contains all the relevant documents which pertain to a single issue -– correspondence, invoices, contracts, and other materials are grouped together, regardless of format. McDonald arranged the folders in a roughly chronological order and numbered the folders accordingly (“File no.” given on the contents list below). The missing numbers belong to files which McDonald did not donate with the collection.
The papers have been divided into series according to company: Other Utilities, Luck Light and Power, Polk Electric Light Company, Badger Electric Service Company, Badger Light and Power, Wisconsin Utilities Association, W. N. Albertson Telephone Company, and Visual Materials.
The OTHER UTILITIES series consists of three folders, one each from Gay Electric Company, Burnett County Electric, and Merrimack Electric Company, 1919-1922. These files contain mainly correspondence with some contracts, documenting James McDonald's legal work with each company. Subjects include Gay Electric Company's contracts with utility company customers and correspondence about Burnett County Electric's bond issue and the founding of Merrimack Electric Company.
The LUCK LIGHT AND POWER series consists of three folders, 1923, 1924-1925, and 1930. The files document McDonald's legal work with the company, and contain mortgage documents, bond issue correspondence and contracts, and documents related to the sale of the utility company.
The POLK ELECTRIC LIGHT COMPANY series consists of nine folders, dating from 1922-1930. McDonald had a lengthy relationship with this company, as he was involved with both the company's founding and the company's sale as a legal advisor. The files mostly consist of correspondence (most of it with the president, Mads Bank, or his son Einar), deeds, and contracts. Subjects include the company's founding, the purchase of a local company, Clam River Electric Company, and the purchase of Polk Electric Light Company in its turn.
The BADGER ELECTRIC SERVICE COMPANY (BESCo) series dates from 1921 through 1924. Documents pertaining to McDonald's work as lawyer, secretary, and treasurer are all included –- including large quantities of correspondence on multiple issues and financial reports (including tax returns) with the working papers used to calculate them, as well as contracts and other legal documents. The correspondents include the other directors of the company, as well as government officials, other electric utility directors, and supply companies. The correspondence tracks the founding, business practices, problems faced, evolution, expansion, and eventual sale of the company. Several files in this series also contain data from other power utilities, gathered by McDonald because the company was considering their purchase.
The BADGER LIGHT AND POWER COMPANY (BLP) files, 1924-1929, are very similar in content and form to the files of the BADGER ELECTRIC SERVICE COMPANY as the two companies shared the same purpose and the same directors and McDonald held the same positions in each company and made and saved the same types of documents.
The WISCONSIN UTILITIES ASSOCIATION files, 1922-1925, contain incomplete documentation of McDonald's work on the Rural Lines Committee of the utilities association. The series contains notes and/or transcripts of several speeches about rural electrification, committee correspondence, the 1922 member list, and the 1925 convention program.
The W. N. ALBERTSON TELEPHONE COMPANY series, 1928, consists of correspondence and contracts relevant to the purchase of various Wisconsin telephone companies by the W. N. Albertson Telephone Company of Omaha, Nebraska. Also included are contracts and correspondence between McDonald and W. N. Albertson company, securing his legal counsel on behalf of the company's business dealings in Wisconsin.
The VISUAL MATERIALS series contains negatives and photographs of Badger Light and Power Company's buildings and other property holdings.
