Archives West Finding Aid

Scope and Content: Because of the diversity of activity and the number of partners involved over its 110-year history, the papers are arranged by record series according to the original organization. There are two main types of series: Correspondence and Case Files.

Correspondence:

Until 1917, correspondence was separated into three categories: Firm, Partner's, and Specific Clients. Firm Correspondence consists of incoming and outgoing letters related to the legal work of the firm in general. Partner's Correspondence is that generated by individual partners in representing their own clients and in pursuing their own legal, political, and personal business. Specific Client Correspondence concerns the firm's work for clients with whom there was regular business or whose correspondence was kept apart from the general firm correspondence for some other reason. All incoming letters were held in Shannon cases in chronological order, alphabetical within each box. Letterpress copies of outgoing letters were bound, in chronological order, in volumes of 500 numbered pages. The names of correspondents were listed in an alphabetical index at the end of each copy book with the page number or numbers of copies noted after the names. The same correspondents presumably are represented in the incoming letters.

After 1917, Firm, Partner, and Client Correspondence were integrated. The incoming and outgoing letters were filed together in folders arranged in alphabetical order within a time span of about two years. Legal documents and background material were included in these folders also. Firm Correspondence was in folders labeled with partners' or clients' names. All other letters are in alpha-numeric folders and they are usually marked with a number to assist in filing.

An exception to this arrangement is the A.J. Schweppe correspondence which is separate from the general Firm Correspondence. Among the issues covered in it are the Sockeye Salmon Treaty of 1931 and the Supreme Court packing case of 1937. Nine cartons of records of Schweppe's representation of the manufacturers in lumber industry labor negotiations comprises another group of correspondence, which is arranged with Specific Client Correspondence - Lumber Industry Clients.

An exchange of letters between E.H. Holmes of the Port Blakely Mill Company and Maurice McMicken and Henry Struve in 1893 documents McMicken's trip to London to pursue the sale of the Port Blakely Mill Company. Henry Struve was with the firm for 24 years and was also mayor of Seattle and a U.S. District Court judge. Maurice McMicken, a partner for 57 years, was involved in many business enterprises.

The correspondence of William T. Dovell, a partner in the firm, is complete for the period between 1903 and 1915. Dovell was active in Republican party politics, as was E.C. Hughes. Hughes served on the Seattle School Board and was chairman of the board of the Seattle Post-Intelligencer from 1895 to 1910. In this capacity, he exchanged letters with James D. Hoge on many issues of progressive politics. Some of the work of Alfred J. Schweppe, a well-known partner in the firm from 1930 to 1988, is represented by a selection of his correspondence. Most of this is material on labor negotiations in which he represented an organization of manufacturers in the lumber industry.

Case Files:

Case files from 1883 to 1921 are arranged in two groupings, numbered and unnumbered.

For the numbered cases, there were four filing systems: General Files (ca. 1883-1901), Indexed Court Files (ca.1891-1921), Folded Indexed Court Files (ca. 1891-1921), and Non-Indexed Court Files (ca. 1891-1921).

General Files (ca. 1883-1901) consist of 182 case files in six boxes. During this period, court documents were given an office case number, folded, and placed in packets of envelopes in numerical order within 5-inch boxes. The files are indexed in a small volume, "Index-General Files" (box 432), by listing the names of plaintiff(s) and the defendants(s) with the office case number preceding the name.

Indexed Court Files (both folded and flat) are desribed sequentially in the Docket Record Books (boxes 426, 429-431) indexed by names of plaintiff(s) and defendant(s) in five volumes of Docket Indexes (Box 432). Jurisdictions for these Court Files are usually the U.S. District Court and the Superior Court of Washington State in King Count. Each Court File has a number. Despite the fact that the Court Files were assigned consecutive numbers, they were filed in three different sequences, possibly due to the size of the files.

Non-indexed Court Files are in boxes 352-410 and 434-435. Folders are labeled with office case number and case titles. Office case numbers could be related to the date of the initial action taken by the firm, but this is not clear.

There are also seven boxes of Case Files from 1892 to 1929 that were not numbered or indexed.

Specific Client Files are separate from the general court files and concern several major clients from the early period. Case files for the firm's major clients are not limited to those arranged as Specific Client Case Files. Many others are in the General or Court Files series and can be accessed through the Docket Book Indexes.

Dockets and Record Books:

Dockets include a Docket of Causes, Docket Record Books, and Docket Book Indexes. The Docket Record Books are oversized volumes in which cases are entered in order of their office case number, with the names of the parties involved and list of actions taken. The Indexes to the Docket Books provide access to the Case Files by names of plaintiffs and defendants.

Record Books include only the oldest of the financial record books. These were retained as examples of the office bookkeeping system and a representative listing of the firm's earlier clients. Eight client company record books, containing documents of incorporation and minutes of board meetings, from 1921 to 1947 are also included.

Scope and Content: Docket sheets, financial records; 1915-1962.