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Gracie (Bowers) Pfost Papers, 1950-1962

Overview of the Collection

Creator
Gracie (Bowers) Pfost, 1906-1965
Title
Gracie (Bowers) Pfost Papers
Dates
1950-1962 (inclusive)
Quantity
61 cubic feet
Collection Number
MG044 (collection)
Summary
Administrative records including inter-office memoranda and procedure statements, constituent correspondence, personal correspondence, records of committees, bills sponsored by Congresswoman Pfost, speeches, news releases, and audio tapes of radio talks.
Repository
University of Idaho Library, Special Collections and Archives
Special Collections and Archives
University of Idaho Library
875 Perimeter Drive
MS 2350
Moscow, ID
83844-2350
Telephone: 2088850845
libspec@uidaho.edu
Languages
English
Sponsor
Funding for encoding this finding aid was provided through a grant awarded by the National Endowment for the Humanities.
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Biographical Note

Gracie Pfost (pronounced Post), Democrat, achieved distinction as Idaho's only woman to serve in Congress. Representing the state's first congressional district, she was elected to five consecutive terms in the U. S. House of Representatives, ably serving her constituents from January 3, 1953 to January 3, 1963. Described as a "unique and forceful political personality," Pfost diligently promoted the mining, timber and agricultural interests of the Gem State's northern counties. In 1962, the Congresswoman declined to run for her sixth term in the House and instead entered the Senate race. Nominated by the Democratic State Central Committee, she lost by narrow margin to Republican Len B. Jordan in the general election. But her career as a public servant did not end. In June 1963, President John F. Kennedy appointed Pfost administrator of Public Housing for the Elderly in the Federal Housing Administration, a position she held until her death two years later.

Born March 12, 1906 in Harrison, Arkansas to William Layfette and Lily Elizabeth (Wood) Bowers, Gracie moved with her family to the Boise Valley in 1911. She attended area schools receiving her secondary education at Meridian High School, Meridian, Idaho, and graduating in 1926 from Links Business University. On August 4, 1923 she married John Walter (Jack) Pfost, a man 22 years her senior, who played an important role in his wife's later political career. In fact Gracie credits him as the person who most encouraged and supported her campaign for election to Congress. Once Gracie was elected to the House of Representatives, Jack Pfost acted unofficially as the Congresswoman's political advisor. He worked long hours beside his wife and after his death on July 17, 1961, at the age of 77, it was said of him that his death "cost Idaho an unofficial but effective public servant who was as untiring as he was unassuming."

Gracie Pfost's public career began in 1929 when, at age 23, she was appointed deputy county clerk, auditor and recorder for Canyon County. She served the county in this capacity until 1940 at which time she was elected Treasurer. After five consecutive terms as Treasurer, she ran unsuccessfully against Republican John T. Wood in 1950 for a seat in congress. Defeated by 783 votes in that election, Pfost again announced her candidacy in 1952.

With the slogan "Tie Your Vote to a Solid Post--Gracie Pfost for Congress," she canvased the counties of the first district profiling her campaign issues. She supported stabilization of farm products, improved labor legislation and the production and conservation of domestic minerals and metals. Favoring broader Social Security coverage and reduced taxes, her platform also included support for humanitarian legislation. Of greater significance and one which marked her congressional career, she opposed private interests and championed the federal construction of a high, multi-purpose dam at Hells Canyon on the Idaho-Oregon border. Later, in her first speech before the House of Representatives on April 16, 1953, she introduced the bill to allow the federal government the right to construct a dam on the Snake River. Her vigorous support of the project earned her the sobriquet: "Hell's Belle." Throughout her career in the House, Pfost continued to support legislation protecting mining (lead-zinc) and timber interests as well as bills providing for public works and federal aid to education.

In Congress, Pfost was appointed to the House Committee on Interior and Insular Affairs and served on or chaired the subcommittees on Irrigation and Reclamation, Mines and Mining and Public Lands. She was also a member of the House Post Office and Civil Service Committee. She was also named to special subcommittees, one to study water resources and one to investigate Foundations Exempt from Income Tax. In 1960 she was a conference delegate to the Outdoor Recreation Resources Review Commission.

In addition to her political responsibilities, Pfost was a member of the Idaho Federation of Womens' Clubs, Business and Professional Women's Club, Soroptimist Club, Gem Area Girl Scout Council, Nampa Chamber of Commerce and the Idaho Real Estate Board. Before election to Congress, she was a delegate to the Democratic National Conventions in 1944, 1948 and 1952. For recreation and relaxation she enjoyed hunting, fishing, and painting.

On August 11, 1965, Gracie Pfost died of Hodgkin's Disease at Johns Hopkins Hospital near Baltimore, Maryland. With her death "Idaho [lost its] First Lady of Politics."

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Content Description

The papers of Gracie Pfost span the years 1950 to 1963, with the bulk of the material covering the years 1953 to 1962. A few of her speeches dating from the 1940s are also included.

The congressional papers include administrative records, such as inter-office memos and mailing lists; constituent correspondence, which is divided into three sections and forms the major part of the collection; general and personal correspondence; legislative material which includes bills introduced by Gracie Pfost, her statements to congressional committees, Congressional Record inserts, and committee files; public relations material which includes her speeches, newspaper clippings, news releases, and audio tapes of radio speeches. The campaign files include campaign material, files of clippings on people, places, or events of interest to her, as well as other political files.

Signatures of well known politicians such as Harry Truman, John McCormack, Frank Church, and John F. Kennedy may be found in some of the folders. Presence of these signatures is noted on the folder itself.

The University of Idaho library also has the congressional papers of Mrs. Pfost's successor in the House of Representatives, Compton I. White, Jr. (Manuscript Group 93).

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Administrative Information

Arrangement

The majority of Gracie Pfost's papers were in labeled folders when received; the unlabeled material was sorted and integrated into existing categories. Every effort was made to retain the original folder headings, although it was sometimes necessary to make slight alterations, such as adding a committee name in the legislative correspondence. Occasionally material relating to the same subject shows up in several series, and it is necessary for the researcher to consult each series to identify all the material.

The first series, Correspondence, is divided into five subseries, the first three of which deal with constituent correspondence. The first subdivision, Legislation, is arranged alphabetically by the Congressional committee which Mrs. Pfost contacted for assistance in answering a question or to which a particular piece of legislation had been referred. The second subseries is arranged by the government department which supplied information for answers to constituent problems; and the third subseries is arranged alphabetically by independent agency. The general correspondence contains both constituent and official letters, and is arranged alphabetically by subject. Many of the folders in this subseries were heavily sampled since many requests for publications were routine and duplicated year after year. This subseries also includes form letters, mimeographed letters, and mass mailings sent by the office, and applications for post office positions. Returns of Small Business Ballots, the opinions of small businessmen on legislation before Congress as registered on printed forms, which were also heavily sampled, are also in this section. The final subseries in this series contains personal and political correspondence.

The second series consists of legislative material. The bills introduced by Congresswoman Pfost are filed both cumulatively by Congress, and also individually by House Bill number if there is any supporting documentation such as committee or departmental reports. Some correspondence is also included in the files. Also included are typescripts of her statements to congressional committees, typescripts of speeches made on the floor of the House, Congressional Record inserts, and voting records, both official and those prepared by special interest groups. Other material includes material gathered while serving on committees. Some of these which include inter-committee correspondence or material relating to specific committee activities are filed by committee. Most of the remainder of the material is arranged alphabetically by subject. The majority of Hells Canyon material is in this section.

The Administrative series contains inter-office memos, lists of Idaho newspapers, various post office statistics, e.g. the number of box holders, to assist the staff with mass mailings, lists of members of organizations in Idaho which were used for specialized mass mailings, and samples of stationery, telephone, and telegraph accounts. Also included are names of members of a variety of organizations which were used for specialized mailing lists.

The Public Relations series contains various biographical sketches prepared by Mrs. Pfost's staff, and some published articles by and about her. Also included are her newsletters to constituents, press releases issued by her office, newspaper clippings, typed copies of speeches, and several audio tapes (reel to reel) of radio speeches.

The final series contains campaign files dating from her unsuccessful first bid for Congress in 1950 through her Senate race in 1962, also unsuccessful. Included in these files are campaign brochures, newspaper clippings dealing with Mrs. Pfost and her opponents, and election results. There are also files concerning the Democratic party and other material of a political nature, including files on Idaho politicians, and a card file listing Democrats in Idaho alphabetically by county, and items of personal interest.

The historical and research value of 33 boxes of "white" carbon copies of outgoing letters which were filed alphabetically by correspondent was questioned and found to be very limited, therefore they were discarded. Many large "single issue" files, such as the anti-liquor advertising campaign, were sampled by taking every 10th or in some cases every 25th item. In other cases only one complete folder was retained. The Small Business Ballots were sampled using the "fat folder" criteria. Only one year of statements for the teletephone, telegraph and stationery accounts was retained. The method of sampling is noted on the first folder in the sequence. The only large single issue not sampled, but retained in total, was the correspondence concerning Hells Canyon which was Pfost's major campaign issue. Single copies of machine and sample letters were retained.

In arriving at item counts for each folder all material stapled together, regardless of the number of papers involved, was counted as a single item. After the count was determined, the staples were removed.

Following the guidelines in the Senate records management guide the following types of material were discarded: declined invitations, when filed separately; out of state correspondence, when filed separately; and job applications. Using the same guidelines, only the records of those applicants accepted at the several service academies were retained. Duplicates of mimeographed material were discarded without notation; however, many correspondence files contained similar carbon responses attached to incoming letters. In these cases the carbons were discarded and a separation sheet documenting the number of such carbons was prepared. Similarly separation sheets were prepared when individual replies were sent to signers of petitions or mail campaigns waged by special interest groups.

Government documents were separated from the collection and sent to the government documents library. Other published material was removed for consideration for the general book collection.

When the Records Storage Center transferred the papers of Gracie Pfost to the office of Senator Frank Church they totaled 355 cubic feet. He and his staff reduced the records to 170 cubic feet before sending them to the University of Idaho Library where they were reduced to 157 cubic feet. There is no record of what material Church discarded, but it appears from transfer documents that the material discarded after receipt by the university library included books, government documents, plus many duplicate copies of publications. In the final processing, undertaken 22 years after receipt of the papers, the collection was reduced by another 96 cubic feet.

Acquisition Information

The congressional papers of Representative Gracie Pfost were donated to the University of Idaho Library by Idaho's Senior Senator Frank Church, in 1968.

Processing Note

The papers were processed by Judith Nielsen, with the assistance of Wilma Woods and Randy Doyle, between October 1990 and June 1991.

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Detailed Description of the Collection

Names and SubjectsReturn to Top

Subject Terms

  • Legislators--United States--Correspondence

Personal Names

  • Pfost, Gracie Bowers, 1906-1965--Archives

Geographical Names

  • United States--Politics and government--1945-1989

Occupations

  • United States Representative from Idaho, 1952-1962; unsuccessful candidate for United States senate, 1962; administrator of public housing for the elderly after 1963

Finding aid prepared by Judith Nielsen
1991

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