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Walter H. McLeod papers, Circa 1885, 1900-1963

Overview of the Collection

Creator
McLeod, Walter H., 1887-1963
Title
Walter H. McLeod papers
Dates
Circa 1885, 1900-1963 (inclusive)
Quantity
67.5 linear feet, (111 archival boxes, 1 oversize box, 3 oversize volumes, and 1 reel of microfilm)
Collection Number
Mss 002
Summary
This collection contains personal and professional papers, financial records, photographic materials, and general corporate records generated and/or collected by Walter H. McLeod as an official of the Missoula Mercantile Company and regional business leader in western Montana. The collection documents the rural mercantile business, politics, and the personal business of one of western Montana's most prominent families.
Repository
University of Montana, Mansfield Library, Archives and Special Collections
Archives and Special Collections
Maureen and Mike Mansfield Library
University of Montana
32 Campus Dr. #9936
59812-9936
Missoula, MT
Telephone: 406-243-2053
library.archives@umontana.edu
Access Restrictions

Researchers must use collection in accordance with the policies of Archives and Special Collections, the Maureen and Mike Mansfield Library, and The University of Montana-Missoula.

Languages
English
Sponsor
Funding for encoding this finding aid was provided through a grant awarded by the National Endowment for the Humanities. Funding for preparing this finding aid was provided through a grant awarded by the National Historic Publications and Records Commission.
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Biographical Note

Walter H. McLeod was born in Missoula, Montana, on September 30, 1887 to Charles Herbert and Clara Louise (Beckwith) McLeod. He graduated from Missoula County High School and continued his education at the University of Montana, where he was a member of the Sigma Chi fraternity.

He left college to begin his career with his father's Missoula Mercantile Company in 1911. In 1920 he became Vice President and in 1941, upon the retirement of his father, he became president of the Mercantile and of the Kalispell Mercantile Company. He became president of the Hotel Florence Company in 1939 and of the Demers Mercantile Company in Arlee, Montana, in 1942. He was also a director of the Hammond Lumber Company of San Francisco from 1941 to 1958, the Northern Pacific Railroad Company from 1948-1961, the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis from 1948 to 1950, the Montana Power Company from 1955 to 1962, and the Montana Taxpayers Association from 1944 to 1961. Long active in Republican politics, he never entered public service directly, but the Mercantile provided considerable support for Republican interests.

The Missoula Mercantile and its branches and affiliates were one of the largest business concerns of the Pacific Northwest. Allied Stores Corporation purchased the Missoula Mercantile Company in 1959 for $1,056,000.

He was also active in the Boy Scouts of America; Missoula Lodge, Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks; Rotary Club of Missoula; Missoula Chamber of Commerce; and the Missoula Country Club.

McLeod married Olive Wheeler, daughter of Charles S. and Lillian (Marsh) Wheeler in San Francisco in 1915. They had three children: Olive Brewster, Walter Herbert Jr., and Clara Marsh. McLeod died in Missoula on September 13, 1963.

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Content Description

This collection contains personal and professional papers, financial records, photographic materials, and general corporate records generated and/or collected by Walter H. McLeod as an official of the Missoula Mercantile Company and regional business leader in western Montana. In conjunction with the papers of Charles H. McLeod, Walter's father, these materials constitute one of the Pacific Northwest's most detailed assemblages of rural general merchandising operations. Additionally, collection materials provide significant insights into interrelationships between Montana's most prominent economic enterprises during the middle decades of the 20th Century.

The Northern Pacific Railroad, the Montana Power Company, the Missoula Mercantile Company, and the Anaconda Copper Mining Company formed the economic nucleus for western Montana through most of the late nineteenth and twentieth century. Walter McLeod was a primary stockholder and corporate director with three of these enterprises and a close business associate of the fourth, the Anaconda Company. Additionally, he served as a director for the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis and the Montana Taxpayers Association. From the production and harvest of raw materials to wholesale and retail distribution, from power generation and delivery to mass transportation, Walter McLeod was among the most highly connected and influential Montana business leaders of the mid-twentieth century. As documented in the correspondence, legal documents, and financial records of this collection the Missoula Mercantile Company dominated the retail and commercial supply trades throughout the region for half a century. Collection materials also reveal McLeod family commitments to maintaining diverse and flexible business operations as well as involvement in local, state, and regional politics.

Materials in this collection also document the role extended family played in McLeod family business decisions and daily life. In the majority of Missoula Mercantile Company subsidiaries, the boards of directors and primary shareholders were members of the extended McLeod family. The correspondence series contains extensive sequences of correspondence between family members, often seamlessly transitioning between business and personal topics. Walter McLeod's daughters and female relatives constitute a major portion of this correspondence material and, thus, present an unusually concentrated source of mid-twentieth century feminine perspectives on family, business, and life in the American west.

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Use of the Collection

Restrictions on Use

Researchers are responsible for using in accordance with 17 U.S.C. and any other applicable statutes. Copyright not transferred to The University of Montana.

Preferred Citation

[Name of document or photograph number], Walter H. McLeod Papers, Archives and Special Collections, Maureen and Mike Mansfield Library, The University of Montana-Missoula.

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Administrative Information

Arrangement

The collection is divided into twenty-six series:

Series I: Biographical and Personal, 1949-1962, 3 folders

Series II: Correspondence, 1910-1963, 39.25 linear feet and one reel of microfilm

Series III: Missoula Mercantile, 1900-1963, 3.25 linear feet

Subseries 1: Interoffice Correspondence, 1937-1963, 1.0 linear feet

Subseries 2: Financial Records, 1930, 1941-1959, 1.0 linear feet

Subseries 3: Legal, 1900-1962, 1.0 linear feet

Subseries 4: Management, 1913, 1945-1962, 0.25 linear feet

Series IV: Beckwith Mercantile, 1948-1950, 1 folder

Series V: Bozeman Feed and Grain, 1933-1954, 0.25 linear feet

Series VI: Business Properties Securities Company, 1930-1960, 0.25 linear feet

Series VII: Demers Mercantile, 1912-1960, 0.25 linear feet

Series VIII: Eddy, Hammond Company, 1949-1953, 1 folder

Series IX: Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis, 1947-1949, 0.5 linear feet

Series X: Florence Hotel, 1936-1963, 8.0 linear feet

Subseries 1: Correspondence, 1937-1943, 2.25 linear feet

Subseries 2: Subject File, 1936-1941, 0.75 linear feet

Subseries 3: Financial, 1939-1962, 4.5 linear feet

Subseries 4: Legal, 1939-1940, 1 folder

Subseries 5: Management, 1939-1963, 0.5 linear feet

Subseries 6: Printed Material, 1940-1942, 3 folders

Series XI: Garden City Block Company, 1948, 1 folder

Series XII: Hamilton Feed and Grain, 1939-1948, 0.25 linear feet

Series XIII: A. B. Hammond Company, 1951-1955, 1 folder

Series XIV: Hammond Lumber Company, 1945-1955, 0.75 linear feet

Series XV: Kalispell Feed and Grain Company, 1943-1945, 1 folder

Series XVI: Kalispell Grocery Company, 1947-1953, 0.25 linear feet and three oversize volumes

Series XVII: Kalispell Mercantile Company, 1943-1962, 0.75 linear feet

Series XVIII: Missoula Feed and Grain Company, 1923-1954, 0.25 linear feet

Series XIX: Montana Mercantile Company, 1959-1962, 3 folders

Series XX: Montana Power Company, 1943-1962, 0.5 linear feet

Series XXI: New Finlen Hotel Company, 1946, 1 folder

Series XXII: Northern Pacific Railroad, 1945-1961, 2.5 linear feet

Subseries 1: General, 1945-1961, 1.75 linear feet

Subseries 2: Northwestern Improvement Company, 1953-1956, 0.75 linear feet

Series XXIII: South Missoula Land Company, 1947, 1 folder

Series XXIV: Clippings, 1939-1963, 0.5 linear feet

Series XXV: Printed Materials, 1930-1963, 2.25 linear feet

Series XXVI: Photographs, circa 1885, 1908-1960, 0.5 linear feet

Acquisition Information

Gift of Olive Haugen, 1965 and 1969.

Processing Note

The materials in this collection were originally processed in three separate collections: LC 2, LC 56, and LC 171. In 2003 all Walter H. McLeod materials were integrated into one manuscript collection (Mss 002). During this reprocessing 13 bound volumes originally associated with the Charles H. McLeod Papers (Mss 001) were integrated into the Walter H. McLeod papers (Mss 002). Ten of the thirteen volumes were rehoused within archival boxes for preservation purposes. Transfer of these volumes to the current collection was based primarily on the span of years for each bound record, cross-referenced with the date of Walter's ascension to primary management of McLeod family investments. In addition, all photographs separated during original processing were reintergrated with the manuscript collection and all previously unprocessed photographs were fully processed and described within the collection.

Also, in 2003 some photographs that had long been held in the Charles H. McLeod Papers (Mss 001), were transferred to the Walter H. McLeod Papers (Mss 002). In 2011 those photographs were returned to the Charles H. McLeod Papers (Mss 001) as provenance records and earlier processing labels indicate that they were donated with the bulk of the other materials in Mss 001. The transferred photograph numbers are 76-101 through 76-119 and 78-45 through 78-85.

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Detailed Description of the Collection

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Subject Terms

Corporate Names

Family Names

Geographical Names

Form or Genre Terms

Occupations

Other Creators

Finding aid prepared by Dale Johnson (ca. 1965 and 1969) and Jennifer Lodine-Chaffey, Jennifer Rose, Ann Sullivan, and Jack Rowan (2004)
2004

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