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Daniel S. McCorkle papers, 1910-1974

Overview of the Collection

Creator
McCorkle, Daniel Spencer, 1880-1956
Title
Daniel S. McCorkle papers
Dates
1910-1974 (inclusive)
Quantity
3.5 linear feet of shelf space
Collection Number
MC 59 (collection)
Summary
Daniel McCorkle (1880-1956) was a Presbyterian minister in Sunrise, WY, and Conrad, Montana. The collection contains general correspondence (1911-1956), subject files (1910-1956), writings (1912-1953); and other materials documenting his works as a minister, social worker, educator, and socialist. There is a small subgroup about Dorothy Floerchinger's biography of McCorkle, To Speak of Love Was Not Enough.
Repository
Montana Historical Society, Library & Archives
Montana Historical Society Research Center Archives
225 North Roberts
PO Box 201201
Helena MT
59620-1201
Telephone: 4064442681
Fax: 4064445297
mhslibrary@mt.gov
Access Restrictions

Collection open for research.

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

Daniel Spencer McCorkle was born on March 29, 1880, in Ridge Prairie, Missouri, the son of Archibald and Hepsabeth McCorkle. He received his early education at area schools while working on his father's farm. In 1903 McCorkle entered Missouri Valley College (Presbyterian), located in Marshall, Missouri. He worked as a farm hand in the Midwest during the summers between 1903 and his graduation in 1909. After graduation, he joined the Socialist Party and organized a chapter of the Intercollegiate Socialist Society on the Missouri Valley campus. In 1910 he enrolled at the Union Theological Seminary in New York City, while studying for a master's degree in sociology at Columbia University. In the summer of 1911 he wrote his master's thesis, "An Agricultural Community, or the Social Phenomena of a Rural District," based upon his experiences as a miner in Bearcreek, Montana. In 1913 after graduation from the seminary, he met Panayiota Alexandrakis, a Greek immigrant and graduate of Springfield International College. They married a year later and moved to Sunrise, WY, where McCorkle served as a Presbyterian minister. Improving the life of the miners and their families in the Colorado Fuel and Iron Company-controlled town became one of McCorkle's major goals. As a part of his effort, he testified in 1915 before the United States Commission on Industrial Relations. McCorkle was elected as moderator of the Cheyenne Presbytery in 1916. However, early the following year his wife's failing health necessitated a move to Chance, Montana, where McCorkle served as a circuit minister while teaching at Bearcreek High School. In 1930 the McCorkles and their two sons moved to Conrad, Montana, where he became Presbyterian minister for the town and surrounding farm region. In succeeding years, Conrad was the center for the many activities McCorkle pursued. In 1941, McCorkle was appointed by Governor Sam C. Ford to the Board of Public Welfare. He used this position to publicize the plight of the mentally ill and the retarded. Encouraged by public support, he established the Montana Welfare Association in 1947, to extend the work of the State Board of Public Welfare. Throughout his life, McCorkle maintained his membership in the Socialist Party, an often unpopular stance, which caused some difficulty in his ministerial career. He continued his public work until his death in July 1956.

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Content Description

This collection consists of general correspondence (composed in part of incoming and outgoing correspondence without reciprocal response), financial records, legal documents, subject files, writings reflecting McCorkle's various interests, clippings, and miscellany. The collection documents his efforts as a Presbyterian minister, educator, and social worker, and his involvement in the Socialist Party. The General Correspondence series (1911-1956) includes correspondence with other Presbyterian ministers, and with a variety of political and social organizations. Correspondents include the Intercollegiate Socialist Society, the Presbyterian Church, E.S. Gaddis of the Colorado Fuel and Iron Company, the United Mine Workers of America, the U.S. Industrial Relations Commission, S.K. Markley, Robert S. Lynd, the Montana Education Association, the Montana School Boards Association, the Montana Board of Public Welfare, and various other Montana state agencies. The Financial Records series (1915-1955) consists of receipts and statements. The Legal Documents series (1919, 1924) contains an agreement and a lease. The Subject Files series (1910-1956, undated) includes files on agriculture; the Intercollegiate Socialist Society; labor in Montana, WY, and Colorado; the Montana State Board of Public Welfare; the Montana State Industrial School and other Montana state institutions; the Montana Welfare Association; the National Popular Government League; the peace movement; the Presbyterian Church, including the WY Presbytery; public education; the Socialist Party in Conrad, Montana; McCorkle's testimony before the U.S. Industrial Relations Commission; and a file on Sunrise, WY. The Miscellany series (1910-1951, 1972, undated) includes a printed biography of Daniel McCorkle's father entitled "Rev. Archibald McCorkle, Pioneer Minister and Teacher of the Cumberland Presbyterian Church in Missouri and Texas, 1795-1870," by the Rev. Louis McCorkle, published by the Memphis Theological Seminary in 1972. A small subgroup, Dorothy Floerchinger Subgroup, contains correspondence (1967, 1973-1974) relating to Floerchinger's biography of McCorkle, To Speak of Love Was Not Enough, and hand-written fragments of the biography.

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Use of the Collection

Restrictions on Use

Researchers must use collection in accordance with the policies of the Montana Historical Society. The Society does not necessarily hold copyright to all materials in the collection. In some cases permission for use may require additional authorization from the copyright owners. For more information contact an archivist.

Preferred Citation

Item description and date. Collection Title. Collection Number. Box and Folder numbers. Montana Historical Society Research Center, Archives, Helena, Montana.

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Administrative Information

Arrangement

Arranged by subgroup and series

Location of Collection

4:3-5

Acquisition Information

Acquisition information available upon request

Separated Materials

Photographs separated to Photo Archives. See inventory below for more information.

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Detailed Description of the Collection

Detailed Description of the Collection

The following section contains a detailed listing of the materials in the collection

  • Daniel S. McCorkle

    • General Correspondence

    • Financial Records

    • Legal Documents

      • Description: Miscellaneous (includes lease of house in Park County, WY; life insurance agreement)
        Dates: 1919, 1932
        Container: Box/Folder 4 / 10
        Location: Daniel S. McCorkle / Legal Documents

    • Photographs

    • Subject Files

      • Description: Agriculture (includes brochures, resolution of Farmers Union, description of Canyon Creek neighborhood in Billings)
        Dates: 1945-1947, undated
        Container: Box/Folder 4 / 12
        Location: Daniel S. McCorkle / Subject Files
      • Description: Government (includes Progressive Party of Montana bulletin, Cascade County Legislative Committee notes on legislature, press release by Earl Warren)
        Dates: 1946-1951
        Container: Box/Folder 4 / 13
        Location: Daniel S. McCorkle / Subject Files
      • Description: Intercollegiate Socialist Society
        Dates: 1911-1913
        Container: Box/Folder 4 / 14
        Location: Daniel S. McCorkle / Subject Files
      • Description: Labor: Montana, Wyoming, Colorado (includes Bearcreek United Mine Workers union dues card, People's Cooperative Society dues book, Colorado Fuel and Iron Company labor contract, "Lawson Case: a Brief History," "The War on Colorado Miners," "The Church and Industrial Warfare: a Report on the Labor Troubles in Colorado and Michigan,")
        Dates: 1910-1928
        Container: Box/Folder 4 / 15
        Location: Daniel S. McCorkle / Subject Files
      • Description: Labor: miscellaneous (includes "Labor Temple Bulletin," "Sacco-Venzetti Bulletin," writings by Frank P. Walsh, National Mooney-Billings Committee, The People's Lobby, socialist pamphlets)
        Dates: 1911 - circa 1940s
        Container: Box/Folder 4 / 16
        Location: Daniel S. McCorkle / Subject Files
      • Description: Montana. Board of Public Welfare (includes agendas, circulars, etc.)
        Dates: 1941-1947, undated
        Container: Box/Folder 4 / 17
        Location: Daniel S. McCorkle / Subject Files
      • Description: Montana. Board of Public Welfare (includes financial and statistical data)
        Dates: 1937-1949, undated
        Container: Box/Folder 5 / 1-2
        Location: Daniel S. McCorkle / Subject Files
      • Description: Montana. Board of Public Welfare (includes minutes)
        Dates: 1942-1944
        Container: Box/Folder 5 / 3
        Location: Daniel S. McCorkle / Subject Files
      • Description: Montana. Board of Public Welfare (includes publications)
        Dates: 1946-1952
        Container: Box/Folder 5 / 4
        Location: Daniel S. McCorkle / Subject Files
      • Description: Montana. State Industrial School (includes report on conditions, 1951; bulletins; etc.)
        Dates: 1942-1955
        Container: Box/Folder 5 / 5
        Location: Daniel S. McCorkle / Subject Files
      • Description: Montana. Governor's Committee on Mental Health (includes minutes, reports on State Hospital at Warm Springs, State Training School at Boulder, etc.)
        Dates: 1942-1956
        Container: Box/Folder 6 / 1
        Location: Daniel S. McCorkle / Subject Files
      • Description: Montana Welfare Association (includes constitution, membership lists, circular letters, agendas, minutes, etc.)
        Dates: 1946-1952, undated
        Container: Box/Folder 6 / 2
        Location: Daniel S. McCorkle / Subject Files
      • Description: National Popular Government Association (includes news bulletins, financial reports, Judson King articles)
        Dates: 1918-1951, undated
        Container: Box/Folder 6 / 3
        Location: Daniel S. McCorkle / Subject Files
      • Description: Peace movement (includes materials of Organization of American Women for Strict Neutrality, Presbyterian Church, National Council for the Prevention of War, American Civil Liberties Union, Montana A.P.C. Peace Pilgrimage, emergency Committee of Atomic Scientists)
        Dates: 1915-1951, undated
        Container: Box/Folder 6 / 4
        Location: Daniel S. McCorkle / Subject Files
      • Description: Presbyterian Church and WY Presbytery (includes publications, reports, application for financial support, minutes of Sheridan Presbytery, salary subscriptions)
        Dates: 1912-1926, 1943, undated
        Container: Box/Folder 6 / 5
        Location: Daniel S. McCorkle / Subject Files
      • Description: Public education (includes minutes of community meetings of Council for the Improvement of Public Education, reports, petitions, financial data sheets, circular letters, etc.)
        Dates: 1947-1952, undated
        Container: Box/Folder 6 / 6
        Location: Daniel S. McCorkle / Subject Files
      • Description: Public education: publications and writings (includes exerpts from thesis by Agnes B. Wiggenhorn, "Administration and Reorganization of Montana School Districts," "Report of the Montana Committee on Public Elementary and Secondary School Organization and Finance," public education section of Montana Constitution, proposed legislation, "The Function of Education in a Democracy," by Alexander Rosen)
        Dates: 1918-1953, undated
        Container: Box/Folder 6 / 7-8
        Location: Daniel S. McCorkle / Subject Files
      • Description: Socialist Party, Conrad, Mont. (includes account book, application for charter, minutes, membership cards)
        Dates: 1912-1916, 1932
        Container: Box/Folder 7 / 1
        Location: Daniel S. McCorkle / Subject Files
      • Description: Socialist Party (national: includes constitution, pamphlets, Arizona Socialist Bulletin re Clifton miners' strike, application for charter, minutes, membership cards)
        Dates: 1912-1932
        Container: Box/Folder 7 / 2
        Location: Daniel S. McCorkle / Subject Files
      • Description: Sunrise, WY (includes Colorado Fuel and Iron Company Industrial Bulletin, proposed constitution for non-denominational Church, petition against liquor, wage scale, petition for a new hall, list of residents,)
        Dates: 1915-1917
        Container: Box/Folder 7 / 3
        Location: Daniel S. McCorkle / Subject Files
      • Description: U.S. Industrial Relations Commission testimony of Daniel McCorkle (re conditions at Colorado Fuel and Iron Company camp at Sunrise, WY)
        Dates: 1915
        Container: Box/Folder 7 / 4
        Location: Daniel S. McCorkle / Subject Files

    • Writings

      • Description: Miscellaneous (includes "A Purchased Conviction," "Twenty Months in a Mining Camp," "Liberty for John Lawson," "Farm Incomes in Wayne County, Ohio," "Alexander Miller," "Politics, Religion and Coal," "The Political Boss of Cheyenne Presbytery," "Conditions at Sunrise, WY," "Remember Lawrence [Mass.]," "The labor Union as the Greatest Moral Force of the Present Age," "What Became of Sabre-Tooth?" "Labor Haters," "The Pondera Duckling")
        Dates: 1912-1919, undated
        Container: Box/Folder 7 / 5
        Location: Daniel S. McCorkle / Writings
      • Description: Miscellaneous (mostly untitled and fragments: re Montana State Hospital, Montana State Industrial School, Industrial Conditions Committee of Y.M.C.A., Ohio Rural Life Survey, etc.)
        Dates: 1932-1953, undated
        Container: Box/Folder 7 / 6
        Location: Daniel S. McCorkle / Writings
      • Description: Robert Wells Rogers (includes "The Reverent Life," "Normal World Federation," "A New Civilization," "What Will Win")
        Dates: 1945, undated
        Container: Box/Folder 7 / 7
        Location: Daniel S. McCorkle / Writings

    • Miscellany

      • Description: "Rev. Archibald McCorkle: Pioneer Minister and Teacher of the Cumberland Presbyterian Church in Missouri and Texas, 1795-1870," by Louis McCorkle
        Dates: 1972
        Container: Box/Folder 8 / 1
        Location: Daniel S. McCorkle / Miscellany
      • Description: Pamphlets, flyers, reports on conditions of farm workers, outline of thesis on Bear Creek, etc. [no order]
        Dates: 1910-1951, undated
        Container: Box/Folder 8 / 2
        Location: Daniel S. McCorkle / Miscellany

    • Clippings

      • Description: Miscellaneous (re Sunrise, WY, John Lawson, Industrial Commission, labor, Centralia, Wash., Belgium, etc. [no order])
        Dates: 1913-1932, undated
        Container: Box/Folder 8 / 3
        Location: Daniel S. McCorkle / Clippings
      • Description: Miscellaneous (re education, race relations, mental hospitals, McCarran Act, farm cooperatives, Montana State Industrial School, etc. [no order])
        Dates: 1942-1953, undated
        Container: Box/Folder 8 / 4
        Location: Daniel S. McCorkle / Clippings

  • Dorothy Floerchinger

    • Incoming Correspondence

    • Writings

      • Description: To Speak of Love Was Not Enough, (draft of portion of one chapter)
        Dates: undated
        Container: Box/Folder 8 / 6
        Location: Dorothy Floerchinger / Writings

Names and SubjectsReturn to Top

Subject Terms

  • Clergy--Montana
  • Coal mines and mining--WY
  • High schools--Montana
  • Labor and laboring classes--Montana
  • Pacifism
  • Political parties--Montana
  • Presbyterian Church
  • Reformatories--Montana
  • Teachers--Montana

Personal Names

  • McCorkle, Daniel Spencer, 1880-1956 (creator)

Geographical Names

  • Bearcreek (Mont.)
  • Bearcreek (Mont.)--Church history
  • Chance (Mont.)
  • Clark (WY)--Religious life and customs
  • Conrad (Mont.)--Religious life and customs
  • Empire (WY)--Church records
  • Jay Em (WY)--Church records
  • Sunrise (WY)
  • WY

Finding aid prepared by MHS staff
2008

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This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

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