Montana Historical SocietyArchives
MC 59
McCorkle, Daniel Spencer,
1880-1956
Daniel S. McCorkle papers
1910-1974
3.5 linear feet of shelf space
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.
4:3-5
English
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.
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.
Arranged by subgroup and series
Collection open for research.
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.
Item description and date. Collection Title. Collection Number. Box and Folder numbers.
Montana Historical Society Research Center, Archives, Helena, Montana.
Acquisition information available upon request
Photographs separated to Photo Archives. See inventory below for more information.
This collection is indexed under the following headings in the Montana Historical Society
Archives catalog. Researchers desiring materials about related topics, persons, or places
should search under these terms.
McCorkle, Daniel Spencer,
1880-1956
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
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
Montana
Mines and Mineral Resources
Religion
Detailed Description of the Collection
The following section contains a detailed listing of the materials in the collection
Daniel S. McCorkle
General Correspondence
1 / 1
American Civil Liberties Union (Roger N. Baldwin)
1923-1938
1 / 2
A (correspondents include Penayiota Alexandrakis,
Archie Allison, American Association for Labor Legislation, William F. Anderson,
Anti-Saloon League of Colorado, Appeal to Reason, Ella V. Archer, I.P. Axtell)
1911-1948
1 / 3
Ba-Bl (correspondents include H.W. Bainton, Bank of
Marshall [Missouri], Ira W. Barnett, Bear Creek Schools, Leslie A. Bechtel, L.M.
Berry, W.H. Bessire, George E. Bevans, Philip S. Bird, Hugo L. Black)
1914-1948
1 / 4
Bo-Bu (correspondents include A.M. Boggs, John W.
Bonner, G.A. Bosley, W.T. Boult, Harry L. Bowlby, Boy Scouts of America, Ward F.
Boyd, Isabel Bradshaw, Frank W. Bretnall, William Adams Brown)
1912-1956
1 / 5
Colorado Fuel and Iron Company (Sunrise, WY)
1915-1916
1 / 6
Congregational Home Missionary Society
1914-1917
1 / 7
C (correspondents include Ethelyn Campbell, George
W. Campbell, James Campbell, Centralia [Washington] Publicity Committee, Eva Maxey
Chenault, Lill Christiana, P.A. Chronopoulos, G.L. Clark, George A. Coe, Henry
Sloane Coffin, Colorado Supply Company, Comfort, Calvin Coolidge, J.D. Currens)
1911-1948
1 / 8
Edward E. DeLong (Alexis, IL)
1916
1 / 9
William T. Dumm (Guernsey and Cheyenne, WY)
1914-1916
1 / 10
D (correspondents include Freeman Daughters, D.M.
Davies, Sheldon E. Davis, [Eugene V.] Debs Memorial Radio Fund, Wesley D'Ewart, C.C.
Dexter, Joseph M. Dixon, Bayard Dodge)
1911-1952
1 / 11
E (correspondents include William Eadie, Fred
Eastman, Zales N. Ecton, Educational Co-operative Publishing Company, Dwight D.
Eisenhower, Samuel Ekstein, A.T. Ely, Emergency Committee of Atomic Scientists
[Albert Einstein], Louis Espenhain)
1912-1952
1 / 12
Charles P. Fagnani (Union Theological Seminary)
1915-1923
1 / 13
Farmers Educational and Cooperative Union / Farmers
Union News (Leonard Kenfield)
1914-1953
1 / 14
Ralph A. Felton (Presbyterian Church. Board of Home
Missions)
1915-1923
1 / 15
F (correspondents include W.C. Faucette, Federal
Council of Churches of Christ in America, E.H. Fellbaum, John A. Fitch, Dorothy
Floerchinger, Elizabeth Gurley Flynn, Henry Ford)
1911-1949
1 / 16-17
E.S. Gaddis (chaplain, Colorado Fuel and Iron
Company. Department of Sociology, Trinidad, CO)
1914-1915
1 / 18
J.B.. Gallaway (Bushnell, NE)
1916
1 / 19
G (correspondents include Marion G. Giffen, George
M. Gordon)
1912-1955
1 / 20
E.S. and Freda Hall (Belfry, MT)
1921-1948
1 / 21
F.T. Heatley (Lingle, WY)
1915-1917
1 / 22
Grace Raymond Hebard (University of Wyoming
Librarian)
1914-1917
1 / 23
H (correspondents include Herbert H. Haight, Floyd
Hamilton, Clement S. Hanna, David E. Hannum, Warren G. Harding, A. Haywood, Hubert
C. Herring, C.T. Hodsdon, A.E. Hoffman, John Haynes Holmes, E.L. Holsinger,
Homestead Land and Loan League, Herbert Hoover, E. Huntington)
1913-1952
1 / 24
Intercollegiate Socialist Society
1911-1913
1 / 25
I (correspondents include Benjamin Iorns, A.B.
Irwin)
1916-1926
1 / 26
H. Jacobs (Jay Em, WY)
1916-1918
1 / 27
J-K (correspondents include Harry E. Johnston, Mrs.
Oscar Kalgaard, Florence Kelley, Glenn Kellogg, E.E. Kelso [Belfry Home Guard],
Judson King, James F. Kittleson, James W. Knorr, Jay Knox, Carl Kraenzel)
1911-1952
1 / 28
Lawrence, Massachusetts (re strike)
1912
1 / 29
M. DeWitt Long (Sheridan, WY)
1915-1921
1 / 30
Robert S. Lynd (New York, NY)
1921-1923, 1953
1 / 31
L (correspondents include Robert LaFollette
campaign, Scott Leavitt, Samuel H. Lee, Robert C. Line, S.R. Logan, Gertrude Looker,
Lord's Day Alliance, George H. Lowry)
1915-1952
2 / 1
S.K. Markley (Hillsdale, WY)
1916-1926
2 / 2
R.R. Marquis (Basin and Sheridan, WY)
1916-1930
2 / 3
McCorkle family (includes A.R., Benjamin R., Hugh,
Penayiota, Virginia, William E.)
1914-1944
2 / 4
David S. McMartin (Cheyenne, WY)
1919-1923
2 / 5
Mc (correspondents include J.E. McAfee, Francis J.
McConnell [Workers Defense League], Helen B. McGregor, Ray McKaig, Mrs. E.R. McLean)
1915-1952
2 / 6-9
Montana. Board of Public Welfare
1941-1950
2 / 10
Montana. Dept. of Public Instruction / State Board
of Education (includes May Trumper, Elizabeth Ireland, Mary Condon)
1922-1950
2 / 11
Montana. Governor (includes Sam C. Ford, John W.
Bonner)
1943-1952
2 / 12
Montana. Governor's Committee on Mental Health
1954
2 / 13
Montana State Hospital (Warm Springs)
1947-1949
2 / 14
Montana State Industrial School (Miles City)
1951-1952
2 / 15
Montana State Training School (Boulder)
1950-1951
2 / 16
Montana. [miscellaneous state agencies]
1924-1951
2 / 17
Montana Education Association
1929
2 / 18
Montana Federation of Women's Clubs
1947-1953
2 / 19
Montana School Boards Association
1946-1952
2 / 20
Montana Welfare Association
1947-1951
2 / 21
M (correspondents include Norman Maclean, Byron
Martin, Louisa Martin, The Masses Publishing Company, Maudlow Schools, Lillie
Miller, J.W. Mitchell, George Morast, James Morgan, James E. Murray, Anna Musselman)
1912-1956
2 / 22
National Popular Government League
1920-1951
2 / 23
Clarence A. Neff (Foochow College, China)
1912-1924
2 / 24
Millard F. Newport (Basin, WY)
1916-1917
2 / 25
N (correspondents include National Child Labor
Committee, National Council for the Prevention of War, National Mental Health
Foundation, National Nonpartisan League, George T. Needels, New York City Mission
Society)
1912-1950
2 / 26
O (correspondents include James F. O'Connor,
Richard B. Owen)
1911-1952
2 / 27
W.E. Patton (LaGrange, WY)
1916-1923
2 / 28
Platte County (WY) Library, Sheriff,
Commissioners, etc.
1915-1917
3 / 1-6
Presbyterian Church. Board of Home Missions
1912-1928, 1950
3 / 7
P (correspondents include Paul J. Paulsen, John M.
Penick, People's Voice, Fred W. Pfifer, William B. Phillips, William Pippy, Prairie
County schools)
1912-1950
3 / 8
R (correspondents include Frank A. Reed, Ronan
Public Schools, Roundup City Schools, O.O. Russell, S.C. Ryland)
1913-1950
3 / 9
D. Augustus Shetler; Florence Shetler (Sunrise,
WY)
1916
3 / 10
Socialist Party
1911-1939
3 / 11
The Survey
1912-1946
3 / 12
S (correspondents include Huyett Sangree, Ted R.
Schoenborn, Laurens Seelye, Harry G. Simpson, Newell S. Sims, Nicholas B. Skuris,
Sons of American Revolution, Mike Stamanolakis, Sergius Stchukin, Charles Stelzle,
August Stocker, Paul Moore Strayer, Herbert Sturges, Sweet Grass School District)
1912-1952
3 / 13
F.W. Thomas (Shawnee, WY)
1916
3 / 14
T (correspondents include Russel Taylor, Teton
County schools, Norman Thomas, Lester A. Thompson, G.W. Tobin, Joseph E. Tope, Myron
Tripp)
1912-1950
3 / 15
Union Theological Seminary
1912-1948
3 / 16
United Mine Workers of America
1915-1917
3 / 17
United States. Industrial Relations Commission
1915
3 / 18
U (correspondents include United States Bureau of
Plant Industry, United States Attorney General, United States Bureau of Census,
United States Commission on Colorado Mines and Labor, United States Forest Service,
United States Immigration Service, to Utah Governor urging mercy for Joe Hill)
1911-1939
3 / 19
V (correspondents include Vasilike Vaitses, George
F. Vanderveer, Tertius Van Dyke, J.H. Varner, Willys Violett, John R. Voris)
1913-1952
3 / 20
William L. Wade (Wheatland, WY)
1916-1918
3 / 21
Frank P. Walsh (Kansas City, MO]
1914-1926, undated
3 / 22
J.R. Walter (Powell, WY)
1925
3 / 23
Burton K. Wheeler
1938-1945
4 / 1
Lloyd T. Williams (New York, NY)
1914-1924
4 / 2
Warren H. Wilson (New York, NY)
1913-1914, undated
4 / 3
Wisconsin Rural Schools Association
1949
4 / 4
Burton H. Woodford (Guernsey, WY)
1914-1915
4 / 5
Wyoming Labor Journal / Wyoming State Federation of
Labor (Harry W. Fox)
1915-1925
4 / 6
W (correspondents include Thomas J. Walsh, Hazel
Walter, Booker T. Washington, Rufus W. Weeks, William Weldon, Wheatland (WY)
Hospital, M.L. Wilson, William B. Wilson, Cline H. Witteman, Milus Womack, George
Woodard, Miriam L. Woodberry, Woodmen of the World, Ralph M. Woolley, Frank Wynkoop,
WY Anti-Saloon League, WY Children's Home Society, WY Public Health
Association, WY Trust and Savings Bank)
1912-1952
4 / 7
Y (correspondents include Young Men's Christian
Association [YMCA], Gilford Youst)
1915-1923
4 / 8
Unidentified
1913-1954
Financial Records
4 / 9
Miscellaneous (includes bills and receipts)
1915-1955
Legal Documents
4 / 10
Miscellaneous (includes lease of house in Park
County, WY; life insurance agreement)
1919, 1932
Photographs
4 / 11
List of photographs transferred to Photo Archives
Subject Files
4 / 12
Agriculture (includes brochures, resolution of
Farmers Union, description of Canyon Creek neighborhood in Billings)
1945-1947, undated
4 / 13
Government (includes Progressive Party of Montana
bulletin, Cascade County Legislative Committee notes on legislature, press release
by Earl Warren)
1946-1951
4 / 14
Intercollegiate Socialist Society
1911-1913
4 / 15
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,")
1910-1928
4 / 16
Labor: miscellaneous (includes "Labor Temple
Bulletin," "Sacco-Venzetti Bulletin," writings by Frank P. Walsh, National
Mooney-Billings Committee, The People's Lobby, socialist pamphlets)
1911 - circa 1940s
4 / 17
Montana. Board of Public Welfare (includes agendas,
circulars, etc.)
1941-1947, undated
5 / 1-2
Montana. Board of Public Welfare (includes
financial and statistical data)
1937-1949, undated
5 / 3
Montana. Board of Public Welfare (includes minutes)
1942-1944
5 / 4
Montana. Board of Public Welfare (includes
publications)
1946-1952
5 / 5
Montana. State Industrial School (includes report
on conditions, 1951; bulletins; etc.)
1942-1955
6 / 1
Montana. Governor's Committee on Mental Health
(includes minutes, reports on State Hospital at Warm Springs, State Training School
at Boulder, etc.)
1942-1956
6 / 2
Montana Welfare Association (includes constitution,
membership lists, circular letters, agendas, minutes, etc.)
1946-1952, undated
6 / 3
National Popular Government Association (includes
news bulletins, financial reports, Judson King articles)
1918-1951, undated
6 / 4
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)
1915-1951, undated
6 / 5
Presbyterian Church and WY Presbytery
(includes publications, reports, application for financial support, minutes of
Sheridan Presbytery, salary subscriptions)
1912-1926, 1943, undated
6 / 6
Public education (includes minutes of community
meetings of Council for the Improvement of Public Education, reports, petitions,
financial data sheets, circular letters, etc.)
1947-1952, undated
6 / 7-8
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)
1918-1953, undated
7 / 1
Socialist Party, Conrad, Mont. (includes account
book, application for charter, minutes, membership cards)
1912-1916, 1932
7 / 2
Socialist Party (national: includes constitution,
pamphlets, Arizona Socialist Bulletin re Clifton miners' strike, application for
charter, minutes, membership cards)
1912-1932
7 / 3
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,)
1915-1917
7 / 4
U.S. Industrial Relations Commission testimony of
Daniel McCorkle (re conditions at Colorado Fuel and Iron Company camp at Sunrise,
WY)
1915
Writings
7 / 5
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")
1912-1919, undated
7 / 6
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.)
1932-1953, undated
7 / 7
Robert Wells Rogers (includes "The Reverent Life,"
"Normal World Federation," "A New Civilization," "What Will Win")
1945, undated
Miscellany
8 / 1
"Rev. Archibald McCorkle: Pioneer Minister and
Teacher of the Cumberland Presbyterian Church in Missouri and Texas, 1795-1870," by
Louis McCorkle
1972
8 / 2
Pamphlets, flyers, reports on conditions of farm
workers, outline of thesis on Bear Creek, etc. [no order]
1910-1951, undated
Clippings
8 / 3
Miscellaneous (re Sunrise, WY, John Lawson,
Industrial Commission, labor, Centralia, Wash., Belgium, etc. [no order])
1913-1932, undated
8 / 4
Miscellaneous (re education, race relations, mental
hospitals, McCarran Act, farm cooperatives, Montana State Industrial School, etc.
[no order])
1942-1953, undated
Dorothy Floerchinger
Incoming Correspondence
8 / 5
Re Daniel McCorkle (correspondents include Anne
Needham, Harry L. Billings)
1967, 1973-1974
Writings
8 / 6
To Speak of Love Was Not Enough, (draft of portion
of one chapter)
undated