Collection is open for research.
Gifts of Martha Sprague Hurley, May 1976 and July 1990.
Charles Arthur Sprague was born in Lawrence, Kansas, on November 12, 1887. He attended Monmouth College in Illinois, where he was editor of the college paper. After his graduation in 1910, he became superintendent of schools in Waitsburg, Washington. He married Blanche Chamberlain on August 8, 1912; they had two children. In 1915, Sprague purchased the local paper, the Ritzville Journal Times. In 1925, he moved to Oregon, where he was business manager for the Corvallis Gazette-Times. In 1929, he purchased a two-thirds interest in the Oregon Statesman in Salem and was its editor and publisher for 40 years. He was a Republican and was elected governor of Oregon, serving from 1939 to 1943. He died in 1969.
Contains material previously designated Mss 2407-1.
Charles A. Sprague papers, Mss 2407, Oregon Historical Society Research Library.
Collection includes correspondence, 1896-1968; documents relating to committees and commissions, 1949-1969, including Colleges for Oregon's Future, the Oregon Geographic Names Board, the Commission on the Rights, Liberties and Responsibilities of the American Indian, and the Oregon State Constitutional Revision Commission; certificates and diplomas; and a last will and testament.
The Oregon Historical Society owns the materials in the Research Library and makes available reproductions for research, publication, and other uses. The Society does not necessarily hold copyright to all materials in the collections. In some cases, permission for use may require seeking additional authorization from copyright owners.