Frank J. Wilmer was a native of Wisconsin who came to the territory of Washington in 1886. A man of wide-ranging interests and civic concerns, he became involved in many business ventures throughout the Pacific Northwest. Washington's entrance into statehood in 1889 signaled the beginning of its continuing growth and development, and F. J. Wilmer began to grow with the state and the region. In the next fifty years he was a farmer, a leading businessman and a significant political figure.
F. J. Wilmer (he preferred to use his initials rather than his full name) was born April 6, 1860 in East Troy, Walworth County, Wisconsin. His parents, J. George and Elizabeth Wilmer, had been farming in the southern Wisconsin area since the 1840s. He entered the State Normal School at Whitewater, Wisconsin in 1879 and graduated in 1882. He taught school for several years in Wisconsin until deciding to seek his fortune in the Pacific Northwest.
Arriving in Washington Territory in the Spring of 1886 he again taught school for two years in Walla Walla County. In 1888 he moved to Rosalia, in northern Whitman County, where he and a partner founded the Wilmer & Dwyer Hardware business. On November 10, 1888, in Spokane he married his business partner's sister, Margaret Dwyer. She too, came from a pioneer family of Walworth County, Wisconsin, and had been a graduate of the Whitewater Normal School. To them four daughters were born: Marie, Marguerite, Frances, and Eleanor.
In 1904, Wilmer went into the banking business. He served as president of the Whitman County National Bank (from 1919) and the Pine City State Bank (from 1929). As Rosalia grew, so too did Wilmer's interests expand. He became the president of the Rosalia Water Company, Secretary-treasurer of the Meuli Land Company, Director of the Liberty Loan Campaign Committee of Whitman County (1917-1918) during World War I, and State Senator from Whitman County (1921-1933).
It was at age sixty that he first secured elective office, capping a successful business career with an increased role in public service. In 1920 Wilmer made a spectacular entrance into political office. He had long served on the Whitman County Republican Central Committee's Executive Committee but in a special election held in order to fill a vacant seat in the state Senate, he failed to gain the nomination of his party. His friends throughout the County refused to let his candidacy die. In the campaign that followed, he received twice as many write-in votes as the Republican and Democratic nominees combined. His long years of commercial experience, and his recent work in the county on the Liberty Loan Campaign, had made numerous friends for him.
Upon becoming State Senator, Wilmer was able to use his new position as a forum from which he could further his numerous long-term interests. To this end, he served on legislative committees dealing with banking, taxes, education, agriculture and good roads. During this period he was also an organizer and president of the North Pacific Graingrowers, Spokane (1930-1931), Director of the Farmers National Grain Corporation (1930-1932), member of the National Wheat Advisory Commission (1930-1932), president of the Washington State Good Roads Association (1933), and a member of the State College of Washington (now Washington State University) Board of Regents (1922-1933), serving as President of the Board several times.
Following the redrawing of district lines, Wilmer resigned his senatorial position in 1932. Most of his public activities drew to a close about this time. He lived in semi-retirement until his death at Spokane in March 1947.
Although some of Wilmer's papers document his education and early business career, the major portion consists of materials derived from his tenure as State Senator. The collection is most extensive for the period 1921 through 1933. It reflects Wilmer's association with agriculture, highways, taxes, education, banking, Washington State University (then known as the State College of Washington), politics and legislative actions.
Frank J. Wilmer's papers include correspondence, notes, speeches, drafts, reports, business records, World War I Liberty Loan posters, newspaper clippings, special interest articles and publications, political and legislative proposals and other materials. The collection covers the period from the late 1880s to the mid-1940s and offers a detailed view of Wilmer as legislator, businessman, educator, farmer and wheat grower, politically active Republican, and husband and father. Washington politics for the half century from the 1890s through the 1940s is the subject which dominates the collection.
Major correspondents include: A. W. Davis, F. W. Guilbert, H. E. Goldsworthy, Oliver Hall, Roland H. Hartley, E. O. Holland, Lon Johnson, D. V. Morthland, Homer L. Post, and J. W. Summers.
Also among the papers are notes, minutes, membership rolls and mailing lists from Mrs. Margaret Wilmer's presidency of the Spokane chapter of the American Red Cross (1917-1922).
The papers are arranged in twelve series. The arrangement of the series into subject areas reflects the probable organization used by Wilmer. However, within each series, the papers have been arranged in chronological order.
The propaganda posters from Series 12 in this collection have been digitized and are
available online as part of the
This collection is open and available for research use.
Copyright restrictions may apply.
[Item description]
Frank J. Wilmer Papers, 1884-1947 (Cage 208)
Manuscripts, Archives, and Special Collections, Washington State University Libraries, Pullman, WA.
The papers of F. J. Wilmer (1860-1947) were acquired by the Washington State University Library in 1954 as a gift from his daughters: Marie Kulzer, Marguerite Wilmer, Frances Schlaefer and Eleanor Teters.
The papers were originally arranged soon after accessioning and then reprocessed by Ross Pegler from September 1975 through February 1976.
This collection is indexed under the following headings in the online catalog. Researchers desiring materials about related topics, persons, or places should search the catalog using these headings.
Correspondence, directives and requests from federal authorities in charge of the campaign to Wilmer as chairman for the Whitman County Liberty Loan drive. Also included are various Whitman County accounts and lists of participants and contributors. Posters from this campaign were originally inserted in one of the ledgers in Series 12 (62), but have been separated.
Correspondence, legislative proposals, reports, research materials, notes and drafts, speeches and legislation. There is also some material relating to Wilmer's 1924 re-election campaign.
Correspondence, papers concerning wheat growers' organizations and associations, reports on the wheat growing situation, speeches, and legislative organizational material dealing with wheat growing.
Correspondence, Regents' material, and state legislative measures in regard to W.S.U.
Correspondence, legislative proposals concerning educational procedures, and materials relating to past teaching positions.
Correspondence, legislative tax proposals, and materials of taxpayer organizations.
Correspondence, minutes, the final report and proposals, and investigative documents of the state legislature's investigative committee which Wilmer chaired.
Correspondence and records from a European industrial recovery research trip.
Correspondence, records, statements and speeches on general business concerns and specific enterprises such as the Wilmer bank and hardware store.
Correspondence and research materials on legislative actions and responses by citizen groups supporting adequate highways throughout eastern Washington.
Records of Mrs. F. J. Wilmer's chairmanship of the Spokane Chapter, American Red Cross; F. J. Wilmer's obituary and portrait; an eulogy for John E. Lawrence; a Rosalia citizens' petition; a World War II ration book; and newspaper clippings.
A dozen ledger and collection books comprise Wilmer's early business records. At a later time these books also served as scrapbooks for newspaper articles, World War I Liberty Loan posters, correspondence and other papers.