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Joseph M. Dixon papers, 1772-1944

Overview of the Collection

Creator
Dixon, Joseph M. (Joesph Moore), 1867-1934
Title
Joseph M. Dixon papers
Dates
1772-1944 (inclusive)
Quantity
70.0 linear feet, (121 boxes and one map case drawer)
Collection Number
Mss 055
Summary
Joseph M. Dixon was governor of Montana (1921-1925) and served in the U.S. House of Representatives (1903-1907), the U.S. Senate (1907-1913), and in the Department of the Interior; he was also a national leader in the Republican and Bull Moose Parties. This collection contains a large portion of his personal and professional correspondence files, legal documents, financial records, campaign/political materials, photographs, and personal effects.
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.

Additional Reference Guides

A card file to the Assistant Secretary of the Interior correspondence in Series II may be found in box 55.

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

Joseph Moore Dixon was born at the Quaker enclave of Snow Camp, North Carolina, in 1867 to Hugh Woody and Adaline Murchison Dixon. He was the third of four children and their only son. The Dixons were Quakers who traced their origins to England.

Dixon attended the Sylvan Academy and the New Garden Boarding School, both Quaker institutions, then Earlham College in Indiana. He withdrew from Earlham in 1888 and finished his education at Guilford College that spring. In 1891, he wrote a letter to Frank Woody, a first cousin of his father who practiced law in Missoula, Montana, asking if he could assist and study law with him. Woody accepted, and Dixon left North Carolina at the age of twenty-four.

He began to read law with Woody and his two partners, Frederick C. Webster and Joseph K. Wood. Dixon was admitted to the Montana bar in 1892 and quickly became closely involved with Republican politics, elected as secretary of the Republican county central committee that same year. He served in that post until 1897.

Dixon was elected to the Montana legislature as a Republican in 1900.

Montanans elected Dixon to the U.S. House of Representatives in 1902 and 1904. While in the House, he introduced and passed the bill that opened the Flathead Indian Reservation to white settlement. In 1906 the Montana legislature elected him to the U.S. Senate. There, he dealt with issues of interstate tariffs and unequal rail freight charges.

In 1912 he headed Theodore Roosevelt's Bull Moose Party and was defeated in his bid for popular election to the U.S. Senate. Dixon and Roosevelt had an affinity from their first meeting.

After Roosevelt's defeat, Dixon retreated to Missoula to focus on his law practice and business affairs. His businesses were considerable. In 1900 he acquired a controlling interest in the Missoulian, Missoula's Republican newspaper. Between 1912 and 1917, when the paper was sold, he was vitally involved with the paper's editorial policy and its editor, A.L. Stone as they engaged in a bitter battle with the Democratic (and Amalgamated Copper Company-owned) Missoula Sentinel. In 1909, with partner Charles L. Cowell, he built the Dixon Block in downtown Missoula (the location of the Western Montana National Bank), adding to his already considerable real estate holdings in the area. He owned a dairy near Polson, Montana, and a farm near Ronan, Montana, as well as some mining claims in Montana. After 1917, he retired from politics and business and spent most of his time on his farming interests. By 1919, he was ready to re-enter politics; he announced that he would run for Governor of Montana against Burton K. Wheeler.

He was elected governor and served one term. While in office, he dealt with the beginnings of drought and agricultural depression in the state, a large deficit, continued to fight the Anaconda Copper Company (formerly the Amalgamated Copper Company) and its control of the state, the state's system of taxation, and the need for administrative reform. He clashed significantly with fellow Republican Wellington Rankin. Throughout his tenure, he endured unrelenting attacks from the Company-owned press and other Company allies.

Those attacks were perhaps most intense over the Frank Conley case. Conley was the warden of the Montana State Prison at Deer Lodge from 1908 to 1921, when Dixon replaced him with M.L. Potter. Conley was also mayor of Deer Lodge and a powerful man in Republican circles. Among other things, he used convicts to break strikes in Butte and Anaconda, which earned him strong Democratic support. Dixon appointed T.H. MacDonald to investigate allegations of maladministration and misuse of state funds under Conley's administration. Conley and his supporters quickly asked that the investigation be conducted by the State Board of Prison Commissioners instead of by Dixon's private investigator. When MacDonald handed his report to Dixon, he charged Conley with misappropriating or misusing more than two hundred thousand dollars. C.B. Nolan, Conley's attorney, fought bitterly for his client. Conley was ultimately acquitted.

Dixon was not re-elected in 1924, losing to Democrat John E. Erickson. He returned to Missoula and the ranch for his second retirement. He increased his real estate holdings in Missoula, with purchase of more downtown properties and the construction of a two-story building next to the Montana Building.

In 1929 he was appointed First Assistant Secretary of the Interior. He had been under consideration for the Secretary post since his involvement with the Bull Moose campaign. In 1930, he became vitally involved with a project to develop water power on the Flathead Indian Reservation, with its accompanying complex network of water rights.

He married Caroline M. Worden, daughter of prominent Missoulian Frank Worden, in 1896. They had seven children: Virginia, Florence, Dorothy, Betty, Mary Joe, Peggy, and Frank. Frank died shortly after birth.

Dixon died in May 1934 after a short battle with a serious heart ailment.

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Content Description

This collection contains a large portion of the correspondence files, legal documents, financial records, campaign/political materials, photographs, and personal affects of Joseph M. Dixon, with particular representation from his public service in the U.S. House, U.S. Senate, and Montana Governorship, as well as a national leader in the Republican and Bull Moose Parties.

Collection materials provide detailed insights into Dixon's personal life, private political opinions and strategies, professional (both political and business) relationships, and actions on behalf of commitment the early 20th century's Progressive movement. Correspondence materials are particularly revealing regarding Dixon's relationship with his wife, Caroline, and other family members. During Joseph's years of public service, he and Caroline maintained a prolific exchange. Caroline's letters not only kept Joseph informed about child-rearing and household developments but offered her knowledge and insights regarding political events throughout western Montana. This collection also contains correspondence with numerous prominent Montana and national political figures, among the most prominent being Presidents Theodore Roosevelt, William H. Taft, Warren G. Harding, Calvin Coolidge, and Herbert Hoover.

The breadth and resiliency of Dixon's political career was unusual, and some of the reason for such are evidenced in this collection. The correspondence and campaign material series provide detailed evidence of Dixon's political strategies and subtle changes over time following the rise and fall of the early 20th Century's progressive/reform movement. Dixon was a central figure in Theodore Roosevelt's 1912 Presidential campaign. These collection materials provide detailed insights into the progressive/Bull Moose movement in Montana; changes in Montana and national Republican-Democratic Party dynamics resulting from the progressive movement; and Dixon's role in promoting early 20th century natural and cultural resource conservation ideals (ranging from federal land set-asides to massive irrigation/hydro-electric projects, from species preservation to Native American assimilation/termination of tribal trust responsibilities).

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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

Joseph M. Dixon 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 fifteen series:

Series I: Personal and Biographical, 1772-1934, 0.25 linear feet and a partial oversize box

Series II: Correspondence, 1883-1934, 37.25 linear feet

Subseries 1: General, 1883-1934, 29.75 linear feet

Subseries 2: Assistant Secretary of the Interior, 1929-1933, 7.5 linear feet

Series III: Campaigns, 1902-1928, 0.5 linear feet and a partial oversize box

Series IV: Clippings, 1848-1944, 8.0 linear feet and a partial oversize box

Series V: Financial and Legal, 1885-1944, 1.0 linear feet

Series VI: Speeches and Writings, 1894-1932, 1.5 linear feet

Series VII: Printed Materials, 1876-1933, 2.25 linear feet and a partial oversize box

Series VIII: Business Interests, 1882-1934, 0.75 linear feet

Series IX: U.S. House, Senate, and Undersecretary of the Interior, 1903-1933 and undated, 4 folders and 1 oversize folder of maps

Series X: Governor of Montana, 1913-1925, 5.0 linear feet

Subseries 1: General, 1916-1925, 1.0 linear feet

Subseries 2: Conley Case, 1913-1924, 4.0 linear feet

Series XI: Roosevelt Campaign, 1911-1913, 1.75 linear feet

Subseries 1: Correspondence, 1911-1913, 1.0 linear feet

Subseries 2: Campaign Materials, 1912, 0.75 linear feet

Series XII: Scrapbooks, 1894-1928, 6.0 linear feet and 1 oversize box

Series XIII: Photographs and Drawings, 1837-1933, 159 items

Series XIV: Artifacts, undated, 0.5 linear feet

Series XV: Family Papers, 1850-1891, 0.25 linear feet

Custodial History

The collection remained largely in the possession of the Dixon family until donation to the Archives. Materials received anonymously in 1999 may have been separated from the collection at some earlier date.

Acquisition Information

Gift of the Dixon family, 1953 and 1975; a few printed materials received from an anonymous donor, 1999.

Processing Note

The portions of the collection that arrived in 1953 and 1975 were originally processed as two separate collections, LC 55 and LC 61. Most photographs were separated and placed with the archives general photograph collection; some photographs remained unprocessed. Some printed materials and books remained with the collection, but were not described or re-housed. In 2004, the collection was arranged into a single collection, Mss055. Portions of LC 55 and LC 61, notably correspondence, were interfiled into one continuous chronological sequence. Records relating to specific portions of Dixon's political career were described as such, and personal materials were more completely described. Processed photographs were re-united with the collection, and the remaining unprocessed photographs were described for the first time. Printed materials--mostly magazines, pamphlets, and books--were placed in the library's general collection, Special Collections, or discarded, as appropriate.

Separated Materials

During 2004 processing, the following book was removed from the manuscript collection and transferred to the Mansfield Library's Special Collections area:

A. V. Dockery, Black Bass and other Fishing in North Carolina. Also during that processing, pamphlets not directly related to Dixon and his career were separated to the Special Collection's Pamphlet Collection. Other materials not directly related to the collection were discarded.

Related Materials

The Montana Historical Society holds Dixon's gubernatorial papers.

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Detailed Description of the Collection

Names and SubjectsReturn to Top

Subject Terms

Personal Names

Corporate Names

Geographical Names

Form or Genre Terms

Occupations

Finding aid prepared by Jodi Allison-Bunnell and Jack Rowan (2004)
2004

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