Title: Fred L. Holmes Papers
Inclusive Dates: 1864, 1904-1946

Creator:

• Holmes, Fred L., 1883-1946

Call Number: Wis Mss OC

Quantity: 3.2 c.f. (9 archives boxes and 3 flat boxes)

Repository:

Wisconsin Historical Society, Division of Library, Archives, and Museum Collections

Archival Locations:

Wisconsin Historical Society (Map)

COLLECTION MAY BE STORED OFF-SITE: see catalog entry to request materials and for additional information.

Abstract:

Papers of Fred L. Holmes, a Madison, Wisconsin, writer and lawyer, founder of the Holmes News Service, and business manager or managing editor of the La Follette Weekly. As a newspaperman he wrote various authors for biographical material and photographs. Correspondence, 1904-1946, includes letters from Wisconsin political figures and well-known writers such as Zona Gale, Ray Stannard Baker, Hamlin Garland, and William Allen White. A large portion of the correspondence concerns the publication of Holmes' book The Voice of Trappist Silence (New York, 1941) and contains information on Trappist monasteries. Also present is correspondence, source materials, and manuscripts used by Holmes in writing Old World Wisconsin; radio speeches, mainly concerning his books; articles on local and state history written by Holmes; notes collected on Shaker communities; and clippings and congratulatory letters on Holmes' books.

Language: English

URL to cite for this finding aid: http://digital.library.wisc.edu/1711.dl/wiarchives.uw-whs-wis000oc

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Fred L. Holmes, lawyer and author, was born on a farm in Winnebago County, Wisconsin, in 1883. In 1906 he received his degree of Bachelor of Arts from the University of Wisconsin and shortly thereafter founded the Holmes News Service which served the press in Wisconsin and elsewhere until 1927. Early in that year he was admitted to the bar, the profession he followed until his death in 1946. Beginning in 1909, at the suggestion of the late Robert M. La Follette, Mr. Holmes was either business manager or managing editor of the La Follette Weekly for most of the life of that periodical. Although interested in politics, his only venture in office-holding was in 1913 when he served as a Republican member of the lower house of the Wisconsin legislature.

During the last decade or more of his life, Mr. Holmes became interested in history and traveled quite extensively throughout the United States and portions of Canada, taking pictures and gathering material which he later incorporated into books. He was especially interested in his own state and wrote three books about it, also edited two volumes of Wisconsin in collaboration with Glenn Frank. The volumes he published as a result of his travels were: Abraham Lincoln Traveled This Way, George Washington Traveled This Way, Alluring Wisconsin, Badger Saints and Sinners, Old World Wisconsin, and The Voice of Trappist Silence. Having a newspaper man's “nose for news” he wrote his material many ways and sent short articles and excerpts from his books to various magazines and newspapers in the United States, several of which were accepted.

The collection is largely in the order in which it was received after Mr. Holmes' sudden death in 1946. The two boxes of general correspondence cover quite a wide field. Like all newspaper men Mr. Holmes was interested in important people and events. He wrote to various authors for biographical material and photographs, among whom were: James Oliver Curwood, Willa Cather, Mary Waterstreet Dessureau, Zona Gale, Zane Gray, Sinclair Lewis, Kathleen Norris, Herbert Quick, Booth Tarkington, Elias Tobenkin, Sophia Kerr Underwood, and many others. Letters from Walter S. Goodland, the La Follettes, J. D. Beck, Governor Philipp, and other Wisconsin political figures of importance are in this section of the collection. Affairs of the University and colleges throughout the state and elsewhere are mentioned. On July 21, 1921, Dr. E. A. Birge, then President of the University of Wisconsin, wrote to thank Holmes for the “constant and active interest” which he had taken in University matters, especially during the recent session of the Legislature. The Wisconsin General Hospital Infirmary, restoration of the old capitol at Belmont, marking of the Black Hawk Trail, and correspondence with H. L. Bancroft and others in regard to a photograph of Reverend Samuel Mazzuchelli are only part of the correspondence topics covering the years 1864, 1904-1946.

Radio broadcasts, addresses, articles, notes, and miscellaneous material that had not been published is included. If there was any question about an article having been published, it was kept in the collection. Articles that had been published were not retained during processing.

Being a devout Catholic, Mr. Holmes traveled about the country visiting various monasteries and churches in Wisconsin, Kentucky, and Iowa. The Trappist Order interested him and after several visits to New Mellery Monastery, Peosta, Iowa, and Gethsemane, Kentucky, he wrote The Voice of Trappist Silence. Correspondence concerning monasteries and the Trappists, as well as a folder about the Shaker religion are to be found in Box 4 of the collection.

Source material gathered to publish the volume Old World Wisconsin is filed according to chapters. The first copy of the publication also was retained. Most of the photographs gathered to illustrate this volume are included in the unprocessed additions to this collection.

Also in the collection are six scrapbooks of clippings and letters about Holmes' publications Alluring Wisconsin, Badger Saints and Sinners, Voices of Trappist Silence, Abraham Lincoln Traveled This Way, George Washington Traveled This Way, and Old World Wisconsin.

Acquisition Information

Presented by the Fred L. Holmes Estate, September, 1946, and by Richard E. Holmes, Waupun, Wis., 1973.

	Correspondence
Box   1	1864, 1904-1939
Box   2 Folder   1-4	1940-1946
Box   2 Folder   5	, Undated & miscellaneous
Box   2 Folder   6	WTMJ Eulogy, 1948
Box   2 Folder   7	L. H. Bancroft, etc. re: Authenticity of Photo of Reverend Samuel Mazzuchelli
Box   3 Folder   1	Radio Addresses, Speeches
	Articles
Box   3 Folder   2-4	A-W
Box   3 Folder   5	No title, notes, miscellany
Box   9 Folder   1	The Voice of Trappist Silence (manuscript)
Box   9 Folder   2	Miscellaneous Articles (manuscripts)
Box   4 Folder   1-2	Correspondence Regarding Monasteries, 1935-1945, undated
Box   4 Folder   3-4	Correspondence Regarding The Voice of Trappist Silence, 1938-1946
Box   4 Folder   5	Material About Shakers
	Old World Wisconsin
Box   5 Folder   1	Epilogue
Box   5 Folder   2-6	Chapters 1-4
Box   6	Chapters 5-9
Box   7	Chapters 10-14
Box   8 Folder   1-4	Chapters 15-16
Box   8 Folder   5	First Copy of Old World Wisconsin
	Scrapbooks
Box   10 Folder   1	Alluring Wisconsin
Box   10 Folder   2	Abraham Lincoln Traveled This Way
Box   11 Folder   1	Badger Saints and Sinners
Box   11 Folder   2	The Voice of Trappist Silence
Box   12 Folder   1	George Washington Traveled This Way
Box   12 Folder   2	Old World Wisconsin