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Collection Dates: 1911 -- 1933
(Bulk Dates: 1920s)
6 linear ft.
This document describes a collection of materials held
by the
Special Collections Department
University of Iowa Libraries
Iowa City, Iowa 52242-1420
Phone: 319-335-5921
Fax: 319-335-5900
e-mail: lib-spec@uiowa.edu
Posted to Internet: April 1999
Acquisition
Note: This collection was given to the University of Iowa
by Mike Doyle and Robert D. Kenyon in 1998.
Access
and Restrictions:
Digital Surrogates: Except where indicated, this document describes but
does not reproduce the actual text, images and objects which make up this
collection. Materials are available only in the Special Collections
Department.
Copyright: Please read
The University of Iowa Libraries' statement on "Property Rights, Copyright Law, and Permissions to Use Unpublished
Materials"
Use of Collections: The University of Iowa Libraries supports access to the materials, published and unpublished, in its collections. Nonetheless, access to some items may be restricted by their fragile condition or by contractual agreement with donors, and it may not be possible at all times to provide appropriate machinery for reading, viewing or accessing non-paper-based materials. Please read our Use of Manuscripts Statement.
Table of Contents
I. Series One -- Correspondence
Box 1
II. Series Two -- General Subject Files
Box 2
III. Series Three -- Speeches
Box 2
IV. Series Four -- U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals
Box 3
V. Series Five -- Clippings
Boxes 3-4
William Squire Kenyon was born on June 10, 1869, to the Rev. Fergus Lafayette and Harriet Squire Kenyon in Elyria, Ohio. His family moved to Iowa in 1878. Although his father had hoped that he would go into the ministry, William Kenyon chose to study the law. He attended Grinnell College, and received an LL.B. from the University of Iowa in 1890. The following year he was admitted to the bar. Kenyon began his legal career in Fort Dodge, Iowa where he married Mary Duncombe, in 1893. Two years after graduating from law school he became the prosecuting attorney for Webster County. At age thirty-one he was elected District Court judge, a position from which he resigned after two years because of the low salary. He next became the general counsel for the Illinois Central Railroad.
It was his service as special assistant to the U.S. Attorney General George W. Wickersham prosecuting packing houses and railroad rebate cases that placed him in the political spotlight. In 1911, Kenyon was appointed to fill the unexpired term left in the U.S. Senate following the death of Jonathan P. Dolliver. Kenyon was twice reelected to the Senate as a progressive Republican. He was one of the senators that opposed U.S. entry into World War I. However, after war was declared and our troops mobilized, Kenyon became an ardent supporter of the U.S. war effort.
In 1922, Kenyon resigned his senate seat to accept an appointment by President Warren Harding to serve on the Federal Circuit Court of Appeals bench. His most famous judgement involved revoking the Teapot Dome oil leases (part of the infamous Teapot Dome scandal). President Coolidge twice offered Judge Kenyon posts in his Cabinet and the judge declined both times in favor of remaining on the bench. He was also seriously considered for the Vice Presidency. In 1929, President Hoover appointed him to the National Commission of Law Observance and Enforcement (Wickersham Commission).
Judge William Squire
Kenyon died of a heart attack on September 9, 1933.
The papers of William S. Kenyon consist of six linear feet of manuscripts dating from 1911 -- 1933. Upon Judge Kenyon's death in 1933, his papers were boxed and shipped to Fort Dodge, Iowa where they were subsequently rediscovered more than sixty years later when the judge's nephew sold the family home. Robert Kenyon donated the Kenyon papers to the University of Iowa in 1998.
The collection is
arranged in five series: 1) Correspondence, 2) General subject files, 3) Speeches,
4) U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, and 5) Clippings. The correspondence series
is arranged chronologically and dates from 1911 -- 1933. It includes several letters
from Presidents Taft, Harding, Coolidge, and Hoover, as well as letters from
such Iowa notables as Martin J. Wade, J.R. Howard, N.E. Kendall, John Hammill,
and Charles A. Rawson. The general subject files contain a cross section of
topics ranging from the Wickersham Commission to political cartoons. Kenyon's
speeches make up the third series. He also spoke on a lyceum circuit and some
of those programs can also be found in this series. Series four documents Judge
Kenyon's career on the bench of the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals with all of
his court assignments and related correspondence. Twenty six folders of clippings
make up the final series of the collection.
Box 1
1911. Including letters from: William H. Taft.
1914 -- 1919. Including letters from: Charles Curtis, Walter H. Page, William G. McAdoo, and Charles F. Horner.
1920 -- September 1921. Including letters from: J.R. Howard, F.E. Haynes, and Martin J. Wade.
October 1 -- 12, 1921. Including letters from: G.W. Clarke, J.R. Howard, John Hammill, and Claude G. Bowers.
October 13 -- December 1921. Including letters from: Keith Vawter, Louis J. Alber, and C.C. Pugh.
January 1922. Including letters from: Dan Turner, J.R. Howard, Walter A. Jessup, Verne Marshall, and Martin J. Wade.
February 1, 1922. Including letters from: L.H. Pammel and Clifford Thorne.
February 2 -- 3, 1922. Including letters from: Kenesaw Landis, Charles A. Rawson, Bernard M. Baruch, John Hammill, and B.F. Keith.
February 4 -- 6, 1922. Including letters from: Louis A. Alber, N.E. Kendall, and Charles A. Rawson.
February 7 -- 12, 1922. Including a letter from Kenesaw Landis.
February 13 -- 28, 1922. Including letters from: Harvey Ingham, James I. Dolliver, Martin J. Wade, Henry A. Wallace, and Warren G. Harding.
March -- December 1922. Including letters from: Henry S. Conard, Smith W. Brookhart, Warren G. Harding, William H. Taft, and Charles A. Rawson.
1923 -- 1928. Including letters from John M. Grimm and N.E. Kendall.
January -- July 1929. Including letters from: Herbert Hoover, William S. Hart, John C. Lewis, and Charles E. Hearst.
August 1929. Including letters from: N.E. Kendall, B.F. Shearer, I.A. Nichols, John C. Lewis, and H.R. Gross.
September -- December 1929. Including letters from: N.E. Kendall, Ed H. Campbell, and Don L. Berry.
1930 -- 1933. Including letters from: Ray Lyman Wilber, Calvin Coolidge, Herbert Hoover, John Hammill, Martin J. Wade, John M. Grimm, Smith W. Brookhart, F. Dickinson Letts, Arthur Capper, and Truman S. Stevens.
Correspondence and
newspaper articles written by Kenyon while abroad during World War I, 1917.
Including a letter from W.C. Jarnagin.
Box 2
Biographical sketch, 1914.
Cartoon by Art Young. "The Greatest Show on Earth".
Election results -- 1912 primary.
Grinnell College -- Phi Beta Kappa, 1913 and 1924.
Mellon Report controversy, 1921 -- 1924.
National Commission on Law Observance and Enforcement (Wickersham Commission):
Appropriations and financial records, 1929 -- 1931Clippings, 1929 -- 1931. (2 folders)
Final report, 1931.
Minutes of meetings, 1929 -- 1931. (4 folders)
Obituary of Judge Kenyon, 1933.
Original Index of Kenyon Papers
Prohibition. Statements
by Kenyon and others.
Agriculture. Given in Colorado.
Bremer County Farm Bureau picnic, [1921]
Creston, Iowa.
Disarmament, 1921.
"Industrial Code", 1922 -- 1923.
"The Kingdom of If".
"Law Enforcement". Given in Fort Dodge, Iowa, May 31, 1931.
"Law Observance". Given in Des Moines, Iowa, March 10, 1927.
League of Nations. Speech in the Senate of the United States, 10 September 1919
Mediapolis Iowa's Chautauqua Association, 1914.
Michigan's senatorial election of Truman H. Newberry, 1921.
"Mother's Day".
Presidential campaign, 1924.
Programs from assorted speeches and lyceums, 1925 -- 1926.
Springfield speech.
"Struggle for Place".
Miscellaneous speeches.
Miscellaneous. Incomplete speeches, notes, and research.
Miscellaneous. Research clippings.
Box 3
Correspondence relating to case assignments:
1922 -- 1925.1926 -- 1928.
1928 -- 1930.
1930 -- 1933.
Washington conference,
1924.
Agricultural bloc, 1921 -- 1923.
Campaign, 1912.
Kenyon's judgeship:
1921.1922.
Michigan's senatorial election of Truman H. Newberry, 1922.
Presidency and miscellaneous, 1922 -- 1927.
Presidential appointments. Cabinet positions, etc., 1924. (2 folders)
Senatorial campaign, 1930.
Supreme Court appointment, 1930.
Teapot Dome scandal, 1926 -- 1929.
Vice-presidency,
1924 and 1931.
Miscellaneous clippings, 1911 -- 1933. (14 folders)
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