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Charles Sumner Gleed Papers

Creator: Gleed, Charles S. (Charles Sumner), 1856-1920

Date: 1872-1928 (bulk 1880-1920)

Level of Description: Coll./Record Group

Material Type: Manuscripts

Call Number: Ms. Coll. 34

Unit ID: 40034

Restrictions: There are no restrictions on the use of the materials.

Biographical sketch: Businessman, lawyer, newspaper man; of Topeka, Kan.

Abstract: Correspondence, financial & other business records, speeches & articles, clippings, and other items reflecting the diversity of his interests, including newspapers & journalism, including ownership of the Kansas City journal (Mo.); the telephone & telegraph, especially the Missouri & Kansas Telephone Co., later Southwestern Bell Telephone Co. (now AT & T) and the Piersen Telegraph Transmission Co.; real estate & irrigation; the Republican Party; banking & finance, including the Farmers' Loan & Trust Company of Kansas; and railroads, especially the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe Railway. Correspondents include Frederick Funston and John J. Ingalls.

Summary:

Contents List

Series Notes

Indexed Correspondence

From 1911 until his death Gleed kept much of his correspondence in numerical files, in which individuals, companies, and subjects were assigned numbers. The collection expanded gradually until it contained 1281 items in 1920. An alphabetical card catalog kept by Gleed provides the major access to this material. Since there is no cross referencing, it is necessary to check under all possible individuals or companies. The few numbered subject files were labeled with titles such as Invitations (#108), Insurance (#91), Applications for Employment (#248) and Bills and Receipts (#265). None of these can be assumed to be complete, but they do contain some useful items.

The indexed files vary greatly in significance. Some are major, containing numerous items and dealing with important topics. Others seem relatively minor consisting of accounts to whom Gleed loaned money or of bills from his tailor in New York or for service at the hotel at Grand Canyon. In addition there are numerous financial reports and prospectuses, many for companies with whom Gleed was only tangentially involved.

Items in each folder seem to have been numbered in blue pencil by Gleed or by his secretary, D. V. Morris. Notes about content or about money to be sent are also sometimes present. Within each file, items were kept approximately in reverse chronological order. Some early folders have been rearranged to bring them into strict chronological order, but later ones retain their original arrangement. Some numbers are missing.

Index cards to the series filed in a separate box.

Dated Correspondence

In addition to the indexed correspondence, the Gleed collection contains three boxes of correspondence dating from 1881 to 1928. These items apparently were put in chronological order at the time the collection was originally processed. Files from 1881 to 1899 contain a range of items including significant letters to and from correspondents later included in the indexed files. From 1899 to 1901, most of the items are carbon copies of letters sent by Gleed. After 1902, a variety of items relating to business affairs, the University of Kansas, and friendships are included. From 1911 to 1920, the items in the dated correspondence resemble those in the indexed files, often being from the same correspondents. There is also a group of letters received and sent after Gleed’s death in 1920. These include letters of condolence and correspondence about a memorial volume which Gleed’s wife and brother hoped to assemble. A scattering of undated items, including some from individuals in the indexed files, complete the section.

Letterpress Volumes

Gleed also kept a series of letterpress volumes. The early volumes contain specific groups of letters; one containing letters to John McCook, and another containing correspondence with Lucian Blake, Walter Swart, and others involved in the Blake Mining and Milling Company. Gleed also kept a series of chronological letterpress volumes and by 1905 these each contain an index to the correspondents included. After 1911 these overlap with the indexed correspondence.

Mounted Letters

Gleed mounted most of his early correspondence and tied it into bundles. One group of these he titled “Sundry Letters.” Although the majority of these items date from 1888 to 1892, there are scattered items from as early as 1882. Significant letters about political matters and K. U. affairs appear in this group as well as letters from friends and relatives. A later group of mounted letters covers the years 1891 to 1985 and deals with Sen. Plumb’s death, Republican politics, the Santa Fe reorganization, and Gleed’s articles for national magazines.

Other mounted groups of letters concern family matter. There is a group of school mementos of Mabel Gore Gleed and a few letters she received before her marriage. “Wedding Letters” and letters received at the birth of the Gleed’s first child express congratulations to the couple. Many of these items are from the same correspondents as are found in the mounted and dated correspondence. A few contain business information.

Business Records

In addition to the company records which occur in the numbered correspondence, the Gleed collection contains two boxes of materials from specific businesses. There are papers of the Santa Fe Railroad for 1883, both the originals and typescript copies. Items include financial records, correspondence, and surveys of routes. A bound volume contains records of the San Diego Land and Town Company for 1881 through 1895, including the company charter lists of directors, and minutes of shareholders meetings held in both Boston, Massachusetts, and Topeka, Kansas. There are also oaths for officials, financial and annual reports, and clippings. Items relating to Gleed’s activities in the telephone business include a typescript history of the Missouri & Kansas Telephone Company, letters Gleed received from associates acknowledging receipt of a pamphlet entitled “History of the Telephone” and a booklet of photographs and clippings of a trip which Gleed and other executives took in 1914.

Kansas City Journal materials include a set of records dating from 1899-1908 and dealing with the initial organization of the newspaper by Gleed and Hal Gaylord. Deeds, financial records, checks, balance sheets, information about office duties and floor plans are all present. Some records of bond ownership appear throughout these records, and others are grouped together in a separate folder. Additional materials deal with property in central Missouri and in Kansas City which Gleed considered buying and with the Farmers Loan and Trust Company of which Gleed was a director.

Correspondence of Clay Hamilton, Gleed’s lawyer, is also present in the collection. Most of the letters dating from 1914 to 1916 are from Clay Hamilton to brother, Chad, who was his law partner and a State Senator, and to his father John, who was Treasurer of Elk County. None of the correspondence seems to relate directly to Gleed. Another set of correspondence concerns the Piersen Company, also known as the Piersen Telegraph Transmitter Company. In letters dating from 1913 to 1915, Gleed declined to invest in the company. Later correspondence dating from 1917-1921 is chiefly between representatives of the Piersen Company and Clay Hamilton who was their lawyer.

Railroad History

Gleed was interested in railroad history and collected materials which he planned to use in writing about the history of the Santa Fe railroad. These include a series of typescripts dealing with land grants and with the Atlantic and Pacific Railroad. There are also notes for an article on railroads and for a book on the Santa Fe Railroad. The table of contents and the bibliography for the proposed company history are present. In addition, there are mounted clippings about railroads, a typescript on “Railway matters,” and a copy of “The Story of the Santa Fe” by Glenn Bradley which includes a lengthy unpublished chapter.

Speeches and Articles

Gleed kept typescripts of his major speeches and articles as well as published versions of some of them. He apparently made lists of these and attempted to organize them, but many items remain unidentified. Some of these appear to be commencement, after-dinner, or retirement speeches. Others seem to be drafts of articles for newspapers. Gleed also wrote poems which are included in the collection. In addition there are notes for a play or movie script and for a history of the “Old and New Club” of Lawrence. His folder of “Names and Addresses” contains miscellaneous references to friends and business associates.

Family and General Items

Gleed’s papers also contain materials about himself and members of his family, including a brief autobiography which he wrote for his daughter in 1904. In addition there are biographical articles about Gleed which appeared during his lifetime and at his death. Other materials contain genealogical items relating to both the Gleeds and the Gores, as well as legal documents, clippings, correspondence with cousins over ancestry and a narrative biography of Ebenezer Gore (apparently a great uncle of Mabel). Gleed also preserved a few childhood items of his daughters.

In addition, this series contains typescripts of speeches by Mabel Gore Gleed and James Willis Gleed and manuscript and typed versions of poems which Elizabeth Spring wrote in 1880 and 1881. Authorship is unclear on various other poems and essays which Gleed kept and which are similar to items in the mounted and unmounted clipping files.

Mounted Clippings

From the time he was a young man in Lawrence, Gleed assembled and mounted clippings about himself, his relatives and a wide variety of subjects that interested him. Many of these he tied together and labeled. In most cases, however, arrangement is only approximate and titles do not accurately reflect the contents. Although difficult to use, the mounted clippings provide information not available elsewhere in the collection, especially about his activities before 1900. They also include an assortment of calling cards, dinner programs, musical materials, and a book of lecture notes by Mabel Gleed in 1885.

Unmounted Clippings

A number of clippings which Gleed preserved were never sorted or mounted. Most—but not all of these—date from 1900. These have been maintained together along with a scrapbook of undated and largely unidentified clippings.

Box List

Box 1
Indexed Correspondence #1 - #6

Box 2
Indexed Correspondence #7 - #26

Box 3
Indexed Correspondence #27 - #54

Box 4
Indexed Correspondence #55 - #69

Box 5
Indexed Correspondence #70 - #88

Box 6
Indexed Correspondence #89 - #99

Box 7
Indexed Correspondence #100 - #123

Box 8
Indexed Correspondence #124 - #140

Box 9
Indexed Correspondence #141 - #159

Box 10
Indexed Correspondence #160 - #200

Box 11
Indexed Correspondence #201 - #219

Box 12
Indexed Correspondence #220 - #261

Box 13
Indexed Correspondence #262 - #273<>

Box 14
Indexed Correspondence #274 - #300

Box 15
Indexed Correspondence #301 - #364

Box 16
Indexed Correspondence #365 - #420

Box 17
Indexed Correspondence #421 - #490

Box 18
Indexed Correspondence #491 - #565

Box 19
Indexed Correspondence #566 - #640

Box 20
Indexed Correspondence #641 - #714

Box 21
Indexed Correspondence #715 - #780

Box 22
Indexed Correspondence #781 - #842

Box 23
Indexed Correspondence #843 - #950

Box 24
Indexed Correspondence #951 - #1035

Box 25
Indexed Correspondence #1036 - #1160

Box 26
Indexed Correspondence #1161 - #1281

Box 27
Dated Correspondence, 1881 – 1901

Box 28
Dated Correspondence, 1902 – 1915

Box 29
Dated Correspondence, 1916 – 1928
Undated Correspondence

Box 30
Letterpress Volumes: April 3, 1893 – March 14, 1898
May 30, 1899 – October 13, 1902
December 6, 1900 – April 23, 1908,
February 28, 1910

Box 31

Letterpress Volumes: January 18, 1898 – February 10, 1898,
December 8, 1901
March 25, 1902 – January 17, 1905
February 18, 1905 – June 30, 1905
June 30, 1905 – December 1, 1905

Box 32

Letterpress Volumes: December 7, 1905 – April 17, 1906
April 19, 1906 – October 16, 1906
October 18, 1906 – April 25, 1907

Box 33

Letterpress Volumes: April 27, 1907 – November 8, 1907
November 12, 1907 – May 13, 1908
May 15, 1908 – January 5, 1909

Box 34

Letterpress Volumes: January 7, 1909 – July 2, 1909
July 2, 1909 – February 10, 1910
February 9, 1910 – July 25, 1910

Box 35

Letterpress Volumes: July 29, 1910 – March 1, 1911
March 1, 1911 – October 7, 1911
October 10, 1911 – May 24, 1912

Box 36

Letterpress Volumes: May 24, 1912 – February 25, 1913
February 25, 1913 – January 15, 1914
January 16, 1914 – January 22, 1915

Box 37

Letterpress Volumes: January 22, 1915 – February 4, 1916
February 3, 1916 – August 19, 1916
August 19, 1916 – May 3, 1917

Box 38

Letterpress Volumes: May 3, 1917 – February 27, 1918
February 4, 1918 – March 30, 1920
March 30, 1920 – April 19, 1920

Box 39

Mounted letters received
“Sundry Letters”, 1882 – 1888
General Letters, 1891 – 1895

Box 40

Mounted letters received and other materials
Mabel Gore, 1877 – 1887
“Wedding letters, Gleed and Gore, 1888”
“Cornelia Gleed, born Oct. 7, 1891”

Box 41

Business correspondence and records
Santa Fe Railroad, correspondence and records, 1883
San Diego Land and Town Company, records, 1881-1895,
bounded volume
“History of the Telephone” mounted letters received, 1911
“Missouri and Kansas Telephone Co., booklet of trip, 1914

Box 42

Business correspondence and records
Kansas City Journal, correspondence and records, 1897-1921
Missouri land purchase documents, 1896-1913
Farmers Loan and Trust Co. correspondence, 1915-1916
Clay Hamilton, correspondence, 1914-1916
Piersen Company correspondence, chiefly with Clay Hamilton,
1913, 1915, 1917-1922

Box 43

Railroad history materials
Typescripts by Gleed
Proposed Agreement between the Santa Fe and George
Washington Beach
Santa Fe Land Grant
Original Charter—Atlantic & Pacific Railroad Company
Authority for Atlantic & Pacific Mortgage
Forfeiture of Atlantic & Pacific Land Grant
Land Grant Aid
Early Financial and Traffic History of the Atlantic &
Pacific Railroad Company
Royal Gorge War
“Memoranda for use in writing an article on railroads”
“Notes for a book on the Santa Fe Railroad”
Dedication and table of contents for a book on the Santa
Fe Railroad
Bibliography on the Santa Fe Trail and the Santa Fe
Railroad
“Railway matters” typescript
Mounted clippings, railroads
The Story of the Santa Fe, by Glenn Bradley, typescript

Box 44

Speeches and articles
Lists of speeches and articles by Gleed
Typescripts of final versions (see attached list)
Published version of articles

Box 45

Speeches and articles
Early drafts of speeches and articles appearing in final version
in box 44

Box 46

Speeches and articles
Unidentified speeches and articles and drafts by Gleed
Poems by Gleed
Unidentified speeches, articles and poems
Notes for a play or movie
History of Old and New Club, Lawrence
Name and address file

Box 47

Papers
Autobiographical writings
Biographies and obituaries
Geneological notes for Gleeds and Gores
Ebenezer Gore narrative
Geneological letters received from relatives
Letters received from Gleed children
Family items
Mabel Gore Gleed, speech
James Willis Gleed, speeches and articles
Elizabette Spring, poems
Speeches, poems and clippings by others

Box 48

Mounted clippings
1877-1886
“1881” “1882”, “1883”, “1884”
“1885”
“1886”
“1887”
“1888”
“Mexico 1888”
“1889”
“Vermont”, 1886-1889

Box 49

Mounted clippings
“1890”
“1891”
“1892”
“1893”
1892-1893
1894-1895

Box 50

Mounted clippings
Small clippings book, 1876-1884
“J. W. Gleed”
Articles and speeches by and about J. W. Gleed, 1881-1891
Poems
“Legal Opinions and Literature”
“Social memoranda”
“Miscellaneous”

Box 51

Mounted clippings
“Kansas History and Literature”
“Kansas State University”
“Lawrence”
“Senator Plumb”
Senator John Ingalls
James Canfield
“Silver”

Box 52

Mounted clippings
“Musical”
“Programs”
“Music and Musicians”
“Music—M.G.”
Music lecture notes, bound volume

Box 53

Unmounted clippings

Box 54

Unmounted clippings
Scrapbook of general clippings

Card box

Index cards to Indexed Correspondence series

Speeches by Gleed For Which Typescripts Appear in the Collection

1800 “The Kansas Memorial, Old Settler’s Celebration, 1879
1882 Coriolanus
1882 Falstaff in Love
1886 Our Country
1886 A Complex Political Condition
1888 Topeka to Mexico
1888 The Hillman Insurance Cases
1889 The Government of Cities
1890 Francis Huntington Snow
1891 Both Sides of Ingalls
1892 Political Letters
1893 As Others See Us
1893 The Great Railway Systems of the United States—The Atchison, Topeka &
Santa Fe
1893 Kansas Populists Again
1893 The Political Situation in Kansas
1893 Solid Shots of Truth
1895 The Income Tax Law
1896 The Ancient Mines of Zacatecas
1896 The Money Question
1899 The St. Louis, Kansas City & Colorado Railroad
1899 Romance and Reality in a Single Life: Gen. Frederick Funston

1900 Trusts and Combines
1901 The Steel Trust and its Makers
1901 Prohibition in Kansas
1901 Our Friends, the Steam Railroads
1901 Kansas City, the Central City
1902 Captains of Industry: William Collins Whitney
1902 A Night View of the Grand Canyon of the Colorado
1903 Railway Companies and the Young Men’s Christian Association
1906 Labor Union Errors
1906 Facts and Comment on Railroad Agitation in Kansas
1912 Dedication of the Monument to the late James E. Hurley
1913 Colorado
1913 The Kansas of 1912
1913 George Thomas Nicholson
1913 On the Death of George Thomas Nicholson
1913 Get the Safety Habit
1913 Colonel John K. Rankin’s Story of the Quantrill Raid
1913 The Quantrill Raid
1914 Eugene Ware bust for KSHS
1914 The Mission of the New Employees Magazine—Southwestern Telephone News
1914 Professor Carruth’s Resignation
1915 The Protection of Business is the Protection of Civilization
1915 The Human Element

General Hudson and the Trusts
Vermont
Votes for Women
Work

Space Required/Quantity: 21.70 cubic feet

Title (Main title): Charles Sumner Gleed Papers

Titles (Other):

  • Papers [Portion of title]
  • Charles S. Gleed collection
  • Charles Sumner Gleed collection
  • Collection

Biography

Biog. Sketch (Full):

Charles Sumner Gleed was born in Morrisville, Vermont, in 1856. His father died when he was five and, in 1866, Gleed, his mother, Cornelia, and his brother, James Willis moved to Lawrence, Kansas where they had relatives. Charles Gleed attended Lawrence public schools and, for a time the University of Kansas. While a student he worked at a variety of jobs, including serving as an assistant to the Chancellor and writing for newspapers. He also studied law and passed the Kansas Bar in 1884. Moving to Topeka, Gleed joined the legal department of the Santa Fe Railroad and later worked in their advertising division. When the company reorganized in the 1890’s, he became one of its most active directors. He also formed a law partnership with his brother and Eugene Ware and continued his newspaper work. In 1896 he, B. P. Cheney, Jr. and Hal Gaylord purchased the Kansas City Journal and Gleed was actively involved with the paper until his death. He was an official of the Missouri and Kansas Telephone Company and other telephone organizations in a variety of enterprises involving lands, mines, manufacturing, and banking.

Gleed was an ardent Republican and was active in party affairs at both the state and national level. In 1889 he was considered for the position of District Attorney in Topeka, and in 1891 for the U. S. Senate seat left vacant at the death of Preston Plumb. Gleed also had a number of civic and cultural interests. He served on the University of Kansas Board of Regents and on the Board of Directors of the Kansas State Historical Society. In addition, he belonged to various clubs and served on state and local committees. He was a frequent speaker at political and social gatherings and had numerous articles published in various newspapers and magazines. Throughout his life he continued to display an interest in history, music and literature and considered himself a poet.

After his marriage to Mabel Gore in 1888, Gleed established his home at 104 Greenwood in the Potwin Place suburb of Topeka, now part of the City. The couple had three daughters. Gleed died in 1920 after a short illness.

Scope and Content

Scope and content:

The Gleed collection is a rich resource for studying a wide range of topics. However the diversity of Gleed’s interests and their overlapping nature create difficulties in using his materials. These are compounded by the fact that Gleed kept several sets of records simultaneously, often containing similar materials. There is no single comprehensive organizational system in his papers and the researcher must be prepared to find material on any one subject to be scattered through the collection. Thus references in the finding aid are meant to suggest useful items, but cannot be presumed to be all inclusive.

Although some of Gleed’s correspondence files focus on one subject, many of Gleed’s closest associates were engaged in a variety of projects. For example, B. P. Cheney, Jr., a wealthy eastern investor, was involved in the Kansas City Journal, Santa Fe Railroad, and the London and Arizona Copper Company. When he went bankrupt in 1918, Gleed helped him dispose of his private railroad car. Ralph Twichell was a New Mexico lawyer who defended the Santa Fe in workman’s compensation cases. He corresponded with Gleed about legal questions, land deals, and Twichell’s book and lectures on New Mexico history. Edgar Parks also invested in several of Gleed’s projects and seemed to have been a good friend.

Gleed was a loyal Kansan and there is abundant material on the state in his collection, but his interests and his papers are not limited to Kansas affairs. His newspaper and telephone businesses were headquartered in Kansas City, Missouri, where he spent much time and where he was involved in civic affairs. He was also deeply interested in the southwest, both in its history and scenery and in its material resources. The majority of the businesses represented in the collection were in Kansas, Missouri, Colorado, Oklahoma, Texas, Arizona, and New Mexico. In addition, Gleed retained both family and business ties with Vermont and the rest of New England, and he traveled frequently to St. Louis, Chicago, and New York to visit friends and conduct business deals.

Because Charles Gleed was involved in a number of companies, his papers provide abundant information on business history. In addition to correspondence with other investors and officials about the affairs of various companies, Gleed accumulated a number of business records including financial and annual reports, lists of stockholders, organizational charts, and accounts of daily activities. Individuals sent Gleed information about projects in which they hoped he would invest. Thus his papers include brochures, prospectuses and other data for companies to which he was not committed.

The bulk of the business materials date from 1900 to 1920 when Gleed was keeping letterpress volumes and indexed correspondence files. Somewhat more limited information about companies with which he was connected in earlier years may be found in his mounted clippings.

Gleed’s involvement with the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe Railroad is reflected in the abundant materials for the company in his collection. Starting in the 1880’s in the legal and advertising branches of the Santa Fe, Gleed became a key figure when the company reorganized in the 1890’s and remained on the board of directors until his death. He corresponded with company executives about policy and with employees about passes, luggage, and special treatment for important friends. He wrote articles for Santa Fe publications, spoke at Santa Fe gatherings, and kept numerous clippings about the railroad documenting the changes it underwent in the 1890’s. In addition Gleed hoped to write a history of the company.

His collection contains a proposed table of contents and bibliography for this project, along with notes and drafts of chapters. In addition, Gleed had obtained and kept a few Santa Fe records from 1883 including financial and organizational documents, correspondence, and hand-drawn maps of proposed routes across Missouri.

Gleed was also involved in other railroad affairs, serving on the boards of various railroad companies and manufacturers of railroad equipment. He also belonged to railroad associations and frequently spoke and wrote for railroad groups. His collection contains financial data, correspondence and maps for numerous lines, as well as descriptions and pictures of such railroad products as brakes and lights.

The telephone industry was another of Gleed’s major concerns although somewhat less related material is contained in the collection. After 1905, he served as president of the Missouri and Kansas Telephone Company and the Bell Telephone Company of Missouri as well as being involved in telephone projects in Texas and Oklahoma. When the Southwestern Bell System was formed in 1912, he became president of the Board of Directors of the four companies involved. The indexed folders of Gleed’s collection contain correspondence for numerous executives of telephone and related firms including those of Western Union and American Telephone and Telegraph. Also present are letters from telephone company employees and former employees, from workmen to fellow executives who resigned at the time of company reorganization. Additional correspondence and information about M. K. & T. organization and salaries may be found in the dated correspondence. Gleed’s business records also contain items relating to a “History of the Telephone” pamphlet and to a trip he and other executives took in 1914.

Gleed was also deeply interested in a number of mining projects which are described in his correspondence files. United Zinc and Chemical Company was one of the enterprises he supported. Along with B. P. Cheney, Jr., Charles Finney and Walter Swart, he promoted the London and Arizona Copper Company. He also corresponded with promoters and investors about oil fields in Kansas and Missouri and mica mines in New Mexico. While the actual level of Gleed’s commitment to some of these projects is unclear, his indexed correspondence includes brochures describing companies, maps and production figures.

Correspondence relating to various land investments are also present in the Gleed collection. These include individual indexed folders kept by individuals or companies and a general file labeled “Real Estate, Offers of” (Folder #268) which contains a variety of items. Gleed frequently received letters and flyers about land for sale in Kansas and in other states. Some of these included irrigation projects designed to provide water and sometimes power in arid areas. The collection includes illustrated brochures and blueprints of irrigation projects near Tucson, Arizona, in the Pecos River Valley of west Texas and in the Arkansas River Valley of Kansas and Colorado.

Gleed was also involved with the San Diego Land and Town Company which promoted land sales, citrus growing and irrigation in California. Gleed’s business records include a bound volume of records of the company from its founding in 1881 to 1895. Included are such items as organizational and financial data and minutes of directors and shareholders meetings held in Boston and Topeka.

In part, Gleed’s interest in land investments grew out of his involvement with the mortgage business. He served as an official of both the Farmer’s Loan and Trust Company and the Pioneer Trust Company and his collection includes correspondence with a number of bank and loan executives. Also present is data about the history of farm mortgage rates in Kansas, financial information about various institutions in which he invested or considered investing, and announcements of directors’ meetings. Gleed kept specific files on individual banks and financial institutions as well as general files containing offers of bonds, stocks, and other investments (see folders #104 and #211).

Technological developments also interested Gleed, and he promoted the development and sale of various new products and processes. One of his favorites was the ore-refining process invented by Lucian Blake of the University of Kansas. Gleed’s attempts to support the Blake Mining and Milling Company can be found in a letterpress volume for 1900-1910 and in the indexed correspondence. Gleed and Edgar Parks were part of a group seeking to market and promote the use of Blaugas for heating and lighting and later corresponded about the use of electricity. He also supported the production and sale of the Baldwin Standing Thresher.

Numerous individuals also wrote Gleed seeking to convince him to invest in their inventions. As a result his indexed correspondence contains a variety of blueprints, pictures and information about such products as folding file cabinets and refillable toothbrushes (see folder #104). In addition, records from the Pierson Manufacturing Company, which produced telegraph transmitter, are included in Gleed’s business records although his contact with the company was slight.

In addition to his other business enterprises, Gleed was a newspaper man. He had begun his journalistic career while a student in Lawrence, writing for local papers and occasionally publishing his stories in Chicago and New York papers. He also wrote promotional literature for the advertising department of the Santa Fe and for a brief period in 1884 edited a small Denver newspaper. Many of his articles from these years are included in his mounted clippings and others are among his drafts and typescripts. In 1896 Gleed, B. P. Cheney, Jr., and Hal Gaylord purchased the Kansas City Journal. Gleed maintained an active involvement with the Journal until his death, and his collection contains abundant materials about its history. Gleed’s business records contain several folders of Journal materials. Early items describe the purchase and initial organization of the newspaper under Gleed and Gaylord and the construction of the Journal building in 1902. Later folders trace the attempts to sell the newspaper.

Scattered throughout are records of bond ownership and other financial records. Similar materials relating to the Journal, are located in Gleed’s indexed correspondence (See folder #61). Gleed also corresponded with a variety of individuals about Journal affairs. Some files, such as the one containing items of William Craig, the editor, discuss daily operation of the newspapers; others contain letters from employees and ex-employees voicing grievances or asking for help. In addition, because Gleed strove to make the newspaper an important political force, his correspondence is full of letters about the content and editorial stance of the paper. Many of theses are from politicians, thanking him for his support or complaining about their coverage. Other items in the Gleed collection which relate to journalism include his correspondence with newspaper men around the country and drafts of articles he wrote.

The Gleed Collection also contains some materials relating to the legal profession although these are less plentiful than the business and journalism items. Gleed himself had originally studied to be a lawyer at Columbia and taught law at K. U. Together with Eugene Ware, they formed the law partnership. Gleed also engaged in legal work for the Santa Fe. Some of his mounted clippings, speeches and articles reflect his early legal activities. Gleed did not actively pursue a legal career in his later life but he did continue to correspond with lawyers and expressed himself on legal topics. Clay Hamilton, a Topeka lawyer, handled Gleed’s own legal affairs, and their correspondence may be found in the indexed correspondence. (Other items in the business records include Hamilton’s correspondence with family and with Pierson Co. but not with Gleed).

Gleed had been active in politics as a young man in Lawrence writing political articles and gaining popularity as a political speaker. Typescripts and drafts of some of his speeches and articles are included in the collection. Accounts of others appear in mounted clippings. Throughout his life he also corresponded with politicians and his papers should be checked for leading Republicans of the period. While the indexed files simplify this process for the period after 1911, rich materials may be found in the dated and mounted correspondence, and the mounted clipping files which reveal Gleed’s early political aspirations and contain confidential letters from John J. Ingalls. In his political statements, as in his other speeches and articles, Gleed maintained a consistently conservative pro-business position on most issues. He frequently attacked Populists and Socialists and protested against the actions of labor unions. However, his letters and speeches indicate he did favor prohibition and woman suffrage and complained about the racist attitudes of white Southerners.

As a member of the Board of Regents and as an alumnus, Gleed was actively involved in the affairs of the University of Kansas figuring prominently in several of its controversies.

The clipping file contains his defense of James Canfield against accusations of teaching doctrines which were overly liberal for the university. The dated and mounted correspondence contains letters which Gleed clearly intended to be kept private, about the 1890 fight over the chancellorship. Throughout his later life, Gleed corresponded with K. U. administrators and professors. Many of these items which may be found in the indexed correspondence relate both to personal and to university matters. Gleed also remained active in his college fraternity, the Phi Kappa Phis, corresponding with other alumni and playing a vigorous role in plans for a new chapter house at K. U.

As Gleed describes in an autobiographical essay, he had come to Lawrence when the town was still a young settlement. Throughout his life he retained an interest in the town’s early history, collecting clippings and about speeches and articles on topics such as Quantrill’s raid. He was active in both the Kansas State Historical Society and in the Missouri Valley Historical Association.

Throughout his life he maintained close ties with friends he had made as a young man in Lawrence, making his correspondence a resource for ex-Lawrence residents who later left the state.

Throughout his life, Gleed exhibited a strong sense of loyalty to his relatives and to his home state of Vermont. His family papers contain his attempts to trace his family tree and his correspondence with relatives over their ancestors. His indexed correspondence is full of letters to and from cousins whom he helped to get an education and a job. With other relatives he conducted business dealings. As the mounted clippings and correspondence show, Gleed maintained property in Vermont and visited there as well as corresponded regularly with Vermont relatives. Gleed’s relations with his immediate family is somewhat less well documented in the collection. Scattered letters to his wife and daughters reveal little of their life.

There is considerable material about Charles Gleed’s brother James Willis Gleed. Mounted clippings document Willis’s early activities as a writer and as a law professor. Some of his speeches and articles are included in the collection as well as correspondence between the brothers. In later life, Willis Gleed became a prominent attorney for the Frisco Railroad and Bell Telephone System.

Gleed also maintained a number of cultural interests. His mounted clippings include accounts of lectures and concerts he attended, as well as programs and calling cards which he saved. Also present in the collection are speeches on literary topics he gave as a young man and poems which he and his friends wrote. Although in his later life he had little time for cultural pursuits, he continued to exchange poems and essays and to mount clippings which he liked. He also supported cultural events in Topeka and Kansas City and was interested in a range of different organizations. Items relating to some of them may be found in his general file of Associations (#274) and Clubs (#288).

In addition, Mabel Gore Gleed was an accomplished musician and the Gleed collection contains a number of her musical items. Concert programs from Lawrence, Topeka and a bound volume of notes taken on musical subjects, presumably date from her years as a music student at the University of Kansas and a speech she gave tells of her experiences there. In addition programs of concerts given in Lawrence, Topeka and Kansas City include her as a performer. Other programs and mounted clippings from New York, Boston, and Chicago describe performances of major artists.

Another interest of Gleed’s was philanthropy, and associations to which he contributed are included in his indexed correspondence files, some of them grouped together as “Associations” (see folders #244, #274, #265). Much of Gleed’s philanthropy was conducted on an individual basis, however, Gleed helped numerous ex-employees, widows and orphans and needy young students. He also assisted many young men and women in finding jobs, either directly in his own companies or in the companies of his friends. Their stories are included in the files he kept of job seekers and in individual indexed files.

Information on a variety of other topics is present in the Gleed collection. A number of items relate to World War I including his own war related activities in Kansas, and letters from young men and women he knew who were serving in France and elsewhere and correspondence with fellow investors over arms sales. Gleed also claimed to have given Frederick Funston his start toward fame and maintained great admiration for him. The collection contains correspondence with and about Funston, a speech Gleed gave at his death and letters relating to Gleed’s attempt to collect money for his widow.

The Gleed collection also contains maps and photographs. Other manuscript collections in the Kansas State Historical Society which include Gleed materials are the Eugene F. Ware Collection and Frederick Funston Collection. There are additional materials on Gleed in the KSHS Library, including a dissertation on Gleed by Terry Harmon.

Contents: Indexed correspondence (boxes 1-26) -- dated correspondence (boxes 27-29) -- letterpress volumes (boxes 30-38) -- mounted letters (boxes 39-40) -- business records (boxes 41-42) -- railroad history (box 43) -- speeches and articles (boxes 44-46) -- family and general items (boxes 46-47) -- mounted clippings (boxes 48-52) -- unmounted clippings (boxes 53-55) -- index cards to Indexed correspondence ser. (1 box).

Portions of Collection Separately Described:


Locators:

Locator Contents
002-12-08-07 to 002-13-08-03  Standard size containers: Manuscripts Collection 34 
002-13-08-07  Index cards to Indexed correspondence ser. 
078-06-03-03  Oversize (flat box) (1 folder) 
912-35-00-00  Oversize (1 map folder) 

Related Records or Collections

Other Finding Aid/Index: Full finding aid on the Kansas Historical Society's website at http://www.kshs.org/p/charles-s-gleed-collection/14030

Indexes:

Some correspondence vol. have name indexes.
Index cards to the Indexed correspondence ser.

Related materials: Other collections containing information on Charles S. Gleed include Eugene F. Ware, no. 86, http://www.kshs.org/archives/40086 , and Frederick Funston, no. 33, http://www.kshs.org/archives/40033

Index Terms

Subjects

    Atchison, Topeka, and Santa Fe Railway Company
    Farmers' Loan and Trust Company of Kansas
    Kansas City journal
    Kansas State Historical Society
    Piersen Telegraph Transmission Company
    Republican Party (Kan.)
    San Diego Land and Town Company
    Southwestern Bell Telephone Company
    Topeka Railway Company
    University of Kansas
    Clippings (Books, newspapers, etc.)
    Denver (Colo.)
    Kansas
    Kansas City (Mo.)
    Middle West
    San Diego (Calif.)
    Southwestern States
    Topeka (Kan.)
    United States
    Anthony, Daniel Read, 1870-1931
    Blake, Lucien Ira, 1856-1918
    Canfield, James
    Capper, Arthur, 1865-1951
    Carruth, William Herbert, 1859-1924
    Cheney, Benjamin Franklin
    Connelley, William Elsey, 1855-1930
    Coolidge, Calvin, 1872-1933.
    Curtis, Charles, 1860-1936
    Funston, Frederick, 1865-1917
    Gaylord, Hal
    Gleed, Charles S. (Charles Sumner), 1856-1920
    Gleed, James W. (James Willis), 1859-
    Gleed, Mabel Gore
    Hamilton, Clayton Meeker, 1881-1946
    Ingalls, John James, 1833-1900
    Little, Edward Campbell, 1858-1924
    Morris, D. V
    Parks, Edgar
    Plumb, Preston B., 1837-1891
    Ripley, E. P. (Edward Payson), b. 1845
    Scott, Charles F., b. 1860
    Storey, W. S
    Strong, Frank, b. 1859
    Taft, William H. (William Howard), 1857-1930
    Templin, Olin S., 1861-1943
    Thompson, William Howard, 1871-1928, Judge
    Vail, Theodore Newton, 1845-1920
    Ware, Eugene F., 1841-1911
    White, William Allen, 1868-1944
    Businessmen -- Kansas -- Topeka
    Lawyers -- Kansas -- Topeka
    Newspaper editors -- Colorado -- Denver
    Newspaper employees -- Kansas -- Lawrence
    Newspaper employees -- Kansas -- Topeka
    American letters -- Kansas -- History -- 19th century
    American letters -- Kansas -- History -- 20th century
    American newspapers -- Missouri -- Kansas City
    American newspapers -- Missouri -- Kansas City -- Ownership
    Banks and banking -- Middle West
    Irrigation -- Southwestern States
    Mines and mineral resources -- History
    Railroads -- United States
    Telephone -- Southwestern States
    World War, 1914-1918

Creators and Contributors


Additional Information for Researchers

Restrictions: There are no restrictions on the use of the materials.

Use and reproduction: Information on literary rights available from the Kansas Historical Society (Topeka).

Ownership/Custodial Hist.: Papers in the possession of Charles S. Gleed's wife’s after his death and 1 of his daughters after his wife's death.

Cite as: Charles Sumner Gleed Collection, Manuscripts Department, Kansas State Historical Society.