J. Henry Roraback papers

The collection was heavily used by Edwin McNeil Dahill for his dissertation at Colombia University Teacher’s College in 1971. He re-foldered the collection and arranged it roughly by year, further dividing correspondence into categories he named Internal—Important, Internal—Routine, External—Important and External—Routine, Business and General, and Personal. His definitions for these categories are not clear. He also left notes written on yellow lined paper sprinkled throughout the folders, primarily indicating suggestions for additional research. These have been retained and are filed chronologically at the end of the collection. He also annotated certain documents, and those annotations remain. It is impossible to know how Roraback, or his secretary Mary Collins, arranged the files. There is a hint in one of Dahill’s annotations that it may have been topical.

Dahill’s re-organization has contributed to an overlap within the correspondence files among personal, business and Republican State Central Committee letters and responses. Staff decided that unless a letter was addressed to Roraback as Chairman of the Republican State Central Committee, it would remain with his regular correspondence. Some investment correspondence may also be found among regular correspondence. For ease of research, the correspondence is arranged in chronological order within three separate series: Correspondence, Republican State Central Committee, and Finances—Investments. Where feasible, Roraback's responses to incoming letters are kept together. Original folder titles, which were few, are in quotes.

The personal and State Committee correspondence provide a rich resource for studying political issues and strategies in the 1920s and 1930s. The letters contain frank discussions of opinion and policy between politicians at all levels, from Presidents of the United States to local ward bosses. Some topics covered in the letters include, but are not limited to, the development of power companies, prohibition, woman suffrage, anti-lynching laws, the creation of a Jewish homeland in Palestine, restrictions on child and female labor, education, workmen’s compensation, the World Court, the development of rail and air transportation, prohibition, and patronage. Also among personal correspondence is information about water rights on the Housatonic River, patent information for a new fire extinguisher, 1917-1918; and letters concerning utility lobbying, 1921-1922.

One of Roraback’s most prolific correspondents was Hiram Bingham, who wrote to J. Henry to ask his advice on nearly every decision Bingham made. Bingham was elected Governor in 1925 but relinquished the position to become U.S. Senator for Connecticut after serving for less than one day. Other correspondents included Frank B. Brandegee, Governor John H. Trumbull, Talbot Otis Freeman Jr., entrepreneur Annie B. Jennings, lawyers William H. Blodgett, Benedict M. Holden, Samuel C. Morehouse, and Samuel A. Eddy, and anti-suffrage activist Grace G. Markham. He also received letters from Calvin Coolidge and William H. Taft.

Arranged within the Republican State Central Committee series are articles related to the McLean-Bulkeley election in 1911; letters about Temperance in 1916; about suffrage, both for and against, between 1918 and 1920; financial reports of the Committee; memorabilia from the National Republican Conventions; and one folder of letters from “ethnic organizations,” 1922-1936, gathered by Dahill. The letterheads are from such ethnic groups such as “Colored,” French, Swedish and Polish organizations. Roraback carried on an extensive correspondence with Charles Hilles, head of the National Republican Committee, and with Charles H. Clark, editor of the Hartford Courant. In 1927 there are a number of letters in support of the appointment of George H. Cohen as a federal judge from Jewish organizations and the United Palestine Appeal.

The collection also includes financial records, including bank statements, cancelled checks, and reports for both the Republican State Central Committee and for Roraback’s personal accounts. Financial materials related to the Committee are arranged in that Series. Among Roraback’s personal investments were various railroads, utilities, Edward Miller Co., Device Testing Corporation, Crude Oil Detector Company, and several mining companies.

Roraback kept a notebook with comments and thoughts on Arthur J. Spellacy, a Democrat and an Assistant Attorney, and retained a sheaf of papers, reportedly a speech, with resolutions dating from 1861-1873 concerning states’ rights. Arranged after these notes are a series of diary/appointment books from 1918-circa 1930.

Although eclipsed by politics, Roraback’s vocation was a lawyer. Included in the collection are legal case files for the Lock Nut Bolt patent, 1909-1910; Device Testing Co., 1914-1917; the murder trial and parole hearings of John Hayes, 1917-1924; and several other cases. The final series in the collection is correspondence to Dahill and his notes on yellow paper.

One oversize box includes a photograph of a wooden bridge over a river, and Roraback’s household accounts from 1931-1933.