Arthur C. Johnson papers
Scope and Contents
The Arthur Chilion Johnson papers consist of correspondence, diaries, as well as selected business document, photographs, scrapbooks, published writings and book manuscript.
The body of the collection is a series of 45 diaries spanning the years 1885-1937. In the correspondence there are approximately 450 Johnson letters primarily to his mother in Colorado, written during his army career (Philippine war). World travels as a free – lance reporter, and life in Washington, 1902-1915, where he served as a secretary to his uncle, senator Thomas M. Patterson (Colorado) and as enrolling clerk to the House of Representatives. Johnson also recorded with photographs, letters, diary entries and published records a number of facts- finding tours of the west and Alaska early in the century.
In 1915, Arthur Johnson moved his family to Denver where he first was associated with the Denver chamber of commerce and later with the Denver Daily Record Stockmen. At the time of his death, he was editor and publisher of this newspaper.
The Collection is valuable for Arthur Johnson’s observation of national figures, 1902-1915, and of Colorado activities, 1915-1937. His knowledge of Colorado ranching illuminates the cattle industry particularly during the period of drought and depression. Diaries and letters, 1931-1936, contain a remarkably close account of middle class life during the Great Depression. Since the Johnson family was connected by blood, friendship or business ties with a large number of Denver educational, social and business figures, his papers also contains useful information on the personal and cultural , social and domestic life during his lifetime
Dates
- 1887 - 1937
Conditions Governing Access
This collection is open for access.
Conditions Governing Use
Limited duplication of materials allowed for research purposes. User is responsible for all copyright compliance.
Biographical Note
Arthur Chilion Johnson was born in Denver July 13, 1847. He attended public school in Denver and in Boulder, and later attended the University of Colorado. He received a degree of LLB in 1914 from George Washington University, Washington D. C., and was admitted to the bar in Washington and in Colorado.
Meanwhile he did newspaper work, a carrier he was to follow through most of his life in the early nineties on The Rocky Mountain News. Preceding his work on the News he taught school for a short period in the San Luis Valley.
He Served in the 1st Colorado infantry in the war with Spain in 1898, and supplies correspondence to the News from manila, where he was stationed. Discharged in the Orient, he engaged in correspondence work for the New York Sun, Chicago Record, Collier’s Weekly and the Manila America. He was New York Sun correspondence on the boxer campaign in China in 1900, and traveled in India and Europe on the way home to America after an absence of three years.
For six year he was secretary in Washington to his uncle, Senator Thomas M. Patterson, Colorado, and for 14 years worked in the press gallery at Washington. I t was during these years he studies law. Mr. Johnson was a member of the Delta tau college fraternity and phi Delta Phi, legal fraternity.
Mr. Johnson worked on the Washington post, Washington Herald and Associated press bureau at Washington; also for a period on the Washington bureau of the Chicago Tribune. His Writing activities won him the distinction of the being elected secretary of the National Press Association from 1908 to 1911. He wrote an extensive series of articles on Alaska in 1903, during a visit to that area with a senatorial committee.
He returned to Denver in 1915, after marrying Maude Taylor McIntosh in the New Jersey in 1912, and engaged in publicity work for the chamber of Commerce, edited the Denver Civic & Commercial for four years. He purchased an interest in The Denver Daily record Stockman in 1919 and continues as editor and publisher in partnership with his brother Fred.
In 1931 he accepted appointment as secretary of the Denver Livestock Exchange, and also enters the practice of the law in the stockyard, continuing his association with the Record Stockman.
He was counsel for the livestock exchange in the famous sale- in-transit case before the Interstate Commerce Commission, and represented the exchange in Washington in negotiation leading up to the establishment of one of the branches of the Regional Agricultural Credit Corporation in Denver.
Mr. Johnson had attained national prominence as a war correspondent and later as a political commentator, but his keenest interest was the cattle industry of the west and particularly the Denver stockyard. He died Ja.10, 1937 one week before the opening of the National Western Stock Show in which, as second vice president of the western Stock Show Association, he had long been a dominant figure.
Extent
7.5 linear feet
Language of Materials
English
Arrangement
This collection is arranged in the following series: Series 1: Correspondence, 1883-1937 Series 2: Diaries, Notebooks, 1885-1937 Series 3: Miscellany, 1901-1918 Series 4: Photo Albums, 1886-1997 Series 5: Scrapbooks, 1895-1912 Series 6: Reproductions, 1921 Series 7: Oversize, n.d.
- Status
- Completed
- Author
- Processed by Dorris Mitterling May 1974 Reformatted by Rasmi Lamichhane, May 24, 2013
- Date
- May 24, 2013
- Description rules
- Describing Archives: A Content Standard
- Language of description
- English
- Script of description
- Latin
Repository Details
Part of the University of Colorado Boulder Libraries, Rare and Distinctive Collections Repository