Correspondence, financial records, technical reports, historical material, photographs, and other materials of the principal stockholder in Day Mines, Inc.
Repository:
University of Idaho Library Special Collections and Archives
Moscow, ID 83844-2351
Languages:
English
Sponsor:
Initial processing of this manuscript group was done with funds provided by the National Historical Publications and Records Commission. Funding for encoding this finding aid was provided through a grant awarded by the National Endowment for the Humanities.
Biographical Note
Henry Lawrence Vincent Day, known as Lawrence in his youth, was born in Spokane, Washington, on October 4, 1902, to Helen Dwyer and Harry Loren Day of Wallace, Idaho. At the age of one month he moved to Burke with his parents where he remained until the summer of 1905 when the family moved to Wallace. He was educated in the public and parochial schools in Wallace.
He graduated from the University of California in Mining Engineering in 1923, where he wrote his senior thesis on the Tamarack and Custer Mine. He spent several of his college summers working underground in different capacities so that he might learn mining firsthand. By his own admission he did not enjoy a year of post graduate study in economic geology at Harvard University immediately following his California degree.
After completing his education, Henry went to work in the management of his family's mining business. At that time he began a program of consolidation which culminated twenty years later with the creation of Day Mines, Inc., in 1947. He was given much leeway within the company, as his father and uncle, Jerome Day, were extricating themselves from the day to day aspects of the business. The middle of the 1920s was a period of turmoil for the Day family due to the demise of the Hercules Mine, which, for the previous twenty-five years had provided a healthy cash flow for the family's endeavors.
Henry gradually streamlined the family operation, bringing it into the modern business community. For example, while consolidating the existing mining companies he branched out into gold mining in northern California in the thirties (a venture which did not pan out particularly well). But the Day companies did do well during World War II because of high metals prices. The work force was then reduced during the early years of Day Mines, Inc., following the war.
It is claimed that DMI was a concrete concept when Henry created the Monitor Mining Company in 1940, which combined all the mines and claims on what was known as the "north side" above Wardner. During the 1950 he continued to consolidate his mining companies by a centralization process that made his smaller operation more efficient. DMI thus grew smaller as metal prices lowered and technology improved.
In 1937 Henry married Lois Ecius Flohr, and they had a daughter, Barbara, in 1939; on June 6, 1940 Lois died at age twenty-nine of heart disease. Henry remained a widower for many years, employing a Mrs. Cady to look after his daughter, and did not remarry until April 27, 1972 when he married Anne Kearny, an old friend from New Jersey, whose late husband, Thomas, had been a newspaper editor. Henry had been best man at Ann and Thomas's wedding and Thomas was Barbara's godfather.
Henry played an active role in Idaho politics and business, and supported many projects at the University of Idaho. Prior to his retirement in 1972 he devoted most of his time to DMI, but with retirement he began to devote his time to the Republican Party and conservative politics at the state and national level while continuing to take an interest in the Silver Valley and the problems the area was facing with reduced income from the mines.
He took a leading part in civic affairs, being a leader in the construction of the Wallace Civic Memorial Auditorium in 1945-1947, the Neewahlu waterfront camp for the Camp Fire Girls on Lake Coeur d'Alene in 1954-1955, and the building of the East Shoshone Hospital in Silverton, Idaho, a project in which he was active from 1965 to 1972. It was in this hospital that he died on March 21, 1985.
Content Description
The papers of Henry L.V. Day span the years 1870 to 1985, with the bulk of the material covering the years 1920 to 1982. Included are correspondence, financial records, technical reports, historical material, including typescripts for two books on the Days, photographs, certificates and plaques, and other material. As the dates indicate, some of this material originally belonged to Henry's father, but was kept by Henry in his files for reference.
Administrative Information
Arrangement :
The papers of Henry L.V. Day are divided into five series.
Correspondence and Related Records, the first series, is divided into four subseries. The first of these, Youth and Education, contains letters, receipts, certificates, photographs, pamphlets, early papers, and mementos concerning his childhood and his life as a student at the Newman School, the University of California, and Harvard Graduate School of the Arts and Sciences, and also material relating to a European vacation in 1923. Course notes and a draft of his senior thesis also form part of this subseries. The Chronological File includes general business correspondence, including legal explanations given him by John Wourms, and correspondence from his latter years dealing with political subjects. The largest of the subseries is the Alphabetical File. It covers Henry's entire range of personal, political, professional, business, financial, avocational, and philanthropic interests, primarily in his later years. It is an alphabetical file with correspondence and other records concerning family and friends filed next to purely business records. Included are letters, memoranda, congratulatory cards and notes, typed and printed reports (both financial and narrative), lists, proxy statements, financial statements, balance sheets, minutes, press releases, clippings, longhand notes, handbills, advertisements, brochures, pamphlets, maps, and other types of records. The folders concerning Camp Neewahlu, a Camp Fire Girls camp on Kidd Island Bay which Henry donated to them, Day Mines, Inc., and East Shoshone Hospital are quite extensive. The Index: Document Files, is a bound volume containing a list of documents R.H. Sneed believed to be the most important records in recreating the lives and times of the Day family and their location in the five filing cabinets in the "inner vault of the main basement vault" of the Day Building in Wallace.
The second series is comprised of financial records. The first subseries, Ledgers and Statements, includes cash received journals, voucher registers, cash disbursed journals, and other oversize ledgers for the years 1935 to 1982. The depreciation schedule, 1957-1975, relates to real estate and personal property owned by Henry Day. The bond register, 1921-1955, contains separate listings for bonds held by Harry L. Day, Barbara Flohr Day, Henry Lawrence Day, Eleanor Day Boyce, Day Mines, Inc., and Hercules Mining Company. Also included in this subseries are Henry Day's personal financial statements for the years 1935 to 1963 and financial statements for various Day-owned companies. The second subseries contains material related to various Day family estates, and trusts set up for Day family members. Property records, including abstracts of title and appraisals for Henry's residence at 114 Cedar in Wallace, his summer home on Lake Coeur d'Alene, Laissez Faire, and the Santa Barbara Home, Las Palmas.
The third series, Technical Papers, includes correspondence and reports from consulting geologists L.C. Graton, A.C. Lawson, Rodgers Peale, and William D. Mark. Also included are reports of property examinations by E.S. Rugg and R.H. Nagell. The final item is a four volume report on assaying by Herbert Emery Samms who was employed in control assaying and engineering work for the Tamarack And Custer Mine from 1922 until his death in 1940.
Historical Material, the fourth series, includes correspondence, research material and a draft of Charles R. Stark, Jr.'s biography of Harry Loren Day, and several typescripts of John Fahey's book "Days of the Hercules", with corrections by Henry L. Day and Henry Day Ellis. Also included are newspaper clippings about the Coeur d'Alene region and some early World War I clippings which probably belonged to Harry Day. This series also includes speeches given by Henry Day to mining and civic organizations.
The final series contains photographs, certificates and plaques, and other material which did not fit into the previously designated series. The photographs are, for the most part, personal, and include a series of negatives for photo albums maintained by Henry Day. These negatives are numbered by book and pages on which the prints occur, but only the negatives are available in this manuscript group. The prints were sorted by subject, then arranged alphabetically. Occasionally a group of prints was found in a labeled envelope (e.g. Henry Day Old file), and in this case the prints were kept together and the label on the envelope used as the folder heading. Some of the subjects covered are Day family photographs, Eugene Day's hauling outfit, mine photographs, and politicians. It is obvious from the date of many of the photographs that they originally belonged to the previous generation of Day family members. Also included is Jerome Day's photograph album, and an album on Burke, Idaho given to DMI by Joseph Foley, Jr. in 1956.
The certificates include those belonging to other members of the Day family which are foldered separately from Henry's. His certificates were sorted by type, e.g. civic activities, diplomas, religious, etc., then arranged chronologically in folders. The wooden plaques were treated in a similar manner.
The remaining material in this series consists of material which did not fit into the previously established series and includes commemorative coins and bills, a January 4, 1800 copy of the Ulster gazette, telegraphic code books, a 3 volume typed index of Coeur d'Alene Mining Companies and men affiliated with the Coeur d'Alene mining industry as of January 1, 1922, and 2 reels of 16mm film on the Sunshine Mine fire, apparently part of a documentary filmed by Wolper Productions in 1972. Also included are oversize rolled maps, aerial photographs and other items, which, because of their awkward size are stored separately from the shelved boxes.
Publications, duplicate materials, vouchers, annual reports of non-Day owned companies in which Henry Day held stock, and unedited photocopies of John Fahey's manuscript were discarded. The historic maps which Day collected were added to the Special Collections map collection in order to make them more accessible to researchers. These measures, plus refoldering from legal to letter size when possible, reduced the bulk of the material by 22 feet.
Acquisition Information :
The papers of Henry Lawrence Vincent Day are part of the records of Day Mines, Inc., donated to the University of Idaho by Henry Day in 1984 and 1985.
Detailed Description of the Collection
Series I. Correspondence and Related Records , 1883-1985
Container(s)
Description
A. Youth and Education , 1904-1932
Box/Folder
1/1
Art studies paper , ca. 1912
1/2
Ninth grade papers , 1915
1/3
Newman School , 1918-1929
1/4
Harvard University , 1924-1925
1/5
Miscellaneous , 1924-1932
1/6
Personal , 1904-1918
1/7
Rifle, etc. , 1923-1927
1/8
Senior class , 1923
1/9
Sigma Gamma Epsilon , 1926
1/10
University of California , 1919-1929
1/11
European vacation , 1923
1/12
Draft of senior thesis on the Tamarack & Custer Mine , 1923
1/13
Class notes: Assaying , 1921
1/14
Compressor tests , 1922
1/15
Cost accounting , 1922-1923
1/16-17
Electricity , 1921-1922
1/18
Geology , undated
1/19
Hoisting , undated
1/20
Hydraulics , 1922
1/21
Metallurgy , 1922-1923
1/22
Mining economics , 1922
1/23
Mining law , 1922
1/24
Mining methods , 1921-1923
1/25
Rescue - First aid , 1922
1/26
Surveying , undated
1/27
Ventilation , 1922
B. Chronological File , 1883-1984
Box/Folder
1/28
Coeur d'Alene mining district , undated
1/29
A.J. Prichard letter , 1883
1/30
Hercules partnership, statements , 1900
1/31
Loose correspondence , 1921-1984
1/32
Cold Creek Development Co. , 1922-1938
1/33
Operating conferences , 1929-1931
1/34
Wallace Board of Trade resolution , 1930
1/35
Metaline District , 1930-1937
1/36
Report in re condition of Wallace Bank & Trust Company , May 19, 1931
1/37
Day Family , 1932
2/38
J.M. Perry , 1932
2/39
Silver agreement , 1933
2/40
Sunshine Mine case , 1934
2/41
Explanation of depletion allowance , 1936
2/42
Miscellaneous , 1936
2/43
Telegrams , 1936
2/44
Day, Mr. & Mrs. Henry L., wedding , 1937
2/45
Kanaka Corporation , 1937-1938
2/46
Mining properties , 1937
2/47
Mining properties, sale of , 1937
2/48
Memo for James McCarthy , 1937
2/49
Sherman operating , 1938-1941
2/50
John Wourms correspondence , 1938
2/51
Ed Boyce correspondence , 1939
2/52
Barbara Day memorabilia , 1939-1956
2/53
Water flowage in Gorge Gulch , 1939
2/54
Irish Press Corporation , 1939-1946
2/55
Pearl S. Buck , 1940
2/56
Tamarack-Dayrock-Hercules geological & metallurgical information , 1940-1941
2/57
Miscellaneous , 1940
2/58
Hercules , 1941-1942
2/59
Monitor , 1943-1948
2/60
David Dwyer power of attorney , 1945
2/61
Dan De Quille , 1945-1948
2/62
Correspondence concerning an article about Harry Day , 1945-1948
2/63
American Smelting & Refining Co. , 1946
2/64
F.M. Rothrock , 1946
2/65
Day Mines internal organization , 1947
2/66
Miscellaneous , 1948
2/67
Cecil G. Tilton , 1948-1954
2/68
Mine Safety photo , 1949
2/69
Maps , 1949-1952
2/70
Hercules comeback , 1950
2/71
Lucy M. Day , 1950-1956
2/72
Joel E. Ferris , 1952-1954
2/73
Dan De Quille papers donated to Bancroft Library , 1952-1953
2/74
Revis Motors , 1952
2/75
Hercules shaft sinks , 1953
2/76
Unpatented claims in force 1900-1953 , 1954
2/77
Indian inspector of mines visits DMI , 1954
2/78
Gonzaga University , 1955-1956
2/79
Miscellaneous , 1955
2/80
Grandview Mining Group , 1958
2/81
Miscellaneous , 1960
2/82
Photographs of Henry Day , 1963-1977
2/83
Holy Name Foundation , 1964
2/84
Miscellaneous , 1965
2/85
Jerome & Lucy Day gift to the University of Idaho Library, picture , 1962
2/86
F.W. Rothrock old papers , 1907-1919, 1966
2/87
Abstract of title , 1966
2/88
Hecla-DMI exchange , 1967
2/89
Barry Goldwater , 1968
2/90
University of Idaho College of Business Administration: Businessman of the year , 1968
2/91
Edward Borein , 1969-1970
2/92
Coeur d'Alene district silver mines , 1970
2/93
Wallace Realty, sale of Day Building , 1972
2/94
Securities and Exchange Commission form 144 , 1974-1977
2/95
Richard Fitch, Old maps and prints , 1974-1975
2/96
Memo to KAE , 1977
2/97
Ed FitzGerald dinner , 1977
2/98
Material for John Fahey , 1975-1979
2/99
John Fahey manuscript, pp. 99-239 , ca. 1975
2/100
"Days of the Hercules" advertisements, etc. , November 1978
2/101
Securities & Exchange Commission form 4 , 1976-1980
2/102
Henry Day philanthropic projects , 1979-1983
2/103
Miscellaneous correspondence , 1979-1984
3/104
Estate planning seminar, Gonzaga University , 1980
3/105
Vault inventory , 1980
3/106
Speeches, articles , 1980
3/107
Tax returns , 1981-1982
3/108
Reports to DMI stockholders on Hecla's takeover bid , 1981
3/109
Dick Sneed's vault inventories , 1981
3/110
I-90, comments on proposals , 1982-1983
3/111
Correspondence , 1983
3/112
Correspondence with Keith Petersen & Mary Reed , 1984
3/113
Correspondence , 1984
3/114-117
Correspondence relating to charitable and political giving , mainly 1984
3/118
Miscellaneous material , 1911-1970
C. Alphabetical File , 1913-1985
Box/Folder
3/119-120
A , 1971-1984
3/121
Amax; American Conservative Union , 1971-1979
3/122
American Institute of Mining Engineers; American Heritage Publishing Co. , 1971-1975
3/123
American Mining Congress , 1978-1983
3/124
Gold-silver session , 1972
3/125
Silver committee , 1972-1973
3/126
American Smelting and Refining Co. , 1976-1981
3/127
American Stock Exchange; Amonson, John , 1969-1980
3/128
Andrus, Cecil , 1971-1981
3/129
Antimony; Ardiel, Barbara Day , 1970-1982
3/130
Arizona mines , 1969-1971
3/131
Arizona Republic; Arizona trips , 1970-1971
3/132
Arnold, Lincoln , 1959-1970
3/133
Art (Sculpture) , 1966-1973
3/134
B , 1950-1984
3/135
Barb II; Barlow, Sumner & Betsy , 1968-1980
4/136
Beck, Richard F. , 1969-1981
4/137
Bielenberg, Marc , 1972-1977
4/138
Blyth & Co. , 1961-1973
4/139
Borah Foundation , 1970-1979
4/140
Borah Symposium , 1970-1976
4/141
Bowlby, Wilson T.; Bruning, R.J. , 1971-1979
4/142
British-American Bicentenary Group , 1970-1971
4/143
Bunker Hill Co. , 1971-1980
4/144-145
C , 1961-1984
4/146
Cage, Frederic , 1966-1971
4/147-149
Caladay project , 1969-1980
4/150
Callahan Company , 1972-1981
4/151-154
Camp Fire Girls , 1951-1957
4/155
Camp Neewahlu, A-B , 1954-1958
4/156
Bills , 1955-1956
5/157-160
Bills, Lists no. 0-25 , 1955-1957
5/161
Building fund, Farragut College , 1956
5/162
C , 1955-1957
5/163
Construction estimates , 1955-1956
5/164
D , 1954-1958
5/165
Donations , 1954-1956
5/166
E-F , 1955-1956
5/167
Farragut College liquidating dividend , 1955-1956
5/168
G-K , 1954-1956
5/169
Kieffer reports , 1956-1957
5/170
Kitchen equipment , 1955
5/171
L , 1955-1956
5/172
M , 1955-1956
5/173-174
Miscellaneous , 1955-1956
5/175
Maps, plans, sketches , 1955
5/176
Maps, photographs, newspaper clippings , 1955
5/177
N-P , 1954-1957
5/178-179
Payrolls , 1955-1957
6/180
R , 1955-1956
6/181
Reports , 1955
6/182
S , 1954-1958
6/183
T-Z , 1955-1956
6/184
Traveling file , 1956-1957
6/185
Campbell, William S., B.S.U. Foundation , 1982-1983
6/186-187
Canwell, A.F. , 1970-1983
6/188
Chavez, Caesar; Coal mining , 1971
6/189
Coat of arms, bookplates; Coeur d'Alene district data , 1969-1981
6/190
Coeur d'Alene District Mine Operators Association , 1970
6/191
Coeur d'Alene District Mining Museum , 1967-1980
6/192-194
Coeur d'Alene Lake Front Property Owner's Association , 1967-1975
6/195
Coeur d'Alene Lakeshore Owners Association , 1981-1982
6/196
Coeur d'Alene project , 1968-1977
6/197
Coeur d'Alene Sailing Club , 1975
6/198
Combinations, Safes; Crosby, Garth M. , 1955-1975
6/199-200
D , 1965-1984
6/201
Dahlias , undated
6/202
Dalton, Russell , 1970-1972
6/203
Daniels, Joe , 1972-1977
6/204
Day, Anne , 1975-1980
6/205
Day, Eugene , 1922-1932
6/206
Day, Henry: Marriage certificates; personal , 1937-1982
Montana Historical Society Maps: limited editions, 38 of 1,000, signed by artist , 1975
Military sites; Trading posts
os/1194
Military road from Fort Walla Walla to Fort Benton. Tracing and negative print , undated
os/1195
Plat map of a portion of Santa Barbara, California showing proposed division line between E.H. Sawyer and Robert Y. Hayne , undated
os/1196
Las Palmas, compiled map of surveys made by F.F. Flournoy of property owned by Harry L. Day, El Montecito, Santa Barbara, California , June 1925
os/1197
Drawings of plans for speed launches for Harry L. Day, (3 blueprint drawings) , 1906
os/1198
U.S. Department of Agriculture, Agricultural Stabilization and Conservation Service. Aerial photographs of portions of Lake Coeur d'Alene. Some place names pencilled in. 6 photographs , 1965
os/1199
Photograph of the Northport Smelter by W.J. Carpenter, Spokane , ca. 1920
os/1200
Certificate from the Panama-Pacific International Exposition: Gold medal award presented to the State of Idaho for an Exhibit of massive silver-bearing galenas, Tamarack and Custer Consolidated Mining Company, Wallace, Idaho, participant , 1915
os/1201
Drilling underground. Reproduction of a painting, one of a series of original paintings commissioned by LeTourneau-Westinghouse , 1964
os/1202
Miscellaneous
Facsimiles issued by Veterans of Foreign Wars: Gettysburg Address; Abraham Lincoln's letter to Mrs. Bixby, Nov. 21, 1964Constitution of the United States; Declaration of Independence; Photostatic copy of Coeur d'Alene Nugget (Eagle City, Idaho, v.1 no.1, Saturday March 15, 1884
This collection is indexed under the following headings in the online
catalog. Researchers desiring materials about related topics, persons, or
places should search the catalog using these headings.
Corporate Names :
Day Mines
Subject Terms :
Mineral industries -- Idaho -- Coeur d'Alene Mining District