Telegram from Dallas, via Postal Telegraph.
1939 SEP 17 AM 400
MRS W E DOVE=
1928 FREEMONT AVE SOUTH MPLS=
CONSOLIDATION DALLAS MENARD SONORA AND UVALDE AT MENARD SUGGEST STRONG AND MEETING BISHOPP HERE JEFFERSON HOTEL SUNDAY. I WOULD PREFER MOVE MENARD WITHOUT GOING WASHINGTON=
WALTER.
September 17, 1939
Translated: Walter is probably going to be put in charge of a consolidated USDA research facility in Menard, TX.
It’s been five months since the previous letter, because Walter and Ina were together again at home in Minneapolis. Now he’s traveled to Washington to sort out his future work at the USDA. He’s considering a transfer back to the Division of Insects Affecting Man & Animals (medical and veterinary entomology), but his exact assignment is still unclear.
Sept. 14
10:30 PM
My dear Ina,
Have just returned from the Cushings. Claudelle and I had them for dinner in Silver Springs & were joined by Mrs. Bishopp & Jimmie who were also there for dinner. Cushings took us in their car, and we left Claudelle at her place on the way here. A very pleasant visit & Mrs. B. suggested that she imagined that I wanted to work in the South again. I judged that B. had talked with her about my move to the Man & Animals division. Bish is now on a trip to Texas & will be in Dallas on the 16th & here on the 21 or 22nd. I don’t see how I can wait here until he returns & I don’t believe I can get through here in time to meet him down there. I doubt if that would be necessary.
September 14, 1939
Strong saw me this PM in company with Gaddis & we went over ‘hopper work. He seemed very pleased & took copies to show the Secretary of Agric. He said that he wanted to see me tomorrow morning & would call for me at Gaddis’s office. He seems to be in a good mood but is very thin and with some forced pep in talking. I am to prepare a news article on the program to be ready here next Tuesday for Mr. Milloy of the Minneapolis Tribune.
From talking with Gaddis & Cushing I am led to believe that there is no difficulty in transfer, but BM did ask if I wished to reconsider & stay on hoppers. I told him that that depended upon Dr. Bishopp’s attitude & what the chief’s office had to say. BM is doing all he can for me & I appreciate it. He is willing to pay my salary on ‘hopper rolls until Bish can get money. I have an idea Bish would like for him to do that until July so that he need not drop anyone. Apparently he & Cush have not considered who would be transferred to Gaddis’s division.
Cushing thinks it would be better for me to come to Wash. & seems anxious, as Stage from Oregon was supposed to come & he did not care especially for that. He also mentioned the same possibilities suggested in Claudelle’s letter & said it looked like a question of where I wanted to live if I did not care to come to Wash. Bish did call on Gaddis & say that he would like to have me.
I have an idea that the Chief is going to ask me to pep up the work in that division & see that they produce, regardless of my assignment.
More tomorrow, possibly by wire if unsure or different from what we already know.
Love to the 3 of you
Walter
This is a three-page single-spaced letter that I’m not going to transcribe, but I’ve scanned the first page. The gist of it is that Gaddis and the other top brass at the USDA have been very impressed with Walter’s work on grasshopper control, and that they don’t have a lot of research posts available to move him into at the moment. Gaddis concludes by saying they’ll do what they can, but that Walter is doing such a good job in his management position that he may be stuck with it for another season.
August 12, 1939 (From Mr. Gaddis)
Wednesday Afternoon.
Aug. 9, 1939.
Dearest Sweetheart:
You have no idea how happy your letter made me this morning. I shall be eternally grateful to you for taking my last letter as good-naturedly as you did. After I mailed it it began to prey on my mind; I was afraid you might not take it as I intended it. When I received no reply by yesterday afternoon I became desperate. At eight last night I put in a station-to-station call for you at Kenwood 8479, and kept it in until 11:15, but no one answered. You must have already left on your trip. During the few hours that I slept I dreamed and dreamed about you – disturbing dreams. If your letter had not come this morning you would have received a telegram.
August 9, 1939
The letter you enclosed makes me very happy. I think it is well worded, and I hope it brings the desired results. I feel that you will never regret it.
We can hardly wait until next week to see you. We have had a good visit, but are ready to leave because we want to be with you. We are looking forward to the Mississippi trip.
The children were proud of their letters from you. Walter White stayed awake as late as he could last night, hoping to get to talk to you. Finally he gave up, and with specific instructions to me as to what I should tell you for him, he dropped to sleep.
You may not receive this until you reach Uvalde, but I just had to write.
I love you ever so much, Honey.
Always, your
Ina.
Sunday night – office
My dear Sweetheart,
A copy of my letter to Mr. Gaddis is enclosed and I want to ask you to keep it confidential. The personal reasons are not listed in the letter but were discussed with him. Strong should be back in Washington soon as he was improving rapidly and they thought he might not be away two months. I do not expect to get a reply before leaving here.
August 6, 1939
Sometime this week I plan to drive to Ames and see Dr. Drake & Decker. Will leave a car there for a surveyor & drive one of the Bishopps’ cars to Dallas, making stops at Lincoln Nebraska and perhaps Manhattan Kansas for conferences with state leaders. I should get to Uvalde sometime about the middle of next week. We could drive from there to Miss. & return. Have you had time for your visits? Are you ready to return?
I think most of your letter can be answered better when I am with you, if you do not go to sleep. Maybe you won’t be so tired then & we can drive & talk.
With lots of love, your
Walter
Enclosures:
Dear Mr. Snickel Fritz,
Expect to see you at Uvalde about the middle of next week, or about the 16th of August. That is if Mother, Lewis and you are ready to go to Mississippi and return to Minneapolis.
The American Legion is meeting here. About half of them did not get to Europe during the war.
With love
Daddy
Dear Lewis,
It is hot in Minneapolis too. Daddy is at the office now but will walk home and go to sleep. All of the airplanes have quit baiting for grasshoppers but some spreaders are working the roadsides yet.
With love,
Daddy.
Minneapolis, Minn.
707 Thorpe Building,
August 6, 1939.
Mr. B.M. Gaddis, In Charge,
Division of Domestic Quarantines,
Bureau of Entomology and Plant Quarantine,
Washington, D.C.
Dear Mr. Gaddis,
The work of control of grasshoppers is nearing an end for this season and at the present time the beginning of the survey is determining whether or not there is need for a continuation of the work during 1940. The verbal reports received from the infested area together with the lack of any genuine complaints from any portions of the area suggest that the program of this year is again a very successful one if not the best yet carried on for control of grasshoppers. Naturally, the writer is proud of his part in the accomplishments of the past two seasons and he feels sure that the program is contributing materially to a stronger Bureau and Department.
August 6, 1939 (to Mr. Gaddis)
There has been opportunity for different field supervisors to demonstrate their abilities under fire and many of them have shown their fitnesses for greater responsibilities. The healthy stage of development of the work would seem to permit the Bureau to continue or expand its work by using some of the men from the ranks for key positions.
In view of the present status of the grasshopper control work, and on account of various personal reasons, the writer is anxious to return to research work and asks the Bureau to consider his desire for such employment. He would be pleased to continue at Minneapolis long enough to familiarize his successor with details of the work. If his successor could report in the near future he would have the advantage of reviewing the current summaries on control work as well as the compilations of survey data.
Very truly yours,
W.E. Dove, In Charge,
Grasshopper Control Project.
Friday PM.
My dear Ina,
Enjoyed your letter and the one from Lewis. I understand that Walter White was not there at the time you wrote. It seems ages since I left you at Uvalde.
August 4, 1939
Kenneth is in the migratory area and is doing some good work. I’ve just phoned Mrs. Q to let her know that I talked with Kenneth and that he expects to be back Monday Morning. She sends Hello.
Thursday morning Mrs. Pettit had phoned the office so I came to the Curtis where they were eating breakfast. They looked well and were enjoying their vacation. In Iowa they went to Mrs. Pettit’s old home. They still own it. Chinch bugs injured crops some. They went from here to some other point & then to Estes Park Colorado.
Mr. Palcek phoned from Miles City & is going west from there to Yellowstone.
Miss Beckwall has been sick & is at home. Mrs. Hastings tells me that it is serious and that she (Miss B) should have an operation. I do not know the trouble but according to Mrs. H it is the same thing that Miss B had last year at Wash.
I heard Claudelle’s voice this morning but did not talk with her.
After Kenneth returns and during this month I think I can come down for you OK. If we go to Miss. we would not stop long. Dr. Dickinson is back now and can help Kenneth some.
With lots of love,
Walter
Separate letters for Lewis and Walter White:
Dear Lewis,
I was glad when I got your letter. There is a circus in town now and I wish you were here. Maybe another one will come after you return and if so you and I will take Mother and Walter White.
With love
Daddy
Dear Mr. Swimmer,
Today is Aug 4 and it was just 13 years ago today that Frank Adams and Daddy were caught in the flood waters on the Dry Frio. Deep water and flood waters are dangerous and I am glad that you are careful and that you are learning to swim. Will come for you before long and I want you to take good care of Mother and Lewis.
With love
Daddy.
Thursday Night.
Aug. 3, 1939.
Dear Walter:
I judge from your letter this afternoon that you are considering taking over for another year not only the grasshopper program, but the cricket also – all under Mr. Gaddis. I’m greatly disappointed. It looks like Dr. Strong’s condition would make you realize more than ever before that overwork doesn’t pay. Before many years he and Mr. Gaddis are going out like a flash, and they will be replaced by newer machinery that soon will be doing their work as well as they did. Furthermore, Dr. Strong and Mr. Gaddis will be remembered by many by their failures rather than by their success before they tried to handle too much.
August 3, 1939 (Ina)
Your family is getting desperately tired of your devoting all your time to your work. It gets worse every year, but you were that way years before you started on grasshoppers. When all else is gone, you will need your family. Now, I appreciate the fact that you have given us a name that we are proud of; you have provided us with comforts and luxuries that the average family does not have, and you have never complained of any money that I have spent; you have arranged to have some member of my family with us most of the time so that I would not get lonesome – all this I appreciate deeply – but we want you. You have provided everything anyone could reasonably expect except a father for your two fine sons, and a man to make love to your wife. Had it occurred to you that a woman likes the companionship and attention of a man? That feeling is not killed in her, even though she is married; she naturally expects her husband to take the place of her former admirers. I often think of what Mazie told me years ago: “Miss Dove, it sho is lucky for yo husband that you is a good woman with him away from you so much.” I sometimes wonder if you would bother to notice now if I were to let down the bars a little.
You probably will account for this letter by saying that I wasn’t feeling well tonight, but you will just be fooling yourself. These are things I have been wanting to say for a long time, but every time I have started you have gotten impatient because you don’t like to be told, then I started crying and left it unsaid. But make no mistake about it, I feel it just the same.
I do know that you can do creditable work and still take time for other things – it has been done.
Ina.
Sunday A.M.
July 30, 1939.
Dear Sweetheart:
I’m wondering how you are feeling this morning after the meetings of Thursday, Friday, and Saturday. I hope Mr. Gaddis has left town. Did you and the young lady have a good time at Mrs. Ruggles’ dinner Friday evening?
July 30, 1939
Last night Walter White asked me when you were going to take your 60 day vacation. I told him that I doubted if you would ever take it all, and explained that you were a very important man. He promptly said that he wished you were not so important so you could be with us more.
The long walks, the reduced weight, the coat of tan, and even the home-made meals sound good. No doubt you feel much better. I wonder if you are eating at home today.
The children and I are eating dinner at Thelma’s and Bob’s today. Reitha has gone horseback riding with one of her male admirers this morning. The joy of being at home has not worn off for her yet. She is so fond of her little baby brother; she bathes and dresses him several times a day, and takes him around to show him to everyone who hasn’t seen him yet; she even takes him along when her boyfriends come by for a ride in the daytime. She was eighteen yesterday. A few afternoons ago she went with us to Shut-in at Con Can for a swim. She was by far the most attractive girl on the beach; she wore the white bathing suit you and I gave her for graduation. Walter White, Ina Marie, and Lewis Dunbar went in too, but Thelma, little Dolph, and I stayed out and watched them. How much would I give if I didn’t go through such agony of fear when our children are in the water! Reitha is a good swimmer, but I doubt if she could rescue big, heavy Walter White if he were to step off in a hole. I realize, though, that he can’t learn to swim on dry land or even in very shallow water. Lewis Dunbar ventures in only far enough to wet his ankles.
The children are so pleased when they receive separate letters from you. Walter White didn’t know I was going to write today, so he has already gone to Ina Marie’s. Lewis Dunbar is here though.
Lots of love, from your
Ina.
Edited 2013.4.4 11:22 to fix spelling of Con Can.
Friday PM.
My dear Ina,
We had a half day meeting of supervisors this morning at the West Hotel, and this PM with the Canadians & U of M men at the University. Wakeland Gaddis and I returned to the office and are not planning to go to Dr. Ruggles lawn picnic tonight. Tomorrow we have a whole day on survey with the General Supervisors and surveyors. Then the adult survey should get under way.
July 28, 1939
Gaddis feels fine about the control work of the season and was in an unusually good mood. He said that I was right fundamentally on Govt spreaders on private farms, but that the special conditions at that time warranted it. No explanation or excuse yet on changing my instructions. I am not sure this is the time & place for making an issue of it. It will have to come out later because a program cannot be run that way.
He talks moving the office to Denver before Christmas, but the people here are not to know of it now. Naturally it is confidential but something we want to keep in mind, whether I work on ‘hoppers or not. The more I analyze the situation, the more convinced I become that I should ask for a change in assignment to another division. We have had a successful program this year and I could make the change in good standing, leaving the job of slaving for some one else next season.
You did not say if you received the laundry I sent by parcels post. I presume that you did.
Not enough time to write the boys now but I’ll write them Sunday.
With love,
Walter