Western Union telegram.
1938 JUN 8 AM 6 41
UVALDE TEX 7
DR W E DOVE
707 THORPE BLDG MPLS
WILL LEAVE FOR MINNEAPOLIS WEDNESDAY MORNING BY WAY OF DALLAS MCALESTER MUSKOGEE KANSAS CITY DESMOINES AM TOLD THIS IS BETTER WAY THAN OMAHA PAPA CAN NOT GO WILL WIRE YOU EVERY DAY YOU NEED NOT MEET US WE ARE NOT AFRAID WILL TELEPHONE YOU ON ARRIVAL IN MINNEAPOLIS LOVE
INA.
June 8, 1938
707 Thorpe Bldg Sunday AM.
My dear Ina & Boys,
Enclosed herewith are two checks endorsed to you and I presume you will have no difficulty in getting them cashed at Uvalde. I am also sending a blank check on the Marquette National Bank which can be used if you need it. The two forms are to be completed and returned in the enclosed envelope. You should have about $100 in cash with you when you start out with the car and your group. If you wish to leave a balance at San Antonio National until you arrive here, I think it would be OK. Believe you would want to get everything from the safety deposit box and bring in the car with you. If I did not give you my key to the box, it is in my room and it will be mailed to them later.
June 5, 1938
The furniture left San Antonio Thursday night and may be here today or tomorrow. They were using a new truck and driving will not be fast.
I rented a place 1928 S. Fremont Ave. and you will want to give Mother Lewis the office phone number Bridgeport 7769. House phone can be given later when it is installed. When I say an apartment it will not sound good, but wait a minute. 3 bedrooms, & others 1st floor with two baths, an extra room in attic floor for Madie where there is another bath room. Basement with laundry & drying room. Price $75 covers janitor service and heating. Located 1 block from a real good grade school, & 3 blocks from two car lines. Is in walking distance from downtown when weather is nice. Garage is also brick with concrete drive. The yard is very small but there are parks close by where Madie could walk with LD & WW. The lake is 6 blocks from here. Mrs. Hastings saw most of the places with me and she thinks that you would choose this apt if you knew what we saw. We must keep in mind the deep snow next winter. I hope you will like it.
I had a letter from the Southland Mortgage Dallas & I am sending two payments. Will check with you when you get here.
I cannot be sure that I can get away from Mpls to meet you but will try to. Things are pretty hot in 24 big states and I am on the go here day & night & Sundays. If you could make Omaha Airport by Saturday 6 PM I could meet you there and drive to Mpls on Sunday. Wire me Saturday morn if you expect to be there. US 77 or 81 seem to be OK. Would like a wire every day after you start. Send collect.
With love,
Walter
222 W Mesquite
Uvalde, Texas
May 29, 1938
Dear Daddy
Have you selected a house for us to live in in Minneapolis? If you have, is it a good house?
May 29, 1938 (Walter White Dove)
I am not writing this in ink because all the pens here leak.
We hope we will see you soon, and don’t forget the tire chains,
Yours sincerely,
Walter White Dove
Paper with an illustration of Melanoplus bivittatus, the two-striped grasshopper, adult male.
707 Thorpe Bldg.
Minneapolis, Minn.
May 26, 1938
My dear Ina & Boys,
This sheet was not intended as a letter head but is a proof from Mr. Hills’s sketch on a duplicating machine. He is a young man with lots of courage in illustrating. He wants to illustrate the nymphs of different species of grasshoppers and the taxonomists are not sure of many of the species. I’d like to have Claudelle here but it looks like there isn’t much of a chance now. Mrs. H and Miss A. mention her quite often. Expect to get Mr. Hill to work with Prof. Severin at Brookings on some life cycle charts on grasshoppers and their parasites and predators.
May 26, 1938
Bids went out for the moving about a week ago & I presume you have had some callers to look at your furniture. As yet I have not arranged for a house. Mr. Butcher, my assistant has been looking for one of the same size as the one we will need and I thought he might be able to find two of them. He left last night for Amarillo then N. Mex. & Col., so I may try to find one next Sunday. Tell Reitha that Mr. & Mrs. Butcher have a daughter 15, Jr. in HS next year, who likes swimming, music & reads a great deal. Her name is Phyllis. They are to move here from Bozeman Mont. about June 15th.
I am holding a salary check also Mr. Chamberlains & I think we should start an account at a bank here. As yet I have not opened one but there is a bank in this building which would be convenient.
Will try to take a plane or a train part way & meet you. It is 1000 miles from Dallas here. Maybe I can meet you at Dallas or Kansas City. As soon as the bid is accepted I’ll wire you & you can turn the key over to the proper transfer Co.
With love,
Walter.
Thursday A.M.
May 19, 1938.
Dear Sweetheart:
It probably will surprise you to hear that the time for us to move is drawing near. Had you thought about it? We had planned on going soon after June 1. However, Claudelle telephoned from Little Rock Monday night to say that she had sprained her knee and would prefer waiting until May 27 to come to visit us. Previously she had planned to come tomorrow night. She will have 10 days leave. She ‘phoned to know if we would still be here. If it is just the same with you, and I know you will be glad for us to wait, we would like to remain in Texas until about June 5 or 6.
May 19, 1938
Mr. Leary of the San Antonio Storage Co. telephoned Monday to know if we had done anything about shipping our furniture. I think Mr. Townsend told him before he left that we would be moving. Walter White’s school closes May 27 and I have my history exam. Monday afternoon, May 30. I thought we would have a little visit at Uvalde with Claudelle some time after that. If you will notify me when you ask the storage companies to bid on the furniture I’ll be here to receive them. I realize that everything about your work is urgent but I would appreciate it if you would let me know if you still plan for us to move to Minneapolis. You never mention it. Claudelle did not ask if we could wait a few days on her account. It was my idea and I felt pretty sure you hadn’t planned for us to move that soon anyhow.
Lewis Dunbar was very much pleased with the sticker for his car.
Lots of love and best wishes from the 3 of us.
Ina.
P.S. Is Mr. Strong’s doctorate honorary?
Sunday PM. May 15th
My Dear Ina & Boys,
Your letters were appreciated very much. I think Lewis Dunbar and Walter White are improving in their letter writing. I am enclosing a sticker for Lew’s automobile (Northwest Airlines). A statement on insurance in Charleston is also enclosed for Mother. It is due June 1.
May 15, 1938
These are rush days and nights. Today I listed some expense accounts & I hope to get them in some time this week if the sec’y is not rushed too much with other things. Hoppers are hatching and bait materials are being shipped. The next six or 8 weeks will tell the story of control or no control. Naturally everyone is doing all he can to get them poisoned while they are young and before they leave the hatching beds along the roadsides and edges of the fields.
I am glad that you sent the gifts to Mother Lewis & Mother Dove, also that the boys had one for my wife.
I feel sorry for Gilbert but perhaps it is best after all.
I am enclosing a receipt on the New England payment of $100. I think we can afford to pay another $100 on it now, if you will send it. Seems better to do this than try to reduce Kenmore house now.
Our work is pretty trying but we seem to be ahead of the game this year by shipping some materials early. Also some were shipped in excess last year which helped a great deal. Gaddis was here when I got back but left two days later after the conference with Annand & Packard here.
Tomorrow I am to talk an hour to the University of Minn. students in Entomology on screw worm control. This makes the 3rd time I’ve been called on to do this in universities up here. Iowa, Missouri & Minn. I packed some graphs and haven’t used them yet but plan to take them to Minn. U. tomorrow.
Strong is to receive his doctorate at LSU on May 31 and you and I were invited by Anderson to attend the banquet. I wrote to him of the affair & expressed regret that we could not be present. No doubt Strong and Rohner will come out before long. I look for them when Congress closes its session. It looks as though our G hop funds might be replenished with another million or more before the closing of the session*.
With lots of love to all three of you.
Your
Walter.
A million-dollar appropriation in 1938 would equal about $16 million in today’s money.
I’m not going to transcribe this whole press release, but it provides a good overview of the grasshopper control project Walter is now managing. Click the page images for larger versions.
May 13, 1938 (Press Release Page 1)
May 13, 1938 (Press Release Page 2)
Mpls.
Sunday morning.
My dear Ina,
Friday night I returned here and yesterday was an all day conference. Mr. Gaddis, Dr. Annand, & Packard (in charge, Cereal & Forage Insect Investigations) & Fred Butcher my assistant. Had it not been for this conference I would have gone to San Antonio for this week end. It looked as though I would make it from Amarillo for about 1 day & would return from S. Antonio to Mpls. by night plane Friday night. But there was no direct schedule north. The time required by plane was as long as that by plane [sic]. I left Amarillo Thursday at 5 PM & arrived here Friday night 9:45 PM.
May 8, 1938
The western trip was a good one and I believe I left the State people in each state in a friendly and cooperative mood. Dorward made a good impression and I believe he will work hard.
While I was away Mr. Gaddis ran the office here for a week. He was very helpful & I am glad that he was here. He secured approval from Wash. on 65% of the allotments & had a new girl on tabulations of bait material by counties on that basis. With the approach of the wet season over the g hop area and with initial shipments already made, we feel that we are in splendid shape. Last week was
More later.
With love
Walter
Yes, that’s how the letter ends. I guess Walter was called away suddenly.
533 West Magnolia
May 5, 1938
Dear Daddy
We are going to Uvalde Saturday and I think we are going to the river.
If so, I will cast some. I know how to cast pretty good.
And maybe, if papa will come I may be able to shoot my thirty-two.
May 5, 1938 (Walter White)
* In case anyone reaches this post through a Google search and is confused, this is a letter sent by a little boy named Walter W. Dove to his father, Walter E. Dove, in 1938. Neither had anything to do with the characters in Breaking Bad.
Stationery from the Pony Express/Union Pacific Railroad.
Sunday Night May 1
My dear Ina & Boys,
Am en route to Denver from the Northwest and from there I expect to return to Mpls. I left Mr. Dorward at Elks Nevada this noon. We called on committees in 5 northwestern states and I believe Mr. Dorward is on a good start. The preliminary arrangements seem to be going ahead.
May 1, 1938
Hope things are going OK at Mpls. I’ve talked to Kenneth a time or two and things seem to be moving along very well. Saw RA & Mr. Townsend but did not get to visit a great deal with them. Mr. Spencer went with Dorward & me from Mpls. No doubt Mr. Gaddis will be out soon, then Rohner & later Mr. Strong. He is in Europe now and is expected back about the 1st of June.
This PM the train crossed the Great Salt Lake. It contains 23% salt & there are no fish in it. I saw one seagull & it was near the shore.
Last Tuesday night Dorward & I drove from Logan to Salt Lake City & took a plane to Helena Mont. then Spokane that night. We crossed the Divide four times on that flight. We saved about 2 days traveling by making that flight & Dorward seemed to enjoy it. It was his first trip by air. RA seems to enjoy plane travel too. I take trains unless there is some distinct advantage to be gained in saving time.
Tomorrow I meet Mr. Phil McCampbell the State Ent. of Colorado. Last year he had to call out the National Guard to fight grasshoppers.
With love to all of you,
Walter
P.S. I wired Reitha to come to Mpls with you.