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?
Tuesday Night
Mar. 29, 1938.
Dearest Sweetheart:
We were glad to have your card and letter and endorsed checks.
I made the deposit yesterday. As soon as I get our bank statement I’ll tell you what our balance is. I’m not sure I have everything on my check stubs. I mailed the Mass. Mutual check for the loan and a check to the Southland Mortgage Co.
March 29, 1938
Don’t you love the compliments Messrs. Lawton & Cunningham paid our business ability? Tomorrow I shall send 11 notes to Mr. McAvoy for collection. If he charges the fee that real estate agents charge for collecting rent our “profit” on the sale will be reduced even further. Let’s hope he will be satisfied with the bank account.
Please tell us, did Dorothy Peets marry Albert or the man in Gulfport? We are so anxious to know.
I’m enclosing a card Claudelle wrote Mama & Papa. We have had a letter since then in which she said she was going to ask for leave to come home before we move. I do hope she can. We didn’t go to Uvalde last week-end after all. We found that, although Mama & Papa had moved into the new house the carpenters were still building cabinets etc. We thought we might be in their way. We do intend to go this Friday though.
One evening last week Gilbert came and visited with us. He has been on another visit to Augusta since we last saw him. He is to begin night flying soon. Walter White enjoys his aeronautical conversation.
Your plan for moving sounds good to me except I think I should be here while they are doing most of the packing. You will know the kind of house we will need. I am convinced that it should be much smaller than the one we now are occupying. At Mrs. Schroeder’s one afternoon I met Mr. & Mrs. H.J. Clements of 334 W. 50th St., Minneapolis. They are the elderly couple I was telling you about when you were here. They have been spending their winters in S.A. for several years. They will return to Minn. in May. They have lived there for many years and have children and grand children there. I like them very much. They said they would be glad to be of any service possible to us. Their married son is occupying their home during their absence and the telephone number is Colfax 3622. They live in the Washburn (I believe it is) Park section and said they thought that would be the section we would like. They feel pretty sure that the kind of house we would want would rent for $65 or $70 per month. Is that one of the penalties for living in a cold climate? Of course having Madie with us is going to be expensive but I believe we would have to pay a native more and still we would not be sure of the trustworthiness of a stranger.
Our silver is paid for. I gave the final check the 9th of this month.
The children are feeling fine. The other day while Lewis Dunbar was playing with his toys I heard him say “O dolly, I thought I had this fixed.” I was puzzled at first at the “dolly” until I remembered that little Arthur Johns always pronounces his g’s like d’s.
It is almost ten o’clock and I have some history to study.
We love you, Honey, and hope you sleep good.
Always, your
Ina.
P.S. A Mr. Leary, from some storage Co. that has handled some things for you before, came here to see about moving us. Mr. Townsend had told him to get in touch with us he said. Of course he had not received a request to bid on it but he wanted to be sure to have a checnce. He wanted to know if Mr. Puchett was going to handle the bids. Is he?
Love,
Ina.
Wednesday Night.
My dear Sweetheart & Boys,
Enclosed herewith you will find the two salary checks endorsed Walter. I have not been called on this before now but always noticed the full name before endorsing them. I hope you will have no further trouble with them and can deposit them before you leave for Uvalde Friday PM.
March 23, 1938
The program and the office work are gradually taking form and we expect everything to be going before long. Will have to go to the West Coast after things are going here. I am assigning Mr. Butcher my asst. to the Great Plains states N. Dak. to Texas, and have managed to get Mr. George Decker from Iowa for the Miss. Valley states. I offered Dorward 2600 for the Western or Pacific Coast states on a year around basis and he has accepted. I am wiring Wash. to confirm before I put papers through. I think he has enough of the oil job and on a year around basis should make a good man.
Have not seen Helen Quarterman yet but Kenneth says she is OK. Before long they are going to have me eat dinner with them.
Butcher & Shotwell have been here the past two days. Work is being started as they train men in different states. The manual is yet in process of making but we are beginning work with what we have ready. Many of the men get their training before the appointments are made.
When you are ready to move the successful bidder could call for the key and pack everything while you visit at Uvalde. Let the furniture move and be placed in a house which I will select here and when you come you can move in. Think I can come by air and drive back with you, making stops en route to see our state supervisors or take leave and bring the family including Madie up here.
With love to all of the Boys & to my Wife.
Your
Walter.
PS
Would suggest sending the note to Mr. O’Donnell and 11 others to Mr. McAvoy, Cashier Broughton Street Branch, Citizens & S. Nat. Bank and request that he make collections for us and deposit in our joint checking account. There would be no checking change if we allowed them to accumulate and check out at one time. I believe this is best.
W.E.D.
Please send the monthly check to the Southland Mortgage Co. Gulf States Bldg., Dallas, for $29.15. Will see the parent company here about paying $500 on June 4th.
W.E.D.
Tuesday Afternoon.
Feb. 15, 1938.
Dearest Sweetheart:
Today we were very happy to have your letter written Friday.
Do you really want us to wait until school closes? I’m perfectly willing to go sooner if you think you will be at headquarters enough for us to see you once in a while. Will you be traveling a great deal between now and June, or will most of your time be spent at Minneapolis? You plan for us to move after the “big rush” is over. When will that be? In the meantime, do you expect to have any occasion to see us in San Antonio? The logical time for us to move seems to be after school closes the last day of May but I don’t want to desert you nor do I want to be in your way.
February 15, 1938 (Ina)
When does this new job cease to be a secret? Mrs. Welker excitedly called me up the other day to know if we were going to move. Mr. Wilkie had heard at the pink boll worm office that the screw worm office was closing and Mr. Townsend was to begin work there. I didn’t give her any idea where we would be or what you would be doing. I told her we probably would know when you returned from Washington.
Will you have something to do with the Mormon cricket work too?
Has your cold gotten well? I do hope so.
We went to Uvalde last week-end. The family pledged secrecy when I told them of your new work. They were proud of you for being assigned to such an important problem and were brave about our moving so far away. They expect to move into their new home about March 1. It is going to be pretty. Reitha was elected the most popular girl in the junior class and Thelma Lee (though married) was elected the most beautiful in the senior class. They won by a large majority. This is for the annual.
Today at noon Mr. Welker telephoned that he had a fine new boy. It came about 2 A.M. and everything is lovely. His name is Thomas Fowler. I’ll go to the hospital to see them soon. He will use Lewis Dunbar’s basket.
I’m invited to a tea to be given tomorrow afternoon in a home on West King’s Highway. Don’t you just love ‘em?
Yes, I signed the deed in the presence of Mrs. Schroeder and the notary (with seal) and mailed it to Mr. O’Donnell the same day I received it.
Sunday A.M. while we were at Uvalde Mama received a special delivery letter from Claudelle telling of her transfer. I hope she reached Washington before you left. I was sorry Mama & Papa had that news on top of news of our prospective move.
Madie says she would love to go with us. I warned her about the climate, distance from her home etc. but she didn’t mind. She corresponds occasionally with a friend who lives in those parts so she knows a little about the country. I think it would be a great comfort to have her with us. What do you think?
The children keep asking when you are coming home. Lewis Dunbar saves you a piece of chewing gum almost every day. I’d love to see you too.
I love you, Honey.
Always, your
Ina.
P.S. I’m glad you sent Mother Dove the check.
Stationery from the Bellevue Hotel, 15 E St. NW Washington, DC.
Friday Night.
My dear Sweetheart,
I am beginning to get oriented in the status of the g hop program but I have a lot to learn about it. Mr. Gaddis was not able to get away so soon and I welcome this chance to get some of my own SW work rounded out and to learn more about my new job. It is about the biggest control job when one considers the area of about 20 states extending from Arizona & Texas to the Canada line, and the very short season filled with long days.
February 11, 1938
I think you should finish the school year and plan to move to Mpls after the big rush is over. If the program does not go over perhaps we can stay in Texas and research screw-worms.
I talked to Claudelle last night. She is coming up here about the 16th to work here.
RA had a time deciding to accept the Mormon Cricket job as assistant leader but I phoned him tonight and he says OK. Bishopp offered him a place in charge of the Menand station but at a lower salary.
Have just had a wire from Quarterman & he accepts a place as 3d in command of the G-hopper ship. He will report when I call for him. At first he declined but I wired him again. Also he phoned me last night.
I spent two nights with Cushings & then came here. Prof. Harned invited me to his home but I told him I had so much paper to work & study that I had to decline. This gave me a chance to come here, otherwise he could criticize me for going to Cushings. He would recommend a man for every vacancy if I visited with him on that line. We have some good college graduates to choose from, ones with previous experience on G-hopper control.
Pauline was operated on for appendicitis but I have not seen the Halls. She is getting along OK & today is about the 5th day. May see them Sunday if I am here though I expect to have a lot of study & plans.
Had dinner with the Bishopps the 2nd night I was here and they were very cordial. Bitsie’s husband does the same kind of advertising work as she. They work for the same advertising company & he makes colored pictures of her pies & cakes etc. He seems to be OK.
Am enclosing a receipt for premiums on the annuity for 6 mos. This was added to our loan of $1500. The policy was forwarded to me here & I’ll send it to you when I have a long envelope. Did you return the deed to Savannah? You will receive 180 notes & the debt deed. They should be kept in the safety box at the bank.
With love
Your Walter
Stationery from the law offices of Lawton and Cunningham, Savannah, GA. I believe Walter and Ina held onto their house in Savannah and rented a place in San Antonio when they moved. Now they’re selling the house in Savannah, as Walter’s new job in grasshopper control won’t be based in either of those cities.
Savannah February 7, 1938
My dear Ina,
Enclosed find Deed already signed and notarized by me. You should go to a notary and with one other witness & execute it in the place indicated for your signature. Be sure to get seal. There is a lady notary on N. Flores about 2 blocks from your house where you and I went. Then mail the deed to Mr. George O’Donnell of above address. The 180 notes @ 37.17 and Debt Deed have been examined and are in good shape according to Mr. O’Donnell & as far as I am able to tell. The insurance check had already been received when I called at the bank this A.M. Having lunch with John Sarah & R.A. tonight. Leaving 8 PM – arriving Wash. at 11:30 AM tomorrow. Check, notes, & Debt Deed will be mailed to you from here, together with statement of adjusted differences on taxes, ins. etc.
With love
Walter.
February 6, 1938