Manuscripts Record
Metadata
Catalog Number |
1.001 |
Title |
Elkins, Dillard A., 1878-1932 |
Date |
1918-1932 |
Scope & Content |
DILLARD A. ELKINS, 1878-1932 Inventory, biographical information about Dillard Elkins, list of photographs copied from scrapbook, handwritten genealogical information. (Entered in the Library of Congress National Union Catalog of Manuscripts - NUCMC - as OCLC 785592188.) Papers, 1918-1932. Dillard A. Elkins was born in Monmouth, Oregon. He attended Monmouth Normal School and graduated in 1900 from the University of Oregon. He served with the Oregon Volunteers in the Spanish-American War and the Philippine insurrection. Upon his return, he practiced law in the J. C. Hayter law offices in Dallas, Oregon. He moved to Eugene, serving as Chief Deputy Sheriff, 1913-1918. After the unexpected resignation of Sheriff Parker, Elkins was appointed to serve out the remainder of the term. In November 1918, he was defeated by Fred Stickles. He moved to Portland in 1923 and was appointed to the Oregon Industrial Accident Commision, serving eight years. Elkins was active in local Democratic party politics, particularly in the 1932 Presidential campaign. The Elkins papers consist of a scrapbook compiled by Dillard and later by his widow. Included are dated newspaper clippings relating to his public career. Two areas particularly well covered are the Lane County Sheriff's race in 1918 and the Roosevelt campaign of 1932. Materials from his term as sheriff include extradition papers, articles regarding "slackers" (draft evaders), anti-German sentiment in Eugene, and petitions from local physicians attempting to appropriate confiscated brandy for use in combating the Spanish influenza epidemic in 1918. "We, the undersigned physicians, hereby request you to turn over and deliver to us a necessary amount of confiscated liquor, now in your possession, for exclusive use by us in the treatment of cases of Spanish Influenza and Pneumonia in Lane County, Oregon. And we hereby certify that the use of the same is an absolute necessity in the treatment of those cases, and that we are unable to obtain the said liquor elsewhere in time to be a service in the treatment of the same, and that an emergency now exists in Lane County necessitating the use as above stated liquor, without the use of which a number of lives will be lost in this County. And we further certify that the same shall be used only in treating cases in Lane County, Oregon, and that in case any said liquor shall not be used for said purpose, that the same will be returned to your custody, as sheriff." There are several letters relating to his work in the Democratic campaign of 1932, including one from Franklin Roosevelt. |