Ethel Halcrow Cooley Papers, 1914-1963
Collection Overview
Title: Ethel Halcrow Cooley Papers, 1914-1963
Predominant Dates:1948-1961
ID: OGLMC1693
Primary Creator: Cooley, Ethel Halcrow (1888-1970)
Extent: 4.25 Linear Feet
Date Acquired: 07/23/2020. More info below under Accruals.
Subjects: Business and Industry, Minot, North Dakota, Politics and Government - Republican Organizing Committee (ROC), Politics and Government - Republican Party, Postal Service, University of North Dakota - Alumni
Languages: English
Abstract
Scope and Contents of the Materials
The collection holds materials focused around Ethel's time as a Republican National Committeewoman, which lasted from 1948 to 1961. Ethel worked with major political figures from this time, including Representative Otto Krueger, Senator Milton Young, and President Dwight D. Eisenhower.
Ethel was deeply concerned about the people of North Dakota, writing vociferously in defense of rural mail routes and their importance for North Dakotans. She also occasionally made use of her political connections to help people in her community, such as the case of Miss Vassiliki Angeloupolou, her "little Greek Freind [sic]."
The collection is mainly made up of the large amount of Postal Service appointments, though included are several folders of political correspondence, personal correspondence, and North Dakota Republican Party media. Also included are items that come from the end of her tenure as a Republican National Committeewoman, including scrapbooks and well-wishing letters. Also included is a photo from a dinner she had with President Dwight D. Eisenhower when he visited Minot, North Dakota in 1953.
Collection Historical Note
Mrs. Ethel H. Cooley, long-time Minot radio station official and former first lady of Republican politics in North Dakota, died last night at the home of a daughter in Minneapolis.
Mrs. Cooley, 82, affiliated with radio station KLPM in Minot for 40 years and who for 13 years was the GOP national committeewoman from North Dakota, had been in declining health in recent months and earlier this year she had undergone surgery.
A native of Dakota Territory, the Minot woman had retired from her national committeewoman post in 1961 but since had remained active in Republican circles.
She said at the time of her retirement, “I am not leaving the party, not any more than I would resign from my church.”
Arrangements call for a memorial service to be held in Minot Saturday at 11 a.m. at Vincent United Methodist Church of which she was a longtime member. Thomas Funeral Home is handling local arrangements. The body will be taken from Minneapolis to Grand Forks where burial will take place at 11 a.m. Friday in a family plot where her husband and a daughter are interred.
Rev. Chris F. Miller will officiate at both services. Pallbearers will be Donald, Charles, Raymond, Gordon and John Halcrow and George Moses. There will be no reviewal. The family prefers memorials to the American Cancer Society for research.
Mrs. Cooley was active in many state and local projects.
She reported to her office daily at KLPM serving as president of the Minot Broadcasting Company. For years she was known for her interviews at the North Dakota State Fair in Minot.
In 1962 the Minot Junior Chamber of Commerce named her “Boss of the Year” in Minot.
She was listed in Who’s Who of American Women.
She was a life member of the Ward County Agricultural Improvement Association.
She was a life member of Mouse River Cattlemen’s Association.
She also had served as a member of the board of directors of the Minot Association of Commerce, at one time headed the city’s cancer fund drive, played a major role in fund raising and planning for the present Vincent Methodist Church building, was a Minot Women’s Club member and headed the Minot Welcome Club at one time.
She won many honors and awards for her work with the Republican Party. Her name is on the plaque in the Hall of Presidents at Gettysburg, Pa., commemorating the nomination of Dwight D. Eisenhower for president. She was a delegate at the National GOP convention in 1952 at which Eisenhower was first nominated. She was a good friend of his and met with him many times.
Ethel Halcrow Cooley was the widow of John Booth Cooley and took over as president of KLPM after his death in 1958. They had purchased the station in 1930.
The GOP held a recognition dinner for her in 1961 when she stepped down as national committeewoman, a post she had held since 1948.
At the time of her retirement, an editorial in The News noted, “Mrs. Cooley has done a most effective job with women’s organizations and women voters in general. She has carried the GOP gospel far and wide, always making a creditable presentation. She has smoothed out points of friction and developed effective teamwork.”
Mrs. Cooley was born June 22, 1888, in Newest, a rural community near Bowesmont. As a girl she worked in the fields with her father and brothers. Her parents were Mr. and Mrs. John Halcrow. They came to Pembina, Dakota Territory, from the Shetland Islands, north of Scotland, via Canada.
Mrs. Cooley attended Bowesmont grade school, graduated from Drayton High School in 1906 and taught school long enough to get money to get money to enroll at the University of North Dakota, Grand Forks in 1908.
She was the state women’s speed skating champion her freshman year, fell and hurt her head playing basketball and dropped out of UND for two years to teach school and recuperate. She reentered and received a B.A. degree in English in 1914, graduating at the same time from Wesley College in Grand Forks, where she had taken a course in expression. She had given dramatic readings and taught painting to help herself through school.
After graduation she taught expression at Wesley and worked at the UND extension division, promoting concert tours and speaking engagements. It was while arranging publicity on one of the tours that she met her husband who was working at the Grand Forks Herald. She later filled in for a time at the Herald in 1916 as society editor.
The Cooleys were married May 12, 1917, at Grand Forks, while he was in military service.
She continued to work at the university, joined him in 1919 at an Iowa camp and gave dramatic readings for the troops while awaiting his discharge. He returned that year to the Herald as managing editor.
Mrs. Cooley became farm editor of the Herald in 1921. She was instrumental through her articles on sugar beet growing in starting an interest in that area and finally the Red River Valley sugar beet industry. In 1928 she was chairman of the Independent Women Voters Association and in connection with that work got to help draft a bill establishing the State Seed Department. She also sponsored legislation for the N.D. Poultry Improvement Board.
Mr. Cooley had become one of the Herald’s owners in the late 1920s and when that paper was sold, he purchased KLPM in 1930, the first radio station in Minot.
Money was tight in Minot in the 1930s so the Cooleys moved to Watertown where they both worked on the paper there owned by Julius Bacon who had been general manager of the Herald from 1933 to 1936, sending money back to keep the station running. After returning to Minot in 1939, she continued to write farm stories for Grand Forks and Watertown until the 1940s. Her interest in agriculture continued in Minot and she helped develop the National Columbia Sheep Show and Sale. She also owned and exhibited sheep.
In her 13 years of national GOP service, she had noted that the travel involved at least a distance equivalent to going around the world every year and in election years considerably more.
Her daughter, Mrs. Dorothy Massee of Minneapolis, was named a national committeewoman by the N. D. Young Republicans in 1953 and they became the only mother-daughter team of national committeewomen.
Survivors include another daughter, Mrs. W. O. S. (Madeline) Sutherland of Austin, Tex., and a sister, Mrs. J. B. Shingler of Bowesmont. Besides her husband, a daughter, Mary Beth, and two brothers and five sisters preceded her in death.
Source: Minot Daily News, September 1, 1970
Subject/Index Terms
Business and Industry
Minot, North Dakota
Politics and Government - Republican Organizing Committee (ROC)
Politics and Government - Republican Party
Postal Service
University of North Dakota - Alumni
Administrative Information
Repository: Elwyn B. Robinson Department of Special Collections
Accruals: Madeline Sutherland-Meier donated additional materials on August 8, 2023; 2023-3486.
Access Restrictions: Open for inspection under the rules and regulations of the Elwyn B. Robinson Department of Special Collections.
Acquisition Source: Madeline C. Sutherland-Meier, Austin, Texas
Acquisition Method: Donation; 2020-3423
Preferred Citation: Elwyn B. Robinson Department of Special Collections, Chester Fritz Library, University of North Dakota, Grand Forks.
Processing Information: Processed by Terence D. Flynn, Graduate Student Intern from Indiana University, in July 2023.
Box and Folder Listing
Browse by Box:
[Box 1],
[Box 2],
[Box 3],
[Box 4],
[All]
- Box 1
- Folder 1: Funeral Card, 1970
- Folder 2: 1948
- Folder 3: M__ Correspondence and Misc. 1953
- Folder 4: 1959-1961 Correspondence
- Folder 5: Correspondence 1960
- Folder 6: Milt Young Correspondence, 1953-1961
- Folder 7: Eisenhower/White House, 1953-1960
- Folder 8: Personal Correspondence, 1952-1962
- Folder 9: Community Work, 1954
- Folder 10: UND, 1914-1958
- Folder 11: Miscellaneous-1, 1958-1960
- Folder 12: Miscellaneous-2, 1956-1961
- Folder 13: Political Correspondence, 1952-1962
- Folder 14: Small Business Administration, 1954-1960
- Folder 15: Political Appointee Community Work, 1953-1960
- Folder 16: Minot-Federal Government Correspondence, 1954-1961
- Folder 17: End of RNC Committeewoman Tenure, 1961
- Folder 18: Attempt to Remove Mrs. Cooley from RNC Committeewoman Post, 1955
- Folder 19: 1956 Campaign
- Folder 20: Postal Appointments-1, 1955-1956
- Folder 21: Postal Appointments-2, 1954-1956
- Folder 22: Postal Appointments-3, 1955-1960
- Folder 23: Postal Appointments-4, 1960-1961
- Folder 24: Applications Other than Postal, 1952-53
- Folder 25: Postal Appointments - A, 1955-1957
- Folder 26: Postal Appointments - B, 1953-1956
- Folder 27: Postal Appointments - C, 1953-1956
- Folder 28: Postal Appointments - F, 1953-1956
- Folder 29: Postal Appointments - Foster, 1959-1960
- Folder 30: Postal Appointments - Grand Forks-Griggs-Grant-Golden Valley, 1957-1960
- Folder 31: Postal Appointments - Hettinger, 1958-1960
- Folder 32: Postal Appointments - L, 1953-1955
- Folder 33: Postal Appointments - M, 1953-1956
- Folder 34: Postal Appointments - McKenzie, 1957-1960
- Folder 35: Postal Appointments - Minot, 1953-1957
- Folder 36: Postal Appointments - N, 1953-1956
- Folder 1: Funeral Card, 1970
- Box 2
- Folder 1: Postal Appointments - U - 1954-1955
- Folder 2: Postal Appointments - V - 1953-1955
- Folder 3: Postal Appointments - Y - 1953
- Folder 4: Postal Appointments - Z - 1953-1956
- Folder 5: Postal Appointments - Adams
- Folder 6: Postal Appointments - Barnes
- Folder 7: Postal Appointments - Benson (Pleasant Lake)
- Folder 8: Postal Appointments - Benson
- Folder 9: Postal Appointments - Billings
- Folder 10: Postal Appointments - Bottineau
- Folder 11: Postal Appointments - B
- Folder 12: Postal Appointments - C
- Folder 13: Postal Appointments - D-E
- Folder 14: Postal Appointments - F-G
- Folder 15: Postal Appointments - H-I-J-K
- Folder 16: Postal Appointments - L-M
- Folder 17: Postal Appointments - Mc
- Folder 18: Postal Appointments - N-O-P
- Folder 19: Postal Appointments - Q-R
- Folder 20: Postal Appointments - S
- Folder 21: Postal Appointments - T
- Folder 22: Postal Appointments - Walsh, Wells, U/V
- Folder 23: Postal Appointments - Ward
- Folder 1: Postal Appointments - U - 1954-1955
- Box 3
- Folder 1: Postal Appointments - Williams
- Folder 2: Stevenson's, Emmons - 1958-1959
- Item 1: Minutes of the United Republican Convention Held at Bismarck, North Dakota, April 4th and 5th, 1956
- Item 2: North Dakota Republican Leaders' Manual - 1961
- Item 3: Proceedings before North Dakota Republican State Central Committee, September 16, 1957
- Folder 3: 1952 Presidential Campaign
- Folder 4: Newspaper Clippings, 1948-1970
- Item 1: "ROC Campaign Will Open at Minot June 1." R.O.C. Messenger. May 1948 (includes photographs)
- Item 2: "Cooleys Only Mother-Daughter Pair of GOP National Committeewomen in U.S." Minot Daily News. May 13, 1953 (includes photograph)
- Item 3: "Fargo Forum Photos." Fargo Forum. June 11, 1953 (includes photograph of President Eisenhower at a dinner in Minot along with Cooley)
- Item 4: "Summerfield Says Rate Increase Will Put Department in Black: GOP Record is Achievement Story, Cabinet Member Says." Minot Daily News. October 4, 1954 (includes photograph)
- Item 5: "Special Hard Wheat Support Urged: Touring Senators Hear Plea." Minot Daily News. October 28, 1955 (includes photograph)
- Item 6: "GOP Meeting Fails to Drop Conservativism." Omaha World Herald. April 14, 1957
- Item 7: "North Dakotans Visit Summerfield." Minot Daily News. February 17, 1958 (photograph)
- Item 8: "Ward County Huddle in Legislative Halls." Minot Daily News. March 5, 1959 (photograph)
- Item 9: "GOP Convention Under Way: Republican Women Honor Mrs. Cooley at Banquet." Bismarck Tribune. March 29, 1960.
- Item 10: "Mrs. Cooley and Andrews Re-elected." Fargo Forum. March 30, 1960
- Item 11: "Republicans of 9th District to Hold Convention Here on Friday Evening and Saturday." Bemidji Daily Pioneer. April 21, 1960 (includes photograph)
- Item 12: "9th District GOP Withholds Gubernatorial Endorsement; Backs Langen and Dickinson." Bemidji Daily Pioneer. April 25, 1960
- Item 13: "They Served Republicans Well." Walsh County Record. September 28, 1961
- Item 14: "Republicans Honoring First Lady of Party." Minot Daily News. November 2, 1961 (includes photograph)
- Item 15: "GOP Honors Mrs. Cooley." North Dakota Republican News. November 1961 (includes photograph)
- Item 16: "Mrs. Cooley Praised." Letter to the Editor by Darrell Bearson, St. Paul, Minnesota. 1961
- Item 17: "Pioneers." Bismarck Tribune. March 30, 1962 (includes photograph)
- Item 18: "Four From War County at the Convention." Minot Daily News. March 31, 1962 (photograph)
- Item 19: "Honored at the Republican Convention Opening Day..." Minot Daily News. March 31, 1962 (photograph)
- Item 20: "Minot GOP Women's Club Committee Named, Tea Set." Ward County Independent. February 14, 1963
- Item 21: "Mrs. Cooley, N.D. GOP Figure, Dies." Grand Forks Herald. September 1, 1970
- Item 22: "Pioneer in Minot Radio, GOP Worker Dies, 82." Minot Daily News. September 1, 1970
- Item 23: "Minot Service, Burial at Forks for Ethel Cooley." Minot Daily News. September 1, 1970
- Item 24: "KPLM to Give Silent Tribute to Mrs. Cooley." Minot Daily News. September 3, 1970
- Item 25: "A Woman of Energy and Enthusiasm." Minot Daily News. September 3, 1970
- Item 26: "GOP Leader, Ethel Cooley, N.D. Station Owner, 82." Washington Post. September 3, 1970
- Item 27: "A Remarkable Woman." Grand Forks Herald. September 4, 1970
- Item 28: "Ethel Cooley - 'Mrs. North Dakota Republican' Pioneer Daughter Served 25 Years as Farm Editor." Minot Daily News (likely). Undated (includes photographs)
- Item 29: "Democrats Make It Difficult for GOP to Display Picture." Unknown Newspaper. Undated
- Item 1: "ROC Campaign Will Open at Minot June 1." R.O.C. Messenger. May 1948 (includes photographs)
- Folder 5: Text of Speeches
- Item 1: "Dean Ella L. Fulton. Reminiscences by Ethel Halcrow Cooley." Dedication of Fulton Hall at UND. October 1957
- Item 2: "The Educated Woman in the World Community." Second Annual Conference for North Dakota Women in Higher Education. March 8, 1958
- Item 3: "A Talk Given by Mrs. Ethel Cooley at a Meeting of the Grand Forks Republican Women's Club at Grand Forks, June 17, 1958"
- Item 4: "The Political Picture in North Dakota." undated
- Item 5: Regarding U.S. Postmaster General Summerfield's speech "How Deeply Do You Believe in America?" (untitled and undated)
- Item 6: "Ladies First." undated
- Item 7: Regarding Brynhild Haugland. undated
- Item 8: Memorial Address regarding L.L. Twitchell, 1945
- Item 1: "Dean Ella L. Fulton. Reminiscences by Ethel Halcrow Cooley." Dedication of Fulton Hall at UND. October 1957
- Folder 1: Postal Appointments - Williams
- Box 4
- Scrapbook 1: National Committeewoman Send-Off, 1961
- Folder 1: National Committeewoman Send-Off Correspondence, 1961
- Folder 2: President Eisenhower's Minot Visit, 1953
- Folder 3: Photographs
- Photograph 1: "Dinner for President Dwight D. Eisenhower. North Dakota White House. Penthouse, Clarence Parker Hotel. Minot, North Dakota. June 10, 1953"
- Left to right: Milton Rue (National Committeeman), Mrs. Ruby Doerner (State Vice-Chairman), Governor Norman Brunsdale, President Eisenhower, Ethel Cooley (National Committeewoman), George Longmire (State Chairman), and A.R. Bergesen (State Finance Chairman)
- Photograph 2: Appreciation Dinner, Minot, November 2, 1961
- Photograph 3: Appreciation Dinner, Minot, November 2, 1961
- Photograph 4: Appreciation Dinner, Minot, November 2, 1961
- Photograph 5: Appreciation Dinner, Minot, November 2, 1961
- Photograph 6: Two unidentified U.S. Postal Service figures, Ethel Cooley, and George Longmire (left to right), January 30, 1958
- Photograph 7: Ethel Cooley and four unidentified men pose for the handing over of a check, undated
- Photograph 8: Ethel Cooley (second from the left) and three unidentified women, undated
- Photograph 9: Ethel Halcrow Cooley, 1936
- Photograph 1: "Dinner for President Dwight D. Eisenhower. North Dakota White House. Penthouse, Clarence Parker Hotel. Minot, North Dakota. June 10, 1953"
- Folder 4: "Roger William Cooley"
- One page biographical sketch, presumably written by Ethel Halcrow Cooley)
- Folder 5: John B. Cooley
- Scrapbook 1: National Committeewoman Send-Off, 1961
Browse by Box:
[Box 1],
[Box 2],
[Box 3],
[Box 4],
[All]