Hickey, Thomas A., Papers, 1896-1996 and undated

Creator: Hickey, Thomas A., 1869-1925

Collection #: S 431.1

Language: English

Biographical Sketch

Born in Dublin, Ireland, in 1869, Thomas Aloysius Hickey arrived in America in 1892. Hickey joined the Socialist Labor party and the Knights of Labor in 1893 and became an ardent speaker, organizer, and writer, as well as private secretary to Eugene V. Debs. In 1900, he left the Socialist Labor Party and went on to cocreate the Socialist Trade and Labor Alliance and helped arrange several machinist strikes in New Jersey, which led to his blacklisting by employers. Moving to Butte, Montana, Hickey joined the Western Federation of Miners and helped recruit for the Socialist Party.

In 1911, he moved to Halletsville, Texas, and started a weekly newspaper called The Rebel. Over time, Hickey became a prominent figure in the socialist movement and the slogan of his paper became the official slogan of the Socialist party in Texas. He served as the socialist candidate for lieutenant governor in 1912 and was married to Clara E. Boeer that same year. The government suppressed The Rebel in 1917 under the Espionage Act and in 1918, the Nonpartisan League fired Hickey as an organizer

In October 1919, he and other socialists organized the National Workers Drilling and Production Company. Hickey continued writing, serving as an advertising manager of the Desdemona Oil News, and a correspondent for fourteen more newspapers such as the Texas Oil World and the Independent Oil and Financial Reporter. Withdrawing from the company in 1920, he moved to a farm near Stamford, Texas, and was publishing Tom Hickey's Magazine until his death on May 7, 1925, of throat cancer.

The Handbook of Texas has published a more in-depth online biography of Thomas Aloysius Hickey at http://www.tsha.utexas.edu/handbook/online/search.html

Scope and Contents

The collection contains correspondence, printed material, news clippings, financial and legal material, literary productions, and scrapbook material. The bulk of the collection is correspondence, including letters from Hickey's letters from Hickey's readers and from Socialists leaders such as Theodore Debs. The printed material include newsletters, pamphlets, periodicals, and circulars. Principal subjects of this collection are the Socialist Party, World War I, and pacifism.

Conservation Note: In 1985 and 1986, a large number of the papers in the collection were encapsulated within Mellinex polyester film and or/deacidified using Wei I'o aerosol solution. Those pages that were not treated remain fragile and brittle. Also, some of the double-sided tape used for the encapsulation is either coming loose or sticking to other pages. Additionally, the two volume German medical book set is in very fragile condition, with the binding falling apart and pages loose. The covers are also fading and deteriorating.

Restrictions

Open for research

Related Material

For related material located in the Southwest Collection/Special Collections Library, see the following collections:

Boeer/Wolf Families Papers, 1837-1972 and undated

Carl Brannin oral history interview [sound recording], 1983

Thomas Hickey Family Photographs, 1920

Mina W. Lamb and Ilse Wolf oral history interview [sound recording], 1979

Preferred Citation

Thomas A. Hickey Papers, 1896-1996 and undated, Southwest Collection/Special Collections Library, Texas Tech University, Lubbock, Texas

Accession Information

Gifts, 1979-1994

Processing Information

Lynn Whitfield, August 2000

Bibliography

Clark, Robert William. "Thomas A. Hickey and Socialist Reform in Texas, 1904-1925." Thesis (M.A.)--Texas Tech University, 1989

James R. Green. "Grass-Roots Socialism: Radical Movements in the Southwest, 1895-1943." Baton Rouge. Louisiana State University Press, 1978.

Collection Inventory

Box 1

• Folder 1, Biographical Material, undated
• Folder 2, Books, 1901-1915
• Folder 3, Cards and postcards, 1912-1914 and undated
• Folder 4, Cartoons: Political, undated

Correspondence

• Folder 5, Correspondence, 1902-1922
• Folder 6, Correspondence, 1909-1922 and undated
• Folder 7, Correspondence, 1909-1923
• Folder 8, Correspondence, 1910-1911
• Folder 9, Correspondence, 1910-1912
• Folder 10, Correspondence, 1910-1913
• Folder 11, Correspondence, 1910-1920
• Folder 12, Correspondence, 1910-1921
• Folder 13, Correspondence, 1910-1921
• Folder 14, Correspondence, 1910-1923
• Folder 15, Correspondence, 1911-1920
• Folder 16, Correspondence, 1911-1922
• Folder 17, Correspondence, 1911-1924
• Folder 18, Correspondence, 1912-1914
• Folder 19, Correspondence, 1913-1924 and undated
• Folder 20, Correspondence, 1914-1924
• Folder 21, Correspondence, 1915-1922
• Folder 22, Correspondence, 1915-1922
• Folder 23, Correspondence, 1916-1923
• Folder 24, Correspondence, 1916-1924
• Folder 25, Correspondence, 1918-1920
• Folder 26, Correspondence, 1918-1924
• Folder 27, Correspondence, 1919-1923
• Folder 28, Correspondence, 1921-1924
• Folder 29, Correspondence, 1922-1967
• Folder 30, Correspondence, undated
• Folder 31, Correspondence, undated
• Folder 32, Correspondence, June 18, 1916-April 30, 1917

Box 2

• Folder 1, Correspondence, May 1, 1917-May 31, 1917
• Folder 2, Correspondence, June 1, 1917-June 30, 1917
• Folder 3, Correspondence, July 1, 1917-July 30, 1917
• Folder 4, Correspondence, July 1, 1917-July 31, 1917
• Folder 5, Correspondence, August 1, 1917-September 15, 1917
• Folder 6, Correspondence, September 15, 1917-December 27, 1917
• Folder 7, Correspondence, January 5, 1918-November 26, 1918
• Folder 8, Correspondence, December 3, 1918-December 30, 1918
• Folder 9, Correspondence, January 1, 1919-June 1, 1918
• Folder 10, Debs, Eugene V., undated

Financial Materials

• Folder 11, Financial Materials, 1906-1916
• Folder 12, Financial Materials, 1908-1920 and undated
• Folder 13, Financial Materials, 1911-1917 and undated
• Folder 14, Financial Materials, Stock Certificates, 1906-1916
• Folder 15, Legal Material, 1911-1952 and undated

Literary Productions

• Folder 16, Literary Productions, 1905-1919 and undated
• Folder 17, Literary Productions, 1911 and undated
• Folder 18, Literary Productions, 1912-1923 and undated
• Folder 19, Literary Productions, 1914 and undated
• Folder 20, Literary Productions, 1933 and undated
• Folder 21, National Workers Drilling and Production Company, 1919-1920

News Clippings

• Folder 22, News Clippings, 1909-1925 and undated
• Folder 23, News Clippings, 1916-1925 and undated

Newsletters and Circulars

• Folder 24, Newsletters and Circulars, 1904-1923 and undated
• Folder 25, Newsletters and Circulars, 1909-1912 and undated
• Folder 26, Newsletters and Circulars, 1917-1923 and undated

Pamphlets

• Folder 27, Pamphlets, undated

• Folder 28, Correspondence, Boeer to Hickey, 1881-1921

Box 3

• Folder 1, Pamphlets, 1898-1922 and undated
• Folder 2, Pamphlets, 1904-1912 and undated
• Folder 3, Pamphlets, 1906-1917 and undated
• Folder 4, Pamphlets, 1912-1949 and undated

Periodicals

• Folder 5, Periodicals, 1896-1910 and undated
• Folder 6, Periodicals, 1912-1915
• Folder 7, Periodicals: (Tom) Watson's Magazine, 1905-1910

Box 4

• Folder 1, Periodicals: Wyland's Monthly, 1905-1908
• Folder 2, The Rebel paper, undated
• Folder 3, Receipts, 1913-1917 and undated
• Folder 4, Recipe, undated

Scrapbook Material

• Folder 5, Scrapbook Material, 1907-1933 and undated
• Folder 6, Scrapbook Material, 1908-1952 and undated
• Folder 7, Subscriptions and Contributions, 1919 and undated
• Folder 8, 2 volume Book Set: "Bilz Das Neue Naturheilverfahren" [very fragile, damaged with loose pages and binding], early 1900s?

Oversized Scrapbooks

Box 1

• Scrapbook material: Periodicals and Posters, 1910-1917

• Scrapbook material: Stanley Clark Posters, undated