Earle Cabell papers [Part 1]

A Guide to the Collection

Biographical Note

Earle Cabell's grandfather William L. Cabell ("Old Tige"), who served as a Confederate general during the Civil War, moved to Dallas in 1872 to practice law. A short time after his arrival in the city, he was elected mayor of Dallas, a position his son and grandson would also hold. A popular official, he served three terms: from 1874 to 1876, from 1877 to 1879, and from 1883 to 1885. His oldest son, Ben E. Cabell, pursued a career as a lawmaker, after which he served as mayor of Dallas from 1900 to 1904.

Ben and his wife, Sadie Pearre Cabell, had three sons: Ben E., Jr. (1899-1964), Charles "C.P." Pearre (1903-1971), and Earle (1906-1975). Earle and his brothers grew up on his family's farm in the Oak Cliff district of Dallas. Earle attended North Dallas High School, now Bowie Elementary, where he graduated in 1925. He attended two semesters of college, one at Texas A&M University and one at Southern Methodist University. Deciding to longer pursue a degree, Earle went to work for Morning Glory Creameries in Houston in 1926, washing out milk cans. Within a few years, Earle was superintendent of a milk plant in Amarillo. From Amarillo, Earle moved to Pine Bluff, Arkansas, where he bought "a very small milk plant" in 1930. Unfortunately, the Great Depression dashed Earle's chances for success, and in 1932 he was the last person to make a deposit at a bank before its doors closed permanently. In an interview housed in the oral history collection at North Texas State University (now the University of North Texas), Earle Cabell stated "that wiped me out when the bank went out."

Earle and his Arkansas bride, Elizabeth Holder Cabell (Dearie), returned to Dallas that same year. He and his brother Ben evaluated their situation; before his employer's firm had closed, Ben had received $1,000 worth of ice cream equipment instead of a paycheck. Earle had $150 in cash and an old car that could be converted into a truck. His brother C. P. chipped in $1,000 of his savings. With this limited capital, Earle and Ben formed Cabell's Inc., an ice cream company specializing in 5 cent double-dip ice cream cones.

Cabell's Inc. was an instant success, even during the Great Depression. Ben served as the first president, with Earle as his partner and vice president, and together they expanded Cabell's Inc. and served a thirty-county area of North and East Texas. In addition, the company possessed an important American innovation: the convenience store. Cabell's had sixty-six of their Minit Markets, "the first store of its kind . . . designed and built from the ground up as that type of drive-in convenience food store." (Interview, NTSU, 21 March 1974).

In 1952, Ben retired and Earle became president of Cabell's. Earle must already have been considering a political career. After all, his father and grandfather had been mayors of Dallas and a brother had been mayor pro-tem. Earle began to fulfill some of the prerequisites for the mayor's job: he was president and/or director of a variety of civic organizations, including the Dallas Sales Executive Club, the Dallas Crime Commission, Dallas Crusade for Freedom, and Texas Law Enforcement Foundation. He served as president of the Dairy Products Institute of Texas and the Texas Manufacturers' Association, and lobbied for dairy interests at the Texas Legislature.

In 1959, Earle sold Cabell's Inc. to the Southland Corporation and announced his intention to run for mayor of Dallas. Establishing himself as a candidate independent from any political groups, he waged what the Dallas Morning News called "the toughest city campaign in years" but he could not beat the incumbent—the powerful R.L. "Uncle Bob" Thornton. But Cabell determined to try again, feeling "an obligation . . . because of my family heritage" and wanting to "contribute something to the city."

Two years later, in April 1961, Cabell won the mayoral election by less than 1,000 votes as the voters of Dallas polled the highest recorded vote in a city election to that time. Cabell now faced some tough challenges: not only had he run against and defeated the ruling powers, but his new position had little legislated authority under Dallas' city-manager form of government. Cabell knew that any goals he might have would have to be attained by strength of personality, as he had only slightly more power than the members of the city council. To complicate matters, the new city council consisted of several of Cabell's political opponents who would not hesitate to defy him.

Cabell inaugurated his first term by successfully establishing a city-wide emergency ambulance system and by enforcing the peaceful desegregation of the Dallas public schools. He then stepped into the fire with a controversial proposal to construct 3,000 public housing units for the disabled and elderly. The city council fiercely opposed Cabell's idea and the plan was ultimately defeated in a referendum. Despite this setback, Cabell was re-elected in 1963.

Cabell's first project of his second term was to solve the problems of the Dallas Transit Company, then a private company whose poor operations were the source of many angry complaints. After exploring the alternatives, the city council decided to purchase and run the Dallas Transit Company, a somewhat surprising result in a city where private enterprise reigned. Just as Cabell was concluding the arrangements for this deal, President Kennedy was assassinated in Dallas in November 1963.

After carefully guiding the city through the aftermath of the assassination, Cabell decided to resign as mayor and work for Dallas at the national level. Running as a Democrat in the fall of 1964, Cabell defeated the incumbent, conservative Republican Bruce Alger, for the Fifth District Congressional seat. Cabell served first on the House Banking and Currency Committee, the House Restaurant Committee, and the District of Columbia Committee. Although he pursued issues of local importance such as development of the Trinity River, the establishment of a regional airport for North Texas, and the location of a Federal Center in Dallas, Cabell never achieved national political stature. Author A.C. Greene said of Cabell, "Once in Congress, Cabell seemed to find political life disappointing. Washington came too late."

Cabell served four successive terms until 1972, when the boundaries of his Fifth District were redrawn in a more conservative electorate. Cabell lost the 1972 election to Republican Alan Steelman, prompting Cabell's retirement from all political activity. Cabell had been a popular politician and Congressman Steelman wanted honor Cabell for his dedicated service to Dallas. In 1973, Steelman introduced legislation to name the Dallas Federal Center after Earle Cabell, reflecting Cabell's hard work in obtaining the Center for Dallas.

Earle and Dearie were present in 1974 at the dedication of the Earle Cabell Building in downtown Dallas. It was one of Cabell's last public appearances. After several years of failing health, Earle Cabell died in Dallas in September 1975.

Sources:

Paul Harvey, Jr. 1970. Old Tige: General William L. Cabell, CSA. Waco, Texas: Texian Press.

Earle Cabell papers, DeGolyer Library, Southern Methodist University.

Interview with SMU Registrar, Southern Methodist University, Dallas, Texas, 25 June 1981.

Interview with Earle Cabell, Oral history Collection, North Texas State University, Denton, Texas, 21 March 1974.

"They Knew There was a Depression," Nation's Business, May 1938, 64.

Dallas Times Herald, 8 February 1959.

Dallas Morning News, 22 April 1959.

Dallas Times Herald, February 1961.

Dallas Morning News, 25 September 1975.

Dallas Times Herald, 1 May 1961.

Dallas Morning News, 7 November 1962.

Dallas Times Herald, 4 April 1963.

Dallas Times Herald, 26 November 1963.

Dallas Morning News, 4 February 1964.

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Scope and Contents of the Collection

The Earle Cabell Collection is divided into seven series covering approximately the last twenty years of his life. The collection revolves around Cabell's political career, but also contains material on the family business, Cabell family history, and other personal matters.

The most personal portion of the Cabell papers is the first series, which is subdivided into three sections. The first section is Cabell's correspondence with family and friends, along with memorabilia. The second section details family history on Cabell's grandfather, father, and one older brother. The last section is correspondence, reports, printed material, and newspaper clippings from Cabell's participation in various civic organizations.

Business papers from Cabell's Inc., during the 1950s and early 1960s comprise the second series. Largely product information, correspondence, and business policies, this material gives a good idea of Cabell's Inc.'s dairy business and how the Cabells established their "Minit Markets," the forerunners of the modern convenience stores. There are folders from Cabell's term as president of the Texas Manufacturers' Association, during which he represented the dairy industry. The section closes with folders on the David Switzer Educational Association, an organization named for a former teacher whom Cabell and other businessmen sponsored in the authorship of a high school textbook on Texas government.

The third series is the most unusual because it does not contain any of Cabell's papers. Instead, it holds files belonging to Sid Pietzch, a man who served as Cabell's campaign manager, political advisor, advertising man, and Dallas office manager throughout Cabell's political career. Mainly correspondence, speeches, press releases, newspaper clippings, and other political material, this series also contains numerous subject files that support items in Cabell's mayoral and congressional records.

Cabell's mayoral papers, 1961-1963, make up the fourth series. Mostly routine correspondence, this series also has speeches, invitations, newspaper clippings, press releases, and general information. There are substantial subject files on the Cabell administration's most controversial issues, such as public housing, the city takeover of the Dallas Transit System, and the establishment of an emergency ambulance system for Dallas.

The bulk of the collection is located in the fifth series, which contains Cabell's congressional files from his Dallas and Washington offices. The files are a combination of correspondence, memoranda, printed materials, reports, government publications, newspaper clippings, and ephemera concerning the many responsibilities of a member of Congress. The importance of this material is not found so much in individual letters or items, but in the broader picture it portrays. Each of the sections within this fifth group contributes to a larger picture of Americans' changing attitudes in the 1960s and early 1970s. Letters from Cabell's constituents register anxiety and confusion regarding the United States' course in national and international affairs. Changes in government bureaucracy, the kinds of legislation introduced in Congress, and the issues faced by the government, all reflect a shift from conservative social policies to more moderate-to-liberal ones. Even Cabell's own writing and speeches display a moderating trend of thought.

Besides the papers of government operations, the congressional papers include a personal section consisting of correspondence and items regarding Cabell's private concerns, i.e., auto insurance, vacations, and thank you notes. Several boxes of personal and political invitations are located there as well.

The last section of the congressional group is the most purely political. Here are the campaign files, the speeches, the press releases, the newsletters, and the newspaper clippings—the ammunition of Cabell's biannual battles.

The last two series of the Cabell Collection are photographs and ephemera. The photographs are varied: private ones of Cabell and his family, and public ones of Cabell in his official duties as a member of Congress.

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Restrictions

Access to Collection:

Collection is open for research use.

Publication Rights:

Permission to publish materials must be obtained from the Director of the DeGolyer Library.

Copyright Statement:

It is the responsibility of the user to obtain copyright authorization.

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Related Material

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Administrative Information

Preferred Citation

Earle Cabell papers, DeGolyer Library, Southern Methodist University.

Acquisition Information

Gift, Earle Cabell, 1973.

Provenance

In May 1973, at an SMU Board of Trustees luncheon, former U.S. Congressman Earle Cabell announced the donation of his papers to SMU. In addition, the Southland Corporation which purchased Cabell's Inc, in 1959, gave $2,500 toward the cataloging of the papers. Though donated in 1973, Cabell's papers remained at the Fort Worth Federal Records Center until after his death in September 1975. The collection, which previously had been stored in the Washington National Federal Records Center, had been transferred to the Forth Worth Center immediately following Cabell's 1972 election defeat.

SMU received a deed of gift letter in January 1976 from Cabell's widow. Mrs. Cabell wanted the papers to be completely open to researchers except for "any personal financial records, correspondence, and references to immediate family." She named Hugh Hart, Cabell's former administration assistant, as the person to decide which papers to remove.

In March 1976, SMU's Fondren Library finally received all 202 cubic feet (boxes) of Earle Cabell's papers from the Fort Worth Federal Center. Fifty-four of the boxes were from Cabell's Dallas office and the remaining 148 were from his Washington office. Fondren Library placed the collection in storage and did not open it except to deliver three boxes of ashtrays to Mrs. Cabell.

In July of the same year, SMU paid for Hugh Hart to fly to Dallas to review the papers. Hart spent several days surveying the collection, and although he most surely withdrew some papers, exactly what he may have removed is unclear.

After Hart's visit, Fondren Library considered the collection open and ready for processing, but unfortunately, the Library had neither the space nor the staff required for the project. A staff member attempted to make a new inventory, but by the Fall of 1977, all processing efforts had ceased. The Library did release two boxes of Cabell's Inc. business papers to the Southland Corporation in November 1977. Southland expressed the desire to have "their archivist place them (the papers) in proper order and add any that they have." As with Hugh Hart, it is not known what Southland did with the papers but they did not return them for two years.

The collection virtually disappeared from the Library records until June 1980, when it was accessioned by Fikes Hall of Special Collections and the DeGolyer Library. The original funds from the Southland Corporation were also rediscovered and used in the processing of the collection which took approximately a year and one-half.

Finding aid prepared by

Sarah Boulton Evans, 1983.

Revised by Tim Bowman, Dale Topham and Paul H. Santa Cruz, 2008.

Encoded by

Lara Corazalla, 2007.

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Detailed Description of the Collection

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