urn:taro:ttu.sw.00112 Thomas A. Hickey: An Inventory of His Papers, 1896-1996 and undated, at the Southwest Collection/Special Collections Library Lynn Whitfield The Southwest Collection/Special Collections Library
The Southwest Collection/Special Collections Library Texas Tech University MS 41041 Lubbock, Texas 79409 Phone: (806) 742-3749 Fax: (806) 742-0496 Webpage: http://swco.ttu.edu Contact Person: Reference Archivist
August 2000 Text converted and initial EAD tagging provided by Apex Data Services, October 2000. Finding aid written in English. Tue Jul 22 15:22:27 CDT 2003 urn:taro:ttu.sw.00112 converted from EAD 1.0 to 2002 by v1to02.xsl (20030505). Inventory for Thomas A. Hickey Papers, 1896-1996 and undated Lynn Whitfield The Southwest Collection/Special Collections Library, August 2000 Descriptive Summary Hickey, Thomas A., 1869-1925 Thomas A. Hickey Papers, 1896-1996 and undated The papers of Thomas Aloysius Hickey, a Socialist who became an ardent speaker, organizer, and writer of the socialist movement. S 431.1 Southwest Collection/Special Collections Library, Texas Tech University 3.5 boxes and 2 scrapbooks (4.5 linear feet) 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 Hallettsville, 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 readers and from Socialist leaders such as Theodore Debs. The printed materials 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 this 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.

 Index Terms

The subject headings used by the Southwest Collection/Special Collections Library are derived from the Library of Congress and/or locally developed.

Subjects (Persons) Debs, Eugene V. (Eugene Victor), 1855-1926--Correspondence Hickey, Thomas A., 1869-1925 Hickey, Thomas A., 1869-1925--Archives Hickey, Thomas A., 1869-1925--Correspondence Subjects (Organizations) Socialist Party (Tex.) Socialist Party (U.S.) Places United States--Politics and government--1901-1909 United States--Politics and government--1909-1913 United States--Politics and government--1913-1921 United States--Politics and government--1921-1923 Subjects Journalists--Texas Labor movement--United States--Archival resources Labor movement--United States--History Labor unions--United States Pacifism Socialism--Texas--History Socialism--United States--Archival resources Socialists--United States--Biography World War, 1914-1918 Acquisition

Gifts, 1979-1994

 Access Restrictions

Open for research

 Processed by

Lynn Whitfield, August 2000

 Preferred Citation

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

 Additional Sources 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.

For related materials 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 Collection Inventory 1 1 Biographical Material, undated 1 2 Books, 1901-1915 1 3 Cards and postcards, 1912-1914 and undated 1 4 Cartoons: Political, undated Correspondence 1 5 Correspondence, 1902-1922 1 6 Correspondence, 1909-1922 and undated 1 7 Correspondence, 1909-1923 1 8 Correspondence, 1910-1911 1 9 Correspondence, 1910-1912 1 10 Correspondence, 1910-1913 1 11 Correspondence, 1910-1920 1 12 Correspondence, 1910-1921 1 13 Correspondence, 1910-1921 1 14 Correspondence, 1910-1923 1 15 Correspondence, 1911-1920 1 16 Correspondence, 1911-1922 1 17 Correspondence, 1911-1924 1 18 Correspondence, 1912-1914 1 19 Correspondence, 1913-1924 and undated 1 20 Correspondence, 1914-1924 1 21 Correspondence, 1915-1922 1 22 Correspondence, 1915-1922 1 23 Correspondence, 1916-1923 1 24 Correspondence, 1916-1924 1 25 Correspondence, 1918-1920 1 26 Correspondence, 1918-1924 1 27 Correspondence, 1919-1923 1 28 Correspondence, 1921-1924 1 29 Correspondence, 1922-1967 1 30 Correspondence, undated 1 31 Correspondence, undated 1 32 Correspondence, June 18, 1916 - April 30, 1917 2 1 Correspondence, May 1, 1917 - May 31, 1917 2 2 Correspondence, June 1, 1917 - June 30, 1917 2 3 Correspondence, July 1, 1917 - July 30, 1917 2 4 Correspondence, July 1, 1917 - July 31, 1917 2 5 Correspondence, August 1, 1917 - September 15, 1917 2 6 Correspondence, September 15, 1917 - December 27, 1917 2 7 Correspondence, January 5, 1918 - November 26, 1918 2 8 Correspondence, December 3, 1918 - December 30, 1918 2 9 Correspondence, January 1, 1919 - June 1, 1918 2 10 Debs, Eugene V., undated Financial Materials 2 11 Financial Materials, 1906-1916 2 12 Financial Materials, 1908-1920 and undated 2 13 Financial Materials, 1911-1917 and undated 2 14 Financial Materials: Stock Certificates, 1906-1916 2 15 Legal Material, 1911-1952 and undated Literary Productions 2 16 Literary Productions, 1905-1919 and undated 2 17 Literary Productions, 1911 and undated 2 18 Literary Productions, 1912-1923 and undated 2 19 Literary Productions, 1914 and undated 2 20 Literary Productions, 1933 and undated 2 21 National Workers Drilling and Production Company, 1919-1920 News Clippings 2 22 News Clippings, 1909-1925 and undated 2 23 News Clippings, 1916-1925 and undated Newsletters and Circulars 2 24 Newsletters and Circulars, 1904-1923 and undated 2 25 Newsletters and Circulars, 1909-1912 and undated 2 26 Newsletters and Circulars, 1917-1923 and undated Pamphlets 2 27 Pamphlets, undated 3 1 Pamphlets, 1898-1922 and undated 3 2 Pamphlets, 1904-1912 and undated 3 3 Pamphlets, 1906-1917 and undated 3 4 Pamphlets, 1912-1949 and undated Periodicals 3 5 Periodicals, 1896-1910 and undated 3 6 Periodicals, 1912-1915 3 7 Periodicals: (Tom) Watson's Magazine, 1905-1910 4 1 Periodicals: Wyland's Monthly, 1905-1908 4 2 the Rebel paper, undated 4 3 Receipts, 1913-1917 and undated 4 4 Recipe, undated Scrapbook Material 4 5 Scrapbook Material, 1907-1933 and undated 4 6 Scrapbook Material, 1908-1952 and undated 4 7 Subscriptions and Contributions, 1919 and undated 4 8 2 volume Book Set- Bilz Das Neue Naturheilverfahren [very fragile, damaged with loose pages and binding], early 1900s? Oversized Scrapbooks 1 Scrapbook material: Periodicals and Posters, 1910-1917 2 Scrapbook material: Stanley Clark Posters, undated