Samuel Frederick Nixon papers, 1887-1958,-1887-1905 (bulk)
Collection Number: 1944

Reel one covers the years 1898-1899 and contains letters of congratulations to Nixon upon his election as Speaker of the New York Assembly, requests for positions on certain committees, letters attacking or supporting certain bills, and inquiries about state jobs and patronage.

Reel two covers the years 1900-1902 and contains numerous letters attacking or supporting certain bills, e.g., the San Jose scale measure; letters from friends and pressure groups concerning politics and legislation; letters dealing with Nixon's business affairs in Chautauqua County; correspondence concerning the location of the proposed state tuberculosis hospital.

Reel three covers the years 1902-1903 and contains letters relating to (a) formation of the Chautauqua County Trust Company and other business affairs (b) politics and legislation, e.g., the Stevens bill providing for a unified public school system in New York State, mortgage tax law, canal improvement, and restrictions on spear fishing in Lake Chautauqua.

The chronology is very confused on reel four. Correspondence begins with 1900 and moves back to 1894 . The latter part of the reel covers the years 1900- 1901 . The correspondence embodies requests for patronage, attacks or endorsements of various measures before the State Assembly, and letters dealing with Chautauqua County politics.

Reel five is devoted entirely to the year 1901 and concerns the following topics: personal business correspondence; dispute on the selection of a site for the proposed state tuberculosis hospital, letters protesting the selection of the Ray Brooke site; requests for patronage and state offices; attacks on the proposed Bell and Wagner medical bills; requests from citizens in the Conewango Swamp area that the state of New York assume the cost of draining the swamp; attacks on the proposed engineers bill #207 requiring competency tests for railway engineers; extensive correspondence concerning the canal improvement bill; and a petition from the Chautauqua County Pomona Grange supporting woman suffrage.

Reel six contains letters covering the years 1901-1903 and concerns political affairs in Chautauqua County, patronage, the Bell medical bill, canal improvement, and the mortgage tax measure.

Reel seven contains four scrapbooks composed of newspaper clippings which deal with Nixon's political career. Volume I covers the period from Jan. 4, 1899 to Dec. 30, 1899; Volume II from Jan. 9, 1901 to July 8, 1902; Volume III from Jan. 7, 1902 to Jan. 30, 1903; Volume IV from Jan. 16, 1903 to Apr. 17, 1958.

a) Volume I contains a number of cartoons and broadsides, 1895-1905.

b) Volume II contains clippings dealing with the Dean bill, Odell machine, state police bill, canal bill, mortgage tax bill, the Ray Brooke site controversy, and the Nixon for United States Senator movement.

c) Volume III contains clippings dealing with the 1902 legislature, Chautauqua Centennial, the political future of State Senator Higgins of the Chautauqua area, the local and state elections of 1902.

d) Volume IV contains clippings dealing with the 1903 and 1904 legislatures and two obituary notices, George R. Nixon, Feb. 23, 1927, and Samuel Frederick Nixon, Junior, Apr. 13, 1958.

Reel eight contains personal letters to Nixon covering the years 1900 and 1903-1904 . The correspondence deals with patronage, personal business correspondence (Erie Rapid Transit Street Railway Company, Jamestown and Chautauqua Railroad Company, Lake Erie Railroad Company), pressure for the canal improvement act, Republican Party politics in Chautauqua County and New York State, and Nixon's activities as a member of the Chautauqua County Board of Supervisors.

The chronology on reel nine is very confused. The first half of the reel covers the years 1900, 1902 and 1904 and contains personal letters to Nixon dealing with state and local politics. The second half covers the years 1894-1895 and 1897-1898 and concerns various issues facing the state legislature, e.g., appropriations and expenditures for state institutions and the New York Agricultural Experiment Station, demands for a sugar beet bounty and tariff, assembly bills and petitions, and educational appropriations.

Reel ten contains various memorials to Samuel Frederick Nixon, e.g., printed pamphlet In Memoriam containing a memorial proclamation by Governor Frank Higgins, memorial speeches by members of the state legislature, a copy of Nixon's last public speech, and Arthur Wade's resolution for a special memorial service for Nixon; newspaper clippings dealing with Nixon's illness in 1900 and his death in 1905 ; printed pamphlet Memorial to Samuel Frederick Nixon containing messages of condolence, biographical sketch, tributes by the press, and pictures of funeral rites.