Thomas Charles Power papers

T.C. Power was a Montana merchandise, transportation, mining, ranching, banking, and real estate magnate; and U.S. Senator from Montana from 1890 to 1895. Collection (1868-1950) includes personal, business, and political correspondence plus financial and legal papers of many of his business enterprises. Collection documents Power's involvement in military and Indian trade, steamboating, freighting, stage coach lines, mail contracts, cattle and sheep ranching, mining, banking, bridge building, townsite development, and other enterprises.
The T.C. Power Papers are arranged into sixteen subgroups: 1) T.C. Power--Political, 2) T.C. Power--Personal, 3) T.C. Power and Brother (includes associated companies), 4) C.B. Power--Personal, 5) Grain Companies, 6) Hardware Companies, 7) Mercantile Companies, 8) Mining Companies, 9) Organizations 10) Ranch Companies, 11) Real Estate, 12) Transportation Companies, 13) Water Companies, 14) Bismarck, North Dakota, enterprises, 15) Washington and Oregon enterprises, and 16) Miscellaneous enterprises.
The papers (1881-1902) in the T.C. POWER--POLITICAL SUBGROUP document his unsuccessful bid to be the first State governor in 1889 and, more importantly, his term as a United States senator, 1890-1895. Forming the largest segment of the political papers is the General Correspondence, which reflects issues that affected the livelihood of his constituents: free silver and the wool tariff. Most of this is incoming correspondence with only a few letters of reply from Power. Other questions of interest to Montanans during his term of office were the establishment of better services, such as post offices for rural areas, irrigation, uses of public lands, and requests for political patronage. The subgroup also contains Financial Records, including an election expense account for 1888-1895; Legal Documents, Speeches, including an 1889 campaign speech; Clippings, mainly tariff issues, irrigation, and political scrapbooks; and a Miscellany Series, which includes lists of registered voters; federal documents; a record of bills, etc., pertaining to irrigation introduced in the U.S. Senate during the 52nd Congress, an 1892 list of attorneys in Montana, and petitions for the establishment of post offices.
The papers (1871-1923) in the T.C. POWER--PERSONAL SUBGROUP reflect his involvement in the firm of T.C. Power and Brother, and his financial investments in other areas. Because Power played such an important role in the administration of T.C. Power and Brother, his General Correspondence details some of the activity of the holding company, particularly after 1900. The Financial Records, which detail his personal investments in mining and real estate--including areas outside of Montana, make up another significant portion of his personal papers. There are also some records for his household expenses. Other series include Legal Documents, consisting mostly of agreements and bills of sale; Organization records, including stock certificates and minutes of meetings; miscellaneous Clippings; assay and company Reports; and a Miscellany Series including such things as a 1920 list of sheep owners in Montana and a 1916 list of materials suitable for paving streets in Fort Benton.
The largest volume of records are those in the T.C. POWER AND BROTHER SUBGROUP. T.C. Power and Brother was a holding company whose operations first centered at Fort Benton. Originally the activity of the company focused on steamboating on the Missouri River, supplying merchandise to branch stores, Indian agencies and military posts, cattle ranches, and area residents. The company later expanded to include mining, stage coach lines, and real estate. Records for the holding company are nearly complete for the period 1880-1900. Some records, such as outgoing correspondence and financial material, date to the late 1860s. Between 1900 and 1920 there is almost no correspondence in the company's records. Consequently, the personal papers of T.C. Power and of C.B. Power, and those companies in which T.C. Power and Brother had an interest, must be used to fill this gap.
Charles Benton Power's personal records (1895-1941), in the C.B. POWER--PERSONAL SUBGROUP, document his active participation in various aspects of T.C. Power and Brother, as well as his extensive interests outside of Montana. His General Correspondence (1895-1940) documents the economic reversals of the 1920s and 1930s, particularly as they affected the companies of T.C. Power and Brother. Other series include Financial Records (1895-1940); Legal Documents (1894-1938); and Organization records (1922-1932), including stock certificates and minutes of the Montana Automobile Association.
The GRAIN, HARDWARE, MERCANTILE, MINING, RANCH, REAL ESTATE, TRANSPORTATION, and WATER SUBGROUPS reflect the Powers' wide-ranging economic interests. In many ways the records represent a cross-section of Montana's economic life during the late 1800s and the early 1900s. During the 1800s most of the records of these companies were retained with the T.C. Power and Brother records. After 1900, however, they were filed separately by each company. The difficulty then in dealing with this collection is that the whole Power corporation was not entirely consistent in either of these practices. Consequently a researcher interested in one of these subgoup companies also has to look in the T.C. Power and Brother records, and in the personal papers of T.C. Power and C.B. Power. In addition to their Montana businesses, T.C. and C.B. Power were also involved in real estate, irrigation, mercantile, banking, and lumbering operations in Oregon and Washington.
The records in the WASHINGTON AND OREGON SUBGROUP have been kept separate from the Montana businesses, but additional material can be found in the T.C. Power and Brother, T.C. Power--Personal, and C.B. Power--Personal subgroups. (Manuscript Collection 55).