Richard F McKey Letterbook, 1906-1908 MSS-054

Size: 1 volume

Provenance: This volume was given to the University of Toledo Libraries, together with other Police Department records, prior to 1968. No further information on the gift has been found.

Access: Open

Located: R-4

Related Collections: Toledo Police Department. Miscellaneous Records, 1899-1937 (MSS-053)

Copyright: The literary rights to this collection are assumed to rest with the person(s) responsible for the production of the particular items within the collection, or with their heirs or assigns. Researchers bear full legal responsibility for the acquisition to publish from any part of said collection per Title 17, United States Code. The Ward M. Canaday Center for Special Collections may reserve the right to intervene as intermediary at its own discretion.

Completed by: Paul M. Gifford May 1987, Converted by Patrick Cook Nov. 2011

*=oversize cabinet
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R-4=range four

Introduction

This collection consists of a single letter-impression volume containing copies of letters mostly written by Richard F. McKey. McKey was a detective in the Toledo Police Department and served concurrently as secretary of Joppa Lodge #327, Brotherhood of Railroad Trainmen. This volume was maintained at police headquarters but most of the letters pertain to Brotherhood activities. Researchers in the history of railroad labor and Toledo police and crime may find this collection useful.

There are no restrictions on the use of, or access to, this collection.

Biography

1874?               Born in Monroe County, Michigan.
1892-1894       Clerk, Lake Shore and Michigan Southern Railroad.
1894-1898       Brakeman, Lake Shore and Michigan Southern Railroad.
1898-1906       Patrolman, Toledo Police Department.
1906-1913       Detective, Toledo Police Department.
1913-1923       Superintendent, Bureau of Identification and Records, Toledo Police Department, introducing use of Bertillon system of identification.
1923-1932       Retired.
1932-1934       Inspector, Toledo Police Department (initially hired as Lieutenant- Clerk).
1934-1935       Lieutenant-Clerk, Toledo Police Department.
1941, Sept. 11 Died in Toledo, Ohio, aged 67.

Member, Brotherhood of Railroad Trainmen, Joppa Lodge No. 327, serving several years as president, and twelve years as secretary.

Scope and Content Note

Although McKey apparently maintained this letter-impression book at his office in the Police Department, most of his letters pertain to routine Brotherhood of Railroad Trainmen business. Typical letters, all of them outgoing, concern membership dues and grievance cases. A few others involve political activity, such as the Feb. 14, 1908, letter to a state legislator regarding the Ohio Safety Appliance Law. This collection is a comprehensive record of B. R. T., Joppa Lodge No. 397, business for the years covered.

Letters written on police business are fewer in number. These tend to be written to police departments in other cities asking for information on a particular criminal. Some letters are signed by William ("Big Bill") Delehanty, a detective, and by Perry D. Knapp, Chief of Police.

Letters in the volume appear chronologically, whether Brotherhood of Railroad Trainmen letters or Police Department letters. Most are typewritten and legible. A few are handwritten and impossible to read. The physical condition of the volume is