Epistles from Pap | Page 4

Rickey and prominent Chicago attorney Roy
O. West.
As demonstrated by his letters, Andrew was an irrepressible storyteller
who could not resist a jest even when ordering parts for a stove. When
writing in pursuit of a payment on an overdue note at the bank, he
would ease the bite by asking the debtor's "help" in paying for a
daughter's wedding. Andrew wrote incessantly. I suppose everyone
wrote more back then, when telephone connections were often poor and
always expensive, but stamps cost only 2 cents. Letters were also a
form of entertainment in those pre-TV days.
Much of his correspondence was business-related, and Andrew was
evidently a very busy man. But he could still find time to type out a
five-page, single-spaced letter of advice to the son of an old friend who
had landed in jail. He had never even met the young miscreant. In that
and other instances, Andrew's prose took on new energy, stressing the
therapeutic value of character and principles, as well as a good laugh.
Long before I stopped reading that first day, I was hooked. This stuff is
priceless. Some of it might appear exotic or dated, particularly to
nonagrarian folks who do not know what it is like to live off the land or
reside in small towns where everybody knows everybody else--but
even satisfied urbanites may be interested in reading about a different
way of life. And they surely will see similarities to their own situations
in the many stories about eccentric relatives, surly waitresses, guileful
politicians, child-rearing and money woes. Far from being outdated, I
decided, much of Andrew's material has a timeless quality--it addresses
standards and values, family and community foibles, human dignity

and folly--universal themes that still exist, even in our electronic age.
Editing the letters was the easy part. Frank and I never did decide how
to organize them for publication. His "Pap" had corresponded with
hundreds of people about a multitude of personal and professional
topics; several diverse activities and interests would often be recounted
in the same letter, sometimes as they occurred but often in retrospect
several years later. We finally decided to present the correspondence in
chronological order, so as to best reflect the flow of Pap's life,
including his memories as well as his latest observations. I found it
great reading, and hope you do also.
Douglas N. Hay Mill Rift, PA April 22, 1997
SOME BACKGROUND ON 'PAP'
"Pap"--Andrew Everett Durham--was born May 3, 1882, the youngest
son of James V. Durham and Sarah A. (Black) Durham, of Russellville,
Indiana. His paternal grandfather, Jacob, had emigrated from Kentucky
to become one of the early settlers of Russell Township--a farmer,
store-keeper, state legislator and mover and shaker in his own right, as
described in one of Pap's papers.
Pap's father was also active in local affairs, and supplemented his farm
income by starting a private bank in Russellville along with Pap's older
brother, Ernest. The Russellville Bank stayed in family hands for about
70 years. Pap was fond of recounting how, as a youth, he got his start in
business there--as janitor, for $2 a week. He eventually worked his way
up to chairman of the board. The bank survived the Depression in fine
order and declined to join the FDIC, which Pap publicly denounced as
a sham designed to subsidize poorly-run banks at the expense of
well-run ones, with the public footing the bill.
While maintaining their Russellville interests, Pap's parents moved to
nearby Greencastle in his youth. After graduating from high school, he
was sent to Western Military Academy, Alton, Illinois, to "straighten
out" after his strict Kentucky-bred mother discovered that he had been
hanging around the local pool parlor. He graduated from the academy
in 1899 with high honors, and continued his education graduating from
Indiana University in 1903 and from Indiana School of Law in 1906.
On Thanksgiving Day, 1910, he married Aura May Sawyer, of
Muscatine, Iowa. The wedding took place at the retirement home of the
bride's parents, in Milford, Pennsylvania. The union eventually

produced five daughters and one son.
Pap began his political career with election to the Indiana House of
Representatives in 1913, following in the footsteps of his grandfather.
His politics emphasized conservatism, low taxes and self-reliance. He
was re-elected to the House in 1915, and then elected to the State
Senate in 1917 and 1923. It is noteworthy that all of his victories came
as a Democrat, although most of his constituents were registered
Republican.
Pap was not only good at wooing Republican voters. He was also
generally effective in gaining bipartisan support for his legislative
undertakings. But he was not loath to take resolute action, if required.
When it appeared that a Republican gerrymandering bill would succeed,
Pap, as Minority Leader, had his Democratic