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Page 5
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 delegation go into "hiding" across the state line,
preventing action on the reapportionment bill by removing a
quorum. It also froze all other legislative activities. The
Republicans finally agreed to withdraw the objectionable bill,
and the "runaway" Democrats returned.
His growing family necessitated a larger income and after a
gubernatorial run failed to materialize, Pap retired from the
Senate, in 1929. He devoted more time to his law practice and
became a lobbyist for the Indiana Railroad Lobby Assn. In such
capacity, he continued to monitor his former peers, and had the
reputation of having attended every Legislative Session from 1913
to 1951.
Throughout his life, Russellville was a continuing source of
gratification to Pap, and also provided a wealth of material for
anecdotes of small-town life, which were incorporated into his
public-speaking and his voluminous correspondence.
The family farm just outside the village was also a valued source
of income, as well as sustenance, and Pap took a personal hand in
its operation, spending more and more time there as he grew
older.
Andrew E. Durham passed away at home in Greencastle, July 23,
1954.
GLOSSARY
Pap was an inveterate inventor of nicknames, applied mostly to
his family. Some of the letters in the collection contain the
following references:
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