Chicago Sun Times May 12, 1975

Paul M. Angle dies at 74; ex-director of historical society


Paul M. Angle, 74, former director of the Chicago Historical Society, died Sunday in Northwestern Memorial Hospital.
Mr. Angle, who lived in Lincoln Park, was director of the society for 20 years, retiring in 1965 to devote more time to
research and writing.
A Lincoln scholar, Mr. Angle was the author of scores of books on Abraham Lincoln and the history of Illinois. He was
one of the country's foremost Lincoln authorities and probably knew more about Illinois and its history than anyone else.
A native of Mansfield, Ohio, Mr Angle worked for several years as a textbook salesman following his graduation in 1922 from
Miami (Ohio) University. He received a master's degree from the University of Illinois in 1924.
In 1932, Mr. Angle was appointed librarian of the Illinois Historical Library and held that position, and that of state historian,
until 1945. He then became director and secretary of the Chicago Historical Society.
He was active for many years in Chicago civic affairs. In 1967, he was appointed by Mayor Daley to head an advisory
committee to study what city records should be preserved.
(photo) - Paul M. Angle
In 1971, he headed the awards committee that chose 100 citizens who best represented Chicago's "I will" spirit.
Mr. Angle's books include "Mary Lincoln, Wife and Widow," "Here I Have Lived: A History of Lincoln's Springfield,"
"The Living Lincoln," "Prairie State, Impressions of Illinois, 1673-1967, by Travelers and Other Observers."
Survivors include his widow, Vesta; a son, John; and a daughter, Mrs. Paula Franklin.
A memorial service will be held at 4 p.m. Thursday at the historical Society, Clark and North.
Contributions may be made to the Chicago Historical Society in lieu of flowers.
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***He co-authored books with Carl Sandberg.
Paul was an executive director of the Abraham Lincoln Association in Springfield, Illinois for a number of years.
Paul was the grandson of Sarah Jane "Jennie" McAfee and
Joseph McClelland of Mansfield, Ohio.

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Chicago Daily NewsMay 12, 1975
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Paul M. Angle, noted Lincoln scholar and former director of the Chicago Historical Society, died Sunday in Northwestern
Memorial Hospital at age 74.
A memorial service will be at 4 p.m. Thursday at the Chicago Historical Society, North and Clark.
Mr. Angle, of 1802 N. Lincoln Park West, directed the Society for 20 years before his retirement in 1965.He served as
secretary of the society, located near his home at North and Clark, from 1965 until 1970.
A native of Mansfield, Ohio, Mr. Angle was graduated in 1922 from Miami University, in Oxford, Ohio.He earned a master's
degree at the University of Illinois in 1924.
MR. ANGLE served as librarian of the Illinois Historical Library from 1932 to 1945, when he was named director and secretary
of the Chicago Historical Society.
He also was state historian from 1932 to 1945.
On Mr. Angle's retirement as director of the Chicago Historical Society in 1965, The Daily News said in an editorial:
"The score of books he has written and edited are solidly underpinned by learning, fresh in facination, and filled with a deep
love of his subjects, primarily of course, Abraham Lincoln and his times."
Survivors include his wife, Vesta, a son, John, and a daughter, Mrs. Paula Franklin.

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end of obit.
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Chicago TribuneMay 12, 1975

Historian Paul Angle dies at 74
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PAUL M. ANGLE, 74, authority on Abraham Lincoln and the Civil War and former director of the Chicago Historical Society,
died Sunday in Northwestern Memorial Hospital.
Mr. Angle, who was a prolific book reviewer for The Tribune in the 1950's and 1960's, "probably knows more about Illinois and its
history than anyone else," wrote Robert Cromie in a 1968 Tribune review of one of Mr. Angle's books.
He was born on Christmas Day, 1901, in Mansfield, Ohio, and was graduated from Miamia University, Oxford, Ohio, in 1922, and
received his masters from the University of Illinois in 1924.After a brief stint as a book company representative, he became
executive secretary of the Abraham Lincoln Association in Springfield, Ill.
THE YEAR 1932 was a momentous one for Mr. Angle.It saw the publication of his [with Carl Sandburg] "Mary Lincoln, Wife and Widow,"
and he became historian at the Illinois State Historical Library and secretary of the Illinois State Historical Society.
Mr. Angle and his wife, Vesta, moved to Chicago in 1945 when he became director of the Chicago Historical Society.
In 1947, Mr. Angle waited for the midnight Library of Congress opening to scholars and the public of Lincoln's 18,500 letters and documents.
For the next five hours he pored over them and then wrote a long, readable account for The Tribune of what they were and what they meant.
He made the deadline.
Other survivors include a son, John; and a daughter, Mrs. Paula Franklin.A memorial service will be held at 4 p.m. Thursday in the
Chicago Historical Society, Lincoln Park at North Avenue.

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Chicago Sun TimesMay 15, 1975


Paul M. Angle memorial today
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A memorial service for Paul M. Angle, Abraham Lincoln scholar and former director of the Chicago Historical Society, will be held at 4 p.m.
Thursday in the society building at North and Clark.
Mr. Angle, who wrote scores of books on Lincoln and the history of Illinois, died Sunday in Northwestern Memorial Hospital.He was 74.
At the Thursday service, remembrances of Mr. Angle's life and work will b e presented by Emmett Dedmon, vice president and editorial director
of the Sun-Times and The Daily News, and by U.S. District Court Judge Abraham L. Marovitz.
Mr. Angle was appointed librarian of the Illinois Historical Library in 1932 and held that position as well as state historian until 1945.He was
director and secretary of the Chicago Historical Society from 1945 until 1965.
Survivors include his widow, Vesta; a son, John, and a daughter, Mrs. Paula Franklin.

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end of memorial notice.
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obituaries contributed by the Chicago Historical Society.

Chicago Historical Society
Clark Street at North Avenue
Chicago, Illinois 60614 - 6099


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Brief notes from the following article:

The Journal of the Illinois State Historical Society, Volume 68, November 1975, pages 435 to 443

Paul M. Angle
Warm Recollections and Clear Impressions
by Irving Dilliard

....Paul McClelland Angle was born on Christmas Day, 1900, in Mansfield, Ohio...
His father was John Elmer Angle, named after the dashing Captain Elmer Ellsworth of the Zouaves and one
of the first casualties of the Civil War.John Angle was born in Shippensburg, in the Cumberland Valley of
Pennsylvania, in 1861...As a young man he accompanied a Shippensburg migration west to Mansfield, where he
went into the retail grocery business.He married Jeannette Remy, bookkeeper-daughter of the head of the concern...
Jeanette Angle died in 1894, leaving John to care for a son nine years old and a daughter of ten months.
On September 20, 1899, he married Nellie Laverne McClelland, a secretary and former schoolteacher.
After the birth of their first child, Paul, they had three more sons and two daughters....
Paul attended public school in Mansfield, where he played four years of high school football.But he was also
devoted to his books and was valedictorian of the class of 1918, graduating in the midst of World War I.
He began his college career at nearby Oberline College but after one year transferred to Miami University of Ohio.
...At the Miami University, Paul again played football, as he did at Oberlin, majored in history and political science,
and was elected to Phi Betta Kappa in his junior year.He graduated magna cum laude in 1922.
Paul's "Sweetheart of Sigma Chi" -- that was his fraternity -- was Vesta Verne Magee, class of 1923, from Piqua,
Ohio.Vesta Magee was as pretty as she was intelligent, and they were married, not right away, but on June 17, 1926,
when the Angle future was beginning to take some semblance of shape.
...Paul...sold life insurance in Rochester, New York.He "quickly discovered" that whatever else he might be qualified to do,
selling insurance was one occupation he "was not cut out for".
...he invested the academic year of 1923 - 1924 on a scholarship at the University of Illinois.There he obtained a master's degree.
By then he had accumulated a personal debt that he undertook to pay off by working as a textbook saleman for the
American Book Company.
...Paul loved Springfield, and not only because it was home to him and Vesta and their daughter Paula and son John Edwin.
...During World War II, Paul served as consultant in history to the Army Air Force.
...Paul Angle died of cancer of the bladder at Northwestern Memorial Hospital, Chicago, on May 11, 1975, after a brave bearing
of pain.He was in his seventy-fifth year.Surving were his wife, Vesta, his daughter Paula Franklin, his son John,
two grandchildren, two sisters, and three brothers.

Newsletters and Books written:
"Bulletin" quarterly of the Lincoln Centennial Association
"Abraham Lincoln Quarterly"
"News Letters and Papers of Lincoln" Houghton-Mifflin, Boston
"Mary Lincoln: Wife and Widow" co - authored by Carl Sandburg
"Lincoln - 1854 - 1861"a day to day calendar
"Here I Have Lived: A History of Lincoln's Springfield, 1821 - 1865"
"Abraham Lincoln: An Authentic Story of His Life"
"One Hundred Years of Law:An Account of the Law Office Which John T. Stuart Founded in Springfield"
"Suggested Readings in Illinois History:
"Nathaniel Pope, 1784 - 1850:A Memoir"
"A Handbook of Illinois History" co-authored with Richard L. Bever.
"The Great Chicago Fire"
"A Shelf of Lincoln Books"
"The Lincoln Reader"
"Abraham Lincoln, By Some Men Who Knew Him"
"Bloody Williamson"
"Created Equal? The Complete Lincoln - Douglas Debates of 1858"
"The American Reader"
"Sputnik I"
"Explorer"
"A Pictorial History of the Civil War Years"
Scribner's "Dictionary of American History" entires he wrote: "Starved Rock," "Cahokia Mounds," "Illinois and Michigan Canal,"
and "Lincoln's Assassination"
A Biography on Phillip K. Wrigley
Editorials and Book Reviews in the Chicago Daily Tribune