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INVENTORY OF THE PAPERS OF

GORDON M. BUCK
IN THE UNIVERSITY OF VIRGINIA LAW LIBRARY
MSS 88 - 2
Processed by
Kevin Duchschere
1988



Biographical Sketch

Gordon Mountjoy Buck was born in 1875. He earned a bachelor of laws degree from the University of Virginia in 1898, and was admitted to the bar in 1900. He is listed in Martindale's American Law Directory as working at 120 Broadway, New York City, in 1912, and at 165 Broadway two years later.

By 1921, Buck was working for the firm of Humes, Buck, Smith & Tweed. That firm became Humes, Buck & Smith the following year, and by 1930, Humes, Buck, Smith & Stowell, with offices at 50 Broadway in New York City. The firm had a general practice, with specializations in corporation, probate and financial law. Major clients included Southern Pacific Company and Pacific Oil Company, as well as many other railroad companies.

Buck retired from the practice of law sometime in 1936 or 1937, and returned with his wife to Virginia to live at his Greenwood estate, Whilton. His former firm survives today in New York City under the name of Humes, Andrews, Botzow & Wagner.

Scope and Content Note

The papers of Gordon M. Buck (7 linear feet in 16 boxes) consist of professional legal papers and a small collection of personal material. The papers range mainly from the early 1920s to the 1940s and contain records and briefs, memoranda, personal and business correspondence, court transcripts, and railroad trusteeship instruments. There are also several bound volumes of legal forms and documents, as well as case briefs and memoranda. Very thorough -- if not entirely complete -- records are included for the cases of Bogert v. Southern Pacific Co., Newark Plaster Co. v. Cross & Brown Co., the Pacific Oil Co. dissolution, and Young v. Southern Pacific Co.

The Buck papers might be useful for research of railroad and corporate litigation, or simply for insight into the workings of a Wall Street law firm in the 1920s and 1930s.


Provenance

The papers were given to the University of Virginia Law Library by Buck's daughter, Mrs. Charles LeGrand, in 1988.

Organization

The Buck collection is separated into professional and personal papers. The professional papers are alphabetically sorted by case name and generally go from raw drafts of briefs, memoranda and correspondence to the printed materials. There is an extensive collection of general case correspondence in chronological order, as Buck kept it, and the folders list the names of the prominent cases within. The small collection of personal papers includes documents relating to cases against the I.R.S. and the Mexican government, a few pieces of correspondence, and material on the purchase and furnishing of Whilton, Buck's retirement home in the countryside west of Charlottesville.

BOX LISTING


Box Date and Content Description

1.
2

Box Date and Content Description


6
7
8
9
10 and 11
12
13
14
1922, Trusts for Bernard and John Harrison: indentures

1926, Wills for Elise Kruttschnitt and Josephine Vignaux

15
16
Mss 88-2a


17
18