Robert Rockwell was a rancher and farmer who was a member of the Colorado House of Representatives and the Senate. He was Lieutenant Governor and a U.S. Congressman. He also served on the State Board of Agriculture from 1932-1946. The Robert Rockwell papers contain personal, political, and business correspondence, a ledger of his ranch, scrapbooks, clippings, and other materials on Colorado legislative and pioneer history.
Robert Rockwell’s political career began in 1916 when he was elected as a Republican to the Colorado House of Representatives. He served two terms, leaving to become Colorado State Senator from 1920 to 1923. In 1923, he left the Colorado Senate to become Lieutenant Governor, serving in that role until 1924. In 1924, he launched an unsuccessful bid for governor. Rockwell was defeated in the Republican gubernatorial primaries by a candidate affiliated with the Ku Klux Klan. Rockwell had earned the Klan’s ire by refusing to promise that he would not appoint Catholics to state offices. His correspondence showed how much he opposed the KKK.
The University of Colorado Boulder Libraries will celebrate the centennial anniversary of the Archives on June 6, 2018. This is story #81 in our series: 100 Stories for 100 Years from the Archives!