Ralph Elijah Cloward papers

Collection

Identifier: MS 0243

Staff Only

Scope and Contents

The Ralph Elijah Cloward papers (1911-1967) consists of correspondence and articles on subjects of interest to Cloward. The collection contains personal materials, as well as correspondence, articles and other information regarding China, Communism, education, India, the LDS Church, medicine, military philosophy, politics, religion, Samoa, the United Nations, and other topics of interest to Cloward and his colleagues. There are several correspondence regarding the topics mentioned above, with Sterling McMurrin, a former US Commissioner of Education, Israel A. Smith, the former president of the Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (now the Community of Christ), James A. Pike, a controversial Catholic Bishop of California, and others.

Dates

1911-1967

Creator

Cloward, Ralph Elijah, 1883-1964 (Person)

Conditions Governing Access

Twenty-four hour advanced notice encouraged. Materials must be used on-site. Access to parts of this collection may be restricted under provisions of state or federal law.

Conditions Governing Use

The library does not claim to control copyright for all materials in the collection. An individual depicted in a reproduction has privacy rights as outlined in Title 45 CFR, part 46 (Protection of Human Subjects). For further information, please review the J. Willard Marriott Library’s Use Agreement and Reproduction Request forms.

Biographical Sketch

Ralph Elijah Cloward (1883-1964) was born on 21 April 1883. He was raised in Utah as a member of the LDS Church. He spent three years, 1904-1907, serving a proselytizing mission in Samoa. His stay there created a life-long interest in the Samoan people and their welfare. Shortly after his return from the Pacific, Cloward married Virginia Staker and began classes at the University of Utah. After graduation Cloward went east to study medicine at the College of Physicians and Surgeons in Baltimore, Maryland. He graduated in 1913 and returned to Price, Utah to begin his practice.

The world unrest in the early 1900s caused Cloward to join the Medical Reserve Corps. He was commissioned a First Lieutenant on 16 July 1917. When the United Stated entered the first World War (WWI) his reserve group was activated. In August 1917, Cloward was sent to Fort Riley, Kansas for training. By June of the following year he was in Liverpool, England with the fourth Sanitary Train headed for France. While in France, Cloward worked near the front lines in various ambulance dressing stations as well as the field hospital at Cuisy before being promoted to Captain and commander of Ambulance Company number nineteen. He also served as commander of Ambulance Company number twenty-eight, in Germany, in early 1919. Captain Cloward was given an honorable discharge in 1919.

For four months in 1919 and 1920, Cloward took postgraduate courses in eye, ear, nose and throat (EENT) at Harvard University, before re-enlisting in the Army Medical Corps as a Captain. While in the Army he worked at his profession and took various military courses including those qualifying him as a flight surgeon. After transferring to Hawai'i, in 1926, Cloward resigned his commission to accept a position as an EENT specialist at The Clinic. He continued to practice medicine in Hawai'i, including doing necessary surgery at various island charitable hospitals until 1939. Cloward officially retired on 15 July 1939, because heart ailment and Parkinson's disease made it impossible for him to perform surgery.

After a period of travel, Cloward settled in Los Angeles, California, in 1940. He reintegrated himself with the LDS Church community there and eventually found himself in conflict with many of the teachings and practices of the church. He wrote numerous letters to LDS Church authorities seeking definitive historical and archeological proof that the Book of Mormon was actually the history of the people of ancient America. Cloward also conducted vigorous letter writing campaigns for socialized medicine, civil rights for the people of American Samoa, and other subjects he found of interest. He wrote many articles on these subjects although few were published. Having earlier been divorced from Virginia, Cloward married Elizabeth (Betty) Connoly in Honolulu, on 4 July 1939. In 1960, he and Betty, took a trip around the world. They visited many of the countries behind the Iron Curtain and wrote letters, to their family, filled with their impressions of people, their social, economic, and political systems, and the places they visited. Upon returning they settled in Honolulu. Cloward died in Honolulu on 7 May 1964, at the age of eighty-one.

Extent

3 Linear Feet

Language of Materials

English

Additional Description

Abstract

The Ralph Elijah Cloward papers (1911-1967) consists of biographical information, family correspondence, articles and correspondence by Cloward on medicine, religion, the United Nations, politics, education, military philosophy, China, communism, India, the LDS Church, and Samoa. Cloward (1883-1964) was a doctor who had a great concern for the people of Samoa, as well as other Polynesian people, and their welfare.