The Samuel D. Pepper papers cover Pepper's military service and legal career, as well as his relationships with family and friends. The collection provides particularly strong documentation of the impact which Pepper's Michigan National Guard (MNG) service had on personal and professional aspects of his life. The papers are divided into four main series: Personal, Military Activities, Professional and Political Activities, and Photographs.
Samuel DeWitt Pepper was born on December 27, 1877 at Middlesex, Ontario, Canada. One of ten children, he grew up in Forest, Ontario, and received his early education at local schools. He was in the first graduating class at London Normal School in 1900, and also took private instruction in advanced academic subjects during the 1890s.
He was married to Katherine M. MacDonald in 1907, and they had two children - Elizabeth Marion (b. 1910) and Robert Hatfield (b. 1918).
He moved to Port Huron, Michigan in 1903, and studied law while working at the law office of Burt D. Cady; he also took courses at the University of Michigan Law Department during the summer of 1905. Pepper passed the Michigan State Bar in 1906 and practiced law in Port Huron until his appointment as Assistant Attorney General in Lansing in 1912.
Samuel Pepper's military career progressed concurrently with his work in law. He enlisted in the Michigan National Guard (MNG) in April 1905 and by September 1908 he achieved the rank of Second Lieutenant. In 1912, as part of an investigation into MNG members' behavior during a prison riot, Pepper was appointed Judge Advocate General of the MNG. This was the first of many times that he was to deal with the legal ramifications of civilian/military confrontations.
Following a copper strike in northern Michigan, in which the MNG was used to avert violence between company owners and strikers, Pepper wrote Michigan National Guard When Used in Aid of Civil Authorities; this was printed and issued as a legal guide for MNG officers. Pepper also served on the Mexican border (1916-17) and saw active service in France during the First World War, where he received a Distinguished Service Medal. As Judge Advocate of the Fifth Army Corps, he presided over General Courts Martial for the Army of Occupation.
After his discharge, Pepper returned to work in the Michigan Attorney General's office. He wrote the Michigan Insurance Code and was appointed to the state's Public Utilities Commission by his friend, Governor Alex Groesbeck. When Groesbeck left office in 1928, Pepper returned to private law practice in Port Huron. He remained active in Republican Party politics and the MNG.
As Judge Advocate General of the Michigan National Guard, Pepper played a key advisory role to both MNG and state government officials when riots and labor unrest occurred in Michigan during the 1930s. Over the course of the Flint sit-down strike in 1937, he counselled caution and restraint in the deployment of National Guardsmen. After retiring from the MNG in December 1941, Pepper was appointed Chief Deputy State Director of the Selective Service System for the duration of World War II.
After the war, Pepper returned once again to his law practice, was City Attorney of Port Huron, and became General Counsel of Michigan Life Insurance Company; he also took active part in revising Michigan state military laws in the early 1950s. Samuel Pepper died in Port Huron in 1960.
