When Kansas governor Lyman Humphrey issued a proclamation in August of 1890 recognizing Labor Day in Kansas, he was heralded by many as being the first head of state, anywhere, to do so. See an original copy of the proclamation on Kansas Memory.  The proclamation established September 1, 1890 as Labor Day in Kansas. It recognized the need for improving the working conditions of laboring people and asked business to be suspended on Labor Day so that working people could enjoy the holiday. In an equally pioneering gesture, and at the urging of Governor Humphrey, the Kansas Legislature made the first Monday in September a legal holiday in Kansas in 1891. Labor Day was not recognized as a federal holiday until 1894.  Samuel Gompers, president of the American Federation of Labor, praised the move and encouraged other states to follow the example of the Kansas governor. Gompers reportedly wrote Humphrey to express his appreciation for the governor’s recognition of organized labor.  In 1938, when an Ohio labor organization was seeking to establish a memorial in Governor Humphrey’s honor, Lyman L. Humphrey (the governor’s son) searched through his father’s papers at the Kansas Historical Society but could not locate any letters from Gompers. An exhaustive search of the papers by archives staff did not locate any such letters either and archivists noted that the letters were not included in the official register of letters received by the governor’s office.   However, Humphrey's executive clerk, D. O. McCray, noted in an article in volume 9 of the Kansas Historical Collections: “Governor Humphrey was the first chief executive of the United States to thus speak in behalf of labor, and he holds letters from President Gompers recognizing this action.”  If Governor Humphrey did receive such letters, it appears he did not file them with the official papers of his office and the whereabouts of the letters are unknown. Reference: Mechem to Humphrey, L. L., Nov. 4, 1938. Lyman L. Humphrey Papers, Coll. 11, Box 1, Folder 1930-1938, Kansas Historical Society.   For more primary sources on Kansas labor history, select the category Government and Politics - Reform and Protest - Labor movement.