With high school graduations fast approaching for the Class of 2025, we wanted to take a moment to look at the Richardson-Sloane Special Collections donation 1991-03: The Davenport High School graduating class June of 1905. This collection features two items including a unique black and white panorama size photograph measuring 10 x 24 inches.
Creatively, the 54 images of the graduates spell out June ’05.
The other item is a large 22 x 22 1/2 inch piece of fabric. It appears the graduates of the Davenport High School class of 1905 had each signed their names in pencil on the fabric piece. Someone had begun to stitch the names of the graduates in blue or red thread following the penciled signatures.
We wish the center design had been finished as we wonder if the red and blue theme would have continued or if the designer had other thoughts for the bird and emblem.
We were able to find the names of the graduates in The Daily Times newspaper on June 6, 1905 with names on the fabric matching the graduates listed in the newspaper.
The Daily Times, June 6, 1905. Pg. 6
What wonderful memories from the class of June 1905 from Davenport High School. We hope you enjoy them too.
We thought this image from our Free Studio of Photography Collection (1998-28) was a perfect fit for the month of May. Taken by the Hostetler Studio in Davenport, this outdoor photo of the St. Ambrose College (now St. Ambrose University) baseball team was thought to have been taken around 1910.
DPLVolume 84 dplx812b. Free Studio of Photography Collection (1998-20).
St. Ambrose College originally had two intramural teams, the Collegians and the Metropolitans, that started around 1884. The first official school team, the Collegians, were formed in 1892.
When researching the history of St. Ambrose baseball, we came across a photo of the school’s baseball team in May 1912 from The Daily Times. The uniforms and young boy look the same as our Hostetler photo as does the placement of bats and equipment in the foreground of the picture. The wonderful part of the newspaper photo is the players, coach, and “mascot” are all named.
The Daily Times, May 18, 1921. Pg. 7
St. Ambrose University is located in Davenport, Iowa and still has a baseball team 133 years later. We wish all the local baseball teams a great season!
The image above is another photo postcard from the “purged files at the Annie Wittenmyer Home” recently donated to the Richardson-Sloane Special Collections Center.
The card is addressed to “Charlut Goff” and bears the greeting “Mery Xmas to you from Alice and June.” It is not postmarked.
The identity of the recipient was easily ascertained: Miss Charlotta Goff, says the local and state newspapers, was the state agent of the Iowa Soldiers Orphans’ Home from August 1909 until about 1927. Her responsibility was to “place the state’s wards at the Davenport orphanage in good homes.” [1] By 1917, Goff had “placed 500 or more children in Iowa homes.” [2]
Charlotta Goff was born in Chilton, Wisconsin, in 1869. Her concern for children’s welfare began with her first job as a teacher. She then moved to philanthropic work, serving as the General Secretary of the State Association of Charities and Corrections in Des Moines, Iowa. In 1902 she took a position in Washington, D.C. as assistant secretary in the national organization. She returned to the Midwest, finding similar work in Chicago, Sioux City, and Iowa City. She traveled often, giving talks at conferences of charitable organizations and to gain further social work experience. In 1905-06 Goff spent a year at the Woman’s Union Settlement in East London, and at some point before coming to Davenport, she had been “…in the southern states studying the conditions of children in the cotton belt.” [3]
When she was not traveling around the state seeking suitable foster homes for the children of the Orphans’ Home, Charlotta Goff could be found lecturing on child welfare topics to various Davenport groups, including the Woman’s Club, the Davenport Catholic Women’s League (she was a member of St. Paul’s Catholic Church), the Christ Child Society of Davenport, the Round Table Club of Business Women, the West End Mothers’ Club, and the Scott County Council of Parents’ and Teachers’ Clubs. She frequently represented the state of Iowa at national social work conferences, at which she also often delivered addresses.
In December 1930, at the age of 61, Goff married Francis McIntyre in Palm Springs, California. She remained a resident of Thermal, California, until her death in November 1945.
The identities of Alice and June, the girls who gave Charlotta Goff the Christmas greetings and presumably the subjects of the postcard image, were somewhat more difficult to determine.
It seems likely that they were the Alice and Jane Laura Fiddler listed in the 1910 US Census for Davenport as “inmates” of the Iowa Soldiers’ Orphans’ Home. They would have been there at the same time as Charlotta Goff.
If we accept that the girls’ ages in 1910 were actually about 3 and 2, not 13 and 12, more possibilities as to their identities open up. Alice and June/Jane may have been separately placed with relatives in Hardin Township, Hardin County, Iowa sometime during the following decade, perhaps by Charlotta Goff. The 1920 US Census lists a 12-year-old Alice D. Fiddler as a “cousin” in the household of John and Eva (Fiddler) Hofmann and the 1925 Iowa state census lists a 16-year-old June Fiddler as an “orphan” in the household of Humphrey and Minnie Fiddler.
The photograph could therefore have been taken and the card given to Charlotta Goff (in person, at the Home) when the girls were between 5 and 10, sometime in the 19-teens.
Could the Alice Fiddler in the Hofmann household in 1920 be the same as the one (born in Kansas City, Missouri) who married Allen Corrigan on September 2, 1923 in Lake Mills, Iowa? If so, the marriage record gives Alice’s parents’ names as Frank “Fidlar” and Inez Alma.
And could the June Fiddler in the Humphrey Fiddler household in January 1925 be the same as the one (also born in Missouri) who married Harold St. John on May 25, 1925 in Eldora, Hardin County? The marriage record gives June’s parents’ names as Frank Perry Fiddler and Inez Grable. (That this was June’s father’s name is confirmed by the fact that she named a child born in February 1927 “Frank Perry St. John”).
There was a female child born to Frank and Inez Fiddler on April 14, 1907 in Kansas City, Missouri. On November 8, 1906, a marriage license had been issued to Frank Perry Fiddler and Inez M. Grable in Kansas City, Missouri.
The chance discovery of a newspaper article about a claim to land in Kearny County, Kansas helps connect Alice and June Fiddler to Frank P. and two other Fiddler family members.
We learn that the minor child Juanita Elizabeth Terril was formerly named Frances Marion Fiddler, and was related to an Alice Dorothy and a Laura June Fiddler, also minors in 1918. Could she also be a daughter of Frank Perry Fiddler and Inez Grable? She appears in the 1920 US Census for Des Moines as the “adopted daughter” of Floyd and Elizabeth Terrill. She is an infant in their household in the 1910 US Census.
Does the girl in the upper left corner of this newspaper photo resemble Alice and June in the photo postcard?
Des Moines Register, March 23, 1927, page 2.
If all of these assumptions are correct, something must have happened to Frank and Inez Fiddler before 1910. Frank seems to have disappeared to the western part of the country. His mother, Mrs. Jacob Young (Laura Dale Strong) Fiddler, was looking for him in 1913:
The Los Angeles Times, Apr 19, 1913, page 16.
The Sacramento Star, November 28, 1913, page 3.
An Inez Fiddler was listed as a clerk in the Oklahoma City directory for 1910; in September of that same year, an Inez M. Grable married Harry J. Alma in Canadian County, Oklahoma. “Inez Alma” is Alice Fiddler’s mother’s name as given on her 1923 marriage record.
We are left to wonder why both parents left three young girls to the care of others, if we’ve in fact made the right connections here. Let us know if they make sense to you, and if you agree that the subjects of the photo postcard given to Charlotta Goff could be Alice Dorothy and Laura June Fiddler!
Please let us know, too, if you have more information about any of these families or Charlotta Goff McIntyre!
(posted by Katie)
Sources: [1] Des Moines Register, July 20, 1909; [2] Davenport Democrat and Leader, April 22, 1917; [3] Davenport Democrat and Leader, October 14, 1917.
This wonderful collection contains an autograph book (1892 – 1894) and scrapbook filled with calling cards that were the property of Sarah Louisa Buckwalter who was born on September 7, 1880 to Edwin and Mary (Price) Buckwalter in Little’s Grove, Blue Grass Township, Scott County, Iowa.
By the late nineteenth century, autograph books were used by young adults as a way to remember family, friends, and classmates. Those who signed a book may have included a quote, short poem, or drawing along with their signature.
Autograph and Scrapbook of Sarah Buckwalter. 2024-11.
Calling cards were used for paying visits or introductions, but young adults would also collect them as mementos in the same fashion as autograph book signatures. Autograph books began to decline in popularity in the mid-twentieth century as yearbooks were regularly produced. Calling cards fell out of favor when telephone usage increased and Victorian rules on visiting declined.
Autograph and Scrapbook of Sarah Buckwalter. 2024-11.
A special note for Sarah’s autograph book and scrapbook is the later addition of information that updates women’s names with their married name, who was deceased, and who was related to whom. We hope you enjoy images from these books.
Autograph book samples:
Autograph and Scrapbook of Sarah Buckwalter. 2024-11.
Autograph and Scrapbook of Sarah Buckwalter. 2024-11.
Autograph and Scrapbook of Sarah Buckwalter. 2024-11.
Autograph and Scrapbook of Sarah Buckwalter. 2024-11.
Autograph and Scrapbook of Sarah Buckwalter. 2024-11.
Examples from the scrapbook of calling cards. The late nineteenth-century was a wonderful time for calling cards with the introduction of colored ink to the printing process. The last card pictured belonged to Sarah Buckwalter.
Autograph and Scrapbook of Sarah Buckwalter. 2024-11.
Autograph and Scrapbook of Sarah Buckwalter. 2024-11.
Autograph and Scrapbook of Sarah Buckwalter. 2024-11.
Autograph and Scrapbook of Sarah Buckwalter. 2024-11.
Autograph and Scrapbook of Sarah Buckwalter. 2024-11.
Sarah married Julius Thiessen on October 18, 1904 in Davenport. They were dairy farmers for many years and raised three children, Bessie, Theron, and Wilbert, in rural Davenport. Sarah passed away on August 10, 1970 at the age of 89 in Blue Grass, Iowa and is buried at Fairmount Cemetery in Davenport.
With Easter around the corner we went in search of a photograph with a beautiful hat to honor the Easter parades of the past. Women would dress in their latest spring fashions along with stunning hats for these occasions will men would also be in their spring finery, but with more conservative hat styles. Davenport, like many other local cities, held their own parades.
We chose this photograph taken about 1904 that is labeled “Dolly” as Dolly has a stunning hat trimmed with small flowers and a large bow on top. Her dress would be very practical in our cooler than normal Spring weather we have been having this month. We hope Dolly enjoyed her hat as much as we have enjoyed looking at it.
DPLVolume 8, dplx623. “Dolly”. Hostetler Collection. c. 1904.
We wanted to remind everyone that all branches of the Davenport Public Library and the Richardson-Sloane Special Collections Department will be closed on Friday, April 18, 2025. The library branches will be open regular hours on Saturday, April 19th. RSSC will reopen for regular hours on Monday, April 21st.
We here at the Richardson-Sloane Special Collections Center were saddened by the news that Ernest Rodriguez, civil rights activist and founding member of the League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC) in the Quad Cities, had passed away last Saturday, April 5th at the age of 97.
We are fortunate that he has left us with us two accounts of his remarkable life, a written memoir and an oral history recording as part of the “In Your Own Words, 2099-2020” project. He has also shared his story with the University of Iowa’s Migration is Beautiful digital exhibition.
These images of Rodriguez over the years are from the many articles in the Davenport newspapers documenting his experiences and accomplishments.
Davenport Democrat and Leader, 26 June 1951, page 24.
First meeting of LULAC Council 10, 1959, contributed photo to story on the history of the organization in the Quad-City Times, 06 July 2004, page 16. Rodriguez is 4th from the left in the first row.
“Interviewers Start Study on Poverty,” Times-Democrat, 21 July 1967, page 3.
“Minority Coalition Names Coordinator,” Times-Democrat, 18 May 1970 page 15.
Named coordinator of the Area Board for Migrants established in 1970 by the Catholic Dioceses of Davenport, Peoria, and Rockford, Times-Democrat, 27 February 1971, page 12.
Spanish-Speaking Program Coordinator for the U.S. Army Armament Command at Rock Island Arsenal, “Helping Migrants to Find Stability,” Quad-City Times, 03 August 1975, page 13.
Discussing his family’s experiences of racism in Bettendorf and Davenport, Quad-City Times, 19 Nov 1995, page 6M, “Tiempos Latinos” section in Spanish.
While not an April Fools’ prank, we found this postcard in our collection that made us laugh. This novelty card was printed in 1912 and mailed to Master P. Triem in Monee, Will County, Illinois on July 13th that same year. We wish our produce grew that large here in Davenport!
PC 029.1912. Back
Hopefully, everyone is having a happy and amusing April Fools’ Day.
We thought with the weather warming up to look back at this photograph taken in the 1910s of the iron fountain that stood at the Main Street entrance to Central Park (now known as Vander Veer Botanical Park). The fountain stood where the electric fountain stands today.
DPLVolume171. dplvm89-000311. Iron fountain in spring at Vander Veer Park. 1910s.
The money for the fountain was donated anonymously (at the time) to the park board by park board member A. W. Vander Veer in 1907. 25 feet high with a 30 foot basin at the bottom, the spray fountain can be seen in the above picture surrounded by spring tulips. The trees are budding and the bandshell (now gone) can be seen in the right background of the photo.
The Daily Times, May 28, 1907. Pg. 6.
By 1929, the park board was concerned with the structure as the iron had begun to rust. They feared it would be a safety issue to leave it up. Discussions were underway to replace the fountain when the Great Depression hit Davenport and all projects stopped.
In 1934, with financial support from the Federal Emergency Relief Administration, the old iron fountain was removed and work began on the cement and stone electric fountain that still stands in the park today.
DPLVol 246. dplvm89-0921. Construction of new cement and stone fountain 1934/1935.
Vander Veer electric Fountain. Postcards – VV – PC 021.
The old fountain has not disappeared completely from Vander Veer Park though. Two faces from the fountain were saved and incorporated into the windmill feature inside the Conservatory.
Quad City Times, July 22, 2003. Pg. 14.
With the weather warming up, it might be time to go exploring Vander Veer Botanical Park to search for signs of spring and hidden gems.
Miss Emma Harper sent this portrait photo postcard to her friend Mamie Cypers at the Iowa Soldiers’ Orphans’ Home in May of 1914. This would have been a few months before 18-year-old Emma’s marriage to Clarence Van Auken in Davenport.
We assume it is an image of Emma herself, perhaps taken on the occasion of her engagement.
The card was postmarked in Grinnell, Iowa. It is not clear why Emma was there at the time. Perhaps she was working as a household servant, as she had in Wilton Township four years earlier, in 1910 (at age 14), according to the US Census.
If Emma had left the Orphans’ Home by 1910, and Mamie had arrived in 1906, the two would have been there together for a maximum of four years. During that time, Emma would have been 11-14 years old and Mamie 8-11.
Emma and her siblings arrived at the Home from Story County sometime after their father Isaiah Harper’s death in 1895, probably not until after 1900. She, Nettie, and James Harper were all there in 1905, according to the Iowa state census for that year:
Mamie (May Frances) Harper and three of her siblings were sent to the Orphans’ Home under difficult circumstances:
Daily Times (Davenport, Iowa), 31 July 1906, page 6.
Mamie would go on to marry three times, first to Russell Whitaker in 1918, with whom she had a son, Harold; then Helge Jennisch in 1924, and Fred Detlef Claussen in 1933. She died in Davenport in 1938 and is buried at Mt. Calvary.
Emma also had one child, Harriet, with Van Auken. The couple divorced by 1930 and she married Elmer Owens in 1934. She died in 1976 and is buried at the Rock Island National Cemetery.
We are fortunate to have received this and a few other photo postcards “from the purged files of the Annie Wittenmyer Home” via one of our most dedicated volunteers, to whom they were given some time in the 1970s. We will research these as well!
In celebration of spring we are contemplating the blue skies, green hillsides, and flowing waters in this charming 1875 view of Davenport, a recent acquisition for the Richardson-Sloane Special Collections Center and a fresh addition to the library’s catalog.
Davenport, Iowa River Front, the Most Beautiful City on the Mississippi, 1875, printed in three colors by the National Lithographic Institute in Chicago, conveys well the exuberance of this quickly-developing center of commerce. Steamboats and other vessels glide on the river as a train speeds across the railroad bridge; loads of lumber on the shoreline are readied for building or shipping out; warehouses shelter trade goods; smoke spills from busy brick manufacturing plants; figures hustle through the streets on foot or by horse and carriage. Shops, public buildings, schools, churches, and residences populate the downtown and along the rise to the bluffs. A closer look:
Representations of the city published before this one, complained the Davenport Democrat at the time, ”sacrificed all the beauties to the purpose of making a map rather than a picture…[b]luffs have been lowered, trees felled, houses magnified, and all harmony, truth and beauty ignored…” [2] In contrast, the newspaper writers felt this view was most faithful; it had no “trade advertising or forcing impossible localities into the picture,” no “huddled houses in it at random.” [3] No less than local worthies Charles H. Putnam, Edward Russell, George Parker, Hiram Price, T.W. McClelland, and the Richardson Brothers, among others, endorsed it as “…by far the best that has ever been offered to the public.” [4]
The person responsible for this superior portrait of Davenport was a man named Frank Ibberson Jervis. An immigrant from England, he had arrived in the city about 1864 via France and New York City. “Artist” is the occupation listed by Jervis’ name when it makes its first appearance in the city directories, in 1867.
Our knowledge of Jervis’ life as an artist in the first several year he resided here is limited, but the local papers reveal more activity once his view of Davenport was published. He was working on similar pictures of Rock Island and Iowa City in August of 1875; in September he was the first-prize winner in the “paintings and drawings” category at the Scott County Agricultural Society Fair for “miscellaneous” watercolors. [5] As a promotion for Hoyt’s music store, ladies were invited to pay a dollar each for a chance to win a large watercolor by Jervis. [6] What might the subjects of these artworks created here in Davenport have been? Where are they now?
In the fall of 1876, after twelve years in Davenport, Frank Jervis and his family moved to Chicago. Though residing in the Kensington neighborhood, he kept a studio downtown in the American Express Building on Monroe Street. From there he exhibited and sold his works, and offered art lessons. He was also an instructor for the women of the Chicago Society for Decorative Art, a member of the South Kensington Sketching Club, and involved with the Lydian Gallery. His artworks were displayed in numerous galleries and at exhibitions in the city. Thanks to art critics in the Chicago newspapers, we have the titles of some, including “A Trout Stream in Wisconsin,” “Israel in Egypt,” “Aisle of Westminster Abbey,” and “Entrance to the Cathedral at Brest.” [7] Jervis also hand-painted a flower design on the front of a dress for his daughter Helen’s bridal trousseau. [8]
Frank I. Jervis was much more than a respected visual artist, however. Stay tuned for Part II, when we explore his other considerable talents, as demonstrated here in Davenport in particular!
(posted by Katie)
Sources: [1] Reps, Cities, page 64. Davenport, Iowa River Front is discussed here along with the earlier views of the city, three of which were produced by the Augustus Hageboeck studio in Davenport, and copies of all of which are held by the Putnam Museum; [2] Davenport Democrat, July 14, 1875, page 1; [3] Democrat, August 31, 1875, page 1; [4] Democrat, July 19, 1875. That the statement in this article that this was a limited edition print is borne out by the fact that we can find no evidence of any other copy than the one held by the Putnam Museum. The RSSC Center’s catalog record is the first to be added to OCLC; [5] Democrat, September 10, 1875, page 1; [6] Democrat, April 19, 1876, page 1; [7] Four other titled works by Jervis are in the collection of the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston; [8] Chicago Tribune, November 26, 1882, page 19.
