This handsome Foursquare at 1517 South Street in Davenport was photographed by J.B. Hostetler for owner Charles Markus circa 1913-15.
The woman posing in the car (let us know if you can identify the make/model/year!) out front was likely Charles’ 2nd wife, Pauline Mausnest, whom he married in August 1912. The home was purchased the following month. John Herman Carstens, a retired hotelkeeper from Schleswig-Holstein, was the previous resident.
At the end of 1946, the property was purchased by Marycrest College to help house the growing number of students there. It was eventually torn down to make way for a more modern campus building.
Charles lived at the address that became 1513 West 12th Street (in 1919) until his death on August 1936. Pauline suffered a heart attack in her bedroom here and passed away in October 1941. Both are buried in Fairmount Cemetery.
Markus was a numismatist. He collected rare coins and paper currency for more than 40 years and was considered “a national authority” on the subject. His collection at the time of his death was reportedly valued at $50,000. He died suddenly while attending his 20th consecutive meeting of the American Numismatic Association in Minneapolis, MN. He had served as the organization’s president three times. [1]
In February 1927, Markus organized a coin exhibit in the lobby of the Union Savings Bank in Davenport along with other local collectors E.H. Luett, E.M. White and George Klindt. [2] Starting in 1930, he fitted out the attic of his home as an exhibit space, or what he called his “sky parlor,” for medals, daggers, guns, seashells, photographs, and his favorite pictures, in addition to coins and currency. He had four photographs of the house on display, including the two shown above. The others showed the house decorated for the 4th of July and as a garden contest prizewinner. [3]
Markus was active in local Republican politics, and served as the clerk of the Board of Public Works in Davenport from 1904 to 1905. He was a member of the Woodmen of the World. He ran a news stand and cigar store in the I. & I. interurban station waiting room on Brady Street with his first wife, Johanna Barofsky, until the railway accused the couple of treating its customers “discourteously” and he sold the business. [4]
Another of Charles Markus’ claims to fame was securing the “No. 1” city dog tax check for his fox terrier “Spot” several years in a row, and later, that same number for his Scott County automobile license.
Find out if your Davenport home has any interesting former residents by visiting us here at the Richardson-Sloane Special Collections Center at The Library|Main!
(posted by Katie)
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[1] Daily Times, August 25, 1936.
[2] Davenport Democrat and Leader, February 26, 1927.
[3] Davenport Democrat and Leader, July 21, 1935.
[4] Davenport Democrat and Leader, August 11, 1908.
