The Scott County Unusual Sources Index

Posted on June 11, 2014 by SCblogger

Back in the days of card catalogs, the Scott County Iowa Genealogical Society created a name index to a wide variety of items available in the Special Collections Center.

Dubbed the Scott County Unusual Sources Index (SCUSI for short), it provides names pulled from a range of resources, from census schedules to Atlases, history books to sexton records, newsletters to church records—most of them off the usual research path and none of them particularly easy to search.

This index has proved invaluable to staff and patrons over the years. And now, due to the diligent efforts of volunteer Ellen Korn—who typed up drawers full of index cards—our researchers may now search SCUSI through our Center’s Free Local Database search engine!

Just type in a name and hit the “Search The Database” button”:

Free Local Database Screenshot

If you aren’t sure about middle initials or spellings, try the “Starts With” or “Contains” options to direct or broaden your search.

A list will appear of the number of times that name appears in each of our index databases (SCUSI is at the bottom):

Free Local Database Results Screenshot

SCUSI has 324 listings for “Smith”. Does that seem a little low to you?

Click the number link to pull up the results for a specific database:

SCUSI IMage

The first seven listings of 324 . . .

As you can see, the date,* source, and notes provide good information all by themselves, and the source location will assist you (or assist our staff in assisting you) in finding the source in which the surname appears.

All this, and you can search it from home, too!  Why not give it a try—and discover the kinds of Unusual Sources your ancestors got themselves into?

Thanks, Ellen!
We really appreciate your hard work!

___________________

*Psst:  If you ever see the current date in the third field (see the fourth listing?), don’t worry—that only means that there was no date available, so our system “helped” by filling in the blank. We’re currently trying to convince it to stop and we apologize for any confusion!

 

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In Their Own Words: D-Day

Posted on June 6, 2014 by SCblogger

In 2001, our Special Collections Center was privileged to conduct oral history interviews with several area World War II veterans and others who were personally connected to the War, both home and abroad.

On this 70th anniversary of D-Day, we wanted to share the experiences of Michael Cervantes, an Army corporal, and Iris Hetzler, a second Lieutenant in the Army Nurse Corps.

____

Michael Cervantes was drafted into the Army in February of 1943 at the age of 19 and served in the European Theater until 1945.  He and his unit were fresh from training when they were sent overseas.

“From beginning to end there was always, each soldier reacted differently. There were people that were really anxious to get over there and get started, do whatever needed to be done. There were people who didn’t say a word, did not mention the war or what might happen. And then there were those that were just frightened to death.”

“ . . . when we arrived [in June of 1944] we were just told that we were going to journey on south and eventually end up in England. Of course, when you’re a non-commissioned officer of low rank you really aren’t told very much. But later we learned that we had landed in Scotland. We really didn’t know where we were. And we’re boarded on to a combination of troop transport trucks and trains to get to our next training area, which was in England.

“[We] had already received all of the training that we were going to get as far as what we were going to do with the equipment that we had. The training that we receive there was more the purpose of crossing the English Channel on whatever type of boat we were going to use . . . Even then we really did not know where we were going to land . . . We really didn’t have any new information of how much of France they had invaded and where they were positioned . . .  And all we knew we were going to board a transport ship but we really didn’t know we were going.

“ . . . the invasion was a big secret and even though the invasion happened before I went across the channel, it was still part of the first days of the invasion . . .

“[For] us, war still wasn’t something that we had experienced. We had only seen documentaries of past wars. My first awakening of the war was when I saw the first German tank that had been hit and that was on fire and that there were casualties, German casualties on the tank and around the tank. We tried to escape the fire of the tank and that was when I really knew what it was going to be like.

“Well, we landed and met no resistance because whoever had landed before us had at least made it safe for us to land. So for us, we did not wade through water or not much water because we really did get in close to the shoreline. And we began our advance . . . We were really a half-track unit whose primary responsibility was aircraft. We were an anti-aircraft unit. My particular unit was a half-track with four fifty-caliber machine guns on it. And our responsibility was really to position ourselves as the first outer ring of whatever we were supposed to defend be it a hospital, an ammunition dump, a food supply dump or whatever needed to be protected.

“ . . . We began in France in Normandy and then proceeded through Normandy. We went through central France. We went south of Paris. We went to, we traveled Luxembourg and then through Belgium and then we finally got to the German order. Of course, we had met resistance through a lot of that country or countries that we traveled. But when we finally reached the German border and our first experience was the Sauer River and it was near the town of Saarbrucken and then we met the heaviest resistance that we had in all of the war. We appreciated some of our engineering companies were able to put up pontoon or bailey bridges to cross the river but the Germans had that all planned and they would no sooner have the bridge up and ready to cross and they would blow it apart because they were on the other side just waiting for us to finish the job. So it was very difficult but we finally made it across and into German territory.”

For Mr. Cervantes, the Normandy invasion was only the beginning.  To read or hear more of his story, in his own words, please contact our Special Collections Center.

—

Iris Hetzler—the mother of Ann Hetzler, a librarian with the Davenport Public Library—graduated from St. Luke’s Hospital Training School for nursing in September of 1941. A member of the Red Cross, she joined the Army Nurse Corps in May of 1942. By 1943, she was serving in England as a second lieutenant.

“Our hospital in England was near Swindon. And Swindon was quite a railroad center, I think. It seemed like when the Germans came over to bomb London they kind of came in and made a turn over Swindon and the same was true when our fliers went out over the continent. They kind of came through there somehow. And we could tell the difference from the sounds of the engines which was which. But the night before D-Day…these missions would start maybe about dusk and end by midnight at least. And this time they went on all night. So we knew that the big day must be here.

“ . . . we knew D-Day was coming. We didn’t know when, but we knew it was coming. Everything was pointing to that. Those planes went on all night. And then, oh less than 24 hours we were receiving patients from the beaches, directly from the battlefield.  . . . Most of my patients were ambulatory until D-Day. And then we did begin to get patients. Usually not so badly injured or sick, but they weren’t ambulatory. And that made it difficult because we didn’t have the personnel to take care of them and do the KP that every ward had to do. So that was kind of tight. But each ward was a Quonset hut separate and they were connected by cement. In my area, there was a wide enough cement area for an ambulance to drive down and then walks off of that, so that they could transport patients even by stretcher there . . . Then we turned the unit over then to another hospital and began to go overseas again . . .”

“They took us off the ship just as it was getting dark and we had to walk down a ladder to this LST, I think it was, that would take us into shore. That couldn’t even get all the way in. They let the front end and we’d wade in . . . But then there was supposed to be transportation there to move us . . .  But the transportation wasn’t there. And one male officer was left in charge to take care of things like that. So he said, well, you all stay here and I’ll go see what I can do. I remember Eleanor and I, everybody had been issued these so-called raincoats. I don’t think anybody ever wore them because they were heavy, stiff sort of thing. We took out our raincoats and one of us laid it in the sand. Then we laid down all cuddled up and covered up with the other one because it gets cold at night. Slept for, I don’t know, a couple hours I guess. That was about as comfortable as we’d been for a while.

“Then they roused us up. It was dark, very dark. They hauled us around for two or three hours trying to find where we were supposed to be. I remember going through this one village. I could see it was in rubbles, but I could see a doorway with just a slit of light around it. It kind of bothered me.

“Finally our convoy stopped and the drivers all got out and conferred with each other and our driver says, “I don’t know where we are or where we’re going, but if we keep going that way we’re going to be on the front lines.” He was just really scared to death. And so was everybody else, because we could hear gunfire all the time.”

Over a hundred Nursing Corps personnel, including Mrs. Hetzler, were relocated several times for their own safety and later moved into Paris once it was freed by General Patton and worked in the hospitals there.

To read or hear more of Mrs. Hetzler’s story, in her own words, please contact our Special Collections Center.

 ____

Our Special Collections Center has many Oral Histories available—many of them have also been transcribed. 

Please ask the Special Collections Staff if you would like to learn more about the experiences of local veterans in their own words.

______________________

Sources Used:

“Oral History Interview with Iris Hetzler.” (Interviewer:  Ann Hetzler), OH31-Hetzler, 21June2001

“Oral History Interview with Michael Cervantes.” (Interviewer:  Gaye Foster), OH28-War, 19Jun2001.

 

 

 

 

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Feathered Hats and Juliet Caps: the Glaudel – Petrik Wedding

Posted on May 29, 2014 by SCblogger

Eugenie M. Claudel married Francis Aloysious Petrik in Sacred Heart Cathedral at 8 o’clock on June 30, 1914. According to their Scott County marriage record, Miss Glaudel was 27 years old, and Mr. Petrik was 29.

Petrik-GlaudelAccording to the wedding announcement, published in the Davenport Democrat on June 30, 1914, the attendants were Mr. and Mrs. Kerker—Mrs. Kerker was the bride’s cousin—and the ushers were Camille Lorraine, another cousin, and the groom’s brother, Fred Petrik.

The couple had their wedding photographs taken at the Hostetler Studios, and though these weren’t published in the newspaper, the article does offer a detailed description of the bride and the Matron of Honor that brings the image to further life:

dplx1105-2

“The bride was in a dress of white crepe de chine, made entraine , the deep tunic of Chantilly lace ending in a point over the train of white taffeta silk. The bodice was outlined with beaded chiffon and the long wedding veil of tulle was fashioned into a Juliet cap caught with clusters of flowers. The only ornament of the bride was a lavelierre of gold set with pearls and diamonds, the gift of the groom. She carried a bouquet in shower arrangement of white roses.”

As a lavelierre is a man’s cravat, we’re assuming that the writer of the article misspelled “lavalier“, which is a jeweled pendant that hangs from a chain or pin—if you look closely, you can see Mrs. Petrik’s necklace.

On first reading, there also seems to be an error—one hopes—in the description of the Matron of Honor’s outfit:

dplx1105-1

“Mrs. Kerker was in a gown of pale blue taffeta, the bodice of canary colored chiffon, the whole draped with white silk lace. Her hat was of white lace trimmed with a pale blue plume to match her gown and she carried a large bouquet of Shasta daisies and pink rose buds.”

Special Collections staff agrees, after searching some of our resources, that “canary” here doesn’t automatically mean yellow, as it would today, but instead canary blue, which was an expression in use at the time—and also goes much better with pale blue!

We also agree that Mrs. Kerker’s amazing plumed hat would have suited the bride much better than a Juliet cap, which to our modern sensibilities always tends to look like a shower cap with flowers stuck on, no matter who wore it.

To our relief, the article goes on to mention that the bride’s going away outfit, a “white serge suit with white lace bodice,” also included a “white panama hat trimmed in malline,” which sounds like a much better choice.

The couple went away for a month-long wedding trip, and later resided at 710 East Fifteenth Street, with the bride’s father, Peter Glaudel.

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The Mystery of the Orphans’ Monument

Posted on May 22, 2014 by SCblogger

Photo by Amy D., Richardson-Sloane Special Collections Center

Standing like a sentinel over the headstones in the Orphans’ Section in Oakdale Memorial Gardens Cemetery is a large granite monument, surrounded by mystery.

Starting in November of 1865, Orphans from the Iowa Soldiers’ Orphans Home (later renamed the Annie Wittenmyer Home) were originally buried in Section 6* at Oakdale Cemetery.

In 1883, the Oakdale Cemetery board donated an area near Section 15 for a new resting place for the orphans.** On October 3, 1883, the Davenport Weekly Gazette reported that fifty-three orphans were being removed to their new burial section.

By February 1884, the Davenport Daily Gazette and the Davenport Weekly Gazette were reporting that the Board of Trustees at the Soldiers’ Orphans Home had decided a large monument was needed for the Orphans’ Section at Oakdale.

Fortunately, they had $600 from a bequest to be used as needed and the money was used to purchase the large monument that stands today near the orphans’ graves. The  monument was installed on May 1, 1884.

Inscribed on the face of the monument are the words “To The Memory of Iowa Soldiers Orphans. Erected A.D. 1884. Through the Benevolence of William D. Berryhill of Ringold [sic.]*** Co. Iowa. Their Fathers Fought For The Union.”

And who was William D. Berryhill of Ringgold County, Iowa?

The answer is simple. We don’t know.

Even the facts about Mr. Berryhill supplied in the newspaper accounts don’t match. The Davenport Daily Gazette article from February 13, 1884 indicates the $600 was a donation from a man from Ringgold County who had sold 40 acres of land to be used as the trustees would prefer.

But the Davenport Weekly Gazette on February 27, 1884 lists the monument being paid for by a gift received through the will of a deceased former resident of Ringgold County.

While the February 13th article sounds like the bequest of a living individual, the February 27th request clearly indicates it is part of a deceased individual’s will.

A US General Land Office Records search on Ancestry.com for Ringgold County, Iowa comes up empty for a William D. Berryhill owning land there.

A Census search on Ancestry.com finds a William D. Berryhill lived in Louisa and Johnson Counties in Iowa, but not Ringgold. This Berryhill was born in 1824 Pennsylvania, but did not die until March 1907 in Louisa Co. His obituary indicates he owned land throughout Iowa.

If the February 13th article is correct with a living donor it could be this William D. Berryhill, but if the February 27th story is true, it certainly would not be him.

Sadly, at this time, we have no confirmed information about who Mr. Berryhill was or why he would single out the Orphans Home for a bequest.

If you know the answer to this mystery, please let us know!

In the meantime, and in honor of Memorial Day,  we continue to remember those who fought for our country and their families who fought their own struggles on the home front, as memorialized in the final line on the Orphan’s Monument:

“Their Fathers Fought For the Union”

____________________________

*We would like to thank Deb Williams at Oakdale Memorial Gardens for her help in providing information on the Orphans original section.

**Section 6 was located where the Hill Mausoleum is today. Not far from the Beiderbecke family lot.

***The county is correctly spelled “Ringgold”. As the newspapers of the time also spelled it “Ringgold”, we can only guess a mistake was made by the monument carver.

(post and picture by Amy D.)

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Kids Who Love Books: Children’s Book Week 2014

Posted on May 15, 2014 by SCblogger

May 12-18, 2014 is Children’s Book Week!

Established in 1919, Children’s Book Week is the longest-running national literacy initiative in the country.   As children were among photographer J.B. Hostetler’s favorite subjects and books one of his favorite props, we thought we would commemorate it’s 95th anniversary, by posting some photographs of both of them together.

Bertha & Edward Schmidt, jr. Photograph taken by J. B. Hostetler ca. 1917.

Edward Schmidt, Jr. puzzles out a word for his mother, Bertha.  Photograph taken by J. B. Hostetler ca. 1917.

Charles Curtis Towle, son of Charles B. and Lucy Boney Towle. Photograph taken by J. B. Hostetler ca. 1910.

Charles Curtis Towle and his mother Lucy Boney Towle, laugh over a book (c. 1910).

Catherine Marshall, daughter of W. H. Marshall. Photograph taken by J. B. Hostetler ca. 1910.

A studious-looking Catherine Marshall, daughter of W. H. Marshall, had her photograph taken around 1910.

Elizabeth A. Crossett, daughter of Edward C. and Elizabeth Crossett. Photograph taken by J. B. Hostetler ca. 1910

Elizabeth A. Crossett shows her book to Mr. Hostetler, who took her photo around 1910, while her mother (we assume) looked fondly on.  Miss Crossett is the  daughter of Edward C. and Elizabeth Crossett.

This could be either Katherine or Alice, daughter of Burton F. Peek. Photo taken by J. B. Hostetler ca. 1910.

The little girl in this circa 1910 photograph could be either Katherine or Alice, daughter of Burton F. Peek, but her friend’s name is unknown.

Mrs. Theo Hartz with daughters Hildegarde and Emma. Photo taken by J. B. Hostetler ca. 1905.

Mrs. Theo Hartz with daughters Hildegarde and Emma, only one of whom is paying attention to the story (c. 1905),

Marie Kahl, daughter of Henry C. and Elizabeth Kahl. Photo taken by J. B. Hostetler ca. 1910.

Marie Kahl, daughter of Henry C. and Elizabeth Kahl, enjoys a good book, and the shade from her hair bow (c. 1910)

All of these photos, and others, may be found in the Upper Mississippi Valley Digital Image Archive.

Happy reading!

(posted by Cristina)

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What’s in a Map? : Post Office Department reports of site locations, 1837-1950

Posted on May 7, 2014 by SCblogger

Our maps have proven to be popular resources with our patrons.

Whether you’re looking for visual information on your Davenport home, a glimpse of the city in 1857, your ancestral farm, the land that appears in your great-grandfather’s estate, the lot where your great-aunt is buried in Oakdale cemetery, or even current directions to the closest post office, we have maps that can help you.

Speaking of post offices and maps: did you know that before 1837, the United States Post Office didn’t have an official map maker on staff? Instead, it was dependent on the commercial or amateur maps, which didn’t always contain the information needed to efficiently deliver mail and goods or to determine whether additional post offices should be established.

This was a definite hindrance for a department that was expanding as rapidly as the population of our relatively new country was heading westward—it’s difficult to run a delivery service when you don’t know exactly where you’re going.

As you can imagine, Henry A. Burr, who was hired as the first Post Office Topographer in March of 1837, had quite the job cut out for him. So how did he prepare a comprehensive set of maps that would show locations and transportation routes and geographic obstacles without spending all his time on the road?

He depended on the reports of postmasters.

From 1837 to about 1950, postmasters regularly filled out forms that supplied the information the Post Office topographers needed for their maps—which were eventually sold for public use as well—and also the information necessary to establish new post offices, including population, legal location, and the distance of the petitioning town or settlement from established routes.

The citizens of Donohue, Iowa, in Scott County, petitioned for a Post Office.

In 1872, the 400 (or so) citizens of (not quite a village, yet) Donohue in rural Scott County, Iowa, petitioned for a Post Office.

These reports themselves aren’t maps—though they might include rough sketches like the one below—but they do contain the same wealth of information in written form.

Donohue Post Office1Our Special Collection Center has a small collection of these reports on microfilm that includes Scott County and our nearest neighbors:

#153: Randolph – Saline (Rock Island County) Illinois

#174: Bueno Vista – Cerro Gordo (Cedar County) Iowa

#175: Cherokee—Crawford (Clinton County) Iowa

#183: Monroe—Palo Alto (Muscatine County) Iowa

#185: Sac-Story (Scott County) Iowa

In addition, our library also has several copies of Abandoned towns, villages and post offices of Iowa (Mott, 1973), which can help identify and provide information on place names that have disappeared from older maps.

These lesser-known resources may not be as popular as our maps, but in our opinion, they are certainly worth a look!

 

 

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National History Day: A Learning Experience for All!

Posted on April 29, 2014 by SCblogger

NHD logoEvery year, our Special Collections Center is pleased to assist middle and high school students who are researching projects for National History Day.

These projects require primary resources and a thorough understanding of the annual theme as it relates to historical persons, places, and events—and it provides an opportunity to hone our own librarian skills as well!

While some topics are beyond our scope (our local history collections unfortunately, do not include primary resources for, say, Cleopatra), we can usually offer a few primary resources—including newspapers, photographs, or speeches—through our subscription databases or provide contact information for organizations or facilities whose collections have the necessary resources.

It’s always interesting to watch students learn research skills and respect for our collective history, as they work to create displays, skits, videos, and papers that will be judged good enough to advance to the regional, state, and even national competitions.

And it’s wonderful to see the students’ pride in their work!

We would like to congratulate North Scott High School, which was named National History Day School of the Year for Iowa and applaud the twenty-two North Scott students who participated in the state competition in Des Moines. We also send our best wishes to the fourteen students who will be going on to the National competition in June.

 

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The Flood of 1870: Bridging the gap between memories and measurements

Posted on April 24, 2014 by SCblogger

Last year at this time, we were taking pictures and blogging about the Flood of 2013. This year, so far, finds us nicely dry and warming up after a cold, snowy winter.

But what attracted our attention this week when it was time to choose a subject for this post?

Yes, flooding.

But this time, we’re going back to the year 1870 to explore what flooding was like before flood walls and levee green space helped keep Davenport homes and businesses dry.

The flood of April 1870 was caused most likely by a quicker than normal melting of snow and ice farther up river. There’s no indication in the newspaper accounts of either ice jams or heavy rains being a problem. But by April 20,  both the Davenport Democrat and the Daily Gazette were reporting rising water of the Mississippi River —the only question would be how much damage would be done.

The Democrat reported that the rising water levels were nowhere near the levels of the great floods of 1828 and 1859, which were not measured by feet and inches, but by the memories of old time settlers.

The water continued to rise over the next few days. On the 21st, the ferry dock near the foot of Main Street was surrounded by water and houses on the river bank from Davenport to the East Village had water seeping into their cellars and creeping through their front doors.

By April 22nd, the water was filling all the homes along the Davenport levee.

Businesses were not spared either, as many mills and factories sat along the banks. The mills of Lindsey & Phelps, L.C. Dessaint, J.F. Barnard had water covering their ground floors. Boilers and machinery were destroyed. The Schricker & Mueller lumber yard was underwater, while the M. Donahue machinery shop was a total loss as water entered into sheds where equipment was stored.

The next day fared no better as the river had risen another six inches in 24 hours. A new flood gauge was installed on an Arsenal Bridge pier showing the water was 16 feet above normal river stage. It had reached Front Street (today’s River Drive) and covered the tracks for the horse-drawn trolley up to ten inches in some spots.

The trolley continued— the operator stating that nothing would change until water actually got into the cars.

By the 23rd, newspapers reported that flood waters were at least eight inches above the high water mark for the flood of 1859. This would have been based on memories from those who experienced it, as no official record of the early flood had been kept.

The horse-drawn street cars continued to operate through eighteen inches of water in spots. All of the businesses along Front Street closed due to flooding. A positive note was reported by the Daily Gazette that the river had only risen four more inches in 24 hours.

Both good and bad news came from the Gazette on April 25, 1870. The trolley was running, though through about two feet of water, and the river level seemed to be stable and no longer rising.   The bad news was a reported break in the levee on the Rock Island side. The lower portion of the city of Rock Island had flooded with damage to homes and businesses.

By April 28th, the water had begun to recede, leaving extensive damage on both sides of the river. Measured at 17.0 feet, the April flood of 1870 would remain in the top ten of local floods until 1920, when it was bumped off the list by one-tenth of a foot.

Though long forgotten, the Flood of 1870 and the resulting newspaper accounts did bridge the gap between past floods only measured by landmarks and memories and a new system of gauges and record keeping that began officially in 1874.

One last note: the Daily Gazette reported on April 28th that George L. Davenport had been taken, by boat, on April 26th to inspect his old family home on the Rock Island Arsenal. He found markings made on a building by his father, Colonel George Davenport, to mark the high water line of the great flood of 1828.

It turns out that the flood of 1828 beat the flood of 1870 by fourteen inches.

(posted by Amy D.)

____________________________

Sources used:

(The Daily Gazette, April 22, 1870)

(Daily Gazette, April 23, 1870)

(Daily Gazette, April 25, 1870)

(Davenport Democrat, April 22, 1870)

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National Library Week: 1961 and Now

Posted on April 17, 2014 by SCblogger

The motto for National Library week 1961 was “For a Better-Read, Better-Informed America”. That year, the Davenport Public Library was featured on a half hour TV show, Spectrum, on WHBF.

Both the Davenport Morning Democrat and The Daily Times ran editorials. A full-page 2 color ad appeared on page 11D of the Sunday Times-Democrat for  April 16, 1961:

In a typical month some 10 to 15 thousand men, women and children use the library facilities.

417,000 books, pamphlets, magazines, films and phonograph records were borrowed during the fiscal year which ended

Davenport Public Library - Carnegie building [early 1960's]

Davenport Public Library – Carnegie building [early 1960’s]

March 31st. This is an increase of 30% over the preceding year.2250 8mm films were borrowed in the last 6 months.1700 16mm films were loaned to groups and seen by audiences totaling 45,000.6000 phonograph records were borrowed including foreign language records for home study.

About 2500 young children came to the library story hours, film and children’s theatre programs on Saturday mornings.

20,000 questions of all kinds were asked and answered by the librarians in the reference department.

This year, the Motto for National Library Week is “Lives change @ your library”

Let’s take a look at what else has changed in our library in fifty-three years:

An average of 39,714 people used the library facilities in each of the last 6 months. That includes the Main library and our branches on Fairmount Street and Eastern Avenue.

757,917 total materials checked out in Fiscal Year 2013 (July-June).

210,133 video recordings (DVDs) were borrowed in FY13.

Stone Building, opened October 6, 1968.

Stone Building, opened October 6, 1968.

82,376 audio recordings (music CDs and audiobooks) were borrowed in FY13.

10,020 eBooks, 5,912 eAudiobooks, and 4,394 zines were checked out by our electronically savvy patrons in FY13.

13,482 children, 2,202 teens and 1,411 adults attended Library programs, including storytimes 5 days a week, book discussion groups and other special programs in FY13.

121,205 reference transactions were recorded by reference, information and Special Collections staff in FY 13.

82,509 public computer sessions in FY13.

And, while we’re counting, we also have two more branches!

Fairmount Library, opened 2006

Fairmount Street Library, opened 2006

Eastern Avenue Library, opened 2010

Eastern Avenue Library, opened 2010

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The wedding of Helen Kohn and David Gottlieb

Posted on April 9, 2014 by SCblogger

Helen Josephine Kohn of Davenport married David Sticker Gottlieb of Tiffin, Ohio, on April 7, 1913, at the Outing Club in Davenport.

According to the next day’s Davenport Democrat, the wedding was lovely.

The Outing Club Ballroom was decorated with roses, streamers and ribbons, and the couple was united in the Wicker Parlor underneath a traditional huppah by Rabbi A.L. Weinstein of Temple Emmanuel, to music from the Criterion Orchestra.

Helen Josephine Kohn

“The bride was dressed in a wedding gown of white chameuse, made entraine and draped in white chantilly lace.  Her veil, which had been worn by her mother at her wedding, was fashioned into a Juliet cap, caught with orange blossoms, while her only ornament was a diamond la valliere, the gift of the groom.  The bridal bouquet was in nuptial arrangement of lillies of the valley with true love-knots and bows.”

The paper went on to note that the ring bearer, a very young Philip David Adler,* carried the rings in a white tulip.

Afterwards, the orchestra played at the informal reception as the wedding party and fifty-five of their immediate relatives had a wedding supper in the Outing Club’s dining hall.

After a week-long wedding trip, the newly married couple set up household in Ohio, where the groom ran a manufacturing plant.

_________________________

*Philip D. Adler would later become a journalist and a European news correspondent, before stepping into his father’s shoes as the president of the Iowa-based Lee Enterprises newspaper syndicate, which would eventually purchase the newspaper in which this marriage announcement was published.  We’re almost certain that has nothing to do with the remembered ignominy of the tulip.

___

Sources:

“Bride at Pretty Wedding at Outing Club.” Davenport Democrat, 8April1913, p.8.

Upper Mississippi Valley Digital Image Archive

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