Genealogy Night is Coming!

Posted on March 25, 2013 by SCblogger

Family Tree NutHave you been looking for your Great-great grandfather’s gravesite for so long, you suspect he’s still alive somewhere, snickering at your efforts to find him?

We in the Special Collections Center of the Davenport Public Library understand. And we are once again opening our Center to give you a little extra time to root out those difficult ancestors and tie them to your family tree.

For $10.00, you’ll have the run of the Special Collections Center between 4-9pm on Sunday, April 14th. You’ll be able to use our resources, pick the brains of your fellow genealogists, socialize with those who share your obsessions . . . and we’ll feed you, too!

Registration is limited, so please call us at 326-7902 for more information, or drop off your registration fee at the Special Collections Center at our Main Street location to secure your spot!

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Davenporters of Note: Lottie Boies Clapp

Posted on March 20, 2013 by SCblogger

Women’s History Month provides reminders of the importance of the contributions of women to our present society, culture, and communities.  Many women did this by filling traditional roles, but others took on non-traditional, necessary tasks—and some of them were the first to do so.

One such Davenport woman was Lottie Bois Clapp.

Lottie’s father, Morse Boise, was an embalmer who ran a mortuary at 323 Perry Street in 1857.  When he died in 1890, Margaret Boise, Lottie’s mother, ran the business with the help of the Clapp family, including Seldon B. Clapp, whom Lottie married in 1895.

When Seldon died in 1911, Lottie not only followed her mother’s example and took over the management of the mortuary, she earned her embalmer’s license, becoming the Tri-City area’s first and — at least until her death—only female embalmer.

This was, according to newspaper advertisements of the time, something of a reassurance to ladies who were uncomfortable with the idea of their remains being “seen to” by a gentleman embalmer.

Lottie Clapp knew about networking long before it became a buzzword:  she retained memberships in the Women’s Relief Corps, the Order of the Eastern Star, the Oriental Shrine of Jerusalem, the Scott Zedoka Lodge, the Mississippi Valley Funeral Directors Association, the Business and Professional Women’s Club, and the King’s Daughters.

And she remained in charge of the family business until her death in 1933.  Her body was held in state at the Clapp Mortuary until the funeral at St. John’s Methodist-Episcopal Church.  She was buried in Oakdale Cemetery.

The business was run by her sons, Seldon and Alan Clapp—who had followed in their mother’s footsteps to become embalmers themselves—for only two years.

We suppose it just wasn’t the same without Lottie.

The Daily Times, Monday, 04 December 1911 p.4

_________________________

Sources Used:

Davenport City Directories, 1890-1937.

“Clapp Mortuary”, Davenport Democrat, 8Aug1928, p.6

“Mrs. Lottie Clapp, Only Tri-City Woman Embalmer, Dies; Directed Mortuary.” Davenport Democrat, 1Jan1933, p.8.

 

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If At First You Don’t Know . . .

Posted on March 14, 2013 by SCblogger

Sometimes all it takes is one misprint to throw our sense of history off for over 131 years.

For at least that long, it was believed that George Colt was the first City Marshal of Davenport.  This was reinforced by page 721 of the 1882 History of Scott County, Iowa, which, under the List of Officers From the Date of the First Charter To The Present Time, names Mr. Colt as the 1839 Marshal.

However, if one was to read the two paragraphs right above that list, one would find a brief explanation of the incorporation of Davenport, including a discussion about the persons elected at the first council meeting on April 20, 1839. Interestingly, it states that W. H. Patton was elected Marshal.

So who was the first Marshal of Davenport? Was it George Colt or W. H. Patton?

We found both men living in Davenport during the 1840 census. Our next step was to check the April 20th city council minutes. In original handwriting, W.H.H. Patton is written down as the first Marshal.

It was possible that Mr. Colt replaced Mr. Patton before the next election, which would explain his name in the list . . . but a quick review of meeting notes from April through June 1840 doesn’t show a change of Marshal.

But we were still uncertain.  Sometimes we just want a little more proof.

Then we finally received it.

The Iowa Sun was the local paper of the late 1830s into the early 1840s. It would certainly mention the election . . . but unfortunately, our Center had never been able to secure a microfilm copy.

Recently, though, a reel became available and we jumped at the chance to purchase a copy. And on that specific reel is an April 24, 1839 account of the April 20 town council meeting, during which   W.H. Patton was elected Marshal.

We now have two primary resources stating that W.H. (H.) Patton was elected Marshal of Davenport in 1839. The only source we find stating it was George Colt, a well-to-do Davenporter, was written in 1882, over forty years later.

So why wasn’t this mistake noted and corrected sooner?

We all admit looking at a broken down list is quicker than reading a short account of Davenport’s incorporation and once the discrepancy was noticed, we had no way of confirming the information—for many years the original council book was difficult to read and The Sun was not part of our collections.

But now the original council books are on microfilm along with The Sun are easily accessible in our Special Collections department.

And now we can correct our timeline and confirm the name of the first elected Marshal of Davenport : Mr. W. H. Patton.

(Posted by Amy D).

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The Rise and Fall of the Hickey Brothers

Posted on March 7, 2013 by SCblogger

In 1901, William Hickey and his kid brother Dennis pooled their savings and opened a little cigar store at 123 East Third Street.

It did pretty well.

So well, in fact, that in five years, they opened a second store at 424 Brady Street.  And in ten, they were operating a beautiful stand at the Kimball Hotel and a fourth location at the corner of Third and Brady.

And then the brothers rolled up their sleeves and got to work.

Hickey No 8In 1917, Hickey Store No. 8 was built on Second and Brady, and it was a beauty.  There were lunch counters and a commissary in the basement, neon lights for the evening shoppers—even air conditioning, the first building in Davenport to offer such comfort.  Bill Hickey took personal interest in the running of No. 8, promising superlative customer service and guaranteeing that if you weren’t thanked for your business, your purchase was on the house.

Hickey Brothers soon expanded outside of the Quad-Cities, opening stores in fine hotels in Chicago and New York, and eventually boasted at least one store in sixty-eight cities and nineteen states.  In 1943, Store No. 66 opened in the Hotel Nacional de Cuba in Havana.

An Iowa cigar store in Cuba—who would have guessed it?

Employees in the eventual 150-store company were expected to do a full, hard day’s work for their wages, but there appeared to be very little turnover—some workers started right out of high school and stayed with the company for decades out of loyalty.

Customers were loyal, too.  The merchandise was varied and of the best quality for the discerning gentleman: cigars, pipes, tobaccos, candies, electric shavers, stationery, cards, and newspapers from around the country.

William HickeyBill Hickey was director of the Retail Tobacco Dealers of America for over a decade and was elected president  in 1949.  By Hickey Brother’s fiftieth anniversary, it was the third largest retail cigar company and had a big percentage of the wholesale tobacco business in the Midwest.

However, times were changing, as they do, and the pre-World War business practices that had sent Hickey Brothers flying high—expansion, buying and employment policies, etc.—were eventually their downfall.

William Hickey invested more than $350,000 of his own money in order to keep the company running, but was forced to declare bankruptcy.  The company announced its closing on March 10, 1957, and closed its last store nine days later, to the shock of Davenport customers, for whom the stores had been a backdrop and mainstay almost all of their lives.

________________________

Sources used:

Farber, Glyn.  Hickey Brothers Cigar Store Tokens. [Lake Mary, Fla.: Token and Medal Society], 1992.

Svendsen, Marlys.  Davenport: A Pictorial History. [SN, sl: G. Bradley Publishing Co.], 1985.

Wundram, Bill.  A Time We Remember. [Davenport, Iowa: Quad-City Times], 1999.

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Second Sunday is Coming Up!

Posted on March 7, 2013 by SCblogger

Our Special Collections Center will be open this Sunday (March 10th) from 1-4 pm for genealogy and local history research only—the rest of the Main library will not be open.

Walk in through the Fourth Street door (behind the big metal book drop) between 1 and 1:30, or call our Center at 563-326-7902 and a staff member will run up to let you in.

As every genealogist and historian knows, three hours of extra research time is not to be missed, so we hope to see you there!

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The Colored School Controversy

Posted on February 27, 2013 by SCblogger

In August of 1857, Iowans ratified their State Constitution, including Article IX, which established a popularly elected state board of education authorized to provide “for the education of all the youths of the State, through a system of common schools” which “shall be organized and kept in each school district at least three months in each year.”

On March 12 of the following year, the seventh General Assembly backtracked a little bit, creating a law for the “Public Instruction of the State of Iowa.”  District school boards were required to “provide for the education of the colored youth, in separate schools, except in cases where by unanimous consent of the persons sending [students] to the school in the sub-district, [blacks] may be permitted to attend with the white youth.”

Two months later, Davenport formed its first Board of Education.  Newly appointed County Superintendent A. S. Kissell allowed several black children to attend School No. 3, at the southeast corner of Sixth and Warren streets.

It took the editors of the Daily Morning News a month to notice—but notice they did.  And on June 26, 1858, they stated their opinion on the matter of “Our Public School and the Education of Negro Children there”:

“It has long been a notorious fact in this community that in the large public school at the lower end of Davenport under the control and superintendence of Mr. A. S. Kissell, negro and white children are being educated together, sit in the same classrooms together , and under the guidance of the gentleman above named intermingle freely” […] “that can be very easily stopped by the parent of any child in the school we refer to[…]Under the School law if the parent of any child at such public school objects, it cannot be done. “

A petition, signed by thirty-eight Davenport citizens, was submitted to the Board of Education on September 15.

 “[…] there are some four or five Negroes taught at the stone school house in district No. 2. If they are to be continued in the school as stated above, we will be compelled to take our children from the school and protest against the payment of the school taxed for the support of schools mixed with Negroes and white children.”

Three days later, the Board caved and, in accordance with the School Law of the State of Iowa, all the black students were dismissed from the Davenport school system.

Today, this would be inexcusable—but even at the time, some citizens were outraged.  A letter to the editors of the Davenport Gazette, published September 25, reads as follows:

 “[…]But in what consists the equity of this plea? In the standard color of the times? Surely not, for our people have not yet determined what the standard shade of complexion is. Until this shall be done it can be no virtue to be white and no crime to be black. We beg leave then to suggest to our worthy petitioners that they first call earnestly upon the Board of Education to determine what the precise shade of complexion must be, to entitle to education in District schools, and then grade and retain, in school according to their fixed standard; and one thing more, that they only tax such parents for the support of District schools whose children can be admitted, according to this arrangement.

— A Taxpayer”

This started off a city-wide debate and an editorial war between the Gazette and the Daily Morning News until, November 8, 1858, when the Board decided to rent a “colored school room” in the First Baptist Church.

Things settled down until the Board meeting on April 16, 1859, when it was reported that four children were enrolled at the school room, but only two regularly attended.  It wasn’t particularly cost effective to have a separate schoolroom for two students, so it was recommended that the school be closed and the children attend the regular schools.

Cue up the debate again—and this time, it became ugly.  In fact, the issue of several old laws about the treatment of black Iowans, and the circumstances under which they should be allowed in Iowa, were mentioned by both sides.

Finally, in November 25 of that year, the Board passed another resolution, “That the President [of the Board of Education] is hereby authorized to open a School for Coloured Children in the Brick School House, District No. 3, and employ a Teacher at the rate of Twenty dollars per month, teaching five hours per day for the term of three months.”

In December, it was reported that  Mrs. M. A. Fearing had been hired as Teacher at the rate of $20 per month and that the School had been in session three weeks with a daily attendance of from one to four pupils.

But on February 3, 1860, the president reported that “agreeably to the authority given him at the last meeting he had closed the Coloured School at the end of [January] for want of pupils.”

We would like to think that the parents of any potential pupils distanced themselves from the School not from disinterest, as was assumed by a few Davenport citizens, but in concern for their children and in rejection of the whole business.

We would also like to offer reassurance that things did, eventually, improve, for the African-American students of Davenport.

Then again, it took a Civil War to get things rolling again . . .

________________________________________

Sources:

The colored school controversy in Davenport, Iowa: News articles and Minutes of City Board of Education Meetings, 1858-1860 . Compiled by Craig Klein, February 2006

“A Stony Road: Black Education in Iowa, 1838-1860” by Arnie Cooper in Annals of Iowa Vol. 48 No. ¾, Winter/Spring 1986

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Gordon Van Who?

Posted on February 14, 2013 by SCblogger

Gordon-Van TineIf you’re new to the Quad-Cities, you might hear someone point to a specific house, maybe a nice Craftsman-like bungalow down East Locust Street or a lovely Tudor in McClellan Heights, and say, “That’s a Gordon Van-Tine home.”

And you might wonder if Mr. Van Tine was an architect or a builder—or someone who moved around a lot, because there seem to be several of his homes in the area and well-beyond.

But Gordon-Van Tine isn’t a who—it’s a what.  And what it was, was one of the first manufacturers of “kit houses” (called pre-fab these days)  in the United States, beating Sears Roebuck to the punch by six  years.*

We aren’t talking fiberboard-and-woodglue shacks, here, either—each timber was solid and every joint milled with precision.  Gordon-Van Tine buildings were meant to last.

It’s too bad the company didn’t.

In 1906, the U.N. Roberts Company, which had been in the wholesale building materials business for over forty years at that point, formed a subsidiary company to handle its retail business, and named it Gordon-Van Tine—Gordon was the middle name of Horace Roberts, the company president, and Van Tine was supposedly the middle name of another employee, though no one knows for sure.

What we do know for sure is that once the new company started selling entire houses (some assembly required) in 1910, business boomed.

People all over the Midwest loved shopping for homes in the Van-Tine catalogs, choosing porches and cabinetry and trimmings.  At first, the customers had to put them together themselves, like a 3D jigsaw, or hire their own carpenter to do it, but soon Gordon-Van Tine would offer an assembly service as well, at least within reasonable driving distance of its home office, on Federal Street.

By the 1940s, the company boasted several plants and 350 employees, and seemed primed to take advantage of the post-War housing boom.

And then, just like that, Gordon-Van Tine went out of business.

The owners of U.N. Roberts wanted to retire, but their children didn’t want the business.  So they sold it for $1.75 million  in December of 1946 to a Cincinnati outfit, who assured them that they would keep everything—including Gordon-Van Tine—going strong.

But by April of the next year, they started laying off the Van Tine workers .  In July of 1957, the company was effectively shut down and the Cincinnati outfit began breaking down the assets and selling the pieces—an ironic end for a business that prided itself on doing the exact opposite.

___

Luckily for historians, Gordon-Van Tine catalogs still exist—in fact, our Special Collections Center has several, from 1918 to the 1940s.  So if you’re curious about the company or the houses—or suspect that your home might be a Gordon-Van Tine—come on in and have a look!

____________

*Sears may have offered blueprints and building materials first, but not pre-cut lumber.  All you needed for a Van Tine house were nails and labor—and it wasn’t long before they provided both.

____________________________________________

Sources:

Gaul, Alma.  “Gordon- Van Tine: Q-C ready-cut homes were built with style, durability.”  Quad-City Times, 12Jan1997, p.H1 and H3.

Gaul, Alma.  “Gordon-Van Tine follow up: ex-employees, their families fill in the blanks.”  Quad-City Times, 16Jul1997, p.H1 and H3.

Svendsen, Marlys.  Davenport: A pictorial history

Wolicki, Dale Patrick. Gordon-Van Tine Company . [Bay City, Mich. : D. Wolicki], 2002.

 

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Second Sunday is Coming Up!

Posted on February 6, 2013 by SCblogger

Our Special Collections Center will be open this Sunday (February 10th) from 1-4 pm for genealogy and local history research only—the rest of the Main library will not be open.

Walk in through the Fourth Street door (behind the big metal book drop) between 1 and 1:30, or call our Center at 563-326-7902 and a staff member will run up to let you in.

As every genealogist and historian knows, three hours of extra research time is not to be missed, so we hope to see you there!

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One-Way Question, Multi-Directional Answer

Posted on February 5, 2013 by SCblogger

Weren’t Third  and Fourth streets in Davenport always one-way streets? And if not, when did they change from two-way to one-way traffic?

These were the questions being asked for the last couple of weeks, ever since the Davenport City Council announced plans to turn 3rd and 4th back to two-way traffic with roundabouts instead of traffic lights.

The answer to the first question was no—many people remembered the days of two-way traffic on those streets.  But no one really remembered when that changed—and everyone was asking the library.

But the answer was not as easy to find as one would expect.

We were able to locate in the City Council minutes an ordinance that was passed on June 19, 1935, declaring that Third and Fourth were to be made one-ways,  but it was not enacted right away. We found many references to Brady and Harrison being turned into one ways by May of 1984 , but none of our indexes or clipping files said anything about 3rd and 4th streets.

One of our regular patrons remembers two-way traffic in 1952, before he and his wife moved out of the city.

Several of our long-time residents remembered going on the one-ways during the 1960’s.

FleckAnd one of our volunteers found an image in Marlys Svendsen’s book Davenport: A Pictorial History, that showed golfer Jack Fleck being paraded through downtown Davenport after his U.S. Open win in 1955. The photo shows the intersection of 3rd and Brady with a “One Way” sign on the traffic light post.

So we had narrowed the date to between 1952 and 1955.

Another volunteer looked through the City Council minutes for 1954 and found that an ordinance to have the streets changed was amended on February 17, 1954. She checked the newspapers for that week, to see if there were any articles that would give more details as to the plans that were presented. It said that one-way traffic was expected to start in April of that year.

Reading ahead, she hit the jackpot: an article urging caution once the one-ways opened on  the 20th of April, 1954. Traffic would move westbound on 4th Street and eastbound on 3rd Street from River Street to Warren Street. Fire and emergency vehicles were allowed to go either way down the one way streets.

In order to help motorists familiarize themselves with the new system, Davenport Legionnaires were stationed at various spots along the one-way routes. Fortunately, no Legionnaires were harmed during that first day!

They even had the chance to test out the decision that fire and emergency vehicles could go the WRONG way. Wouldn’t you know, Mr. Henry Weber decided to use a blowtorch to mend a pipe in his bathroom on the 20th, starting a fire. The paper reports that motorists pulled over upon hearing the sirens and seeing the flasher lights, so there was little delay.

We certainly hope the transition back is as safe and smooth!

__________________________________

Sources:

“Delay Action On One-Way Streets Here”. Morning Democrat, 04 February 1954.

“Caution Urged by Police Chief When One-Way Streets Open” Morning Democrat, 14 April 1954,  p. 15

“One-Way Traffic on 2 Streets Today”. Morning Democrat. 20 April 1954 p. 15

“New One-Way Traffic Flows Smoothly”. Morning Democrat. 21 April 1954 p. 1

Svendsen, Marlys. Davenport: A Pictorial History. 1985. p. 16

Ordinance No. 3601, June 19, 1935 Davenport City Council Minutes 1935 p. 1784

Ordinance No. 45 of the 1943 Municipal Code of the City of Davenport, Iowa amended at Davenport City Council meeting February 17, 1954 (1954 City Council book).

(Posted by Cristina)

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The Way to the Hitching Post: A winter etiquette lesson

Posted on January 29, 2013 by SCblogger

For those of us who feel that modern society has forgotten common courtesy, it appears that people felt the same way over a hundred years ago:

From the Davenport Democrat, February 10, 1885:

The Way to the Hitching Post

“People who are kind and generous enough to move the snow from their sidewalks, would greatly oblige their friends, their grocer, and their physician, if they would do a little more; by removing the snow from around their hitching posts, so that a horse can be driven up to a post and tied, without having to wade waist-deep in the snow. Not one in a hundred who pretends to clean his sidewalk does this, but piles the snow along the edge of the walk, and there leaves it in a continuous pile from three to five feet deep, and expects whoever calls, from necessity or otherwise, to break their own road through this formidable barrior. Common sense should teach any one the necessity of little more care in this direction. One half of the hitching posts, as well as sidewalks, are entirely inaccessible from the street on account of the banks of snow thus made.”

It almost makes us wish we had hitching posts simply so we could maintain them properly!  We’ll just have to make do with our bike racks . . .

But if you still have a hitching post in use, please remove the snow from around it. It truly is a kindness (and please send us a photo too)!

(posted by Amy D.)

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