Here in Special Collections, we Give a Hoot for History!
Saturday, April 22, 2023, is Earth Day. In observance of the event here are some photographs and clippings representing our commitment to preserving Davenport’s history of caring for Mother Earth.
Special Collections serves as the Archives for the City of Davenport. In the 1980s the city began a public-private coordinated effort to reduce litter called Operation Clean Davenport.
Times-Democrat July 25, 1980
The program was an integral part of reducing litter by 70% by 1992 according to an article in the QCT from February 17, 1992. Lack of funding brought the program to a close at about that same time, but here are some images showing Davenport’s citizens in action.
Davenport Public Library got involved as well, inviting Woodsy the Owl to read with some of our younger patrons.
Accession #2004-29 Operation Clean Davenport
Remember Woodsy’s catchphrase??
Speaking of birds, we are pleased to have the collection of Dr. Herbert J. Hodges, an amateur naturalist and professor at Saint Ambrose University. He challenged a group of students on the first Earth Day, April 22, 1970, to join him at Credit Island for a chance to “see a natural ecological setting at work”.
One wonders if the fifteen students who walked the Island that day took his words to heart? Hodges maintained his love of nature and Credit Island until his death in 2009. We proudly preserve his papers in Accession 2014-03 containing over 1000 color photographic slides, research, records, observations, statistics, and correspondence regarding the local bird population in the Scott County, Iowa, and Rock Island County, Illinois greater Tri/Quad City area.
Over the years, many projects have been undertaken for Earth Day. On the very first Earth Day, some Davenport students chose to create a work of art from their clean-up project as shown in this newspaper clipping.
Times-Democrat April 22, 1970
We leave you with this catchy illustration from another item from the City Archives created by Philip Tunnicliff for the Parks department in 1941.
“Therapeutic Chart for Street Trees,” by Philip Hunter Tunnicliff.
We anticipate you will find a way to “Toot Your Hooter” while cleaning up your community, planting a tree, raising awareness, visiting a wildlife sanctuary, or creating a work of art as you observe Earth Day 2023.
First, a brief history of the company. In 1875, Hugo Schmidt, Sr. along with Charles Reupke and Bernhard Schwarting opened the Davenport Steam Bakery which was later known as Reupke, Schmidt & Co. It was one of the first cracker and macaroni companies in the middle west.
After Hugo’s untimely death in July 1878, his oldest son Oswald (aged 16 years) joined the business as an accountant. Oswald soon bought out his father’s partners and joined with his cousin, Paulo Roddewig, in 1887 as the Roddewig-Schmidt Cracker Company. In the early 1890s, the cousins sold the cracker and cookies portion of the business and focused on candy. They became the Roddewig-Schmidt Candy Company located at 4th and Iowa Streets in Davenport.
In 1904, Oswald and Paulo purchased the Crescent Macaroni Company from the Loos Brothers of Chicago, IL along with their factory in Davenport. The macaroni and candy sections thrived in the early 1900s until a fire destroyed the Macaroni factory in 1915. A new fire-safe factory was built on the site of the old one at 427 Iowa Street. The Schmidt family sold the company in the late 1960s. The Crescent Macaroni and Cracker Company closed in 1991 and the building was turned into loft apartments in the early 2000s.
We are endlessly amazed at the items in this collection. Here are a few of the items recently donated:
A program from the 1927 Sales Conference held in Davenport.
1927 Sales conference program – Front cover. The company had a motto and slogan.
1927 Sales conference program – Inside pages. We wonder if John Lumsden actually spoke for just one hour.
1927 Sales conference program – Back cover.
Advertisements and brochures of items produced by the company.
A flattened box of Crescent Mac’ro Nets pasta along with two recipe books dating from the early 1900s. What better way to advertise than to give out recipe books in the stores or by mail for housewives looking for new menu ideas.
Two recipe books that would be given away in a store or could be mailed upon request. The booklet on the right dates to about 1914.
Just in case you want to try some new recipes; we are including four recipes for your enjoyment.
In this donation were several identical metal boxes. The majority of the boxes contained paperwork relating to factory business. This one held an unusual surprise.
Written over the original ink writing (which stated canceled checks) was a new darker ink that stated Old Pkgs. That is what it contained. Two old Crescent Macaroni and Cracker boxes.
One contained elbow macaroni. Most likely dating to the early 1900s.
The Elbow Macaroni box printed for the P.H. Butler Company who distributed the product.
The colorful end of the box. At times, the company printed the name of the pasta as L-Bow macaroni.
Elbow macaroni length. c. late 1910s.
The second box is unusual in that it is labeled as Hard Bread. We knew hard bread was a newer name for hard tack that soldiers carried during the Civil War. While it still existed in the early 1900s, it was not listed as a product commonly sold by the Crescent Macaroni and Cracker Company.
Crescent Macaroni and Cracker Company box. The box was filled with Hard Tack. A sample appears in the picture. c. 1918.
A better view of the iconic Crescent Macaroni and Cracker Company symbol along with showing the thickness of the Hard Bread. c. 1918.
Hard Bread, or Hard Tack, measurement. c. 1918.
The mystery of the Hard Bread may have been solved when we came across a letter in the donation dated October 4, 1918, to Crescent Macaroni and Cracker Company salesmen. The letter is a patriotic stance on supporting the fight for the war effort even when it pinches at home. We learned the Crescent Macaroni and Cracker Company had received a government contract to supply the U.S. troops with Hard Bread. Round-the-clock production of Hard Bread meant fewer regular items would be produced due to shortage of supplies and the need for factory equipment to be dedicated to the production of Hard Bread. In the end, for the salesmen, it meant fewer sales on fewer items.
October 4, 1918 letter from Crescent Macaroni and Cracker Company to its salesmen. Most likely to keep support of the war strong and explain why fewer products would be produced.
We hope you enjoyed a peek into this wonderful collection. We extend our deepest thanks to the Schmidt family’s descendants for their donation.
April is National Poetry Month, so we searched our archival collections for local poetry and/or poets to share with all of you. We came across a donation that we received 30 years ago, but we haven’t done extensive archival processing yet. The description stated it contained “poetry newsletters and publications, some original and some photocopies.”
We looked in one of the boxes and found a 3-ring binder with the cartoon character Ziggy on the cover dated 1981. Inside were hand-written notes by Davenport poet Nel Modglin. She researched modern poetry forms and developed a few new ones herself!
Here are some examples:
iowetta a poem of three stanzas. Each stanza is made of two couplets in iambic tetrameter and one line in iambic pentameter. The three pentameter lines all have the same rhyme. The subject is generally irony, fantansy, or adventure. Originated by Nel Modglin.
Modglin, Nel. The Rhymer, and Other Helps for Poets. Philadelphia, PA: Dorrance, 1977.
lavelle a poem made of couplets and tercets, in the following order: couplet, tercet, tercet, tercet, couplet, couplet. The first and last couplets have identical rhymes. This poem is written in iambic tetrameter lines; it was originated by Nel Modglin.
Modglin, Nel. The Rhymer, and Other Helps for Poets. Philadelphia, PA: Dorrance, 1977.
sonnet, Illini This form varies in syllable count, having 8, 10, 10, 8/8, 10, 10, 8/8, 10, 10, 8/10, 10 per line. The rhyme scheme is ABCA/BCDC/CDEC/EE. Nel Modglin invented this form.
Modglin, Nel. The Rhymer, and Other Helps for Poets. Philadelphia, PA: Dorrance, 1977.
mānardina a poem of twelve iambic lines, having 4, 8, 8, 8, 8, 4/4, 8, 8, 8, 8, 4 syllables. First and last lines must rhyme. The third, fourth, ninth and tenth lines must also rhyme, but not with the first and last lines. This form was originated by Nel Modglin.
Modglin, Nel. The Rhymer, and Other Helps for Poets. Philadelphia, PA: Dorrance, 1977.
Nell Louise Modglin was born August 11, 1904, in Brookport, IL. She was the 8th of 13 children born to Joseph and Lucinda (Simmons) Modglin. She married Sheridan Maynard on September 3, 1935, in Rock Island, IL. She moved to Ypsilanti, MI after her husband died in 1959.
She worked as a country school teacher in southern Illinois, a hydrotherapist at a Chicago hospital, a gift shop owner, and a secretary at the Univeristy of Michigan at Ann Arbor. She retired in 1965 and moved to Davenport, Iowa in 1966.
She was editor of the Brookport Independent weekly newspaper; associate editor of the employee newspaper of Construction House of Maxin in Guam; worked in the circulation department of the American Artisan Magazine; was a columnist for the Missouri Messenger; was a correspondent for the Paducah (KY) Sun-Democrat, the St. Louis Globe-Democrat, and Church of Christ periodicals.
Nel was listed in the International Who’s Who in Poetry andthe Dictionary of Poetry International Biography. She was a member of several poetry societies including The American Academy of Poets, Poets Round Table, Ind., Kentucky State Poetry Society, and the New Jersey Poetry Society
Her poems were published in many anthologies, magazines, and newspapers, including the Quad-City Times’ Poet’s Podium (1970-1978), Modern American Sonnet (1954 – 1957), Fine Arts Discovery (1968 – 1973), Lyrical Iowa (1970 – 1972), Iowa Poetry Day Association (1972 – 1982), Pegasus (1972 – 1983), World Poetry Society Intercontinental (1972 – 1983), Prairie Poet (1973), Encore (1974 – 1981), Jean’s Journal (1974 – 1983), North American Mentor Magazine (1974), Fellowship in Prayer (1975), Writers’ Newsletter (1981 – 1984), Christian Writers League of America (1981), Our Greatest Poems of the Twentieth Century (1982), Parnassus Magazine for Writers of Poetry and Prose (1982), Rhyme Time (1983), The White Rock Review (1983), and Silver Wings (1984).
We are always delighted when we receive a research request from abroad, but our correspondence over the past two months with Robyn Collins of Brisbane, Australia has revealed an especially fascinating story about the fortunes of the Martin family on three different continents.
Meeting of the descendants of Patrick Kilmartin in Brisbane, Australia, March 5, 2023. Robyn Collins is in the first row on the right; Natalie Prior is in the first row on the left (both standing).
Hoping to verify information that had been passed down through the generations, Robyn and her cousin Natalie Nussey Prior began to examine the life of their Irish ancestor Patrick (Kil)martin. They found that at age 14, he, his parents, and siblings were victims of the infamous March 1846 Gerrard Estate evictions at Ballinlass, County Galway, as the ravages of the Great Famine descended upon the people of Ireland.
Account from the Roscommon Journal as reprinted in the Freeman’s Journal (Dublin, Ireland) on 17 Mar 1846.
Laurence Kilmartin’s family included his wife Kate and children Patrick, Luke, Bridget, Mary, Catherine and Margaret (Maggie). List is from the article “Landlordism in Ireland: Case of the Gerrard Tenantry,” Freeman’s Journal (Dublin, Ireland), 27 March 1846.
The cousins discovered that although Patrick made his way to Australia (perhaps pressured to sign an agreement to work for the Queensland Railroad while under the influence at a pub in County Durham, England), his brother Luke and sisters Mary, Catherine, and Margaret landed in…Scott County, Iowa.
Thanks to census, court, military, and other records found in genealogy databases such as FamilySearch and Ancestry, [1] plus articles from historical newspaper archives online, Robyn and Natalie were able to track Luke Martin’s journey to Iowa by way of England, New York City, and Monmouth County, New Jersey. The 1860 US Census for Davenport suggests he and his wife Ann arrived about 1857, as their three-year-old son Laurence is listed as having been born in Iowa.
1860 US Federal Census for Davenport, Scott County, Iowa
A set of materials unique to the RSSC Center’s collection, the sacramental records of St. Anthony’s Catholic Church [2], allowed us to supplement Robyn and Natalie’s excellent research on the Martins’ time in Davenport.
The record of Laurence Martin’s baptism at St. Anthony’s, naming his parents as Luke and Ann, verifies that the family was here as early as September of 1857.
Luke and Ann’s third child, Mary Martin, was baptized on May 13, 1861. (Sadly, the St. Anthony’s ledgers also recorded her death, just two weeks later.)
Both of these baptism records confirm that two of Luke’s sisters were also in Davenport: Mary Martin was named as Laurence’s godmother and Margaret Martin as Mary’s.
Mary Martin married Patrick Manion (aka Mannion, Manning, Magnan) in September 1861 at St. Anthony’s Church. The couple’s daughter, Mary Ann, was baptized there in July 1862. None other than Luke Martin was named as the child’s godfather. And Margaret Martin was again named godmother to one of her siblings’ children at the February 1864 baptism of Henry Laurence, Mary and Patrick’s second child.
The St. Anthony’s marriage records also reveal more about the Martin family. In the record of Catherine Martin’s marriage to Martin Manion in June 1864 (at St. Anthony’s, of course), we learn that the groom’s parents, Thomas and Mary Manion of County Mayo, Ireland were the same as those named in the record of Mary Martin and Patrick Manion’ marriage. Two Manion brothers married two Martin sisters!
Furthermore, the connection between the Martins and the Manions may have predated either sister’s marriages: The record of Martin Manion’s first marriage, to Catherine Dowd in May 1860, listed his future wife Catherine Martin as a witness!
It is no surprise that the godparents of Catherine and Martin Manion’s first child, Laurence, born in March 1865, were Luke and Ann Martin.
The last Martin child baptized at St. Anthony’s was Margaret, daughter of Luke and Ann, in June 1868. By the time the 1870 US Federal Census was taken, all 4 Martins — Luke, Mary, Catherine, and Margaret (m. James McGuire in June 1865) — had moved their families to Fulton Township in Muscatine County.
The records from St. Anthony’s Catholic Church help detail the Martins’ lives in Davenport during the 1860s and establish ties with the Manion family. They may also tell us about wider networks of Irish immigrant families in the area. For example, Thomas Kirk, named godfather of Luke and Ann’s son Laurence along with Mary Martin, was also a witness to Catherine Martin’s June 1864 marriage at St. Anthony’s. What was the nature of this connection? Like the Martins, Kirk was from County Galway [3], as was Martin Manion’s first wife, Catherine Dowd. Could there even be other families evicted from the Gerrard Estate who settled in this part of Iowa? With all of the godparents and marriage witnesses named in the St. Anthony’s records, there are many more possible community connections to explore!
Our thanks to Robyn Collins and Natalie Prior for sharing the Martin family’s story with us and allowing us to highlight the value of the St. Anthony’s Catholic Church records!
Notes
[1] AncestryLibrary and Affiliate status access to FamilySearch is available at all three Davenport Public Library locations.
[2] These are photocopies of the original record books kept by the Reverend J. A. M. Pelamourges at St. Anthony’s Catholic Church, Davenport, IA (SC 282.77769).
[3] So says the grave marker of Thomas Kirk (1827-1868) in Mount Calvary (St. Marguerite’s) Catholic Cemetery, Davenport, IA.
SPRING! The season officially arrived this week on Monday, March 20th, but the dreary days have Special Collections Staff dreaming of ALL THINGS SPRING. Forgive us for getting carried away, but just look at all the reminders of this glorious season we have right here in our collections!!!
There is SPRING STREET which was roughly nine blocks long in 1890 according to the roster of residents listed in the Davenport city directory for that year.
1890 Davenport City Directory
The Richardson family (at 120 and 124 SPRING STREET) donated a bit of land to the city in January 1927 meant to develop into a playground over time. This was called INDIAN SPRINGS.
As long as we are thinking about water, there is usually a SPRING THAW which brings about those unfortunate SPRING FLOODS such as the big one in 1965.
2015-07: Davenport and the Flood of 1965. Accessible here: https://archives.davenportlibrary.com/repositories/4/resources/142
2015-07: Davenport and the Flood of 1965. Accessible here: https://archives.davenportlibrary.com/repositories/4/resources/142
If you recall that flood, you are no SPRING CHICKEN!
The Daily Times (Davenport, IA) Feb. 11, 1898.
Davenport Democrat and Leader (Davenport, IA), Jun. 7, 1921.
The Daily Times (Davenport, IA) Jul. 15, 1927.
After the dark days of Winter, it is fun to gather with friends and neighbors again. The Ladies’ Royal Bowling league enjoyed a SPRING FROLIC in 1930. According to the Davenport Democrat, thirty ladies participated in the league on teams from Iowa Laundry, Scharff’s, Halligan’s Chocolates, Davenport Cleaners, Franc’s Furniture, and August Richter Furrier. B. Abbott had the highest average of 155.45 bowling 69 games!
A SPRING PICNIC would also be fun on a sunny day. Perhaps an outing to LINWOOD SPRINGS, about seven miles west on Highway 61, would be enjoyable. You could visit the healthful Sulphur springs or camp along the Mississippi River. As early as 1877 it was a popular spot. Just hop on the steamboat and enjoy the ride!
Davenport Democrat (Davenport, IA), Jul. 3, 1877.
The Daily Times (Davenport, IA), Jul. 28, 1928.
We wouldn’t be doing our due diligence unless we explored the surname SPRING! In our archives, we find a passenger list indicating Ferdinand and Cecilia SPRING arrived in New York from Germany in 1854.
New York Passenger List from 1854.
The Ferdinand SPRING family settled in Davenport Township and started their family as you can see in the 1856 Iowa State Census. Ferdinand’s occupation was Butcher, and the 1866 Davenport city directory has Mr. Spring listed among a number of others in the community.
1856 Iowa State Census
1866 Davenport City Directory
They continued to grow their family, adding at least two more children. This 1871 newspaper clipping marks an unfortunate turn of events for the young family. Their corner shop and residence were lost in a fire.
The Davenport Democrat (Davenport, IA), Dec. 20, 1871.
Ferdinand died in 1880 and Cecelia in 1882. Their son Edward F. survived life’s ups and downs and stayed in Davenport, making it his home as documented in the 1890 Davenport city directory. Edward’s 1952 obituary gives homage to his pioneering parents. [Their date of arrival is slightly off.]
The Daily Times (Davenport, IA) Jan. 21, 1952.
1890 Davenport City Directory
Nearly a century passed within these two generations of the SPRINGs. Were they as anxious as we were to have SPRING’s bright colors enliven the days? Did they rejoice with the sighting of flocks of birds returning or early bloomers emerging from Mother Earth? We can only imagine they were. Enjoy these signs of SPRING from some of our photograph collections!
In March, we see the glimmers of spring with new plant growth and holidays that allow us to reflect on the past as well as the future. Today is one such holiday that is as intertwined with American culture as the Fourth of July. St. Patrick’s Day is a day that celebrates Celtic culture, specifically Irish culture.
With this in mind, we began researching the Irish who made Davenport their home starting in the 1840s. There were many pockets of Irish settlement in Davenport from the west to the east ends. “The Patch”, one such Irish neighborhood was established in the mid to late 1800s by those who were employed in work relating to river transportation, railroads, and the early telegraph lines. The neighborhood extended Iowa and Federal Streets to the Mississippi River. It received its appellation of “The Patch” because the residents who lived there grew vegetable gardens in their yards. This garden patch neighborhood was extant until the early 1900s when the Irish moved to other parts of the city and the buildings took on more commercial residents.
Image from Davenport, Where the Mississippi Runs West: A Survey of Davenport History and Architecture, prepared by Marlys A. Svendsen, John Pfiffner, and Martha H. Bowers.
The map featured above showcases the development of the growing city of Davenport through its ethnic neighborhoods including those settled by the Irish, Germans, and Swedish. Most of these neighborhoods are lost in history with little artifactual evidence of their existence. “The Patch” is remembered through stories told of its residents, as well as a natural disaster that struck the area in 1901.
Articles have been published in our local newspapers about these once-thriving neighborhoods that give us insight into what life was like there.
Tibbetts, Ed. “Davenport’s early Irish: Melding into the melting pot.” Quad-City Times (Davenport, IA), Mar. 17, 1993, pages 1-2.
Tibbetts, Ed. “Davenport’s early Irish: Melding into the melting pot.” Quad-City Times (Davenport, IA), Mar. 17, 1993, pages 1-2.
Times staff writer, Mildred Brennan, wrote two detailed articles about “The Patch”. In the first article, she discussed the community of people who lived there and the various activities they participated in. She also describes the fire that took place on July 24, 1901. It destroyed nearly 30 acres and around 50 homes. It was a swift-moving fire, but luckily most of the families could escape the engulfing flames.
In the second article, she tells us the story of “The Patch” through the perspective of the ‘wee-folk’ or leprechauns. It is a delightful recounting of this Irish neighborhood.
Brennan, Mildred. “Davenport’s Irish Remember Varied Tales about ‘Patch’.” Quad-City Times (Davenport, IA), Mar. 17, 1954, page 31. Brennan, Mildred. “Davenport’s Irish Remember Varied Tales about ‘Patch’.” Quad-City Times (Davenport, IA), Mar. 17, 1954, page 31.
Brennan, Mildred. “Sure, The Wee Folk are Busy Here!” Quad-City Times (Davenport, IA), Mar. 17,. 1958, pages 1 and 5.
Brennan, Mildred. “Sure, The Wee Folk are Busy Here!” Quad-City Times (Davenport, IA), Mar. 17,. 1958, pages 1 and 5.
In 2008, the Celtic Heritage Trail marked areas in the City of Davenport important to Irish and Celtic history and culture. They selected 10 locations from churches to residences. One location they chose was “The Patch” solidifying its role in the Irish history of Davenport and the Quad Cities.
Gaul, Alma. “Up with the Celts.” Quad-City Times (Davenport, IA), Mar. 18, 2008, pages 31 and 34.
Gaul, Alma. “Up with the Celts.” Quad-City Times (Davenport, IA), Mar. 18, 2008, pages 31 and 34.
March Madness is fast approaching and local high school basketball teams are fighting to get to the state tournament.
The first boys’ basketball team to win a state tournament for Davenport High School (now Central High School) was in 1913. The Red and Blue, as they were then called, beat the team from Sioux City, Iowa 34 to 18. Davenport High School was one of eight teams selected to compete in the two-day tournament held in Iowa City.
The Davenport Democrat and Leader, March 30, 1913. Pg. 20
The start of the Davenport High School 1928 – 1929 school year brought in a new teacher and basketball coach. Mr. Paul C. Moon was an instructor in Bookkeeping that would also be taking over coaching responsibilities for basketball. He promised to introduce new plays to the team and that they would go far. He was absolutely correct.
Davenport High School Blackhawk Vol. 12 (1929). SC 371.8 Dav Closed Stacks
With a new gym planned for Davenport High School, the basketball team practiced and held games at J. B. Young Intermediate School that season. Their first game was held on December 14, 1928, in the J. B. Young gym against Washington High School from Cedar Rapids, Iowa.
Coach Moon’s team was young with only three returning players who had lettered previously. Those three were Captain Robert Loufek, Paul McClanahan, and Henry Dahl. Dahl would be a mid-year graduate so the younger players would need to step up quickly on this team.
Davenport High School Blackhawk Vol. 12 (1929). SC 371.8 Dav Closed Stacks
Davenport High School Blackhawk Vol. 12 (1929). SC 371.8 Dav Closed Stacks
The regular season ended on February 23, 1929, by beating Muscatine High School 28-19 at J. B. Young’s gym. The Blue and Red ended the season 12 – 4.
The Davenport Democrat and Leader, February 24, 1929. Pg. 29
Next were sectionals. First up was Wapello High School and Davenport easily beat them 66 to 18.
The Davenport Democrat and Leader, March 1, 1929. Pg. 28
Sectionals continued with Davenport High School once again overcoming Muscatine High School in a riveting close game 26-23. Sectionals was won and now it was on to District.
The Davenport Democrat and Leader, March 3, 1929. Pg. 35
Davenport High School Blackhawk Vol. 12 (1929). SC 371.8 Dav Closed Stacks
From 650 high school teams down to 83 fighting to go on to State in the District finals.
The Davenport Democrat and Leader, March 4, 1929. Pg. 9
It was tough, but with a win over Parnell High School 34 to 31; the Davenport High School basketball team was on to State!
The Davenport Democrat and Leader, March 10, 1929. Pg. 35
State playoffs were held in Iowa City as the University of Iowa had the largest basketball arena in the state of Iowa. Davenport’s Red and Blue first faced Ottumwa High School in the first round of the State playoffs. The game went into overtime with the Red and Blue coming out as the winner with a final score of 24 – 22.
The Daily Times, March 22, 1929. Pg. 26
Semi-Finals saw Davenport High School meeting Sioux City East. It was another close game. The final score was Davenport with a win of 23 – 21. All that was left was the final Championship game.
The Davenport Democrat and Leader, March 24, 1929. Pg. 35
The Red and Blue defeated Des Moines Roosevelt High School 26 – 21 in the Championship game. Coach Moon had not lied. He managed to bring a young team together with hard work and new skills. The entire city of Davenport celebrated their victory.
The Davenport Democrat and Leader, March 25, 1929. Pg. 6
The Daily Times, March 25, 1929. Pg. 14
Coach Paul Moon stayed at Davenport High School until he retired in 1954. For 26 years he dedicated his talents to the basketball program. With his teams, he won state titles in 1929, 1930, 1941, 1947, 1950, 1951, and 1952.
Coach Moon also helped create the mascot for Davenport High School. Along with students Bill Rivkin and Lenvil Simmons, Coach Moon led the effort to adopt the Blue Devil as the school mascot (which it still is today as the Davenport Central Blue Devils) in 1935. This replaced the nicknames of Red and Blue and Hill Toppers which were used previously.
One can only imagine the pride Coach Moon and all of the players from 1929 felt as they remembered the legacy they helped to create with a little trust in the new coach and the unusual skills he brought with him.
Davenport High School Blackhawk Vol. 12 (1929). SC 371.8 Dav Closed Stacks
On Saturday, March 4, 2023, Information Services Librarian Ann Hetzler is retiring after more than 34 years at the Davenport Public Library.
Ann began working at the Davenport Public Library on July 18, 1988. She had previously worked as a reference librarian at the Moline Public Library.
She spent her first 19 years at DPL as the Extension Services Supervisor, managing the Family Reading Center at the Annie Wittenmyer branch library, the library bookmobile, and the Homebound delivery program. She became supervisor of the Fairmount library branch when it opened in January 2006.
Ann moved to her current librarian position on October 12, 2007. She is responsible for selecting many of the Library’s circulating nonfiction books, including our fabulous cookbook collection, all of our books about the arts & recreation, and the latest travel guides. Last year she organized our seed library, where library patrons can select 5 seed packets each month.
Since the COVID-19 pandemic started, Ann has become a popular YouTube star! Her programs include Ann’s Garden and Winter Gardening video series, where she shows off her master gardener skills, and her Visible Mending and Embroidery workshop series, where she encourages us to practice our sewing skills.
Ann has been the most prolific blogger on The Library’s Info Cafe reference blog since its inception in 2008 and also edits the Coffee Break reference eNewsletter. She has guided us through online reading challenges and made us laugh with her yearly April Fools posts.
After all that work, Ann is overdue for some rest and relaxation! We hope you get to travel the world and befriend all the cats.
With thanks to our friends at the Friends of MLK, [1] the RSSC Center has recently acquired a copy of a publication that gives new insight into an understanding of the WWII-era Black community in the Quad-Cities. To celebrate Black History Month 2023, we take a closer look at the African-American Davenporters featured in the 1944 Sepia Record.
Readers of this blog and students of local Black history will certainly be familiar with the name Charles Toney. [2] We may count his role as Editor-In-Chief nof the Sepia Record among his many accomplishments as a civil rights crusader.
Toney aimed for the magazine to be “…the medium that would bridge the gulf of racial misunderstanding…to show that Negroes are not different in any respect from the average American.” Its purpose was “…to educate this group [of prejudiced persons in the Quad-City area] into knowing that the Negro is basically like any other nationality.”
One way in which the Sepia Record acheived its aim and purpose was to lift up the young men currently serving their country in the Second World War, including these Davenporters…
…and two former Davenport High School star athletes, Calvin Mason (track) and Orrie Pitts (football).
Celebrated Davenport musician and Navy man Warren Bracken was the leader of the Section Bass Swing Band.
Also featured was Tech. Sgt. Le Roy Smith, Jr., recipent of the mechanic, driver and tractor medal as well as the Soldier’s medal (for saving fellow soldiers from drowning). The Sepia Record noted that his father, Sgt. Le Roy Smith, Sr., had served in the First World War.
Others for whom patriotic service was a family affair included Dr. and Mrs. Charles Bates. Their sons Charles Jr., Stanley, Robert, and Ralph were all members of the armed forces.
The Bates were featured in the Sepia Record as “4-Star Parents” along with Marie Nicholson, Her sons Donald, Earl, Frank and Edwin also served.
Those laboring on the home front were not neglected by the magazine: Rock Island Arsenal defense workers Harold Toney and Simon Roberts were included; the latter, Principal Clerk in the Mail and Record Section, was celebrated for his 25 years on the job. Also shown was steelworker Charles Coffey.
And William Crump, doorman at the Hotel Blackhawk, supported the war in a different way: he starred in a short Treasury Department film encouraging the purchase of war bonds and stamps.
War service is just the tip of the iceburg when it comes to what can be discovered about African Americans in Davenport from the 1944 the Sepia Record. Watch this space for more! And we’d love to hear from anyone who might have a copy of the 1945 issue!
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(posted by Katie)
[1] Ryan Saddler, FOMLK Board Chair and CEO, was kind enough to provide us with a copy of volume 1, number 1 (1944).
We are thrilled to be hosting Marcia Noe on Saturday, February 24, 2023, at 1:30pm at The Library | Main to talk about her latest book: Three Midwestern Playwrights: How Floyd Dell, George Cram Cook, and Susan Glaspell Transformed American Theatre.
Marcia Noe teaches courses in American literature and women’s studies at The University of Tennessee at Chattanooga. She is the author of Three Midwestern Playwrights: How Floyd Dell, George Cram Cook, and Susan Glaspell Transformed American Theatre, Susan Glaspell: Voice from the Heartland, and over twenty other publications on Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Susan Glaspell. In 1993, she was Fulbright Senior Lecturer-Researcher at the Federal University of Minas Gerais in Belo Horizonte, Brazil; with Junia C.M. Alves, she edited a collection of essays on the Brazilian theatre troupe Grupo Galpao (Editora Newton Paiva, 2006). She is a senior editor of The Dictionary of Midwestern Literature, an editor of the journal MidAmerica, and is the chair of the editorial committee of the Society for the Study of Midwestern Literature, which gave her the MidAmerica Award for distinguished contributions to the study of midwestern literature in 2003. She has supervised 27 student conference presentations and supervised or co-authored over 27 student publications. In 2004, she won the UTC College of Arts and Sciences Outstanding Teacher award and was an elected member of UTC’s Council of Scholars and Alpha Society. She recently completed a term on the board of Girls Inc. of Chattanooga and currently sits on the boards of the League of Women Voters of Chattanooga and The Society for the Study of Midwestern Literature.
The following is a list of books about local writers in our collection with descriptions from the publishers.
Call Number: SC 812.5209 NOE | Publication Date: 2022
In the early 1900s, three small-town midwestern playwrights helped shepherd American theatre into the modern era. Together, they created the renowned Provincetown Players collective, which not only launched many careers but also had the power to affect US social, cultural, and political beliefs.
The philosophical and political orientations of Floyd Dell, George Cram Cook, and Susan Glaspell generated a theatre practice marked by experimentalism, collaboration, leftist cultural critique, rebellion, liberation, and community engagement. In Three Midwestern Playwrights, Marcia Noe situates the origin of the Provincetown aesthetic in Davenport, Iowa, a Mississippi River town. All three playwrights recognized that radical politics sometimes begat radical chic, and several of their plays satirize the faddish elements of the progressive political, social, and cultural movements they were active in.
Three Midwestern Playwrights brings the players to life and deftly illustrates how Dell, Cook, and Glaspell joined early 20th-century midwestern radicalism with East Coast avant-garde drama, resulting in a fresh and energetic contribution to American theatre.
A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the Department of English at the Graduate College of the University of Iowa.
The career of Susan Glaspell (1876-1948), the American playwright and novelist, follows closely the trajectory of other “reclaimed” American women writers of the century such as Kate Chopin, Charlotte Perkins Gilman, and Zora Neale Hurston: well-known in her time, effaced from canonical consideration after her death, rediscovered years later through the surfacing of one work, around which critical attention has focused. Glaspell was a respected international playwright and novelist who amassed some of the most impressive credentials in American theater history, including the Pulitzer Prize in 1931. Over the past fifteen years, she has been rediscovered through the work of leading feminist scholars; and her one-act play Trifles and its short story form, “A Jury of Her Peers,” have become classics.
This book is the first collection devoted to the study of the body of Glaspell’s work. Essays by leading playwrights and scholars provide an array of perspectives on the writer and her work. The book features the first complete Glaspell bibliography, including original reviews of her plays and fiction and recent critical studies of her writing.
A pioneer of American modern drama and founding member of the Provincetown Players, Susan Glaspell (1876–1948) wrote plays of a kind that Robert Brustein defines as a “drama of revolt,” an expression of the dramatists’ discontent with the prevailing social, political, and artistic order. Her works display her determination to put an end to the alienating norms that, in her eyes and those of her bohemian peers, were stifling American society. This determination both to denounce infringements on individual rights and to reform American life through the theatre shapes the political dimension of her drama of revolt.
Analyzing plays from the early Trifles (1916) through Springs Eternal (1943) and the undated, incomplete Wings, author Emeline Jouve illustrates the way that Glaspell’s dramas addressed issues of sexism, the impact of World War I on American values, and the relationship between individuals and their communities, among other concerns. Jouve argues that Glaspell turns the playhouse into a courthouse, putting the hypocrisy of American democracy on trial. In staging rebels fighting for their rights in fictional worlds that reflect her audience’s extradiegetic reality, she explores the strategies available to individuals to free themselves from oppression. Her works envisage a better future for both her fictive insurgents and her spectators, whom she encourages to consider which modes of revolt are appropriate and effective for improving the society they live in. The playwright defines social reform in terms of collaboration, which she views as an alternative to the dominant, alienating social and political structures. Not simply accusing but proposing solutions in her plays, she wrote dramas that enacted a positive revolt.
A must for students of Glaspell and her contemporaries, as well as scholars of American theatre and literature of the first half of the twentieth century.
One of the founding members of the Provincetown Players, Susan Glaspell contributed to American literature in ways that exceed the work she did for this significant theatre group. Interwoven in her many plays, novels, and short stories is astute commentary on the human condition. This volume provides an in-depth examination of Glaspell’s writing and how her language conveys her insights into the universal dilemma of society versus self. Glaspell’s ideas transcended the plot and character. Her work gave prominent attention to such issues as gender, politics, power and artistic daring. Through an exploration of eight plays written between the years of 1916 and 1943—Trifles, Springs Eternal, The People, Alison’s House, Bernice, The Outside, Chains of Dew and The Verge—this work concentrates on one of Glaspell’s central themes: individuality versus social existence. It explores the range of forces and fundamental tensions that influence the perception and communication of her characters. The final chapter includes a brief commentary on other Glaspell works. A biographical overview provides background for the author’s reading and interpretation of the plays, placing Glaspell within the context of literary modernism.
On a moonlit night in December 1900, a prosperous Iowa farmer was murdered in his bed–killed by two blows of an ax to his head. Four days later, the victim’s wife, Margaret Hossack, was arrested at her husband’s funeral and charged with the crime.
The vicious assault stunned and divided the close-knit rural community. The accused woman claimed to be innocent, but stories of domestic troubles and abuse provided prosecutors with a motive for the crime. Neighbors and family members were reluctant to talk about what they knew concerning the couple’s troubled marriage.
MIDNIGHT ASSASSIN takes us back to the murder, the investigation, and the trials of Margaret Hossack. The book introduces us to Susan Glaspell, a young journalist who reported the story for the Des Moines Daily News and fifteen years later transformed the events into the classic one-act play, “Trifles”, and the acclaimed short story, “A Jury of Her Peers.”
Patricia L. Bryan and Thomas Wolf researched the Hossack case for almost a decade, combing through the legal records, newspaper accounts, government documents, and unpublished memoirs. The result is a vivid portrait of life in rural America at the turn-of-the century and a chilling step-by-step account of the crime and its aftermath.
In MIDNIGHT ASSASSIN, the authors masterfully bring to light a century-old murder case that is as compelling now as it was then.
Biography of George Cram Cook written by his wife, Susan Glaspell.
Eugene O’ Neill is one of America’s most celebrated playwrights, but relatively few Americans know the name of the man who essentially gave O’ Neill his first chance at greatness: George Cram “Jig” Cook, one of America’s most colorful and original thinkers and founder of the Provincetown Players, the first company to stage O’Neill. Cook’s story, with all its hopes, dreams, and disappointments, is told in The Road to the Temple.
First published in 1927 in the United States and reprinted in 1941, this biography is the work of Cook’s third wife, Pulitzer Prize–winning playwright Susan Glaspell, It traces Cook’s lifelong search for self, a search that took him from his birthplace in Davenport, Iowa, to New York to Delphi; from university teaching and truck farming, to the Provincetown Players, to the antiquity of Greece. Part of Jig’s story is told by excerpts from his journals, pictures, poetry, and fiction. Interwoven with narrative flashbacks, these entries concerning his day-to-day activities as well as his thoughts and feelings bring him to life for the reader. In addition, Glaspell offers finely crafted portraits of the American Midwest in the late nineteenth century; a vivid picture of Greenwich Village between 1910 and 1920; and a moving and lyrical account of the life she and Jig lived in Greece, where Jig died on January 11, 1924. A compelling combination of biography and autobiography, this volume presents a unique and personal picture of a fascinating American original.”
Call Number: SC 792.09744 Sar | Publication Date: 1982
During the American cultural upheaval of the 1910s and 1920s, a major movement was the development of a native theatre and of groups interested in its work. This study of the Provincetown Players in Provincetown, Massachusetts, and New York from 1915-1922 shows their important role in presenting works of O’Neill and other leading writers of the time, describes the fascinating and powerful personality of their founder and leader Jig Cook, and analyzes with impressive sensitivity the dichotomy between the needs of an increasingly professional theatrical group and Cook’s wish to create a spontaneous communal experience. Assessing the ways in which the Players could be said to have both succeeded and failed, Sarlós notes that, ironically, the eminence of the Players as a theatrical force defeated the social goals Cook established.
The author discusses by season the productions of ninety-seven new plays which the Players staged in their active career of eight seasons. In addition to its role as producer of O’Neill, the group staged works by Susan Glaspell, Floyd Dell, Djuna Barnes, Alfred Kreymbourg, John Reed, Edna St. Vincent Millay, Mike Gold, and many others.
The story of the highly successful hoax perpetrated by Witter Bynner and Arthur Davison Ficke, who invented the “Spectric” school of poets in reaction to what they saw as the absurdity of many recent “schools”.
Among the American avant-garde of the early twentieth century, Floyd Dell played a distinctive role. A boy from the Midwest who rose to influence in the Chicago Literary Renaissance and in the heyday of Greenwich Village radicalism, he became a celebrated novelist, critic, editor (of The Masses), poet, and playwright. Dell was also a notorious bohemian, proponent of free love, and champion of feminism, progressive education, socialism, and Freudianism. His love affairs earned him almost as much notoriety as his writings. His friends and colleagues included many of the great figures of the era: radical journalists John Reed and Max Eastman; the Christian Socialist Dorothy Day; novelists Theodore Dreiser, Upton Sinclair, and Sherwood Anderson; and poet Edna St. Vincent Millay. Yet no figure was more colorful and brilliant than Dell himself. Better than anyone, he epitomized the high spirits and towering ambitions of American culture in the early decades of the century. Douglas Clayton’s biography of Dell, the first full-length life, captures the remarkable accomplishments and contradictions of a man who was both central to radical culture and profoundly skeptical of it. An early escapee from Marxism, his career never followed the familiar left-to-right course. But Dell struggled all his life with the relationship between politics and art, which makes his life so arresting and relevant today. With 8 pages of photographs
A dissertation submitted to the Northwestern University graduate school in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the field of English.
Mr. McMichael’s aims have been to describe the life of Alice French and the times which produced and molded her, and to analyze the causes for the rise, decline, and collapse of her literary reputation.
This book contains Susan Glaspell (1876-1948) — The heartland stained yellow: Midwestern free-thinkers / Megan Boedecker — The coverage of Hossack murder case / Susan Glaspell — The salvation of the working class / Floyd Dell — What are you doing out there / Floyd Dell — Susan Glaspell, Existenilalist / Isaac Lauritsen — Act 1 from The Verge / Susan Glaspell.
