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.
How do you say goodbye to a local legend? William “Bill” Wundram passed away on February 14, 2023, at the age of 98 years. To describe Bill is not a simple task. Think a little of P.T. Barnum’s flair, a little of Tom Sawyer’s adventurous spirit, and a little of Walt Disney’s creativity all wrapped into the enormous heart and smile of one talented writer and reporter. The grandest part is Bill shared all those talents with us for the 74 years he worked at the Quad-City Times (originally the Davenport Democrat and Leader).
William Lewis Wundram, Jr. was born in Davenport, Iowa on December 21, 1924, to William G. and Edna M. (Maisack) Wundram. Bill, or Billy, became the youngest of the three Wundram children, sisters Helen and Ruth being born in 1914 and 1921. His father was in advertising for the Davenport Democrat newspaper at the time of Bill’s birth.
The Davenport Democrat and Leader, December 22, 1924. Pg. 16
The family lived at 2041 W. 5th Street in Davenport’s west side. In October 1933, Bill’s father opened a grocery and meat market at 2002 W. 4th Street in the midst of the Great Depression. The west side of Davenport still had many German-speaking residents. Bill would remember helping customers and needing to know German to assist with transactions in later years.
On October 23, 1937, the Wundram family suffered the devastating loss of Bill’s oldest sister Helen. She died two weeks after undergoing appendicitis surgery. This event and the mourning period that followed would be remembered years later in his daily column for the Quad-City Times.
Bill attended Buchannan Elementary School and then Frank L. Smart Intermediate School. By his time at Smart, Bill was already performing for PTA (Parent-Teacher Association) events and fundraisers. He was listed as part of a German Band on many occasions.
The Davenport Democrat and Leader, November 5, 1939. Pg. 22
With the Great Depression easing, but the threat of World War II ever increasing; Bill entered Davenport High School. Bill was a student at DHS during the bombing of Pearl Harbor and the entry of the United States into the war. The Blackhawk, the yearbook for Davenport High School, was filled with the patriotic events and fundraisers the school participated in. Bill, as he would throughout his life, led or participated in many of these activities and shows.
Images from The Blackhawk Yearbook, 1943.
When graduation came in June 1943, Bill listed membership in Quill Club, band, newspaper staff, picture editor of the annual, and President of the Senior Class for his activities. Turning the pages of his senior yearbook, Bill is pictured at many events performing, playing an instrument, or being an emcee.
After high school, Bill did basic training in the Army. He returned to Davenport and very briefly attended Augustana College in Rock Island, IL before being hired at the Davenport Democrat and Leader as a reporter on March 20, 1944. On March 20, 1944, At 5’2″ (according to his World War II draft card) and a young looking 19 years old, it appears Bill took some teasing from rival newspaper The Daily Times when he was first hired.
The Daily Times, June 21, 1944. Pg. 3
Bill flourished at The Daily Democrat as a reporter and photographer. From light-hearted stories to more hard-hitting news, Bill covered it all. On December 6, 1949, Bill was covering an event at Davenport Fire House #5 on Rockingham Road when he attempted to slide down the fire pole. Not realizing it was freshly waxed, Bill ended up at Mercy Hospital with a broken leg and fractured kneecap.
The Davenport Democrat and Leader, December 7, 1949. Pg. 25
The Daily Times, December 7, 1949. Pg. 14
This would turn out to be a life-changing event for the young man. Bill would often reminisce about the beautiful red-haired nurse named Helen he met there. On November 30, 1952, Bill and Helen Voorhees, his beautiful nurse, were married. They would have three children; Tim, Rebecca, and Peter.
In 1955, Bill was named editor for the centennial anniversary edition of the Democrat newspaper. After that, he moved among the editor’s desks as City Editor, Sunday Editor, and Assistant Editor to name a few job positions. The Democrat and Daily Times eventually merged and became The Quad-City Times. It was in 1979 that Bill was selected to become a Saturday columnist for the Times.
Bill’s first column of his observations and local information ran on November 24, 1979. This once-a-week column would eventually become a seven-day-a-week column for the Times before dropping back to five days a week shortly before Bill retired in 2018 after 74 years of newspaper reporting. In his spare time, he wrote ten books and helped with numerous other publications.
The Quad-City Times, November 24, 1979. Pg. 1
Bill didn’t just report the news. He continued the amazing spirit of volunteering that began at Smart Intermediate and Davenport High School. He helped start the Bix Beiderbecke Memorial Jazz Festival, helped create the Bix 7 road race, was chairman of the Davenport Halloween Parade, supporter of the public libraries, supported the Quad City Symphony, and much, much more.
From left to right: Far left: Davenport librarian Ann Hetzler, Bill Wundram, and Dewey the Library Cat at the Davenport Public library in 1989. Middle: Bill Wundram and Dewey the Library Cat at Dewey’s birthday party in 1989. Far right: Bill reading to children during Night of a Thousand Stars program at the Main branch of the Davenport Public Library.
He supported the Quad Cities through his columns. Bill challenged us to care not only for each other but also for our communities. He was well known for asking, “Is anyone there? Does anyone care?” Bill’s stories could get the community talking.
Bill was an adventurer too. On May 22, 1966, The Sunday Times-Democrat in the Family Focus section ran Bill’s article on his adventure meeting Walt Disney when Mr. Disney flew Bill and Helen out to California for the day on a private Disney plane for an interview. Walt Disney once interviewed for a position with Victor Animatograph company in Davenport. Legend has it that as he left on a train from Davenport he created a character named Mortimer Mouse that eventually developed into Mickey Mouse.
The Sunday Times-Democrat, May 22, 1966. Focus on Family. Pg. 4
Bill met almost every U.S. President from Harry Truman to Barack Obama. He told how he snuck into Bob Hope’s limo at the airport to interview him. Bill also wrote about everyday people he met in the Quad Cities or traveling with Helen.
If Bill had to pick another occupation, it might have been circus clown. He loved the circus and trained to be a clown. He would write about his experiences traveling with different small circuses. He and Helen would travel and take adventures that he shared with readers. Just like at home, Bill made friends wherever he went.
The Quad-City Times, April 21, 1998. Pg. 27
In 2009, I climbed up to Davenport City Hall’s attic with Bill and former Mayor Bill Gluba to explore. Bill went all the way up to the bell tower where he rang the bell. Over and under pipes and up and down steep ladders. Nothing was going to stop his adventure.
Quad-City Times, September 27, 2009. Pg. 2
Here in Special Collections, we loved our time looking at pictures with Bill, chatting about questions people may have asked him, and checking on addresses of old businesses for his research. One of our last challenges was helping him research the history of old dog tags and Davenport city ordinances in 2017. Bill greatly appreciated libraries and local history.
The Quad-City Times, August 6, 2017. Pg. A2
We could go on for days writing about Bill’s accomplishments and stories. We feel we have barely touched the surface of all he accomplished throughout his life.
We send our condolences to his family and friends. Maybe we should all remember how Bill greeted people with “Hello friend!” even if you were just meeting him for the first time. That openness to others touched many lives over the years. Thank you, Bill, for your sharing your love of news, adventure, and people with us all. We will miss you, dear friend.
We can sincerely say there will never be another Bill Wundram. He was one of a kind and we are grateful he shared his talents with us over the years.
For over 30 years, the Davenport Public Library has dedicated space and staff for the purpose of collecting, preserving, and accessing the history of Davenport, Scott County, and the surrounding areas. In 1999, The Richardson-Sloane Special Collections Center was made possible through a financial donation from Alice and Ted Sloane. With these contributions, the Davenport Public Library has been able to develop and expand its collections and resources pertaining to local history and genealogical resources.
One way we continue to expand our collections is through donations of materials from individuals, societies, organizations, businesses, and government entities. Donations vary by subject, format, period, and size. We may receive a donation of personal papers documenting an individual’s life, work, and family history, or we may receive a collection recording a business’s activities and impact on its community.
Donations are a vital part of our collection development policy. When prospective donors communicate with us, we begin the conversation by sharing the policy with them so they know what we collect and why. Our collection development policy is shared below.
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Depending on the needs of the donor and the donation, we may set up a time to discuss any questions they may have in person or over the phone as well as what happens to the materials if they are donated to us. We also offer to present to the organization or society interested in donating their records or to provide a tour of Special Collections. Each donation is unique, so when we have an interested party inquire about donating, we try to provide as much information as possible about the process.
If a donor decides to donate with us, we have them sign a deed of gift transferring the materials to us. As part of this documentation, we ask about the provenance of the material, i.e., ownership history or how the materials came to be in their possession. We also ask if there is any other information that may help future researchers use the collections such as identifying people in images and recording who created or who is associated with the donation. Depending on the donation, we may ask if there are any preservation or condition issues we should be aware of. At this time, the donation gets accession to our collections and a donation gift acknowledgment is mailed.
After this is completed, we survey the collection to make an assessment of how it is arranged and organized. We will also be able to see if any preservation or conservation concerns are associated with the donation. We will draft a plan of how we will process the collection based on its original order (if there is evidence of one) thus following the respect des fonds principle.
Processing a collection is dependent on many factors. The main activities that are associated with it include arranging, organizing, rehousing, performing any preservation treatments to the materials as well as describing the materials in a way that people can access them.
This image captures a staff member processing an archival and manuscript collection.
We not only collect materials to grow our collection, but we also preserve and make them accessible. We make materials accessible by describing them either in our library catalog through a bibliographic record or in our archive and manuscript catalog through a finding aid.
Example of a finding aid for one of our collections.
Then with these catalogs, anyone can discover what we have in our collections and then use those collections to answer their questions. Along with making them accessible in person to researchers, we continually digitize our collections and make them available on the Upper Mississippi Valley Digital Image Archive.
If you watched last weekend’s NFL Divisional playoffs, you probably saw some Iowans in action! Did you know that San Francisco 49ers quarterback Brock Purdy, “Mr. Irrelevant”, was a very successful quarterback at Iowa State University? He seems pretty relevant now!
Were you aware that 49ers tight end George Kittle was born in Ames and was a University of Iowa Hawkeye where he met his Dubuque-born wife, Claire Till – Hawkeye Women’s Basketball standout?
Best of all, do you remember football legend Roger Craig, #33 of the San Fran teams of 1983-1990, was from Davenport? Well, these images from Davenport High School’s yearbook the Blackhawk from 1977-1979 are proof positive that Roger Craig’s high-stepping style started right here in Sofa City!
Roger Craig’s sophomore year photo, Blackhawk, Davenport High School, 1977.
Roger Craig’s junior year photo, Blackhawk, Davenport High School, 1978.
Roger Craig’s senior year photo, Blackhawk, Davenport High School, 1979.
According to a Quad-City Times article from January 23, 1985, Craig’s first football team was the Creighton Vanguards in the Davenport Midget Football League. He wore number 55, an unusual number for the running back. Evidently, the 10-year-old wasn’t allowed to be a running back because kids over 95 pounds weren’t allowed in the backfield. He was placed at the end instead! In this grainy newspaper picture, he is third from the left in the front row.
Quad-City Times (Davenport, IA), Jan. 23, 1985, page 11.
As he matured, Craig became an all-around athlete participating in track, wrestling, and football. He became a school and state record holder in a number of categories.
Blackhawk Yearbook, Davenport High School, Football 1977.
Blackhawk Yearbook, Davenport High School, Wrestling 1978.
Blackhawk Yearbook, Davenport High School, Track 1979.
Blackhawk Yearbook, Davenport High School, Football 1979.
He was a member of D’s Club, too – a service club for CHS lettermen.
Blackhawk Yearbook, Davenport High School, 1979.
Roger Craig graduated from Central in 1979 and chose to attend the University of Nebraska, earning an opportunity to play in the Orange Bowl.
With the San Francisco 49ers, he was a three-time Super Bowl champion and is a 49ers Hall of Fame member. Later he played for the LA Raiders and Minnesota Vikings prior to retirement.
Davenport Central inducted him into their Hall of Honor in 1989 and he became a member of the QC Sports Hall of Fame in 1987.
According to an article entitled, “Roger Craig: Where is 49ers Super Bowl champion RB now?” published by BVM Sports, Mr. Craig continues to be athletically active, running in marathons. The article also states he is affiliated with “TIBCO Software”, a firm focusing on big data and software integrations as well as “Sports Thread”, a social media-based network connecting student-athletes with teammates, coaches, parents, and fans.
Sports announcers said Mr. Craig attended last weekend’s game against the Dallas Cowboys. Wouldn’t it be amazing if he could join a viewing party at one of the Davenport Public libraries if the San Francisco 49ers go all the way to the Super Bowl? Aww, who am I kidding? I bet he’ll have a front-row seat in Arizona to watch Brock Purdy and George Kittle. But we will always have the yearbooks to enjoy our Iowa hometown sports hero and imagine that someday Roger Craig high-steps into Special Collections to do some research! It’s a great time to be a San Fran 49er Fan!!! Go Hawks!!!!!
Blackhawk Yearbook, Davenport High School, 1979.
(posted by Karen)
Kluge, Cody. “Roger Craig: Where is 49ers Super Bowl champion RB now?.” BVM Sports. BVM Sports – Best Version Media, LLC., Sept. 1, 2022. Jan. 28, 2023. https://bvmsports.com/2022/09/01/roger-craig.
One of our favorite resources is accession 2004-67: African American residential patterns in Davenport, Iowa. Compiled by Craig R. Klein of Scott Community College, the collection consists of photocopied maps showing African American residential patterns in Davenport, Iowa in 1867, 1890-91, 1900-01, 1910, and 1920.
Klein noted the location of churches, fraternal organizations, schools, parks, businesses, and residences of professionals on each map. He gathered information from city and business directories, federal and state census, county histories, church histories, Davenport newspapers, and the Iowa Bystander.
We have taken the information from these physical maps and created this interactive map. Each map (1867, 1890, 1900, 1910, and 1920) is a separate layer, so you can select the year or years you want and explore Davenport’s early black community.
January 7th marked 73 years since the tragic St. Elizabeth’s fire occurred in Davenport, Iowa. A fire that not only changed safety standards locally but throughout the entire United States.
Forty female patients and one nurse perished that freezing cold night as firefighters, police, and hospital workers desperately tried to save them. The window bars and locked doorways meant to protect patients prevented help from reaching them in time.
For more information on the St. Elizabeth’s fire, please read our previous blogs Part I and Part II.
Over the years, we have tried to learn about the women who died in that tragic fire. Today we are remembering Mrs. Anna Neal, the nurse who died trying to save her patients that fateful night.
Anna Rang was born in Germany on May 8, 1894, to Andrew and Mary Rang (most likely Andreas and Maria/Marie in German). It is believed she grew up in or near Euskirchen, Germany from newspaper reports, obituaries, and her death record. We’ve had trouble locating records of Anna or her family online. Possibly, if it is a small area, they have not been digitized or there is a chance the records were destroyed during World War II.
Anna would have been 20 in 1914 when World War I broke out. There is a possibility she may have married and been widowed with a son before she met American soldier Herman W. Miller about 1920 in either Euskirchen or Bonn, Germany.
Herman (also spelled Hermann) W. Miller was born in St. Louis Missouri on April 15, 1887. His family settled in Davenport in 1907 and Herman enlisted in the United States Army in 1915. By the start of World War I, he had achieved the rank of Sergeant and was deployed to France as part of the American Expeditionary Force. On July 25, 1918, at Chateau-Thierry, Herman was seriously wounded by a bullet to his hip and exposure to mustard gas. He returned home to recuperate at Camp Dodge in Iowa.
The Davenport Democrat Leader, October 6, 1918. Pg. 9
Herman remained in the Army with a promotion to Lieutenant and was sent back to Germany in 1920. It was during this time he married Anna Rang and their daughter Mary Ann was born in Bonn, Germany on January 12, 1921.
It is unknown when Herman returned to the United States, but we found Anna and Mary Ann arriving in the United States on the ship Cantigny on April 18, 1922, with other war brides and children. The family quickly settled in Davenport near Herman’s family.
Life was not easy for Herman due to his injuries, and he was moved to a Veterans’ Hospital in Kansas City, Missouri in 1925 as the mustard gas caused paralysis in his body. He died there on January 8, 1926. His remains were returned to Davenport and he was buried in Pine Hill Cemetery.
The Daily Times, January 9, 1926. Pg. 4
After being widowed, Anna took on work as a seamstress. Then on October 2, 1926, Anna married mechanic Herman E. Joens of Davenport who was divorced with three young children.
The 1930 U.S. Census finds the family living in Davenport. In addition to the three Joens children, there is a Herman Miller age 9 who is the stepson of Herman Joens. It is the only time we find a young Herman Miller listed living with Anna.
We found Herman W. Miller’s obituary in 1926 only listing his daughter Mary Ann and no other children. Young Herman is not listed on the ship manifest for his mother and sister’s immigration. One conclusion is he might have been born from a first marriage (or out-of-wedlock) of Anna and remained behind with other relatives (possibly his father’s family). As young Herman’s language spoken was German in the 1930 census it is possible he was visiting his mother and her family at this time.
Anna seems to have led a quiet, but busy life between 1926 and 1942. She raised her stepchildren and daughter and belonged to several women’s clubs. Then in February 1943, Anna Joens was granted a divorce from Herman on the grounds of Cruelty (a standard divorce complaint). Household goods were divided between the two and Anna received a one-time payment of $100 instead of alimony. As all children were grown, custody was not needed.
Anna took back the last name of Miller and began to work as a nurse. By 1947, she was a nurse at Clear View Sanitarium at 4117 Eastern Avenue. At this chiropractic institution, patients were treated for nervous and mental disorders according to their advertisements in local papers. The institution emphasized a modern home-like quality as well as its quality of being fireproof.
In 1948, Anna was told her mother was in poor health. Euskirchen was under British control and she applied to the British embassy to be allowed to visit her mother. Civilians could not move around Germany without permission during this time. The British and American embassies granted her 30 days to visit her mother with the requirement she provides her own food as few rations would be granted to visitors. Anna left on September 19, 1948, to return home for the first time since she left as a World War I war bride.
The Daily Times, August 24, 1948. Pg. 8
Upon her return in November 1948, Anna was interviewed about the conditions in Germany. Anna reported that she felt sorry for elderly Germans, but not for the younger generations who created the problems. She was hopeful some of her family might immigrate in the future.
It was also during the late 1940s that we find Anna connected to The Temple of Spiritual Unfoldment. The group originally met in the Vale apartments, but later moved to Odd Fellows Hall at 508 ½ Brady Street. Anna was listed as the director of the group. She gave talks at the service such as “The Conditions in Europe” after her trip.
The Davenport Democrat and Leader, September 2, 1949. Pg. 11
On June 23, 1949, The Daily Times printed a marriage license taken out between Albert Neal of Albia, Iowa, and Anna R. Miller of Davenport. Albert was a thirty-three-year-old World War II veteran. How did the thirty-three-year-old and fifty-five-year-old met? We do have a guess.
We found the address used by Albert when filing his World War II bonus paperwork in May 1949 matches the address of Anna from the City of Davenport Directory of 1949 – 729 Western Avenue. The older Victorian home was owned by William L. Hamilton, a machinist at the Rock Island Arsenal. There was a small apartment or single rooms to rent in the home. It seems likely the two met as boarders in the Hamilton home.
It was around June 1949 that Anna left her employment at Clear View Sanitarium to take a job as a graduate nurse at St. Elizabeth’s.
Anna, dressed in her nursing uniform, started her job at 11:00 p.m. Saturday, January 7th, 1950. Her co-worker, Lucille Kalloway, described Anna’s physical features during the coroner’s inquest as being about 5 foot and slightly heavyset. She seemed to have some type of deformity to her left hip which caused her to walk with a limp. One shoulder raised higher than the other and Anna wore glasses to read.
A few co-workers would later indicate Anna seemed not herself at the start of the shift. She had asked for that night off, but was refused and was told she could have Sunday, January 8th off instead. Anna Neal was described as “huffy” or “depressed” as she started her duties.
Lucille Kalloway was to finish her shift in St. Elizabeth’s at 11:00 p.m. but stayed until 11:30 p.m. to assist Anna. It was taking longer for patients to settle for the night, especially Mrs. Elnora Epperly on the main floor. This young woman was a private patient prone to hallucinations. Elnora kept wandering into another patient’s room that night disturbing her as the nurses tried to get the women in their beds.
Finally, after taking Elnora back to her room several times, Lucille latched Elnora’s door shut with a hook so Lucille could continue to check on patients on the upper floors with Anna. She had already taken matches and cigarettes from Elnora as standard evening practice. They would be locked away until the next day when they would be given back to the patient.
No one knew that Elnora had obtained her husband’s silver lighter during his visit that day. A few hours later, Elnora believed she saw her husband being held against his will in another institution, St. Joseph’s. Trying to signal for help she lit a newspaper on fire with the lighter and waved it near an open window. Her curtains soon caught fire.
Anna Neal was on duty alone that night after Lucille left. A live-in aide, Josephine O’Toole, was asleep in her room on the second floor (third floor when looking from the outside). It was shortly after 2:00 a.m. when Anna heard Elnora crying and pounding on her door to be let out as there was a fire. Anna opened the door and the flames immediately escaped helped by the strong breeze coming through the open window.
Anna was faced with three floors of patients, locked doors, barred windows, no sprinkler system, and no fire escape plan.
Elnora, Josephine O’Toole, and a few patients on the main floor escaped. Anna continued to move room by room, floor by floor, trying to get the patients to leave. Some were able to follow her as she led them to the stairs in small groups while others refused to leave their rooms and crowded by windows screaming for help. The fire moved quickly throughout the building.
Eventually, Anna was overcome by the fire. Likely trapped, she retreated into an empty bedroom on the main floor. She was found lying on the floor near a bed by the firemen and carried to the hospital’s emergency room. There, she was officially declared dead. Her body showed signs of burns and smoke. Anna Neal had given her life to try to save her patients.
The Davenport Democrat and Leader, January 8, 1950. Pg. 3
Anna was buried in Pine Hill Cemetery near her first husband Herman Miller. She left behind her husband Albert, daughter Mrs. Mary Ann Petersen of Davenport, son Herman Miller of Germany, her mother, four siblings, and four grandchildren.
Anna’s story does not end with the fire though. It was Lucille Kalloway who first spoke of Anna’s special abilities. She was described as a “fortune teller” by several people. Those meetings of The Temple of Spiritual Unfoldment included Anna asking those attending to write questions on pieces of paper that she would then answer. It seemed Anna could see into the future.
The Daily Times, January 13, 1950. Pg. 21
Those who knew her said she predicted the election of Harry Truman in 1948, the Rock Island Central Junior High fire (December 11, 1949), the Kathy Fiscus tragedy (California, April 1949), and a recent prophecy of severe flooding in the Midwest (which was ongoing in early January 1950). Several people came forward to verify the claims and mentioned how Anna had answered their questions when they asked her for help.
Why would Lucille have mentioned this special ability? About two weeks before the St. Elizabeth’s fire, Anna Neal predicted a large hospital fire would kill 40 – 50 people in Davenport. Her husband Albert stated he never attended her meetings, but she talked frequently about the predicated fire to him.
It seems that Anna knew events were coming, but not the cause or how to stop them. One can only imagine how Anna Neal felt as the fire began to spread in St. Elizabeth’s that night knowing she had predicted the event and outcome. Despite this, Anna had the courage to keep working to save the lives of others over saving her own.
(posted by Amy D.)
Resources:
Ancestry.com
Find-A-Grave.com
The Davenport Democrat and Leader, October 6, 1918. Pg. 9
The Davenport Democrat and Leader, February 21, 1919. Pg. 9
The Daily Times, February 24, 1919. Pg. 7
The Daily Times, May 9, 1919. Pg. 9
The Daily Times, October 28, 1920. Pg. 17
The Daily Times, January 9, 1926. Pg. 4
The Daily Times, October 4, 1926. Pg. 6
The Daily Times, October 5, 1926. Pg. 10
The Daily Times, December 31, 1937. Pg. 42
The Daily Times, February 13, 1943. Pg. 4
The Daily Times, August 24, 1948. Pg. 8
The Daily Times, September 25, 1948. Pg. 10
The Daily Times, November 24, 1948. Pg. 8
The Daily Times, December 4, 1948. Pg. 12
The Daily Times, June 23, 1949. Pg. 13
The Davenport Democrat and Leader, September 2, 1949. Pg. 11
The Daily Times, January 7, 1950. Pg. 9
The Davenport Democrat and Leader, January 8, 1950. Pg. 3
In the news a century ago this January was the question of admitting survivors of the Armenian genocide into the United States. [1] These articles beg the question: Were there Armenian immigrants who settled in Davenport and Scott County in the 1920s?
The FamilySearch Wiki page for “Armenia – Emigration and Immigration” points researchers to the Armenian Immigration Project, an online database gathering ship manifests, census records, military records, vital records and other resources that may be searched by location. The results of a query for “Iowa” show that the city of Bettendorf, especially, and also Davenport, had notably-sized populations of Armenians a century ago.
The ship manifests are especially helpful for establishing relationships, as they include the name of the individual that the traveler left in Turkey as well as the name of the individual they intended to join in the United States.
For example, Serkis Bedoian is the uncle Mariam Pidadjian leaves (with her six-year-old son Oanes) to join her husband Levon in in Davenport in late 1920; he is also the uncle to Mikael Saroian, who leaves in May 1921 to join his other uncle Leon Bedoian in Bettendorf. Later, in September, Mikael’s wife Takoui then also names Serkis Bedoian is the uncle she leaves to join her husband. Although we cannot be sure the use of the word “uncle” was literal, these families were clearly connected in some way.
Another example is Kerverk Sarkissian and his wife Satenik leave cousin Avedis Sarkisian to join another cousin Art Tarpinian in Bettendorf in November 1921. In October of the following year, Avedis then leaves Turkey with relatives Arzad, Heo, and Krekor Sarkisian to join John Sarkisian at 624 State St.
In 1923, Ohanes (John) Krikorian and wife Verkin join their friend Garabed Vartanian at 313 Gaines St. in Davenport.
This photograph comes from his naturalization record in Detroit, MI — another type of record indexed by the Armenian Immigration Project.
Those who received these immigrants were part of a local Armenian community that had been growing during the 19-teens. Sahog Derderian, Nichan Doghanian, Minas Karadjajan, and Asdour Zakarian, for example, were already settled in the area and were prepared to help relatives and friends arriving as a result of the Adana massacre of 1909 and the fallout from the Balkan Wars, 1913-14. Perhaps more research into these names will reveal more about the kinship networks that brought them to Scott County.
Another type of record available via the Armenian Immigration Project is the World War I draft registration cards: three Bedoians (mentioned earlier), Sambat (33), Leon (45), and Baldose (19) registered in September 1918.
The occupations listed in these men’s records show that the Armenian community was developing around employment at the Bettendorf Company. The 1920 US Census bears this out. Notice the number of people born in Armenia (single boardinghouse residents and family groups in the E. State St./Mississippi Blvd. area) working in the “car shops” or the “foundry” listed on this page:
The 1910 US Census, by contrast, shows very few Armenian-born Scott County residents: Charles Vartanian, age 75, was a servant for the Wilson McClelland family; Casper Sabasian, also 75 years old and also employed as a servant, worked for the Charles Shuler family.
While there is no other evidence of how or why these men came to live in Davenport, the experience of George Bogosian, recounted by him in a 14 Jan 1905 Daily Times article, suggests they may have survived an earlier period of violence: the Hamidian massacres of the 1890s.
Bogosian described his harrowing escape. He, his father, and two cousins fled into the mountains as they were forcibly marched from their home in Huacnik by Turkish soldiers. The soldiers shot as them as they ran, wounding one of his cousins. As he faltered, the soldiers caught up to the cousin and shot him between the eyes. He told of other atrocities he witnessed, including a slain infant and children thrown into fires as their parents watched in horror.
Bogosian could soon be found every day between 2 and 3 o’clock in the front windows of the Drake Furniture Store in Davenport, dressed in his “native Oriental costume” and demonstrating rug-weaving. [2]
Hopefully, Bogosian and the later Armenian immigrants that began new lives in Scott County met success as United States citizens.
Please let us know if you have traced your Armenian ancestors back to Davenport, Bettendorf, or the greater Quad-Cities area. We hope to further develop the portrait of the local community in the future!
(posted by Katie)
[1] Haskin, Frederic J., “Refugees Knock at Our Doors,” Davenport Democrat and Leader, January 1, 1923, page 6.
[2] “Daily Weaves Oriental Rugs,”Davenport Democrat and Leader, April 18, 1905, page 9.
