The CCC and the CWA

Posted on June 19, 2008 by SCblogger

Franklin D. Roosevelt’s “new deal” established a variety of programs, sometimes referred to as “Alphabet Agencies” with the intent of providing Americans beleaguered by the Great Depression with relief. Two programs created in 1933 which greatly impacted the lives of Iowans were the CCC – Civilian Conservation Corps and the CWA – Civil Works Administration.

The CWA – Civil Works Administration – paid an average of $15 a week and those employed worked mainly in construction jobs such as repairing schools, laying sewer pipes, and building roads. The duration of this program was limited to the winter and spring of 1933 – 1934. Scott County, Iowa benefited immensely from the works of the CWA and its off-shoot, the CWS – Civil Works Service. These works are documented in the Illustrated record of C.W.A. Projects, Scott County, Iowa, 1933-1934 (call number SC 352.7 Ill) with photographs by H. E. Dissette. Many of these images are posted on the Upper Mississippi Valley Digital Image Archive. Use the search term “civil works administration” to view them, or click here.

The CCC took unmarried men aged 18 – 25 from relief rolls and sent them into the woods and fields to plant trees, build parks, roads, and fight soil erosion on federal lands. Those employed earned $30 a month and left an environmental legacy throughout the entire United States, particularly Iowa. Did you know that Backbone State Park (located about 125 miles northwest of Davenport near Manchester, IA) has a museum about CCC camp life? Iowa’s Department of Natural Resources also has a terrific website with images and oral history interview transcriptions of former Iowa CCC members.

Don’t miss the opportunity to attend the Tuesday, June 24, 2008 music and storytelling program by Bill Jamerson about the Dollar a Day Boys of the CCC at our Main Street library location at 10 a.m. And be sure to stop by the Richardson-Sloane Special Collections Center to see our display on these New Deal “Alphabet Agencies”!

(posted by Karen)

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History’s Mysteries: An Image of Prohibition?

Posted on June 16, 2008 by SCblogger

While researching a possible blog entry about Prohibition and Davenport’s various coping mechanisms, we found an image in our collections that gave us pause:

This group image of Thiedemann’s Atheletic Club was taken on April 12, 1933, at Thiedemann’s , a brewery and tap at 1848 West 3rd Street. As you can see, the men are holding half-full mugs. A note of the back of the photograph says that it was taken “shortly” after Prohibition was repealed.

Here’s the problem: The 21st Amendment, repealing Prohibition, wasn’t signed until December 5, 1933. The first state to ratify the Amendment (Michigan) had signed on April 10, 1933, but Iowa didn’t hop on board until July. So either these men were celebrating the repeal a tad early by taking incriminating photos in a speakeasy that sponsored a sports team, or the date of the front of the image is wrong. Or there was something else going on.

The simplest explanation is near beer.

Near beer was a legal exception that kept some breweries open and productive. Non-alcoholic beer wasn’t the same as Davenporters were used to, but at least it didn’t explode like the homebrewed stuff often did. And it was easy enough to put the zing back in with a shot or two of whatever the local speakeasy or neighborhood bootlegger had on sale. There were also rumors that a few local breweries—always nameless in the newspaper articles– often ‘forgot’ to keep the alcohol content down if there weren’t any federal agents around to remind them.

According to the city directories, Henry Thiedemann sold soft drinks, which included near beer. Of course, many other innocent beverages could have been in those mugs. But in that case, why was someone concerned enough to make a note on the back of the photo?

But regardless of exactly what is in those mugs the young men are holding, we are sure Thiedemann’s—and the photographer—meant no harm.

Eight months later, it was all moot, anyway.

(posted by Sarah)

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A Second Flood of Images

Posted on June 11, 2008 by SCblogger

As we appear to be facing another round of flood-like behavior from the Mississippi this year, it seems fitting to continue our memorial series of high waters past with these images of the 1993 Flood. This was the flood, you may remember, that outdid the Great Flood of ’65* by cresting at 22.63 feet on the 9th of July. Which just goes to show that ‘better late than never’ isn’t always true.

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A view of John O’Donnell Stadium Lake from 2nd Street, near the Centennial Bridge off ramp.

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The corner of 2nd and Gaines. They aren’t kidding about the Detour sign in the center, there.

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South Perry Street succumbs.
Please note that the far white building in the right upper corner is actually in Rock Island, Illinois.

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A citizen parks his transportation in an unoccupied metered space.

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Bix contemplates the Mississippi from the side of the city Parking Building.

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Lock and Dam 15 is wide open, as is the draw of the Government Bridge.
And the River Front sign by the traffic light, there, needs to be moved a few streets back . . .

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The view from a lofty corner of Brady and 2nd Street. In the distance, the bandshell in LeClaire Park is still holding its own.

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At least two residents appear to be enjoying the flood.

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*The 1965 Flood (which crested at 22.48 feet) could still be called The Flood of the Century . . . depending on when you start counting.

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A Grand Lawn Fete

Posted on June 9, 2008 by SCblogger

Iowa’s soft summer evenings beckon us outdoors for parties and celebrations. On June 14, 1897, Henry and Clara Petersen hosted a party for a cause – the Ladies Industrial Relief Society (LIRS) – and they entertained an estimated 2,000 guests!

At their residence in Marquette Heights just above Eighth Street, near Riverview Terrace Park in Davenport, the couple created what by all newspaper accounts sounds like the party of the century to raise money for the “worthy poor” of Davenport. Billed as a Charity Lawn Fete, admission tickets were sent out by LIRS President Phebe Sudlow. People were invited to purchase the tickets at fifty cents apiece for the chance to be a guest at the palatial home of the Petersens where views of the Mississippi River, Davenport, and the entire city of Rock Island awaited them.

Grounds opened at 5 o’clock in the evening with Ernst Otto’s Orchestra providing music. A dance floor, a lemonade well created from a hollowed out tree stump, and electric lights peeping from the trees created a setting “much more beautiful than words can paint”. The Tri-City Railway Company put every available car into use and the Northwest Davenport line was packed as well. Scenery from the Burtis House Theatre was utilized and 1,200 chairs were set up in front of a stage that provided vocal and instrumental musical selections by some of Davenport’s most talented citizens. A newspaper article from the June 18th Davenport Weekly Leader states all the chairs were filled and many in attendance stood to enjoy the evening entertainment.

All this, plus refreshments! The newspaper stated “Robed in all its beauty it will be a place where we can go and enjoy ourselves and at the same time be doing that which will be for the benefit of the poor and needy.“

Ephemera from 1897 LIRS Lawn Fete

The items pictured here are considered “ephemera” – items which are printed for a specific purpose and then usually discarded. Ephemera can help us invoke clearer pictures of historic events. With this ticket in hand, can you picture yourself on a trolley car dressed in your finest summer attire headed for an unforgettable view of the Mississippi River and an evening of music and fun while fundraising? What an evening it must have been!

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A Davenport Connection: The Early Life of ‘Big Nose Kate’ Horony

Posted on June 5, 2008 by SCblogger

For those fans of the Old West, we present to you the possible early life of Big Nose Kate, also known as Katie Elder, Kate Fisher, and Katherine Cummings–Doc Holliday’s girl, she was, living in Tombstone at the time of the famous gunfight between the Clantons and the Earps at the OK Corral.

But about 17 years earlier, she lived in Davenport, Iowa.

According to documents that were reportedly found in her effects, Kate was born Mary Katherine Horony in 1850, one of the seven children of Dr. Michael Horony, a prominent and wealthy physician in Budapest. According to a few sources, she was well-educated, and spoke several languages.

In 1860, Mary Kate left Hungary with her family for Davenport, Iowa. Why we do not know, but a clue may be that there was a small, but prominent Hungarian population already established in this city by the time they arrived.

Dr. Horony and his second wife, Katherina, died just a month apart in the spring of 1865. His obituary appears in the Davenport Democrat. Both their names are on the City Sexton Monthly Reports to City Council indicating the dates buried and where the graves are located in Davenport City Cemetery. 

Though the orphaned Mary Kate and her younger siblings first lived in the household of Gustav Susemihl, the husband of an older sister, their guardianship was eventually given to Otto Smith, a Davenport attorney. Western lore says that Mary Kate didn’t care much for this turn of events and took off. According to a petition signed by Otto Smith in Dr. Harmony’s probate files, Mary Horony “. . . cannot be found anywhere, because she went as it is said to parts unknown . . .”

These unknown parts may have included St. Louis, Dodge City in Kansas, and Fort Griffin, Texas, working, as it is rumored (but not proven), as a ‘sporting woman.’ It was in Texas, around 1876, that she is said to have first met that gambling, drinking, consumptive dentist John Henry Holliday–who went by the nickname ‘Doc’–and his friend Wyatt Earp.

The rest, as they say, is history, though not part of ours.

But isn’t it interesting to imagine that for a few years, we were part of hers?

(posted by Sarah)

*Part II was posted for this story on September 14, 2011.  Please click here to view.

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A Davenport Success Story: Von Maur, Inc.

Posted on June 2, 2008 by SCblogger

Way back when Davenport was just getting started, general stores, or dry-goods stores, stocked almost everything a person might need, and maybe a few little extras they might want. At the same counter, one could buy a yard of fabric, ten-cent nails, a box or two of buckshot, a barrel of flour, and maybe a length of ribbon for the wife and a few pieces of maple candy for the kids.

As things became settled and Davenporters grew more sophisticated, shops became specialized. It now took visits to at least three stores to run the same errands, though the quality and quantity of goods was much improved, especially when the railroad came through.

Some general dry goods stores remained, and one of these was run by John C. Petersen, who established his store in 1872. Business was good, and Mr. Petersen decided that the newfangled department store idea—sort of putting several specialty shops in one place, would make it even better. He hired Frederick Claussen to design a large red brick building on the corner of 2nd Street and Main and put a sign reading J. H. C. Petersen & Sons over the door.

Petersen’s wasn’t the only game in town. The Boston Store, established in 1887 by Roland Harned, E.C. Pursel, and C. J. Von Maur, went departmental in 1898. The two competed for a while, until John C. Petersen and two of his sons passed away. In 1916, William Petersen sold the business to Mr. Harned and C. J. and Cable Von Maur (Pursel had passed in 1897). The two stores continued, albeit under the same owners.

In 1928, the stores merged in a more public way, and were renamed Petersen Harned Von Maur. This name continued as the business developed and expanded, even when Mr. Harned died, leaving the Von Maur family in sole ownership in 1937. In 1972, the business celebrated its 100th anniversary (that would be the Petersen part) by opening its first mall location in Bettendorf, Iowa. In 1989, the business shortened its name to Von Maur, Inc.

Since then, Von Maur has expanded its stores well beyond the Quad-Cities, but it all began here—just another Davenport success story.

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Elsie Von Maur: Seventy-Five Years of Quad-City Music

Posted on May 29, 2008 by SCblogger

The recent passing of Elsie Von Maur at the age of 106 led us to realize that our collection of Symphony programs reflect almost ninety-two years of music, seventy-five of which may be seen as part of Mrs. von Maur’s legacy.

In fact, without her, our program collection probably wouldn’t take up so much shelf space . . .
On February 10, 1916, a small group of musicians and music-minded citizens from Davenport, Rock Island and Moline met to discuss the possibility of an orchestra made of musicians from the Tri-City area. They were serious about the idea, and by March had secured a director, Ludwig Becker of Chicago, and enlisted 60 area musicians with the consent of the Tri-City Musicians’ Union. The Tri-City Symphony (as it was then called) played its first concert on May 29, 1916 in the Burtis Opera House in front of a 1,200 member audience. At the time, The Tri-Cities were the smallest community in the country to boast a symphony orchestra.

Despite the success of the concert and the following season, the symphony had its growing pains, mostly monetary. Private financial support fluctuated so widely that the orchestra played eight concerts during one season and only three the next. The initial orchestra was a mix of professional and amateur musicians, none of whom were initially paid—but all of whom had to eat. The Great Depression had ticket sales falling and the Musician’s Union insisting that all members of the orchestra should receive some kind of payment. The symphony simply couldn’t meet those demands, and although some of the professional musicians quit the union and stayed, most of them walked. After a year or so of fighting the union and the budget, Ludwig Becker resigned in 1933.

After paying its bills as best it could, by September 1933 the orchestra was completely out of money. The empty sections in the orchestra were filled with amateur musicians who, however dedicated, could not handle the challenging, complicated programs that the community had come to expect. In order to keep community interest, tickets to the 1933-34 season were handed out for free, except for a few 25 cent seats. The new director, Frank Kendrie, was paid only $100 per concert.

It would have been easy to shut everything down, but the Symphony Association just rolled up its sleeves and got to work. Among the board members who were determined to save the orchestra was Mrs. Richard von Maur, Sr., called Elsie by her friends. Elsie Burdette Wood von Maur was the daughter of Philadelphia composer and organist David Duffield Wood, and a musician in her own right. Not a stranger to symphonies—her family had been involved in the founding of the Philadelphia Orchestra–Mrs. von Maur had joined the Association in 1930, shortly after her marriage.

In 1934, Mrs. von Maur, newly elected to the executive committee, suggested that the orchestra start charging for tickets and resume the original practice of hiring well-known guest artists to encourage sales. These strategies worked, and by the next season, the orchestra was well on its way to solvency. By October of that year, the Symphony and the Union had settled their disagreements, and by the next season, local professional musicians returned to the Symphony.

In 1940, Mrs. von Maur was appointed the orchestra’s first manager, a position she held for 47 years. According to Bill Wundram of the Quad-City Times (May 14, 2008) she was responsible for the Symphony’s traditional playing of the Star Spangled Banner before performances—a practice begun on December 7, 1941, hours after news of the attack on Pearl Harbor was broadcast. Since that day, there is no applause after the anthem, echoing the stunned silence of that first audience.

Many programs and fundraising traditions were established during Mrs. von Maur’s tenure as manager and volunteer—the popular concerts, the Youth Orchestra, and the school tours are still going strong. From a budget of essentially nothing, the Symphony now has over half a million dollars in support each year.

In 1974, Mrs. Von Maur received a Governor’s Award for her contributions to Iowa music—the first such award given.

The Quad-City Symphony knows she deserves it, as do we all.

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In Remembrance

Posted on May 23, 2008 by SCblogger

Anyone who has gone far enough along Main has passed it– but how many of us have taken the time to look at the large stone memorial in the middle of the street or think twice about why it stands there?

On May 25, 1865, a month and a half after the assassination of the president, the Lincoln Monument Association of Scott County was formed. Its object was not only to erect a fitting tribute to the country’s fallen leader, but to honor the men of Scott County who had died in the Civil War.

Six years later, only $707.40 had been collected through donations, a sign of the post-war economy. In May of 1871, Nicholas Fejervary, one of Davenport’s most prominent and wealthy citizens, offered to donate a staggering $1300, on one condition: that the monument be dedicated solely to the soldiers of Scott County.

This condition was accepted and word spread about the new purpose of the renamed Scott County Soldiers’ Monument Association. As Harry Downer puts it in his 1910 history, “After this donations began to increase and . . . it became apparent that provisions would soon have to be made for the actual building of a soldier’s monument.” The contract for the design was awarded to R. F. Carter of South Rydate, Vermont. The price set for its construction was $8,000, which did not include the foundation.

There was some lengthy discussion on the appropriate site for the monument. In July of 1880, the Association presented a formal petition asking the City Council to consider the corner of Perry and Seventh Streets. But by September, they submitted an amended petition for the center of Main Street, between Eleventh and Twelfth Streets. A circle of land twenty-four feet in diameter would be apportioned. To keep traffic flowing, Main Street would expanded on either side, carving out portions of land owned by Griswold College and Grace Cathedral, who had already granted a perpetual lease to the city for those sections of ground.

The Association believed that this site, high on a hill overlooking the central city, would be perfect:
“By so allowing . . . your honorable body will, we believe, greatly subserve the general interests of the city . . .” (Davenport Gazette, 24Sept1880, p.4).

The Council agreed, and on January 15, 1909, the monument and grounds were officially given to the city by the Association, which was then dissolved. For many years, Memorial Day exercises were held at the monument by the Loyal Legion, the Sons of Veterans, the Women’s Relief Corps, and other organizations, presided over by the Grand Army of the Republic.

The monument is built of a single piece of solid English granite on a foundation of Nauvoo stone. Fifty feet above the base is a pedestal with an eight-foot figure of an infantry soldier of 1861. On each side are bias relief panels with emblems representing the armed forces of the nation and eulogies for the fallen.

To the south is the United States coat of arms, and the words, “Erected by the citizens of Scott County, In Memory of the Fellow Citizens who Died in Defense of the Union 1861-1865.”

To the west, the sabers and revolvers of the cavalry, and the epitaph, “Proved themselves the Bravest of the Brave—General H. W. Halleck.”

To the east are the anchor and shot of the navy, with, “An Honor to their Friends at Home, to the State, and their Country.”

And to the north, the crossed cannons of the artillery and the quote of another of the fallen: “They died ‘That Government of the People by the People and for the People Might not Perish from the Earth’—A. Lincoln.”

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Memorial Day Closing

Posted on May 23, 2008 by SCblogger

Our library will be closed this Monday in honor of Memorial Day. 

We are still open tomorrow, though, so come on in and stock up on genealogy and local history before 5:30!

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Now Available! An Online Davenport Newspaper Index!

Posted on May 22, 2008 by SCblogger

We are excited to finally be able to offer our in-house local newspaper index online.

This is a subject index for events and articles of local interest from the Quad-City Times, the Leader, the River Cities Reader, and other area publications from roughly 1993 to the present, plus some earlier dates. It’s an ongoing project, so there may be a few gaps here and there—but items will be added frequently!

Please be aware that the index does not include obituaries, marriage announcements, or other personal announcements or records. But if you’re looking for these, do not despair–try our Local Database Search!

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