Workday Wednesday: American Can Co. Munitions Plant

In 1917, my second cousin twice removed Earl Jerome Hart (the grandson of my 2nd-great-grandmother's brother Elias Erickson) worked as an inspector at American Can Company's munition works in Geneva, New York.

World War I draft registration card, Earl Jerome Hart. Ancestry.com. U.S., World War I Draft Registration Cards, 1917-1918 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 2005. Original data: United States, Selective Service System. World War I Selective Service System Draft Registration Cards, 1917-1918. Washington, D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration. M1509, 4,582 rolls. Imaged from Family History Library microfilm. 

The American Can Company had government contracts to produce munitions for World War I.

 Newark Union- Gazette (Newark, NY), 20 April 1918, page 9

In 1917, the men were paid at least 25 cents per hour, and they worked 62 hours per week.

Rochester Democrat and Chronicle, 9 May 1917, page 5

75 mm and 7-inch shrapnel were produced at American Can Co.'s factories.

United States. Congress. House. Select Committee on Expenditures in the War Department. War Expenditures: Hearings Before Subcommittee No. 5 (Ordnance) of the Select Committee on Expenditures in the War Department, House of Representatives, Sixty-sixth Congress, First session on War Expenditures. Washington, DC: Government Printing Office, 1919. Available from Google Books.

In 1916, the Geneva plant operated continuously, and there were two shifts. They had a half hour lunch break.

Rochester Democrat and Chronicle, 15 May 1916, page 5

In January 1917, only one shift worked each week due to a shortage of brass. The two shifts alternated weeks. At this time, the men were producing brass shrapnel cases for the Russian government.

Rochester Democrat and Chronicle, 30 January 1917, page 4

In March 1917, the plant began manufacturing three-inch shrapnel cases after getting another contract. The workers' wages were not cut, but they were not paid time and a half for overtime.

 Rochester Democrat and Chronicle, 7 March 1917, page 4

During summer vacations, Hobart College students worked in the munitions plant.

 Hobart Herald, 6 October 1917, page 2

About 650 men worked at the Geneva plant in 1917. A few women worked as inspectors, along with my cousin Earl Jerome Hart.

Workday Wednesday: Nashville, Chattanooga & St. Louis Railway Employee Picnic

Nashville American, 15 June 1902, page 9

My 2nd-great-grandfather's brother Clarence Bateman Gatlin worked as a boilermaker for the Nashville, Chattanooga & St. Louis Railway. The railway employees organized an annual picnic. In 1902, Clarence served as president. He attended the picnic at White Bluff, Dickson County, Tennessee.In addition to lunch, there were athletic contests, a band, and dancing. One of the athletic contests was a tug of war with ten men on each side. The blacksmiths, boilermakers, and round-house men defeated the planing mill, car shop, and coach shop men, and shared a box of cigars afterward.

Workday Wednesday: Bicycles for Selling Newspaper Subscriptions

In 1896, children could win bicycles by working for the Nashville newspaper The American. To get a bicycle, a child had to get fifty subscribers for the newspaper. A child who got at least six subscribers was given a watch.

My great-grandfather's older sister Florence Gatlin was one of the children that earned a bicycle. She was  13 ½ years old at the time.

Nashville American, 28 April 1896, page 5

Workday Wednesday: J. S. Tarkington Seeks Employment as a Plantation Manager

In 1851, Joseph S. Tarkington placed an ad in the Franklin, Louisiana newspaper Planters' Banner, seeking employment as a manager in the planting business.

Planters' Banner, 29 November 1851, page 3

I suspect that Joseph S. Tarkington was the father of my 3rd-great-grandfather Joseph Tarkington.

Workday Wednesday: Scranton Coal

In 1866, my 4th-great-grandfather Hugh Winters was a cartman. He drove a coal wagon for the Scranton Coal Co., located at Furman St., near State St., Brooklyn, New York.

Brooklyn Daily Eagle, 23 November 1866

Brooklyn Daily Eagle, 30 April 1866

The coal was delivered from northeastern Pennsylvania to New York by way of the Delaware & Hudson Canal and the Gravity Railroad.

Coal had many uses. It was a source of fuel for steamships and railroads, and it was also used in stoves. There was a monthly public coal sale in Brooklyn, New York.

Brooklyn Daily Eagle, 23 March 1866

Brooklyn Daily Eagle, 21 December 1866

Available from  Brooklyn Eastern District Terminal, BEDT, East River Terminal Railroad & Palmers Dock

Coal wagon. One of a series of designs for various types of horse-drawn transport by J & C Cooper, 1904.  Coachbuilders and Wheelwrights' Art Journal. Available from Wikimedia Commons.

Portion of map of Brooklyn and vicinity, from Rand McNally's Atlas of the World, 1897. Scanned by David Rumsey Collection. Available from Wikimedia Commons. This is the area where Hugh Winters lived and worked in 1866.

Workday Wednesday: Theodore Christopher Troedson, Director of the Queensland Intelligence and Tourist Bureau

My first cousin three times removed Theodore Christopher Troedson was the director of the Queensland Intelligence and Tourist Bureau. The Bureau was established on 11 April 1907. Theodore became Acting Director in 1908, and he was Director by 1911. The Bureau promoted tourism in Queensland. It produced pamphlets, which were available by mail or at the Bureau. The 1915 pamphlet Hints to Tourists provides information about tourist attractions in Queensland, as well as the best times to take a trip. The Bureau also produced color postcards and created tourism exhibits.

Theodore often traveled on business. In 1918, he published an article, "White Grown Sugar in Queensland", in the Mid-Pacific Magazine, vol. 15; the article emphasized the opportunities to make money in Queensland.

Brisbane Courier, 3 July 1908, page 4

Queenslander, 24 August 1912, page 40

Northern Herald, 14 May 1913, page 6

Morning Bulletin, 18 June 1913, page 6

Queenslander, 2 April 1921, page 6

Queensland Times, 13 November 1924, page 4

Sydney Mail, 1 November 1911, page 22

Inside front cover of Hints to Tourists. Issued by the Queensland Government Intelligence and Tourist Bureau, 1915. Available from Internet Archive.

Workday Wednesday: Wonder Lake Syndicate

The 1930 United States census shows that Fritz Arthur Gilbert, the husband of my great-grandmother's sister Juliet Dahlquist, was the treasurer for a company that made artificial lakes.

1930 United States census, Chicago, Illinois, Ward 17, population schedule, enumeration district 16-647, sheet no. 4B. Available from Ancestry.com. 1930 United States Federal Census [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 2002.

The 1940 United States census shows that he was the treasurer for a real estate supply company.

1940 United States Census. Chicago, Illinois, Ward 17, population schedule, enumeration district 103-1148, sheet no. 2A. Available from Ancestry.com. 1940 United States Federal Census [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2012.

Fritz Arthur Gilbert's World War II draft registration card shows that the company he worked for was Wonder Lake Syndicate.

Draft registration card, Fritz A. Gilbert. United States, Selective Service System. Selective Service Registration Cards, World War II: Fourth Registration. Records of the Selective Service System, Record Group Number 147. National Archives and Records Administration. Available from Ancestry.com. U.S., World War II Draft Registration Cards, 1942 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2010.

The Wonder Lake Realty Trust, or Wonder Lake Syndicate, purchased farmland in McHenry County, Illinois. In 1929, a dam was built across Nippersink Creek, and the farmland was flooded to create an artificial lake. The plan was to create a recreational community patterned after Lake Geneva, Wisconsin. Houses were build along the shores of the lake. The first subdivision opened in 1930. In 1934, 46 homes were built at Wonder Lake, and nearly 100 parcels of land were sold. In 1935, 95 homes were built, and 180 home sites were sold. In 1936, 75 houses were built, and 200 home sites were purchased. By 1953, 300,000 to 400,000 lots had been sold.

In 1963, the Wonder Lake Syndicate turned the lake over to the Master Property Owners Association, which represented the subdivisions of the community.

In 1968, Fritz Arthur Gilbert was vice president and treasurer of Wonder Lake Realty Trust. His death certificate (dated 4 March 1978) states that he was president of a real estate company.

True Republican, 6 November 1929, page 7. Available from Illinois Digital Newspaper Collections.

View of Wonder Lake, 1930. Photo by Lester Klintworth. Available from Wonder Lake Live.

United States Census Bureau reference map of Wonder Lake (CDP), Illinois. Available from Wikimedia Commons.

References
Century's Turn Saw Start of Fine Lake Sites. Chicago Tribune, 30 May 1953, part 1, page 10.
Hall of Fame Cites Palatine Resident. Chicago Tribune, 5 May 1968, section 10, page 2.
A Legend Grows in Popularity
Machaj, Sandra Landen. Northeast McHenry County. Charleston, SC: Arcadia Publishing, 2009.
75 Homes Built So Far at Wonder Lake in 1936. Chicago Tribune, 19 July 1936, part 2, page 14.

Workday Wednesday: Telephone Operators

To keep up with the growth of telephone networks, multiple switchboards were introduced. Operators sat before the middle panel of a three-panel board which contained jacks for subscriber lines, and could stretch to reach the jacks on the left and right panels. They sometimes worked in groups of three. Almost all telephone operators were women. They often answered 125 calls or more per hour.

Telephone service came to Middle Tennessee in 1880. In 1885, my great-great-grandfather's sister Jennie Tarkington worked for the Cumberland Telephone & Telegraph Co. in Nashville. The following year, her sister Julia also worked for the company, which moved its headquarters to Nashville in 1888. For more than thirty years, members of the Tarkington family were telephone operators. My great-grandmother's sister Margaret "Maggie" Tarkington was working for the Cumberland Telephone & Telegraph Co. in 1898, at the age of 14. In 1903, her sister Viola Maydell Tarkington and her cousin Susie Tarkington were also working for the company. Jennie and Julia's sister Adeline Sophronia "Fronie" Tarkington worked as a telephone operator for the East Tennessee Telephone Co. in Chattanooga in 1904. In 1905, Maggie, Viola, and my great-grandmother Gertrude Tarkington were all working at 180 3rd Av. N. in Nashville, where the East Tennessee Telephone Co. was located. By 1910, Maggie was the only one still working as a telephone operator, and she continued working in this field through 1917, when she was an operator at the post office.

References
Hello! The Telephone Girl
Lipartito, Kenneth.  "When Women Were Switches: Technology, Work, and Gender in the Telephone Industry, 1890-1920." American Historical Review 99 (1994): 1074-1111.
Telephone service comes to Robertson

Newspaper advertisement, 1901. Available from http://archive.tennessean.com/article/20070718/MTCN0303/307180058/Telephone-service-comes-Robertson.

Cumberland Telephone and Telegraph Company stamp. Available from http://gb-precancels.org/Telegraphs/World/USA-TP.html.

Nashville, Tennessee city directory, 1885

Nashville, Tennessee city directory, 1898

Nashville, Tennessee city directory, 1908

Nashville, Tennessee city directory, 1898

Nashville, Tennessee city directory, 1903

Chattanooga, Tennessee city directory, 1904

Nashville, Tennessee city directory, 1905

Nashville, Tennessee city directory, 1917

"Operators at Work in the Telephone Exchange", New Orleans, 1893. Artist not credited; signed but not legible (Via Times-Picayune archive) [Public domain]. Available from Times-Picayune Archive and Wikimedia Commons.

Workday Wednesday: Augusta "Gussie" (Gersbacher) Parker, Hotel Waiter

Vista del Arroyo Hotel, 125 South Grand Avenue, Pasadena, Los Angeles County, CA. Historic American Buildings Survey, creator. Available from Library of Congress and Wikimedia Commons.

My great-grandmother's sister Augusta "Gussie" (Gersbacher) Parker worked as a waiter at hotels in Pasadena, California. The 1927 Pasadena city directory lists Gussie as a waiter at the Hotel Vista Del Arroyo.

Thurston's Pasadena (California) City Directory 1927, Including Altadena and Lamanda Park. Los Angeles, CA: Los Angeles Directory Co. Available from Ancestry.com. U.S. City Directories, 1821-1989 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2011.

Emma C. Bangs opened the original Vista del Arroyo Hotel in 1882. Daniel M. Linnard purchased the hotel in 1919 and commissioned the architectural firm Marston & Van Pelt to design a new two-story building in the Spanish Colonial Revival style. In 1926, H. O. Comstock purchased the hotel. He hired architect George H. Wiemeyer to redesign the hotel and add a six-story building. Bungalows were also built on the property. The dining halls, including the Sunset Room and the Spanish Room, overlooked the grounds.In 1943, the United States Department of War purchased the hotel and converted in into an army hospital. The building is now the Richard H. Chambers United States Court of Appeals.

The 1934 Pasadena city directory lists Gussie as a waiter at the Maryland Hotel.

Thurston's Pasadena (California) City Directory 1934, Including Altadena, Lamanda Park, and San Marino. Los Angeles, CA: Los Angeles Directory Co. Available from Ancestry.com. U.S. City Directories, 1821-1989 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2011. 

The Maryland Hotel was located on Colorado Boulevard. It was a year-round hotel, not a seasonal hotel. The first owner, Colin Stewart, was from Maryland and named the hotel after his home state. It was later owned by Daniel M. Linnard. On 18 April 1914, the hotel was almost completely destroyed in a fire. Myron Hunt designed the new building, which opened later that year. The hotel was torn down shortly after 20 August 1937.

When Gussie filled out her application for a Social Security number on 27 November 1936, she stated that she worked for the Huntington Hotel Co.

The Huntington Hotel was originally called the Hotel Wentworth. It was built by Wentworth and designed by Charles Frederick Whittlesey in the the Spanish Colonial Revival style. The hotel opened in February 1907. There were heavy rains during the hotel's first season, so many potential guests went elsewhere, and the hotel closed at the end of the season. Henry Huntington purchased the hotel in 1911, and it was redesigned by Myron Hunt. It reopened in 1914 as the Huntington Hotel. Every evening, formal dinners were held in the Georgian Ballroom. The hotel was originally a winter resort, but in 1926 it began to stay open year-round, and an Olympic-size swimming pool was added. Stephen W. Royce later owned the hotel, and he sold it to the Sheraton Corporation in 1954. The hotel was renamed the Huntington Sheraton. The hotel closed in 1985, but reopened in 1991 as the Ritz-Carlton, Huntington Hotel. The hotel was purchased by the Langham Hospitality Group in 2008 and renamed the Langham Huntington, Pasadena.

Gussie worked as a waiter at least through 1949, but the later city directories do not list her place of employment.

References
Conyers, Patrick, Phillips, Cedar, and the Pasadena Museum of History. Pasadena: A Business History. Images of America. Arcadia Publishing, 2007
Early Views of Pasadena
History of Pasadena, California
History of the Huntington Hotel
The Langham Huntington, Pasadena
The Langham Huntington Pasadena Commemorates 100 Years of Enchanting Hospitality
Richard H. Chambers United States Court of Appeals
Vista del Arroyo Hotel

Workday Wednesday: Pevely Dairy

Photograph of a detail sign on the Pevely Dairy Company Plant office building (viewed looking west) at 1001 S. Grand Avenue, St. Louis, Missouri. 4 March 2012. By Poroubalous (Own work) [CC-BY-SA-3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0)]. Available from Wikimedia Commons.

My great-grandmother Kathleen (Graham) Boe worked for the Pevely Dairy in St. Louis, Missouri. According to Boe (Bø) and Halvorson-Otterholt: Shared Roots in Telemark, compiled by Melvin and Alpha (Boe) Broadshaug, Kathleen worked for the dairy in a public relations capacity. The 1930 United States Census shows her as working as Educational Director for a dairy company.

Kathleen Boe household. 1930 United States Census, St. Louis City, Missouri, Ward 14 (part), population schedule, enumeration district 96-496, sheet no. 3A.

Kathleen filed a patent for a design for a scorecard on 4 April 1927, and the patent was granted on 16 October 1928. The design included milk bottles, so it is likely that she created it while working for the Pevely Dairy.

Boe, Kathleen. Design for a Score Card.Patent USD76601. Application filed 4 April 1927. Patented 16 October 1928. Available from http://www.google.com/patents/USD76601.

Boe, Kathleen. Design for a Score Card.Patent USD76601. Application filed 4 April 1927. Patented 16 October 1928. Available from http://www.google.com/patents/USD76601.

My mother told me that Kathleen was responsible for the introduction of milk into the St. Louis public schools. During the Great Depression, free milk programs were established in the St. Louis Public Schools. These are probably the programs that Kathleen was involved with.

The Peveley Dairy was founded in 1887 by Martin W. Kerckhoff.  It was originally located at 1312 South Seventh Street. In 1903, a three-story building was erected at 3301 Park Avenue. In 1916, the plant on the corner of Chouteau Avenue and Grand Boulevard was constructed. Its eight acres of property included the company's headquarters, a dairy production facility, a soda fountain, and a stable for the horses which were used to deliver milk by wagon. In the 1940s, Pevely Dairy had more than 350 milk delivery routes. Pevely Dairy was purchased by Prairie Farms in 1989. The factory was closed in 2008. The dairy complex was placed on the National Register of Historic Places. St. Louis University purchased the property in August 2011, and began demolition in 2012.

Photograph of marquee sign on the Pevely Dairy Company Plant office building (viewed looking west) at 1001 S. Grand Avenue, St. Louis, Missouri. 4 March 2012. By Poroubalous (Own work) [CC-BY-SA-3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0)]. Available from Wikimedia Commons.

Photograph of a detail sign on the Pevely Dairy Company Plant office building (viewed looking west) at 1001 S. Grand Avenue, St. Louis, Missouri. 4 March 2012. By Poroubalous (Own work) [CC-BY-SA-3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0)]. Available from Wikimedia Commons.

References
Pevely Dairy Company Plant
Prairie Farms Closes Pevely Plant. (December 2008). Dairy Foods, 109(12), 14.
Remembering the Pevely Legacy
The History of One Dairy Plant. (April 1919). The Milk Dealer, 8, 68.