For this
post, I’m focusing on some of my various miscellaneous paper collectibles…
My-o-my
how retailing has changed! This refund
voucher for 18 cents was issued to a Montgomery Ward catalog customer in
October of 1956. In today’s dollars,
it’s would be for about $1.69. These
days, on-line refunds are almost instantaneous…but generally you can’t take them
to a bank for redemption. Note that 6
major banks are listed on the voucher that would back up the refund. Montgomery Ward was in business from 1872 until 2001...and I was working at the corporate office when it closed.
During
the Victorian Age and into the twentieth century, school children were given
paper ephemeral ‘merit awards’ for good behavior. When issued, the well behaved student’s name
was written on the card and on some cards the teacher also signed them. “Merit” awards or rewards were given for
punctuality and attendance as well as for proper or good conduct. In addition, younger students were given
merit awards for Sunday school work and those a bit older would receive them
for overall signs of improvement in their studies.
Early
“Rewards of Merit” were frequently quite elaborate with hand colored and fancy
motives and decoration. These older
cards are quite collectible and can be valuable. However, later in the 1800s publishers began
mass producing standardized awards and all the teacher had to do is just fill
in the student’s name. Unfortunately,
these 3 cards which range from 25 merits down to a single merit, fall into this
latter class of merit cards.
If you
would like to view some truly beautiful student merit cards just go to: http://myauctionfinds.com/2014/05/12/reward-of-merit-cards-for-the-good-student/. To view some more basic merit cards,
including one that is somewhat similar in design with my “One Merit” award
card, go to https://www.metmuseum.org/blogs/now-at-the-met/2016/reward-of-merit-cards-jefferson-burdick-collection.
There are
‘standard’ postcards and then there are what are referred to as ‘novelty’
postcards. This old 1908 postcard
featuring an enthusiastic well-dressed female fan or student cheering the
sports teams on is definitely one of the novelty variety. The flag is actually a piece of felt applied
to the paper stock. At one point it
would have been a much brighter green.
For the
record, MAC stood for Michigan Agricultural College, the predecessor to
Michigan State University. It was of
interest to me as that’s where I went to college as did our son, David II. Both of David II’s grandfathers and his
mother also graduated from MSU. As for
the card’s recipient, she was Mrs. G. Dahlstrom from Jennings Michigan. It took a 2 cent stamp to mail it… (Post card
postage today is 35 cents)
FYI,
Steven Terry, who is a ‘deltiologist’ (post card collector), specialized in MAC
postcards from about 100 years ago…and he actually published a book featuring
his collection. While I personally would
only want the real postcards, you can go to https://shop.msu.edu/product_p/us-191.htm to check it out…
Somehow, probably through my brother Bob, I
acquired this Milan Missouri Karyl Theatre movie handout (ca. 1938) advertising
upcoming films. None of them played for
more than 2 days…unlike today. Errol
Flynn in “The Dawn Patrol” was the big deal those days. Showings included a Porky Pig
Cartoon as well as music by the Jimmie Dorsey Orchestra.
“The Dawn
Patrol” featured one heck of a cast! Not
only Errol Flynn but also Basil Rathbone and David Niven! FYI, the first iteration of “The Dawn
Patrol”…yes this was a remake…stared Douglas Fairbanks Jr. Among the other movies on the ad, I noted
that Donald O’Connor had top billing in “Tom Sawyer, Detective” but I learned
that he was Huck Finn in the movie.
Milan
Missouri is located in the north central part of the state, not far from the
Iowa State line. Originally the
all-purpose “Opera House”, it began showing silent movies in 1908. In 1926 it was renamed as the Harmon
Theatre. By 1931 it was called the Grand
Theatre. Then in 1934, it was named the
Karyl Theater. As a later date it was
called the Milan Theatre but then it was closed in 1947. I couldn’t find any indication that the
building is still there…
This item
dates me just a bit. I’m old enough to
recognize an ‘ink blotter’ when I see one.
This particular piece of ink blotter advertising is at least 95 years
old…and probably is over 100 years old.
Acorn Stoves and Ranges were a popular brand that was made by Rathbone,
Sard and Company, a very successful manufacturer of wood and coal stoves as
well as early gas stoves or ranges.
The
Company was founded in Albany New York in 1833 but by 1890, they also had
operations in Chicago and Aurora Illinois and Detroit Michigan. At its height, the American stove industry
was the fifth largest manufacturing industry in the USA. It boasted more than 2,000 companies, each
manufacturing a full line of heating stoves and kitchen ranges.
As is the
norm for my paper ephemera odds and ends, my advertising ink blotter is plain
and lacks true pizzazz. Many of the Acorn cards, brochures and ad sheets are not only colorful but they are actually
works of art. You can check some of them
out at: https://www.google.com/search?rlz=1C1CHBF_enUS758US758&sxsrf=ACYBGNTaJgmjBlp1qafA8lzZ1i5JzsD7Sw:1580417819756&q=rathbone+sard+and+company&tbm=isch&source=univ&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwiCwviVm6znAhUSK30KHTWmDJ8QsAR6BAgKEAE&biw=1229&bih=578&dpr=1.56.
This
mailed advertising folder from 1907 (1 cent postage), is one of my favorites
despite its condition. It definitely
speaks to a far different era for consumers well before chain stores and
today’s on-line shopping. The company
was founded by William T. Rawleigh, a medicine peddler who, beginning in 1889
at the age of 19, managed to turn his early success into an international
company.
Rawleigh
began by making products to sell in his mother’s kitchen near Mineral Point
Wisconsin. In time he expanded to a
large laboratory in Freeport Illinois.
By 1902, the company became the W.T. Rawleigh Medical Company and by
1916 it was just called the W.T. Rawleigh Company. At his peak, Rawleigh had branches and
warehouses in other states and countries and was importing ingredients from
Asia.
I wonder
if Mrs. Miller in St. Joseph Missouri was looking forward to her visit by “The
Rawleigh Man”. If you turn this photo
around and look at the printing, you will note that it includes a statement
that their products are “guaranteed under the Food and Drug Act of 1906”.
I like
the other side of these materials even more… Love the official peddler’s wagon
with a 2-horse hitch! As advertised on
the side of that wagon, the company was no longer just peddling ‘remedies’. Flavoring extracts, ground spices, toilet
articles and ‘stock food’ were all part of the “Rawleigh Man’s
“repertoire. Some of these products are
listed above but the company actually sold over 100 household products. There was an entire fleet of salesmen like
this one who went door-to-door as well as a busy mail-order operation.
William
Rawleigh’s international travels inspired him to become a collector of art
forms…now part of the Freeport Illinois Art Museum. (Learn more at http://www.freeportartmuseum.com/home. He also served as a member of the Illinois
House of Representatives and was a delegate to the 1932 Republican National
Convention. Not too bad for a horse and
buggy peddler!
Amazingly
enough, the company is still in business…although ownership and the company
have changed a couple of times. However
the company has reverted to its original name and it’s now based in Palm Beach
Florida. Check it out at https://www.wtrawleigh.com/. I was interested to find another company that
claims the same heritage but this second operation is based in New Zealand and
also does business in Australia. Their
website is found at https://www.rawleighs.com/.
Like all
the changes in retailing, banking today isn’t what it used to be! This handsome $100.00 check, ($1,962 in
2020), was written in 1870 on the Bank of California in San Francisco and was payable
to what looks like Ben Halladay Jr. The
art work at the left side of the document is quite eye-catching. It’s also quite descriptive as the North
Pacific Transportation Company owned many ships operating from and along the
West Coast of the USA.
Curiously…or
coincidently…the
North Pacific Transportation Company, in collaboration with 2 other operations,
was owned by an entrepreneur named Benjamin Holliday. I couldn’t find any reference referring to
this Holliday as a Jr., but I’d sure like to compare signatures between ‘my’
Ben Halliday and that of the owner of the shipping line. The signature on the back of the check
clearly looks like an ‘o’, not an ‘a’.
However, Benjamin’s father was named William and Benjamin and his wife
had 2 daughters and no sons so the “Jr. doesn’t easily tie in.
With his
nickname, “King of the Stage Coach”, Benjamin Holliday was a key figure in
opening up the western portion of America.
He sold his business to Wells Fargo 2.5 years before the completion of
the first intercontinental railroad… Smart! Note: In 1857, Holliday built a distillery in
Weston Missouri which later became the McCormick Distillery. Learn more about Benjamin at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ben_Holladay.
As for
the Bank of California, it opened in 1864 in San Francisco. It was the first commercial bank in the
western USA and at one point, it was reputed to be the second richest bank in
the country. The bank went belly up in
1873 and then reopened. It was merged
with other banking interests that are all now part of Mitsubishi UFT, aka Union
Bank, which is now based in New York City.
Here are
2 other early bank checks… One of the first things you will note is the
‘postage like’ stamp in the upper right corner of each check. These are “Revenue Stamps” issued by the
Internal Revenue Service. These
particular “Liberty” stamps were
issued between 1875 and 1878. The check
issued in 1878 on Anderson, Chiles and Co., Bankers, in Independence Missouri
is about as plain as a check can be. The check drawn on First National Bank of
Stamford Connecticut in 1880 includes some nice art work.
The first
revenue stamps issued by the US Government were necessitated by the urgent need
to raise money to pay for the costs incurred during the American Civil
War. Of course, like all other forms of
taxation, this method of taxation continued long after the war…their use not
being discontinued until December of 1967!
There
were 2 types of revenue stamps…Proprietary
and Documentary. Proprietary stamps paid tax duties on goods
like alcohol and tobacco as well as various services. Documentary stamps paid duties on legal
documents, mortgage deeds, stocks, bank checks and other legal dealings. The largest denomination of one of these
stamps was $10,000 on one issued in 1954.
That stamp now has a catalog value for collectors of $1,750 mint and
$2,250 used.
On the other hand, an
imperforate green 3 cent George Washington stamp issued from 1862 – 1871 for
playing cards is listed with a value of $40,000! Of course, my 2 cent Liberty revenue stamps
are worth…45 cents each… You can learn more about revenue stamps at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Revenue_stamps_of_the_United_States.
This
stock certificate was purchased by Laurie’s grandfather, John L. Templeton in
August of 1920. He bought 5 shares of
the Gillespie Co-operative Society, Incorporated at Gillespie Illinois. They cost him $50.00, the equivalent of about
$640.00 in today’s dollars. Looking at
it another way, the average annual family income in 1920 was $3,270.00 or about
$63.00 a week.
Grandpa
Templeton immigrated to the USA from Scotland where he’d worked in the coal
mines. Gillespie’s main source of
employment were the many coal mines operated by the Chicago and Northwestern
Railroad Company throughout the township so John’s skills were in demand. At the time, it was said that the Gillespie
area boasted 3 of the largest coal mines in the world and substantial numbers
of foreign-born workers settled in and around the town.
I found a
reference to the Gillespie Co-operative Society in a publication titled “The
Co-Operative Consumer”. It was suggested
when forming other co-operatives, readers should contact the Gillespie Co-op
for guidance in putting together their bylaws.
From what I could gather, the objective of this co-operative was to buy
consumer products in bulk at a discount so that members could get a price break
on items they needed.
The
co-operative movement started in England and spread to the USA. It was a complex and sometimes contentious
effort to ease the cost of living for the working man. You can learn much more about co-operatives
at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_the_cooperative_movement.
This is
an ‘official program’ for the Auto Races on June 16, 1936 at the Jackson County
Fairgrounds in Jackson Michigan. The
program isn’t dated but the cover does offer a big clue as when it was printed.
As per
the ad for the Regent Café, our
family’s Sunday dinner ‘go to’ destination when I was just a lad, the restaurant
had been in business for 10 years when this program was published. The Regent
Café opened in 1926 and closed in 1966.
It was operated by Angelo and Ida Johns.
He was an immigrant from Macedonia and she was second generation
Polish. They did OK… The restaurant
seated 170, employed 90 and was recommended by Duncan Hines. To see photos of this classic eatery, just go
to https://www.flickr.com/photos/profkaren/4247036206.
Back to
those auto races… I don’t remember any auto races at the one-eighth mile track
at the Fairgrounds but then again, except perhaps for as an event during the annual
County Fair, auto racing moved to the Jackson Motor Speedway in 1948. I did note that the County Fair featured
stock car races this past summer.
The only
racing I remember at the Jackson County Fairgrounds was harness racing. My stepfather was a horseman so we went to
the races in town from time to time. I
remember one occasion when my mother, who wasn’t into horses, won a lot of
money on the races just betting on her instincts… My stepfather, Hugh Thomson,
wasn’t too happy!
After a
little research I was surprised to learn that harness racing at the Fairgrounds
continued over the years…shutting down in 2008 but staging a racetrack farewell
in July of 2018. When harness racing was
popular, prizes for the winners of big races at the fairgrounds could top
$100,000!
There
were 5 auto races on June 19, 1936. This
page shows space for the top 4 finishers in the first race. Love the phone numbers, don’t you!? Call Lakeside Dairy at #9545! Also, you should know that Goetze One Stop
Super Service ‘now has a new grease rack’.
On the next page (not pictured) there is an ad for Jewell Cleaners,
where you could get a suit cleaned a pressed for $1.00 and a dress for 85
cents…with free delivery!
As
expected, none of these businesses are still in operation. However, when I was checking on Jewell
Cleaners, I did run across the dry cleaners that my parents used back in the
1950s. Some companies just manage to
adapt and survive over the years.
Jackson’s Shafer Cleaners has been in business since 1898!
As you
can see, this page features a Cities Service Gas Station as well as Blue Star
Beer and ‘good old’ Hoosier Beer. FYI, “Good
Old Hoosier Beer” was the brand name of a brew originating in South Bend
Indiana and it was produced by Muessel’s Brewery.
At the
beginning of the twentieth century, Jackson had 13 breweries! The Eberle Brewing Company was one of the 2
biggest and the company managed to survive into the 1960s. Founded in the 1890s, Eberle produced 8 kinds
of traditional and seasonal beer, the most popular being Blue Star Beer. During prohibition, the company bottled their
own soft drinks. After prohibition…and 3
years before this racing program was printed, they once again began brewing
Blue Star Beer, this time in large quantities.
Only 5 years later, the company stopped producing beer.
FYI: For years the Jackson County Fair has
attracted many headline entertainers…some early in their success, some in the
middle of it and others on the downside.
For 2020 country star Toby Keith is a scheduled headliner! Tickets range from $68.00 to $198.00
each. Check out your seating options at https://www.ticketoffices.com/Toby-Keith/3391/3367794.
Here are
just some of the previous entertainers at this County Fair: Boyz II Men, Foreigner, Eddie
Money, Alabama, The Band Perry, Willie Nelson, Alice Cooper, Little Big Town,
Rascal Flatts, Kenny Chesney, Cheryl Crow, Blake Shelton, Destiny’s Child, Reba
McEntire, Brooks and Dunn, Tim McGraw, Vince Gill, Anne Murray, Wayne Newton, Red
Skelton, Chicago, Jefferson Starship, Oak Ridge Boys, Bob Hope, Seals and Croft,
Bob Seger and the Silver Bullet, Paul Revere and the Raiders, Johnny Cash/June
Carter, Marvelettes, Lassie, Bobby Vinton, Brenda Lee and Anita Bryant.
Talk
about an emotional plea for voter support!
This voter handout supporting the Missouri Prohibition of Intoxicating
Beverages Amendment was on Missouri’s ballot on November 8, 1910. The goal of this constitutional amendment was
to prohibit the manufacture and sale of alcoholic beverages in the state. I guess that voters thought that they did “have
a boy to spare” and voted for “the barrel” as Amendment Number Ten was defeated
by a 2 to 1 margin!
I was a
bit wordy so if you waded through all of this, you deserve at least 5
merits! Just click on any of the photos
to enlarge them…
Thanks
for stopping by for a visit!
Take Care,
Big Daddy Dave
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