Friday’s Faces from the Past: Curmudgeon Day
Benjamin Family, McMurray Family, Lee Family, Helbling Family (Click for Family Tree)
W. C. Fields (above) was a curmudgeon, and on the anniversary of his birth on 29 February 1880, we celebrate all the curmudgeons we know and love- or try to love.
What is a curmudgeon, you may ask? Generally described as a complaining, crotchety, critical old man, in the interest of equal rights we will include women as possibilities too. “Snarling contempt” is a good phrase that can describe the opinions, attitudes, and writings of curmudgeons. The very best curmudgeons, however, will add a bit of humor or dry wit to their scathing words, and give us an insight into the human condition; sometimes they even make a career out of it.
W. C. Fields is famous for many a curmudgeonly phrase, some from his movies, and some said on his own while in character (he was said to personally be a kind man). Many other quotes have been attributed to him but may not be really his words. Here are a few of his most famous:
The characters of William Shakespeare issued their share of curmudgeonly insults to each other long before- and now after- W. C. Fields:
“There’s no more faith in thee than in a stewed prune.” (from Henry V)
“Thine face is not worth sunburning.” (from Henry V)
“Your brain is as dry as the remainder biscuit after voyage.” (from As You Like It)
“You are as a candle, the better burnt out.” (from Henry IV, Part 1)
Nowadays, we may have to extend the definition of ‘curmudgeon’ to include cartoons (Lucy always complaining and nagging Charlie Brown), puppets (Oscar the Grouch), and even internet memes (Grumpy Cat). And when you put two together you get…
Isn’t the internet wonderful??
We all know some curmudgeons, and likely have a few in the family, though it is doubtful that any of our dear readers would fit into that category. We won’t name (many) names, but we do have a few ancestors who are long gone that we could possibly honor as Curmudgeons on this very special day.
OK, OK, it’s not really that special a day, as any true curmudgeon would proclaim.
Samuel J. Lee (1879-1964) ran a drugstore in St. Louis, Missouri. As the neighborhood changed and got quite a bit rougher, it is understandable that he might have turned a bit curmudgeonly. Only apparently Sam sort of was that way even before. A nephew who worked for him said that it did not take much to get Sam upset. He actually had a peephole in the wall of the drugstore- something common to many stores so that an owner could truly ‘keep an eye’ on things. The nephew stated, however, that Sam would monitor his work performance through the peephole, to make sure he did not dish out too much ice cream to a customer at the soda fountain, or even worse, sample the ice cream himself.
Sam was a quiet man, according to another family member. He didn’t talk much, and in the evenings would just go sit in the sunroom of the house on Alamo, read his paper and smoke a cigar. So maybe he was more a quiet man, and people just took that silence as curmudgeonly?
Gerard William “G. W.” Helbling (1882-1971) did not have the benefit of much formal education, but he was a brilliant man. That brilliance could drive some people crazy, though, like one of his daughters. She said he always had a criticism for a movie, an article, or whatever. He would explain how it could not really happen, why it wasn’t true, the facts that were missing, or how it was biased. He was most likely right, as he was a prodigious reader and knowledgeable about a whole lot of things. He would often guess what would happen next, and spoil the plot line.
He could be a very loving man, however, and the love he showed for his dear wife, Anna May (Beerbower) Helbling, was the kind of love women (ok, men too) dream about.
So maybe we can’t officially call him a curmudgeon? Maybe just a part-time curmudgeon, who was usually right.
We don’t really know enough about Hannah Melissa “Malissa” (Benjamin) McMurray (1854-1932) to officially proclaim her a curmudgeon. We don’t know that she was a complainer- her life was filled with work on the farm until her mid-fifties, and raising five children. She must have been a special woman to have endured it all, and some complaints, if any, should be excused.
But asking a descendant to identify the above picture was interesting. There was no name, and the informant was the young great-grandson pictured with Hannah Melissa (Benjamin) McMurray above. At first he did not recognize her through the fading lenses and memories of the 70+ years that had passed since that picture was taken. Then he looked up, in a somewhat taken aback fashion, when asked if it could be Hannah Melissa (Benjamin) McMurray. (Possibilities had been narrowed time-wise.) “Yes,” he replied. “She was VERY stern.” He was one who always gave people the benefit of the doubt, but apparently she curbed the enthusiasm of a toddler quite significantly, and he remembered it deeply when asked so many years later. He wouldn’t elaborate on whether that sternness was due to her complaining or just silently expecting him to toe the line; so maybe she was a pseudo-curmudgeon.
Jonathan Benjamin (1739-1841) was the third-great grandfather of Malissa (Benjamin) McMurray. Maybe Malissa got some of his ‘stern’ DNA.
The 1881 tome (816 pages!) compiled by N. N. Hill, Jr. called “History of Licking County, O., Its Past and Present: Containing a Condensed, Comprehensive History of Ohio, Including an Outline History of the Northwest, a Complete History of Licking County … a History of Its Soldiers in the Late War … Biographies and Histories of Pioneer Families, [and it goes on…]” tells Jonathan’s story the best:
https://warehouse13.wikia.com/wiki/File:W-C-Fields.jpg. CC-BY-SA license.
Please contact us if you would like higher resolution images. Click to enlarge images.
https://heritageramblings.net/2014/10/05/sundays-obituary-samuel-j-lee/
https://heritageramblings.net/2013/12/13/five-family-photos-for-friday-samuel-j-lee-of-st-louis-missouri/
https://heritageramblings.net/2013/12/19/those-places-thursday-samuel-j-lee-and-son-pharmacy-st-louis-missouri/
https://heritageramblings.net/2014/10/02/those-places-thursday-aiken-family-homes/
https://heritageramblings.net/2014/07/02/wordless-wednesday-lee-family-clock/Original content copyright 2013-2015 by Heritage Ramblings Blog and pmm.
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Wishful Wednesday: c1915 Letter to Santa from Gene Lee
Lloyd Eugene “Gene” Lee was born 06 Sep 1907 in St. Louis, Missouri, to Samuel J. Lee (1879-1964) and Dorothy Adele Aiken (1884-1953).
We are guessing that this letter was written possibly when he was about 8-11, so that would be around 1915-1919. (Kids learned to write later back then than they do now.)
Transcription:
“Gene Lee
1038 Grandview [return address]
[To:]
North Pole
Mr. santa clau [torn paper]”
Including that return address was vital, so Santa could find his house- no GPS or online directories for Santa back then. ;D
Transcription:
“Mr. santa clause
I want a hat a coat
a football a tran [train] a some [looks erased]
soldier game some books
a blackboard some games
a little santa clause.”
The request for the ‘soldier game’ may help to put the date around 1918 when World War I was in progress, although little boys always seem to want to play soldiers, whether with toy soldiers or today’s more sophisticated video war games.
Asking for a hat and coat first, necessities of life in the St. Louis winters, shows how tough economic times were at the end of the nineteen teens, and how practical people had to be everyday.
Even for Christmas.
Happy Holidays to all our family and readers!
Notes, Sources, and References:
1) Family treasure chest ephemera, in possession of author.
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Copyright 2013-2014 by Heritage Ramblings Blog and pmm.
We would love to read your thoughts and comments about this post, and thank you for your time! All comments are moderated, however, due to the high intelligence and persistence of spammers/hackers who really should be putting their smarts to use for the public good instead of spamming our little blog.Mystery Monday: Maria and Blackie
Who is Maria? Does this really say Maria, or is it Marcia? (Don’t know of any ‘Marcia’ in the family.)
This photo was in with Lee-Aiken family papers and photos.
The reverse:
Here are some other pictures that were in the same group. Vada (Kovich) Lee (second wife of Gene Lee, and she also lived in the Alamo house), had originally said this was Dottie Lee, but then decided it was not. She believed it to be an older version of the sunroom on Alamo, the Lee family household for generations in St. Louis, Missouri. She was unsure as to who it was, as she had not known Gene’s grandparents.
One possibility is that it is Maria Louisa (or Louisa Maria- Germans switched their two names about and were often called by their middle name) (Brandenburger) Lee. Maria was married to Samuel Lenton Lee, and their eldest child was Samuel J. Lee, who owned the home on Alamo. Samuel L died in June of 1932, so Maria would have been a widow after that, and possibly lived with her son or other children, or just made extended stays to St. Louis from their original home in Bunker Hill, Illinois. Maria died 06 May 1934 in Bunker Hill, not the 07 Feb 1935 as noted on the back of the first picture, but memories written on the back of pictures are not always accurate.
Could this be the same woman? We don’t know for sure who she is either. It would be great to find someone with these same images!
Notes, Sources, and References:
1) Lee Family Treasure Chest, reviewed with Gene and Vada Lee in the 1980s.
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Copyright 2013-2014 by Heritage Ramblings Blog and pmm.
We would love to read your thoughts and comments about this post, and thank you for your time! All comments are moderated, however, due to the high intelligence and persistence of spammers/hackers who really should be putting their smarts to use for the public good instead of spamming our little blog.Friday’s Faces from the Past: At 1038 Grand View Place in St. Louis, Missouri
Details of a house can give one clues to pictures with no names, addresses, or dates. The first picture in this post was positively identified by Gene Lee as being their Grand View home, and he identified his mother and the place in the image below. From there we need to make educated guesses about other images in a photo album that look similar.
Things we know about this house:
1) It has large white rectangular stones along foundation.
2) The house has brick above the foundation, probably a red brick.
3) There are arched bricks over lower windows of the house in the basement.
4) The house has a basement.
5) Lattice surrounds the base of the porch.
6) A wooden railing with columns surrounds the porch.
7) Height of porch is about 4 feet.
8) The front porch has wide steps.
9) It looks like the wild vegetation was cleared back and columns made bigger on the porch- note differences from first image, but others of these images were verified by Gene Lee (who lived there)- he said they were 1038 Grand View Place.
10) There is a lone tree at the base of the steps.
11) A narrow sidewalk curves around the side of the house.
11) The house appears to be on a cul-de-sac.
12) Using Google maps and street view, we can see that there is a large two-story building nearby (currently a school and may have been in the 1920s as well), plus a house nearby that has a third story window that is the maximum height for its width in the gable. (This house seems to have been demolished; the freeway is very close by now and the road was terminated.)
Using these clues, there are other images in the Lee photo album that were most probably taken at 1038 Grand View Place. Knowing who lived in the house at certain times can help us narrow the possibilities of the persons in the pictures.
The Lees had moved on to 6704 Alamo by the time of the 1930 US Federal census.
The house is still standing, and is listed on Zillow.com as being 1,444 sq. ft. with one bathroom, built in 1908. It is located near Clayton and Berthold Streets on Grandview Place (now ‘Grand View’ is one word instead of two). Due to Google’s Terms of Service I cannot post an image of the house, but if you click here, it should take you to the image.
Notes, Sources, and References:
1) Photos from the Lee family treasure chest.
2) GoogleMaps street view of house today: https://www.google.com/maps/@38.6310572,-90.3012714,3a,75y,87.49h,90.75t/data=!3m4!1e1!3m2!1sZ8aSXN4kZFkCNUzY4o9ygQ!2e0
Those Places Thursday: 1038 Grand View, St. Louis, Missouri
In the Gould’s 1917 City Directory for St. Louis, Missouri, Samuel J. Lee is listed as residing at 1038 Grand View Place.
The family probably purchased the house sometime between 1910 and 1917, as at the 1910 census, the family was living at 4063 Chouteau, very near Sam’s store at 4067 Chouteau. (Were they possibly living over the store in those early years?)
The family was still living in this house on Grand View Place when the 1920 US Federal Census was enumerated. Samuel J. Lee, his wife Dorothy (Aiken) Lee, their son Lloyd E. Lee (later known by his middle name, Eugene or “Gene”), and Dorothy’s mother Dora J. (Russell) Aiken (she was separated from her husband, William H. Aiken) were still living in the household. Sam had his own store and worked there as a druggist, and his mother-in-law also worked there, as a saleswoman.
The house was in a beautiful area- just a long block to Forest Park, the 1300+ acre park that was the site of the 1904 World’s Fair (AKA ‘Louisiana Purchase Exposition’). The park also houses the Art Museum, zoo, bandstands, picnic areas, lakes, etc., and has been a centerpiece of St. Louis life for well over a century. The surrounding homes were big for the time period, with two or three stories. Yards were fairly small since the home was in the city, but there were small trees planted on the lot to provide shade and some cooling in the relentless sun and heat of St. Louis summers.
Learning more about a house and it’s setting can help us to understand the socio-economic position of a family, their passions (gardens, yard art, etc.), their style, etc. Looking at the architectural features of a home can help us to identify unknown photos, and possibly help date them and give us clues about the people in the images.
Tomorrow: using clues from a house to help identify unmarked photos.
Notes, Sources, and References:
1) Photo from the Lee family treasure chest.
2) Gould’s 1917 City Directory for St. Louis, Missouri: Ancestry.com. U.S. City Directories, 1821-1989 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2011. https://interactive.ancestry.com/2469/11419399/619815277?backurl=http%3a%2f%2fsearch.ancestry.com%2fcgi-bin%2fsse.dll%3fdb%3dUSDirectories%26h%3d619815277%26ti%3d0%26indiv%3dtry%26gss%3dpt%26ssrc%3dpt_t4160486_p-1645006806_kpidz0q3d-1645006806z0q26pgz0q3d32768z0q26pgplz0q3dpid&ssrc=pt_t4160486_p-1645006806_kpidz0q3d-1645006806z0q26pgz0q3d32768z0q26pgplz0q3dpid&backlabel=ReturnRecord. Accessed 10/14/14.
3) 1920 US Federal Census for Samuel J. Lee household: Source Citation: Year: 1920; Census Place: St Louis Ward 24, St Louis (Independent City), Missouri; Roll: T625_960; Page: 1A; Enumeration District: 468; Image: 245. Ancestry.com. Accessed 10/14/14. https://interactive.ancestry.com/6061/4313228-00245/103082041?backurl=http%3a%2f%2fsearch.ancestry.com%2fcgi-bin%2fsse.dll%3fdb%3d1920usfedcen%26h%3d103082041%26ti%3d0%26indiv%3dtry%26gss%3dpt%26ssrc%3dpt_t4160486_p-1645006806_kpidz0q3d-1645006806z0q26pgz0q3d32768z0q26pgplz0q3dpid&ssrc=pt_t4160486_p-1645006806_kpidz0q3d-1645006806z0q26pgz0q3d32768z0q26pgplz0q3dpid&backlabel=ReturnRecord
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Copyright 2013-2014 by Heritage Ramblings Blog and pmm.
We would love to read your thoughts and comments about this post, and thank you for your time! All comments are moderated, however, due to the high intelligence and persistence of spammers/hackers who really should be putting their smarts to use for the public good instead of spamming our little blog.