Mary Theresa Helbling (later married to Edward A. McMurray, Jr.), loved dogs, and they loved her. Looking through the old Helbling family photo album, it is clear that she enjoyed them from the time she was very young.
1929- Mary Helbling with one of their puppies in her arms, one at her feet.
She often told her children stories of the pups.
October 1930- Mary T. McMurray ready to go out for a drive.October 1930- Mary T. McMurray ready to go out for a drive.
Having a series of photo albums is just wonderful. It allows comparisons over the years of people and places, and even dogs.
1931- Mary Helbling, summer, with Shaggy 1 and Babe.
It is interesting to see the progression of pups and how important they were to the family. There are quite a lot of photos in the album that include dogs!
1931- Mary Helbling with their pup Shaggy 1.
Look at those leggings, and note that it was summer in hot and humid St. Louis! Mary did remember, well into her later years, how hot, sticky, and baggy those stockings were. And was she already tired of the photo shoot? Or frustrated because Shaggy 1 apparently was, and just would not face the camera.
June 1934- Mary T. Helbling with her beloved older sister Viola Helbling and their dog Putsy.
The whole family seemed to love their dogs.
About 1935- Mary Helbling with one of their dogs harnessed, another behind, and a lollipop.
Was Mary trying to get a harness on the smaller dog so that they could go for a walk? Mary looks so cute with her lollipop in her mouth and bow on her hairband as she struggles with one of the small dogs.
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Viola Gertrude HELBLING (1913-1971) and Charles M. CARRIGAN (1916-1989) of St. Louis, Missouri, married 27 November 1941, per one researcher, but we have not yet found a record to confirm that date. Perhaps this photo was their wedding photo?
Vi was the daughter of Gerard William “G.W.” Helbling and Anna May (Beerbower) Helbling.
had married previously, in secret, as she was working and helped support her family. (Women sometimes gave up their jobs when they married back then.) That husband passed away, and she later married Charlie. Sadly, they had no children, but they enriched the lives of their nieces and nephews immensely!
Notes, Sources, and References:
Family treasure chest of photos.
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We would love to read your thoughts and comments about this post (see form below), 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.
Original content copyright 2013-2017 by Heritage Ramblings Blog and pmm.
Family history is meant to be shared, but the original content of this site may NOT be used for any commercial purposes unless explicit written permission is received from both the blog owner and author. Blogs or websites with ads and/or any income-generating components are included under “commercial purposes,” as are the large genealogy database websites. Sites that republish original HeritageRamblings.net content as their own are in violation of copyright as well, and use of full content is not permitted.Descendants and researchers MAY download images and posts to share with their families, and use the information on their family trees or in family history books with a small number of reprints. Please make sure to credit and cite the information properly.Please contact us if you have any questions about copyright or use of our blog material.
On June 14, 1777, the Second Continental Congress adopted the official flag of the United States of America. That date has been commemorated throughout the years with parades and picnics, a rite of summer across the land. Although the oldest continuous Flag Day parade may have been in 1909, Flag Day was not officially proclaimed a holiday until 1916, when Woodrow Wilson established June 14 as Flag Day.
The people of America didn’t need an official proclamation, however, to celebrate their pride in our flag and all it represents. Our Helbling family documented their Flag Day celebrations through the years, and preserved them in family photo albums.
From left: Vi Helbling, May Helbling, and Edgar Helbling, in front of their home at 5136 Page in St. Louis, Missouri.
The above image shows the children of Gerard William Helbling (AKA G. W. Helbling) and Anna May (Beerbower) Helbling in front of their home at 5136 Page Ave. in St. Louis, Missouri. Edgar Helbling was about 9, May Helbling 6, and Vi Helbling just 4 years old.
From left: Edgar B. Helbling, (Anna) “May” Helbling, Vi Helbling, and Gerard William Helbling, on Flag Day 1914.
Other photo albums hold earlier years of Flag Day celebrations. This picture shows G.W. Helbling in front of their home with their three oldest children. (Three more were to be born to them in subsequent years.) Edgar looks so stoic, the little soldier, the big brother, flag on his shoulder, ready to march off into history to show his pride. (…in his little short pants ;D) Little May Helbling is upset- is she scared of all the flags? Not wanting to pose for a picture? Maybe it is that giant bow on her head??? G.W. seems like such a loving father, trying to comfort her and get her to participate. (His youngest daughter, however, remembered him as very stern.) Cute little Vi Helbing, just one year old, is taking it all in- she always was so even-tempered when I knew her as an adult, and being a middle child, may have been that way too when young.
Note the sign on the house- “G. W. Helbling, Undertaker.” The 1914 St. Louis, Missouri, City Directory lists Gerard W. Helbling as being “with Ellis Undertaking Co, 727 King’s Highway boul.” His daughter Mary remembers that 10-15 years later, when she was young, he had his undertaker’s equipment down in the basement of the house. Visitation for the deceased’s family was on the first floor living area, and the children would stay upstairs on the second floor and have to be quiet. Wonder why the funeral home address was given in the City Directory, when he had the sign in front of the house? Maybe he had left the employ of Ellis Undertaking by this date and had his own business.
People were much closer to death, back in those days. Mary remembered that it didn’t seem strange or creepy at the time to have a dead body in the house- mostly, it was just hard to be stuck upstairs and be very, very quiet as a young child.
The family was living at 4927 St. Louis Ave., St. Louis, per the 1914 St. Louis City Directory. This address is between N. Kingshighway and N. Euclid Avenue, and has sadly declined very significantly. (Although valued at $40,000-50,000, the building sold in 2013 for just over $7,000.) Today’s websites, like GoogleMaps, Trulia, or Zillow indicate that the home was built in 1906 and currently has 2,482 square feet; it has 4 bedrooms and 2 baths. It is currently a multifamily home, and probably also was when the Helblings lived there. Husband and wife, Grandma (Anna May’s mother) and three children, all in 2 bedrooms and 1 bath- people lived a lot ‘closer’ back then.
Of course, back then you didn’t just display the flag in front of the house- you participated in a parade!
Anna May (Beerbower) Helbling holding 16 mo.old Viola Gertrude Helbling, Anna May’s mother to her right is Anna Missouri (Springsteen) Beerbower with 3 y/o Anna May Helbling (called May), and 6 y/o Edgar Bradley Helbling in front by steering wheel. Flag Day, June 1914.
It didn’t always go well, however. Getting everyone dressed, primped, hats attached so they didn’t blow off in the wind (long hatpins to the rescue), finding umbrellas to shade delicate young (and older!) skin from the brutal St. Louis summer sun, and into the car was probably a challenge, especially with three little ones.
G. W. Helbling, Flag Day June 1914, and portion of scrapbook page.
Oh, oh- trouble! A slight delay…
Looks like G. W. was a master of all trades- artistic and creative, but he could also build a garage or repair an automobile. The caption on the scrapbook page was written by Anna May (Beerbower) Helbling, we believe. G.W. had wonderful handwriting too, so it may have been his note.
Note that the steering wheel is on the right, and the windshield is split (on purpose). The lights that can be seen on the sides of the car would help in identification of the car type, and although I have looked, it is hard to determine which model they had. (Car model ID is definitely not my forte.) It may have not been the most current model, especially since there appears to have been some trouble. Hope they got to the parade or picnic on time!
Notes, Sources, and References:
1) Flag Day Poster, 1917- United States Library of Congress‘s Prints and Photographs division under the digital ID cph.3g06262. Public Domain.
2) Flag Day entry on Wikipedia, Accessed 06/08/14. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flag_Day_(United_States).
3) Gould’s St. Louis [Missouri] Directory for 1914. Ancestry.com. Ancestry.com. U.S. City Directories, 1821-1989 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2011. Accessed 06/07/14.
4) 4917 St. Louis Ave was sold in 2013 for just $7,237- sadly, the neighborhood has been in decline for a long time.
5) A great website of images of American autos through the years may be found at http://www.earlyamericanautomobiles.com/1900.htm. Pages 9-12 have some charming photographs of cars out on the streets of America, sometimes with famous people in them or nearby.
6) Helbling family photo albums owned by the author.
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Copyright 2013-2014 by Heritage Ramblings Blog and pmm.
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Every once in a while, there is an object that is just SO LOVELY that it becomes a part of your soul, and the above heirloom gravy boat is one of those objects for me.
The gravy boat sat in the china cabinet in our dining room as I grew up. We did not use the dining room very often, and I don’t ever remember using the gravy boat. Maybe it was too precious, or maybe all the cracks in the glaze made it unsafe to use. We didn’t have gravy often- my mother was a minimalist cook, plus she would have had her own gravy boat to match her china. So this lovely object sat in the china cabinet, which really was a museum of our family history and reminder of times gone by. I would lovingly dust it a few times per year, thinking of my grandparents, and how life must have been for my mother growing up, the youngest in a family of eight. It was her job to dust just as it was mine, and I felt her fear of dropping such a beautiful object or even chipping such a special piece that showcased the assets of a family.
So what is a ‘gravy boat’? A gravy boat, sauce boat, or sauciere is an oval table service piece that looks like a low, elongated pitcher. Most have handles for pouring out the sauce; others, such as this, are lower and have one or two long lips at the end, and may have a handle or not. Sauce could be poured but usually a gravy ladle would be used if there was no handle on the gravy boat. Gravy boats had a matching oval plate or saucer that was attached, or it might be separate, as in this piece. The saucer would have a depression into which the foot of the gravy boat sat so it didn’t slide if slippery gravy was dripped onto the plate, or while it was passed hand-to-hand around the big table. The saucer was also important to prevent gravy stains on the nice tablecloth- and that would have been cloth of the old fashioned kind- a linen or cotton that would also need starch and ironing after washing. (They had no quick-wipe plastic or easy care permanent-press polyester tablecloths like we have today.) A matching porcelain gravy ladle might have also been used, or the family might use their sterling silver or silverplate gravy ladle. The oval shape and spout-like ends of the gravy boat are designed to pour but also to hold the ladle without it slipping down into the gravy, though proper manners dictated that the gravy ladle at least start the meal sitting on the saucer. (See source #4 for an example of a similar set with plate.) I do not remember a plate for our treasured heirloom, so it was probably broken long before my time.
The decoration on this gravy boat is so very delicate and pretty. Sweet pansies or violas were hand painted in two lucious purples, and the raised gold is set off by beautiful white porcelain. It is authentic Noritake Nippon Hand Painted china as it has the correct mark, plus I know the chain of custody. The gravy boat would have been made between 1890 and 1918, probably, as the McKinley Tariff Act required “Japan” be used on imported pieces after 1921, although Japan had already started using the name of their country on export china shortly after WWI.
This lovely object belonged to Anna Mae Beerbower (1881-1954) and her husband, William Gerard Helbling (1882-1971)- or Gerard William Helbling- he switched the order of his names throughout the years as good Germans often did. They were married 24 November 1904 in St. Louis, Missouri, the year of the World’s Fair. Maybe this was a wedding gift, or a special Christmas, anniversary, or birthday gift. The family was of modest means, but such lovely objects graced their table, even if there was not enough income to buy a lot of food, especially in the tough economies of the 1920s through the 1940s.
Interestingly, a daughter of the family was named Viola Gertrude Helbling (1913-1971). I wonder if my grandmother was partial to violas, the flowers? They have always been a favorite of mine, and my mother loved them too.
Somehow, KFC gravy in a styrofoam cup with plastic lid seems even more unappetizing after thinking about this lovely heirloom gravy boat.
