House Cleaning Help

House Cleaning Help, a photo by midgefrazel on Flickr.

Welcome Relief 

 

I love these postcards that I purchased from a man who sells vintage toys on the Web. I often idly Google search terms, "Westerly Laundry" or "Victor Cleansing Co." while I watch TV. I tried a Google alert but it didn't work well for me.

At first, I thought this ad was a postcard but it is an ink blotter for fountain pens. I guess it was to encourage housewives and businesess to clean their rugs and drapes.

My project is winding down this week. I still have a lot of things to write but it will have to wait until March.

You will like my personal memories and the "what happened" to the business when I have finished my research. 

This is my last post in this series until then.

Sitting on the Oil Tank

Victor Cleansing Co., a photo by midgefrazel on Flickr.

The Oil Tank 

I have blogged about this photo before but as I have more of an audience today than I did in 2008, I think it bears showing again. Maybe someone will be able to tell me more about this photo.

Sometime while during the early years of my grandfather moving the business, he and probably great-grandfather, Charlie, purchased land that was at the corner of Cyr and Mongomery Ave. In the Washington Park section of Cranston (near Roger Williams Park) to construct "the Works" or "the Plant" as we knew it for a full service business. The photo, from the collection of Jim Ricci, whose grandfather and mine were friends and business partners is an amusing look at what I thought was the beginning of my family business.

How many people today, would even think to have a photo of a huge oil tank taken? Oviously, they were so pleased that they stenciled the name of the business on the side! My grandfather, Evans, is the man standing next to the laddar, and I think, Jim's grandfather is the last man on the top to the far left.

It looks to me that this is the land behind the actual building. I wasn't allowed out back. My dad would drive the car back to the gas pump stored there and fill up the tank on the truck if we were going to use a truck to move furniture from my grandparents house to our house or to the beach house or vice versa. 

I think my uncle, John Crompton is on the top next to Jim's grandfather. I know he worked for my grandfather early on. He was my dad's brother-in-law and my godfather. He came to America from England with his parents and brothers. They were coal miners.
   

The Victor Story: Back

The Victor Story: Back, a photo by midgefrazel on Flickr.

This back of the pamphlet showed the stores that Victor had in 1958. Obviously, the store on Weybossett St. had closed by then and moved to Dorrance St.

I remember the Dorrance St. store. My father showed me the line on the wall where the Great Hurricane of 1938 flooded Providence.

The Victor Story: Front

The Victor Story: Front, a photo by midgefrazel on Flickr.

This is the pamphlet that I found before my mother died.

The front shows the location of the store at 42 Cyr St. Probably in 1958. I have the photo that is printed here.

The Victor Story: Inside

The Victor Story: Inside, a photo by midgefrazel on Flickr.

 

This is what started this project. The information in here really inspired me to dig deeper. I know my mother may have drawn the little trucks!

Weybossett St. Providence Store

Moving to Providence

This clip from the 1917 Westerly City Directory on page 166, really took my breathe away because I think it shows that my grandfather was done with commuting from Westerly to Providence and finally talked his father into a branch store in Providence.

He may have begun by making an agency out of "Mrs. Young's Gift Shop" on Thayer St as early as 1908 as it says in the company pamphlet.

My grandparents married in January of 1914 .. My grandfather's World War I draft card for June 1916, lists that he lives with wife and child at 112 Wentworth Ave. in Cranston on the Providence  line. [My notes say that they lived on Charles Field St. on the East Side of Providence for a while when they moved from Westerly. It was a brand new apartment house with a murphy bed and a kitchenette and a bathroom]

The lesson learned is that I didn't notice, that this page from 1915 listed BOTH business names. I printed it years ago but I was only focused on the "removed to Providence" and didn't notice the plant still in Westerly. 

I found an ad in the 1912 listing the business as 285 Weybosset St. which was the first location of the store in Providence. 

 

Victor Cleansing Co. Truck

Victor Cleansing Co. Truck, a photo by midgefrazel on Flickr.

This tiny photo was probably taken before 1920 because vehicles after that don't have the lanterns and have longer chassies.

I had to have a lot of help on this one since I know nothing about cars or trucks. This might have been the first real truck owned by the business. and since it says Victor Cleansing Co. on it, it fits into the timeline of the business changing name from any name with Westerly in it to one containing the word Victor.

I have no idea where the word Victor came from. But, I have a lot of items wit this word on it.

If anyone can date this truck, I'd sure love to know. By the way, the address on the side is in Providence, RI (not Westerly).

Tombstone Tuesday: Owen Stewart MINER

Owen Stewart MINER, a photo by midgefrazel on Flickr.

Owen Stewart Miner

In 2004, I went to the Starr Burying Ground in Groton, CT after attending a Denison reunion in Mystic, CT. I was looking for my grandfather's Great Aunt Frances, who was the daughter of Dudley Wheeler Stewart and Eliza Fish Denison. She was sister to Charlie, my great grandfather and she was alive in my lifetime. She was the last woman to belong to the DAR and I followed her ine for my own application. (her gravestone)

This is the gravestone of Owen Stewart Miner, son and little first cousin to my grandfather. He is the little toddler in the photo shared with me last week. I don't remember ever meeting him. He lived his whole life in Groton. He is buried in the Miner section of the cemetery right off the second entrance. It was so easy to find.

I wish I'd taken more photos of nearby gravestones but at that time, I didn't know all the names of this family. My grandmother told me about my grandfather's cousins and the big house they lived in.

I wandered this cemetery especially the older sections taking any gravestones that said Denison. I took a photo of the grandparents of a fellow Denison cousin who sat at my table. Months later, she wrote me a letter asking if I went to the Starr Burying Ground. She and I were both stunned that I took photos of her grandparents.

    

Victor Laundry

Victor Laundry, a photo by midgefrazel on Flickr.

One goal in this project, is to try to date this photograph. It was given to me by the North Stonington Historical Society. They had glass plate negatives that belonged to Fred Stewart and they scanned them. They knew I had a connection to this business. Isn't that great?

This location is probably Coggswell St. in Pawcatuck, CT. Notice it is near the water, not the railroad tracks (as in Westerly, RI). 

The biggest clue is the NAME of the business. Not Westerly Steam Laundry, not Westerly Laundry and not Victor Cleansing Co. Growing up, I never knew there were three business names. The short history (1908-1958) I have begins with my grandfather starting the business in Providence in 1908. But, I now know he did not live in Providence then so he must have driven back and forth to Westerly.

This photo tells me that they do laundry (known to me a "wet wash"), men's shirts, dry cleaning and rug cleaning.

The Westerly and Pawcatuck City directory for the years 1930-31 shows that my grandfather's brother, Dudley Wheeler Stewart runs the Victor Laundry on Coggswell St. in Pawcatuck, CT. (p. 215). The listing for 1930-1931 in the Westerly directory is just the city information. This means this volume was another that was scanned incorrectly.

I need to search the years prior to this (backwards) to see if I can find the year the name changed from Westerly Laundry to Victor Laundry.
 

City Directories for the Business

Since I didn't get very far with finding all references and ads in the Westerly and Providence directories, I decided my problem might be complicated by the sheer number of directories that cover that area. So I spent an hour making this chart in Microsoft Word.

So many years have overlap and I see why. Whoever scanned them didn't put them in the right full scan. I found that for the year 1900, I had to search all three sections to get the whole of the information.

As you can see #6, #2 and #1 all contain entries for 1900. I think this will help me pinpoint certain places on the timeline where the business did:

• change the name from Westerly (Steam) Laundry to Victor Laundry to Victor Cleansing Co.   
• give the address of the business and the address of the house where the family lived.

Evans, Dudley and Owen Miner

Evans, Dudley and Owen Miner, a photo by midgefrazel on Flickr.

Cousins and Brothers

 

Just when you thought the last photo shared with me by the Mystic River Historical Society was adorable comes this one of my grandfather, Evans, the elusive brother Dudley and their first cousin Owen Stewart Miner. I have his gravestone so he will be the next Tombstone Tuesday.

From the back of the photo comes their ages:
Evans is 10
Dudley is 4 years and 10 months
Owen is 1 year and 10 months.

The year is 1896.

This photography studio I have not heard of!

Dudley's Face!

Evans Stewart and his brother Dudley Stewart,
courtesy of Mystic River Historical Society by Dorothy Hanna

Evans and his little Brother Dudley, 1893

When Dorothy Hanna told me that she found a photo in an album at the Mystic River Historical Society, I wondered if it was my grand uncle at all. She scanned it front and back and emailed it to me. She asked if Evans Stewart was my grandfather and I said he was. Then, I knew it was going to me a terrific find. I couldn't wait to open my email.

The back of the photo gives a collection # of 2008.039 and she said they may belong to a woman named Eliza Denison Schoonover. I will have to look that up in the Denison genealogy but the handwriting on the back does like my 2nd great grandmother's. She was Eliza Denison Stewart. It could be a whole album of photos of my family!

My grandfather (on the left) looks a lot like his other photos. It states he is 7. That would date the photo to 1893. It fits in my timeline for the photographer, Schofield Bros in Westerly and for Charles and Ada Stewart moving to Westerly and starting the Westerly Laundry behind the Dixon House.  

Hooray!

Dudley does look different from his brother, just as I was told and from his Draft Cards, it states his eyes were dark. The photo back states he is 20 months which allows me to date the photo more closely.

 Dudley was born 11 Nov 1891 and using the date calculator in RootsMagic 6, I get July 1893. Since Evans was born in September, this helps with a more accurate date.

Aren't they cute? I am so glad to see what Dudley looked like! Thank you Dorothy!

Dudley in World War I

Grave Marker, a photo by midgefrazel on Flickr.

World War I

I made an assumption when looking at Dudley Wheeler Stewart's gravestone marker that he served in World War I for Rhode Island. I found his draft card listed with the draft board in Woonsocket, RI with his place of residence in Westerly, RI That's two pieces of evidence. However his World War II draft card states he lives (in that year) in Connecticut.

Yesterday, I discovered a record in a database at Ancestry.com called Connecticut Military Census, 1917 for a Dudley Wheeley Stewart. Now, I am not sure what to think. Did he serve for RI or CT? Well, he can ride a bicycle, drive a car, handle a team and is not a strong swimmer.

 Ancestry.com. Connecticut, Military Census, 1917 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2012.
Original data: Connecticut Military Census of 1917. Hartford, Connecticut: Connecticut State Library.

Tombstone Tuesday: Dudley W. STEWART

Dudley W. STEWART, a photo by midgefrazel on Flickr.

Dudley Wheeler Stewart, my grandfather's brother, was named for his grandfather. I know so little about him, except he served in WWI and was affected by mustard gas. He is buried next to my grandfather and grandmother and their son, my uncle.

on the back side of the Dension monument, Dudley's full birth and death dates

But, I wondered, where is his wife, Stella? Their marriage is recorded in my family Bible. So, I asked my grandmother. 

She said that Dudley was a "black sheep" and she didn't know what happened to the wife. So last summer, I went to Find a Grave and there she was buried with her own family. I contacted Alva VanHouten and she gladly offered all the photos she had of the stone. Now, I can piece this part of the family together.

photo by Alva Van Houten, from Find a Grave, she offers photos freely
Union Cemetery, North Stonington, New London, CT There are more names on the monument today.

Dudley and Stella lived many places in the North Stonington and Westerly area. They had no children. I am still working through what I have found.

The North Stonington Historical Society had this handwritten family group sheet with this intriguing note about Dudley. It says, he was a "singing cop". I can find NOTHING to verify this! I continue to look. But, searching for Dudley this week, I did find a connection to the Westerly Laundry and Victor business that is significant to the history of the business and I will report on that another day. It does verify the statement here that he was in business with his father.

 

Measuring Up

Victor Cleansing Co. Ruler, a photo by midgefrazel on Flickr.

The Ruler

How am I measuring up?

During the course of a genealogical project, one must step back and do a self evaluation assessment as to how the project is going. This is called a formative assessment and it an important step in the learning process.

I am trying to deflect any distractions that come my way during this process. I have been distracted by only one person asking me a question about a potential ancestor's gravestone. I stopped and helped him. Turns out his family is descended from the second wife! Good... (BTW, the surname of that husband was SMITH)

I went to the Mass Society of Genealogists meeting on Saturday because I wanted to meet another geneablogger. That was fun.

I was asked to do a presentation for next fall. Didn't I just give that up? Hmmmm....

The City Directory Project (within this project) is coming along nicely. I have two or three new pieces of information. I will be organizing that this week.

Thanks for sticking with me on this adventure!

City Directory Work

Cleanse Overcoat, a photo by midgefrazel on Flickr.

City Directories 

 

Of course, if you want to know something about an amazingly underused source like city directories, you should head to the most important place on the Web: Cyndi Howell's list. (I still can't believe that she is my Facebook friend as I never thought I'd "know her"!)

Known as Cyndi's List, she works hard to develop and maintain the BEST of the links for us genealogists and family historians.

The City Directory Listing is so valuable, you need to stop reading this blog post and go there now....

The Laundry List

Westerly Laundry Slip Logo, a photo by midgefrazel on Flickr.

Thanks to Dorothy Hanna, of Mystic and the folks at the Mystic River Historical Society

The Laundry List

One of the fun things about researching my family business is the "stuff' that is available on eBay and from sites that sell ephemera. However, I didn't expect that any historical societies would have such items that were probably donated in their collections.

This is the top part of the paper that was attached to someone's cleaned laundry. Don't you love the use of the words?

I am going to take a few days off from working on my stories to sort through all the Rhode Island City Directory listings I have gathered to make dates for my timeline. They are all jumbled in my notebook and I need to get them organized in the right year.

You know that the first one for the Westerly Steam Laundry was 1892. I have to find the end of the ones that say Laundry and the beginning ones that say Victor or have dry cleaning in the description.

It could take me a few days to be sure I have copied them all down correctly.

I do know that I can stop with 1908 in Westerly because that's what the Victory Story pamplet indicates. But, we've been wrong with assumptions before!

That's project based research for you....   

Dixon Hotel and Edward Denison

Dixon Hotel_Westerly Witnesses, a photo by midgefrazel on Flickr.

Edward Denison's Tavern 

 

Edward Denison, drowned 9 Dec 1726 (Denison Genealogy #51, p. 6) is mentioned in this article about the Dixon House.

The grandson of Capt. George Denison and son of George Dension, he built a house on this location, is listed as a tavern keeper.

Dixon House

From out of copyright book Westerly and its Witness by Rev. Frederick Denison 1878

Location of Westerly Steam Laundry

With special thanks for the collaboration of this project by Barbara Fallon

Westerly, Rhode Island, a coastal town in southern Rhode Island was home to many of my ancestors. Both my parents were born there and my maternal grandmother too.

It is not surprise that Charlie Stewart would take his wife and sons from the nearby Stonington, CT area to Westerly because of the thriving business opportunities there. Even though the New London Genealogical and Biographic Record lists that he founded the Westerly Laundry in 1890, it is likely that it was after 1891 when his youngest son, Dudley Wheeler Stewart was born in North Stonington. (The Westerly and Pawcatuck directory doesn't list the family or the business in the 1890 directory)

From the Rhode Island City Directory of 1892, I can see that the business was located at the rear of Dixon House. I used Google Maps to find the street which still exists, but it took my friend Barbara Fallon, a Westerly native, to point me to a Facebook groups photo collection which included a clip from a book, Old Pictures of Westerly Rhode Island by the late newspaper journalist, George H. Utter published in 1991. 

I next examined, Rev Frederick Denison's book, Westerly and its Witnesses, (out of copyright as it was published in 1878) and found a sketch of the hotel. Between these two sources, I have determined that there were buildings behind the hotel. It seems probable, that the Westerly Steam Laundry was really behind the hotel

The hotel laundry must have been the first customers of Charlie and his business partner, Howard W. Merchant. Mr. Mechant must have moved away or died because I can find no further record of him in Rhode Island.

The ad states that they have "all new machinery" in 1892, and that helps date the start of the business to 1892.

In 1900, Charlie, Ada and the boys live with their grandmother , Eliza Fish Denison Stewart. This is how the "Denison stories" came to be in my family history.    

So, today, we have a date for the start of the business! 

Horse and Buggy?

Westerly Laundry Graphic, a photo by midgefrazel on Flickr.

Horse and Buggy?

Growing up, I heard a lot of nice things about Charles Stewart, my great grandfather. My grandmother must have liked her husband's father and my mother thought her Grandpa Charlie was a very special guy. Good looking and smart. What's not to love?

Before my mom died, she put the "Story of Victor" pamphlet in the photo box so that I would find it the next time I visited. I was trying to get her mind off my father's death and her own declining mental state.

It did work a bit. She talked more about her grandparents and her great Grandmother, enough to help me understand what I was looking for genealogy wise. Some things remain a mystery.

The Story of Victor pamphlet was the first time I saw the name Westerly Steam Laundry in print. I wasn't sure I could find out more.

Just seeing this graphic made me realize how long ago it was founded. Since then, some new evidence has come to light.

Projects are never really finished which is why many books, movies and TV programs have sequels. But, at least I waited until I had more information.

The Story of Victor is not the whole story. The beginning is about laundry.

Soap Bubbles in my Blood....