Difficult Photo Location ID

Plant Location Collage, a photo by midgefrazel on Flickr.

Down to the Pipe

My friend and fellow gravestone photographer, Connecticut native, Brian Zoldac loves a good mystery.

He remembered my problem of looking at the photo of The Victor Co. which is an undated glass negative owned by the North Stonington Historical Society. They know about my obsession with my family laundry business and scanned this photo and sent it to me some time ago.

It wasn't until I examined it that it occurred to me that I didn't know if this building is in Connecticut or Rhode Island. Yes, the state line is very blurry there because of the water that you see in both photos.

If that seems strange to you consider how complicated the geography of New England can be. Anywhere here where the states comes together can be hard to be sure WHERE you are researching. Even if you are sure of the location (such as written on the back of the photo) you must know the DATE. State and county lines keep changing over the years. Unfortunately for me, my ancestors lived, in many cases on the edge. Now they are driving me over the edge!

What we noticed about this photo is the green circled pipe. At first, I thought the drain pipe was coming from the building. Nice pollution, I thought. Think about dry cleaning solvent and laundry soap. Nasty.

But, as I look over the photos that Brian took (on both sides of the water), this is the one that gave me a "gut feeling". The building is long gone but the ratio of land to water seems about right considering erosion. Yes, there are still a lot of rocks. But the drain pipe can't be ignored. Is it the same? Did it just fall off and is stuck to the rocks? 

We probably will never know but it is great of Brian to take photos so that I don't think about this all the time and can move on. 

Victor is Gone

Location of Victor After, a photo by midgefrazel on Flickr.

Victor is No More

The adventure of Westerly Laundry and Victor Cleansing Co. came to a close when my Dad was nearing sixty. My grandmother wanted to sell the business and so that's what happened.

Fortunately, my Dad got another job to last until he could retire and my aunt and uncle were already retired. The "hey-day" of our family business was over. Change is hard.

As I was married and living in Massachusetts, I was not involved in the sale of the business or what happened to "the plant". 

After my grandmother passed away, I encouraged my parents to revisit some of their "old haunts" and I gave them a camera. 

This is what the buyers did with the land after they tore down the plant. 

It is still there. I can see it on Google Maps. It is senior housing with a rehab facility.

I think that that my mom took the photo and my father is the person in the red shirt standing where he did in other photos. I do think the shrub is the only thing left of Victor.

This project was a lot of fun for me. I didn't think I could find out so much. Thanks for reading....

     

Same Day Service

Same Day Service, a photo by midgefrazel on Flickr.

 I love the "Same Day Service" slogan. I say that all the time now. You can too. it's not a copyrighted phrase. 

My dad looks relaxed standing outside smoking. This is the only color photo I have of the plant. I'd forgotten it was brick.

There were so many nice people that worked in my family business. I remember Max, the tailor but I don't think I ever knew his last name. 

I did figure out how to find Max in the Cranston City Directory. It took only a few minutes. I was surprised! I am saving that story for another day. 

When I look at this photo, I get a lump in my throat for the days when my parents and grandparents were alive.  

Victor Christmas Party

Victor Christmas Party, a photo by midgefrazel on Flickr.

The Christmas (or two) after Grandpa died, my grandmother showed her appreciation to the workers by having a company holiday party at the Biltmore Hotel in Providence. Much to my embarrasment, I was the only child there. The adults had a good time despite my presence.

The year was probably 1958.

I used to have a few photos of the event but I can't find them. Jim Ricci shared this one with me. His relatives are the men on the left and the young man in the right is my dad and next to him is Jim Aitken. It is odd for me to have two photos I've never seen that have my dad in them with the same guy.



  

Renovated Plant

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

After my grandfather, Evans Stewart died in 1955, the plans he made for improving the plant were already started. This "store front" are was added to the plant building and the trucks for the business were put next to the shipping area. (See the garage doors to the right of the photo?)

The left side that you can see here was the office area and moving the business part away from the work area made it quieter and cooler. Grandpa lived long enough to set up his desk. I used to love to play at his desk. May Lyle, who was office manager then, let me use the adding machine. When the business dissolved in the 1970s, Dad brought home the adding machine. I laughed out loud. It was like seeing an old friend.

I suppose it was my first "technology".

Customers could drive up, drop off dirty clothes and pick up clean ones.   It was a new era!

Victor Truck at Home

Hilltop Drive home,1953, a photo by midgefrazel on Flickr.

By 1953, when this photo was taken, I can remember some of the people and the work at Victor. The truck brought furniture and other items from my grandparent's house to ours (on weekends) so it was handy to have this truck at our disposal. The truck brought items to my grandparent's beach house at Bonnet Shores in Narragansett, RI.

The only seat in the truck is for the driver. I think of it every time the UPS or FedEx trucks come to my house. As a little girl, I was not allowed in the truck while it was moving unless my mother was with me to hold me down while we rode on the floor. My mother didn't know that the men who were the drivers let me sit in the drivers seat while the trucks were parked in the company garage. All kids love to pretend drive.

The plant was a bustling place of business.  The women who worked the sheet ironer (a huge machine in which you fed the sheets in between rollers to flatten them out), chatted and gossiped while they worked. It was a kind of dance step rhythm to the work.

An overhead conveyor belt, moved the finished cleaned clothes (on hangers)  from one station to another. The workers put a piece of clothing on the belt for me to follow. It stopped at each station so I could talk to that worker and see what they did. No all of them spoke English but I learned to cope. I also collected a lot of buttons (some I still have.) People were nice to me.

My uncle did wet wash and my aunt operated the shirt machine. I hate ironing because I saw how easy it is to do a shirt if you have a machine!

It was HOT in the plant, all year round. It smelled like dry cleaning fluid, bleach, soap, machinery oil and a combination of clean and dirty clothes. It is something I will ever forget.

Wearing the Uniform

Mr. James AITKEN, a photo by midgefrazel on Flickr.

This is a photo of my father with his cousin, Jim Aitken, who was a friend and business partner of my grandfather. My father said he was not related to his mother, Annie Aiken, but I have since proved that he was a distant relation. I think that my father thought so because of the extra "t" in his name.

This is a Kodachrome slide from my grandparent's collection taken somewhere near the Victor Cleansing Co. Plant.  When I looked at it, I suddenly realized that my father is NOT wearing his military uniform as I thought when I scanned it.

But, what kind of uniform is this? Another mystery...

Some days later, while working with the city directories, I found this mention of my father's occupation in 1952.

My father told me that when he came home from WWII, he stayed with his family in Westerly and after a time, he went to Providence to visit his sister. My aunt and uncle both worked at Victor. I think they must have convinced my father to apply for a job as a driver for the company, delivering the clean clothes and picking up bags of dirty clothes to be sent back to the plant to be cleaned.

I do know, that my mother left her job as a photographer in Hartford, CT to return home during the war. I think that this is how my parents met, in the Shipping Room. So, it was a shipping room romance. (grin)

My dad always looked good in a uniform whether it be a sports uniform or his military uniform or this "head shipper" uniform.

Incorporated

Victor_1932, a photo by midgefrazel on Flickr.

Legal Stuff?

This clip from the 1931 Westerly, Rhode Island City Directory stopped me cold. I puzzled over it and asked our favorite legal mind, Judy Russell, the Legal Genealogist to help me out. She was very nice to stop what she was doing, carefully read it and ask for the link to this directory. I complied.

What she was looking for was the list of abbreviations that is near the front (or the back) of each city directory. It didn't help. I'd already read it. Sigh!

I decided that it needed "crowdsourcing" so let's take a look at what we know. Update below!

By 1931, Victor Cleansing Co. was an established business. Incorporated in Rhode Island in 1928 with stores in several locations  and a plant (where the work was done at 42 Cyr St. in Washington Park). This clip and some others like it in later issues of the directory, list the words:

CAP NO PAR before the names of the officers of the company for that year.

At this time in 1931, great grandfather, Charlie is President (he died in 1937), Robert Simpson (ancestor of my friend Jim Ricci who shared photos with me) is Vice President, Catherine V. Carey is secretary (and office manager) and my grandfather, Evans is treasurer. 

I think that "cap no par" must be a legal abbreviation of the time and may be because the business had no partners other than the officers listed. Partners means that those people invest their money into the business.  Of course, this time period is the depression and so people don't have money to spare.

Maybe the abbreviation "cap" means capital or "capped off" for this year.

Ideas are welcome.....  

Update! A Facebook friend, Jenny says: "Could refer to capital "no par" stock - meaning the stock is issued without a face value, and the value is determined by the board based on capital." She suggests further reading here. Thanks, Jenny!
 

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).

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....

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....

The Story of Victor

Packing crate (collection of the author), holds my Christmas Tree ornaments, 2012

The Story of Victor:
Soap Bubbles in My Blood

Project Based Genealogy Plan
(this plan will change as needed)

Long Term Project (begun in 2002)
Progress Estimate to date (75% complete)

Introduction to Project

Evans STEWART, my maternal grandfather, his brother Dudley Wheeler STEWART, my maternal great uncle, and their father, Charles Edward STEWART, my maternal great grandfather, owned and operated the Westerly Steam Laundry and Victor Cleansing Co.

Essential Questions

1. Who were these men and how did this family business get started? (complete)
2. Where were the business locations? (complete)
3. What were the business goals? (complete)
4. Who were the other people who worked for the company? (in progress)
5. What do I remember about this business? (in progress)
6. How did this business evolve over the years? (complete)
7. How does my genealogy fit into this business? (in progress)

Project Goals

1. To research each phase of the business and prepare a timeline
2. To write blog posts about each photograph
3. To collaborate with Jim Ricci about his grandfathers part in the business
4. To write a narrative about the project with some of it being blog posts
5. To gather and save as digital documents each page of every city directory that mentions the business
6. To study the genealogy of each family and board member involved in the business
7. To understand the business incorporation

Manageable Parts (notice the backwards approach)

• Phase 6: Personal Memories
• Phase 5: The Death of the Business
• Phase 4: Moving to Providence
• Phase 3: The Westerly Laundry (founded 1892)
• Phase 2: Founder's son's Story (gravestone)
• Phase 1: The Founder's Story (gravestone)

Stay Organized

Victor Notebook (in progress and completed narrative)

Photographs and such (and archive)

Folders for Collaboration (and project pages)

Index Cards with Collaboration and Email Notes

Organizing and Progress Reports on these

Gather Sources, Information and Citations

Collaborate with Others

Analyze and Draw Conculsions

Present the Project Product  (blog posts, timelines, photos and the narrative)  

Family History Month: Wheels on the Truck

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

Wheels: Family History Month

 Please bear with me this week and I plan to think in circles for a few days. As I go around and around, working on family history stories sometimes a theme begins to take form.

I have just sold my car and so I am "wheel-ess" for the time being. I have not driven it in two years so although it is a little bit of a shock, I think it will pass. I really dislike driving and cars in general.

This tiny, damaged photo was found in the envelopes of my family photos. I may have blogged about it before when I was telling you about my family laundry and dry-cleaning business.

The address on this early Victor Cleaning Co. truck is of Weybossett St. in Downtown Providence, RI. This photo was taken long before I was born. I don't know who took it or where it was taken. The house behind it doesn't look familiar.

Friends who love cars tell me that they would need to see the front of the truck to be able to give this a year. But, my family records tell me that it must be after 1907. This printed pamphlet that is part of my family collection shows drawings of the company vehicles and a short history. I am sure my mother drew the trucks. She was a graduate of the Rhode Island School of Design in Providence.

Here's the thing. She hated driving too.

My theme of wheels is appropriate as it keeps appearing in my family photos. Check out this one of the huge oil tank in later years. My grandfather is standing next to the big circle.

 

AITKEN or AIKEN?

AITKEN , a photo by midgefrazel on Flickr.

Tombstone Tuesday: AITKEN monument
River Bend Cemetery in Westerly, RI

 My father's maternal line didn't spell their name with the T as in AITKEN. However, the man on this gravestone named James D. AITKEN worked with my father and my maternal grandfather at the Victor Cleansing Co. in Providence, RI.

Just to see if I could find ANY connection to my family, I researched the father (1855-1920) of James D. Aitken who is listed on this gravestone. The 1900 census states that he came from Scotland and was a paving cutter. I still feel there might be a connection. 

Mr.  James D. Aitken grew up in Westerly and moved to Providence about 1928 after working as a laundryman in Westerly in 1915 (City Directories). He is shown here with my father. I think my father is wearing the brown uniform worn by the men who delivered the laundry and dry cleaning in trucks. This puts this photo after WWII probably in the area near the cleaning plant.

The history of my family business has this to say about Mr. James D. Aitken:

The last names on the gravestone probably were family friends or coworkers as Mr. Aitken (Sr.) had two daughters and Mr. Aitken (Jr.) had no children.


It is still a mystery to be solved.