After Christmas Sales 1910

Many people are out today taking advantage of the after Christmas sales. These after Christmas sales are not new. The Seattle newspapers following Christmas 1910 were filled with ads for large clearance sales at many of the major department stores. Here is a sampling of the ads for you to enjoy.

Christmas Travel Ads

Only 3 days till Christmas! Many of us will travel to visit family during the next few days. What were the travel options for individuals living in Seattle in 1910? Below are several ads found in the Seattle Times during December 1910. Enjoy!

Christmas Shopping 1910

In the spirit of the season, I am going to explore Christmas in Seattle 100 years ago. This will be my way of counting down to the big day. Each day I will focus on another aspect of the Christmas season. Happy Holidays!

What did the Christmas newspaper ads look like in 1910? I read through the December 18th, 1910 issue of the Seattle Times to discover what the major department stores were offering. To help put the prices in perspective, the average income in 1910 was $630/year or about $53/month. In 1909, housing and utilties cost an average of $6/month and food cost an average of about $7/month*.

*Derks, Scott. The Value of a Dollar: 1860-1989 Detroit:Gale Research Inc. 1994

Here are a sample of the ads I found.

Stewarts Hardware

MacDougall and Southwick Co.

Player Pianos

Sherman Clay Co.

J.J. Kelley

Stone Fischer Co.

Frederick and Nelson Co.

The Bon Marche

Source: Seattle Sunday Times. December 18, 1910

Peter W. Phennah

Peter was born in April 1856 in Hope, Wales to John and Sara Phennah. He was the third in a family of 12 children. According to the 1871 Wales census, John worked as an engine driver for a coal mine. In earlier census record, Peter’s grandfather was also listed as working in the coal mines.

The last record of Peter in Wales is the 1881 Census. Living as a boarder in Broghton, Denbigshire, Wales he is listed as working as a colliery engine driver.  This job entailed driving the engine that took wagons to and from the coal mines to the main lines for collection.  Later census record indicate that he immigrated to the United States in 1880 or 1881.  No immigration records were found.

In 1884, Peter married Martha Elizabeth Davis in Erie, Colorado. She was the daughter of William J. and Hannah Davis, immigrants from Wales.  Peter and Martha gave birth to their first child, William John, in July 1884. Their second child Sadie was born in 1886. Peter and Martha faced tragedy in 1887 when William John passed away.   Two years later, they welcomed daughter Hazel.  In 1892, they welcome another daughter, Zelda.  Their 5th child, Haydn Peter, was born in 1896.  In the 1900 and 1910 census, the family is found living in Erie, Colorado. Peter is working as engineman in a coal mine.

Working in the mine was a dangerous occupation. In 1910, there were several large mining disasters in Colorado that killed nearly 200 miners. These working conditions led to the Northern Coal Fields labor strikes  in 1910 which closed all mines in the Northern Colorado coal fields. These strikes were the  the beginning of unrest from the coal miners that led to a large miner’s strike in 1913-1914 that shut down the coal mines of Colorado for 14 months.

Peter’s daughters made their way to Seattle by 1906. Peter and his wife Martha moved to Seattle between 1910 and 1911.  It is unknown what motivated the move but the coal mine strikes may have been one factor in the decision. In the 1911 Seattle city directory, they are found living with their daughters Hazel and Zelda.  Peter found a job as an engineer at the new Queen Anne High School that opened in the fall of 1909.

Queen Anne High School – Seattle Times – July 18, 1909 – pg. 6

By the 1920 census, the family moved into a house on 1st Ave North. This location was just a few blocks from Peter’s job at Queen Anne High School.  In addition to Peter and his wife, the household included his daughters Hazel and Sadie.  Sadie is listed as a widow with two children Harold and Iris Hughes.

Peter passed away on Chirstmas Eve 1926 at his home on 1st Ave North.

Seattle Times – December 27, 1926 pg. 3

He is buried in Mt. Pleasant Cemetery in Seattle.

Happy Black Friday!

Well it has been quite some time since I put out a blog. I started working on a blog post about a month ago and got buried in the research. I hope to finish that research soon but due to the legnth of the story it may be either several blog entries or I may possibly try to publish it in a local genealogy newsletter. I hope everyone had a wonderful thanksgiving with family and friends.  Instead of getting up early to hit Black Friday sales, I spent the morning at Mt. Pleasant Cemetery in the Queen Anne neighborhood of Seattle. Here are a few of my finds from the day.

I found this monument for the Typographical Union. I have seen these type of monuments before. What was different about this was the grave stones directly around it.

From Mt. Pleasant

There were roughly 20- 30 flat headstones around the monument with dates, ages, and military ranks but strangely no names. Anyone out there now why this may be? It is a mystery to me.

From Mt. Pleasant

From Mt. Pleasant

The other item that puzzled me was a statue of children on a sled. I have seen statues of children or animals in the child section of cemeteries before.  This wasn’t the case in Mt. Pleasant. The gravestones around the statue were a variety of ages. I searched for an inscription on the stuate and nothing.

From Mt. Pleasant

I took a lot of pictures while walking around the cemetery in the rain. This is my idea of a great day after Thanksgiving.  Check back soon for some interesting biographical sketches from the pictures I took today.

Clarence Edgar and Katherine Nora Copeland

I went to visit Calvary Cemetery in Seattle with my mother yesterday to find the graves of my great great grandfather and his parents-in-laws (will post pictures in a later blog).  While trying to find my ancestors, I took several photographs of other headstones. As I was reviewing the pictures, I noticed the headstone of Clarence and Katherine Copeland.  What struck me was the date of death.  Both had died in 1915 and both were very young. I went to the Seattle Times to try and locate an obituary or news article to try to discover how they had died and if they had died together.  The first article that appeared was from January 1915 and was the announcement of the marriage of Clarence Edgar Copeland and Katherine Nora Holland. My heart sank when I found this. This couple had been married in January and never lived to enjoy their first anniversary together.  I was unable to locate any further articles on these newlyweds.  In the marriage announcement it had noted that the couple was going to stop in Portland and then head to Britannia Beach, Vancouver BC where they were going to make their home.  I turned to Ancestry to try to find where and exactly when the couple had died.  I found Vancouver BC death records for both Clarence and Katherine that stated the newlyweds had both died on March 22, 1915 at Britannia Mines.   I returned to the digital Seattle Times and searched for Britannia Mines  AND 1915.  I found the answers on the front page of the March 23 newspaper. In the middle of the night on March 22, an avalanche caused by melting snow crashed on to the buildings of the Britannia Mining camp, burying many of the victims as they slept.  Fifty-six people lost their lives in the tragedy and dozens others were injured.  There was no mention of Copeland and his wife in the article.  I went to GenDisasters, a website that features newspaper accounts of disasters, and found an article from Winnipeg Free Press that detailed the avalanche.  The article stated, “C. E. COPELAND and his young wife, who recently came from Seattle, died together. He was the mine engineer, and recently refused a professorship in an eastern university.”  The idea that they died in their sleep together brought some peace to their tragic story.

Sources:
Seattle Daily Times via America’s Historical Newspapers
GenDisasters: Howe Sound, BC Snowslide Wipes Out Camp, Mar 1915

Hugo and Lenora Van Woerden

The gravestones for children are often the most emotional and the most beautiful to me. I came across the following gravestone for a brother and sister at Lake View Cemetery.

Lenora Cornelia Van Woerden died at the age of 5 on July 30, 1909.  Her brother Hugo W. died several days later on August 5, 1909.   They were the children of Emma V.  Lucke and Dirk Van Woerden.  I was unable to locate an obituary so I am unaware of the cause of death for these siblings.  It is a beautiful monument to honor their short lives here in Seattle.