Amanuensis Monday: A Fall From a Porch

Amanuensis: A person employed to write what another dictates or to copy what has been written by another.

I continue my project to transcribe family letters, journals, audiotapes, and other historical artifacts. Not only do the documents contain genealogical information, the words breathe life into kin - some I never met - others I see a time in their life before I knew them. If you choose to join me in Amanuensis Monday and post your transcriptions, feel free to add a link to your post in the comments.

This week I transcribe a couple newspaper articles that appeared in the Oct 24, 1904 St. Louis Post Dispatch. 

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Fall From Porch is Fatal

Sammie Silverman, 6 years old, of 1125 North Twelfth street fell from a porch, 15 feet high, at 10 o'clock this morning and sustained concussion of the brain from which he died almost instantly.

Mrs. Benjamin Cruvand, who lives in the same house with the Silvermans, heard the child fall and carried the body to the office of Dr. J. J. Norris [or Harris], 1102 North Eleventh street, but the child died before the physician could render aid.

Battle of Santiago Today

Special performance at 2:30, 4:30, 6:30 and 8:30 p.m. today. 100 myriad bombs-and Greek volcano fire-fountain-thrown from the center of a miniature seas. Two vessels bown to pieces by poweful torpedoes at each performance. See the submarine boat Porter manned by expert seamen. In actual service...Park, west end Pike...

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Notes:

1) As far as I know, Sammie Silverman isn't related to me, but Mrs. Benjamin Cruvand would have been Pearl (Grossberg) Cruvand (187_-1960).   Benjamin Cruvand was the first cousin of my great grandmother, Bertha (Cruvant) Newmark.  Benjamin and Pearl had 6 children between the ages of 1 and 13 at the time of the news article.

2) It is hard to imagine the horror of hearing a neighbor-child fall, and running the limp child to the doctor.

3) For me, the most important information is the address where Benjamin and Pearl were living, though it's not new information.  From research given to me by a cousin, the City Directories have the Cruvands living at 1125 High Street.  This isn't a conflict, but a street with two different names. (It still has two different names, but the second non-number name has changed.)

TUCKER BOULEVARD (N-S). Mayne Avenue south of Market Street in Rundlet's 1836 addition was renamed Twelfth Street in the 1840s. The Lucas family dedicated the section of the street between Market Street and Washington Avenue to the city in their subdivision of 1844. The street maintains its great width because of the presence at its center of the Lucas Public Market. Its name was changed from Twelfth Street to Twelfth Boulevard in 1932. It became Tucker Boulevard in 1979 in honor of former mayor Raymond R. Tucker. From Lucas to O'Fallon, Twelfth was High Street until 1932. (source)

While this isn't new information, the Cruvands are distant cousins, and I would have been unlikely to go to the trouble of researching the history of High Street to discover its current name.

4) While not of genealogical interest, the other newspaper article is of some historical interest.  The recreations of the 1898 battle between the US and Cuba almost certainly were in conjunction with the St. Louis World's Fair.