Workday Wednesday: Cruvant's Toggery - East St. Louis

Below is a photograph of my second great uncle, David Cruvant, inside his store, Cruvant's Toggery, in East St. Louis. David was the brother of my great grandmother, Bertha (Cruvant) Newmark

If you click on the photo, you can see a larger version.

A toggery is an old term for a clothing store.

Photo: Circa 1910-1920

We're uncertain what year exactly this was. According to East St. Louis City Directories, in 1907 David and his father, Morris, had a shoe store. In 1912 they had a "Clothing, Shoes, and Fur" store. (Morris actually died in 1911, but his name appeared in the 1912 directory.) In 1920, it was still a clothing store, but by 1924, it had become a pawn shop. None of the directories provide a name for the store, but they appear to narrow the date of the photograph down to a period of about 10-15 years.

Update: Following a suggestion in the comments, I have also submitted this post to Sepia Saturday 161

Workday Wednesday: The Occupation of Mandell Newmark

Denise Spurlock of Denise's Life in the Past Lane began the meme: Workday Wednesday.  She writes:

Sometimes it seems like all my ancestors were farmers, but the records tell me differently. Some of the occupations I've found: shoemaker, milliner, wheelwright, mine worker, preacher, and sawmill owner. My dad was a sheet metal worker; I have several photos of him at work. I will be using the "Workday Wednesday" theme for sharing photos, stories, and records related to my ancestors' work lives. If you like, join me in posting on your own blog, or as a comment here, how your ancestors spent "Workday Wednesday!"

I've decided to participate in this meme, as the occupations of my ancestors are of interest to me.  This week I am looking at the high school occupation of my paternal great uncle, Mandell Newmark (1923-1945).  He was killed in action during WW2.

Back in April of 2007, I found on Ancestry.com a transcription of his enlistment record. This is what it looked like.

The civil occupation confused the heck out of my family.  We knew his occupation before the war, as a high school student, was a sales clerk at a department store. No one remembered him playing the oboe, or working as an Automobile parts clerk.

I found a listing of Civil Occupation Codes used on the enlistment records, and realized that "Bandsman, Oboe or Parts Clerk, Automobile" was code 175 and "Engineering Aide (Designated Field) or Sales Clerk" was code 170.  I figured that whoever transcribed the record misread a handwritten 170 as a 175.  That's the problem with transcribed records - you don't see what the transcriber saw, so you can't judge its accuracy.

Curiously - At some point in the past 4 years, Ancestry's record was changed. This is how it reads now.

Not only did someone figure out the code had been misread - they somehow knew Mandell was a salesperson, and not an Engineering Aide.  Without seeing the actual document, I don't know how.

I'm glad the record has been updated. However, I would have liked to have been notified that the record had changed.  I did attach the record to my great uncle's entry in my online family tree, so Ancestry had a way to know that I was interested in the record.

Of course, technically, the current transcription is no more reliable than the first.  I happen to have reason to believe it is currently correct -- in the Civil Occupation field, as well as several others.  However, seeing a transcribed record is never the same as seeing an image of the original.

Update: I have just discovered a list of Occupation Codes on the National Archives site which varies significantly from the list linked to above.   It doesn't have the weird combinations of occupations being assigned to the same code.  I'm unsure of the difference between the two lists.

Workday Wednesday: Occupations of Melvin Van Every

Recently Denise Spurlock of Denise's Life in the Past Lane began a new meme: Workday Wednesday.  She writes:

Sometimes it seems like all my ancestors were farmers, but the records tell me differently. Some of the occupations I've found: shoemaker, milliner, wheelwright, mine worker, preacher, and sawmill owner. My dad was a sheet metal worker; I have several photos of him at work. I will be using the "Workday Wednesday" theme for sharing photos, stories, and records related to my ancestors' work lives. If you like, join me in posting on your own blog, or as a comment here, how your ancestors spent "Workday Wednesday!"

I've decided to participate in this meme, as the occupations of my ancestors are of interest to me.  This week I am looking at the occupations of my maternal great grandfather, Melvin Van Every.

At some point in the late 1950s, I think, my Great Aunt Minnie (Minnie Van Every Benold) gave my mother a Family Register.  I believe most of the research had been done by Minnie's eldest daughter, but there are some additional notes handwritten by Minnie.  Here's the paragraph on Melvin Van Every, who was Minnie's father, so I have reason to trust it as far as one can expect a child to have a good recollection of her father's life.

Melvin Van Every, son of Samuel was born August 30, 1863 in Michigan and died in Texas, May 26, 1929. He is buried in El Paso, Texas. He was of a more or less pioneering nature and was self-supporting from the age of 14, having come to Texas with his father at the age of 10. In his early life he was a sheep raiser, then went into cotton gin work and raised much cotton himself. Then he purchased and improved and resold farms, reinvesting his profits. Still later he went into the bee business and dairying, operating sometimes 500 colonies of bees. In 1917 he moved to west Texas and purchased several farms, which he began to improve. At the time of his death he was living on one of three farms near Garfield, New Mexico. He was a very religious man, a Methodist and a member of the Masonic order. He first married Mary Jane Denyer, Aug 29 1883. She was born Sept 1, 1868 and died May 2, 1923. He married second Josie Thedford.

I have managed to verify some of this with newspaper articles.  Below we see a letter from the 1908 volume of Gleanings in Bee Culture.

This indicates starting in 1903, by 1907 he was up to 300 colonies.  A November 1914 issue of the Galveston Daily News confirms he was into dairying.

The bio at the top misses a few professions. I also know that in 1918 and 1919 at least, he was a County Apiary Inspector in Fabens, Texas, near El Paso. (The list of inspectors can be found in the below clipping near the bottom of the left hand column.)



And a May 1913 news clipping suggests he got himself involved with building contracting.

I still haven't found confirmation of his early activities raising sheep or cotton, but I have no reason to doubt it.

Workday Wednesday: Occupations of Selig Feinstein

Recently Denise Spurlock of Denise's Life in the Past Lane began a new meme: Workday Wednesday.  She writes:

Sometimes it seems like all my ancestors were farmers, but the records tell me differently. Some of the occupations I've found: shoemaker, milliner, wheelwright, mine worker, preacher, and sawmill owner. My dad was a sheet metal worker; I have several photos of him at work. I will be using the "Workday Wednesday" theme for sharing photos, stories, and records related to my ancestors' work lives. If you like, join me in posting on your own blog, or as a comment here, how your ancestors spent "Workday Wednesday!"

I like this idea. I, too, have been surprised by both the unique, and often repeated occupations of my ancestors. Most of what I have learned about recent ancestors hasn't been 'news' to my family, though I have uncovered documentation, and some extra details. Perhaps the biggest revelation has been in the case of my second great grandfather, Selig Feinstein.  The paternal grandfather of my paternal grandmother, Selig arrived in America in 1890.  The family remembered him as being active in both real estate and in the laundry business.

My research uncovered he had been in the US for 16 years when he entered the real estate business in 1906 (at the earliest).  It may have been 1911 before he opened his first laundry. His trade in the 'old country' is unknown, though he is listed as a 'laborer' on the arriving passenger manifest, and 'schlosser' on the German departing manifest, which translates to either 'locksmith' or 'metalworker.'

Occupations and Business Partners of Selig Feinstein (1860-1915)
(Unless otherwise indicated - Source: St. Louis City Directories)

• 1892-1898 - Feinstein and Wieselman - Shoers 
• 1898 - Feinstein and Wieselman - Inventors (source: patent database)
• 1899-1900 - Feinstein and Wieselman - Blacksmiths
• 1901-1902 - mgr The Western Junk Shop
• 1903 - Feinstein and Schriber, Junk
• 1904-1905 - Junk
• 1908 - Feinstein and Broude - Real Estate - Selig Feinstein, (his son) Harry Feinstein, and Sergius Broude
• 1909 - Feinstein Real Estate Co - Selig and Harry
• 1911 - Royal Laundry Co - Selig and (his son) Herman (Selig: Pres., Herman: Mgr) 
• 1912 - Central Laundry Co. (source: newspaper clipping)
• 1914 - Famous Laundry Co - Annie Feinstein (wife), Pearl Feinstein (daughter), Selig Feinstein incorporators 

My interpretation of these facts is that following the successful patent of improvements to fire hydrants, shoers Feinstein and Wieselman promoted themselves to blacksmiths and experienced enough success that Feinstein opened his own junk store. Then, at the age of 46, Selig left the junk store business.

Selig seems to have entered the Real Estate and Laundry industries just as his children were starting out in these industries themselves.  This leads to questions concerning his role in these ventures. His participation may have been a means of passing on his business management experience to his children.