Water Safety for Violinists

 

ST. LOUIS, MO

MAY 1

12 - M
1908

        I  will sure be there        
    the fourth of July. Do               Mrs. Pemperton Cooper
    you want one or two pairs                       Windsor
    of water wings?  I can get                         Mo.
    them at $ .35 a pair.  Please
    let me know at once.                          R. F. D.

He's a serious young man, age 13-14, maybe 16, with rimless spectacles, shaggy hair parted in the center, and a violin. He isn't smiling but he's not frowning either. It's a look shared by many bookish boys who are keen to master difficult skills like playing a violin or operating a typewriter. He reminds me of someone....a kid who enjoyed nerdy challenges...Me! 

Though in my case it was the other hard instrument, the French horn, but I also liked playing a typewriter too. When I was a child I remember watching my father and mother methodically rattling away at a typewriter keyboard to compose a business letter or fill out a government form. It fascinated me how this complicated machine could assemble letters into neat sentences just by tapping out rhythms. I think this young violinist shared that wonder when in 1908 he crafted his serious note to Mrs. Pemperton Cooper. It's a subtle demonstration of accomplishment on two instruments that I think is calculated to impress her.  

Curiously he left out his name, but the message implies they have recently corresponded so he probably felt it was unnecessary. Afterall his photo was on the front so she'd easily recognize who sent the postcard. 

But what exactly were "water wings"?

A century later we call them
personal flotation devices.

Ladies Home Journal
July 1908

Learn To Swim

by one trail

Ayvad's Water-Wings

Price 25¢

and 35¢

Great Sport in the Water

                                A person weighing from 50 to 250 lbs can float on them

                                without effort.  Inquire of any one who has used Ayvad's

                                water-wings and be convinced you can learn to swim the first

                                day you are in the water.  For those who can swim they

                                furnish a source of amusement nothing can equal.  Easily

                                adjusted.  Take no more room than a pocket handkerchief.

                                Sold by Dry-goods, Sporting -goods, Druggists, Hardware

                                dealers, etc.  Ordering from us direct, enclose price to Dept. A.

                                AYVAD MANUDFACTURING COMPANY, Hoboken, N.J.

                                Note:  Educational Dept. London County Council classified

                                Water-Wings with books, etc., as necessary school supply.

                                Bright Young Men wanted to act as Agents.  Liberal induce-
                                ments offered.  Send for particulars.

I don't expect that this enterprising boy had much interest in W & B Swedish Hair Powder, "the dry shampoo that cleanses the hair without washing", it's very likely that his offer to Mrs. Cooper was for Ayvad's water-wings, which were the only national brand I could find on sale in 1908. The first patent date was May 7, 1901 so this was a relatively new recreational apparatus. Its two canvas bladders required inflation by blowing air into them through a small aluminum valve. Supposedly this gave enough buoyancy to keep a 250 lb. adult afloat. The company continued making water wings into the 1940s so a good many people must have learned to swim with a pair, or at least feel safe while paddling in the water. 

Ayvad's Water Wings, ca. 1904-1915
Source: National Museum of American History

The typewriter used to make the postcard's message is not so easy to track down. The first practical typewriter was not introduced to consumers and businesses until 1874, so by 1908 there were hundreds of brands and models to choose. Of course, I can't be 100% certain that the author of  the message was the violinist in the photograph as it's not impossible that his father or mother typed it. But the format of the brief note seems more like what a 14 year-old boy would write than how an adult would address another adult. And surely mom or dad would have signed it and mentioned their boy on the front.

The American Stationer
18 April 1908

The young man might have bought a Blickensderfer typewriter from Chicago. Or maybe it was  a gift from his parents of a "Junior" typewriter, "built like $100 kinds, in compact form.  Thoroughly practical, reliable, durable machine–'writes in sight' 80 words a minute." Only $15 from the Junior Typewriter Co., of 331 Broadway, N. Y. 

Ladies Home Journal
November 1908

So with a final tap of my modern keyboard that could be the end
of the story of this violinist's postcard. 
Except that
I've left out
the most obvious clue.

Who was Mrs. Pemperton Cooper?

Actually it was Pemberton,
a superb name for the gallant leading man
in a romance novel,
but perhaps not a familiar one
to a brainy young violinist.

She was Georgia May Cooper, wife of Pemberton Cooper, a farmer. They lived at R.F.D. 14 (Rural Free Delivery) in Windsor, Henry county, Missouri. In September 1918, Pemberton gave all this information to his local draft board, though he had no worry of being drafted as he was then age 43 having been born in January 1875. According to a useful family tree provided by a descendent on Ancestry.com, Georgia was a month younger than Pemberton, born in February 1875, and her maiden name was Georgia M. Gibson. 

Windsor is a small rural community, about 210 miles west of St. Louis and 80 miles southeast of Kansas City, Missouri. In 1908 it had a population of around 2,000 residents which is not much smaller than its present number of 2,775 which now includes a portion in Pettis county too. It was served then by a few newspapers including two weeklies, the Windsor Review, and the Warrensburg Journal-Democrat. 

Georgia grew up in Jefferson Township, Johnson county, (one of 18 different Jefferson townships in Missouri and now an inactive placename.) which is about 7 miles north of Windsor. In the 1900 census she lived on a farm with her parents, three sisters, one brother, and her grandmother. Georgia was then age 25 and listed her occupation as School Teacher. Through finding her name in the county newspapers I learned that she was considered a "talented young lady. a popular teacher, and the pleasant daughter of Col. W. T. Gibson". I also learned that she played piano at her church.

Warrensburg MO Journal-Democrat
3 June 1904

In February 1904 the Warrensburg Journal-Democrat announced what it called a "Piano Contest". It listed the names of sixteen young women from Johnson County, roughly within 25 miles of Warrensburg. Miss Georgia Gibson of Jefferson township was one of them. However this was not a talent contest as I first thought, but a popularity contest and a piano was the top prize. Each week the newspaper would compile a list of votes submitted from it's readership and from each contestant's fan club. Four months later on June 11 the final tally would decide who was Johnson County's favorite young lady for 1904. 

Warrensburg MO Journal-Democrat
17 June 1904

On Saturday afternoon, June 11, 1904, when the hands of the Warrensburg Commercial Bank's clock pointed to the hour of four, the contest was officially closed and the three impartial judges began counting the last votes received. After two hours they announced the results to a large crowd of more than a hundred people who had gathered outside the bank. To keep everyone in suspense, they began with the last place  winner, Miss Stella Pollock, who won a hat valued at $5. 

The winner was Miss Georgia Gibson who received an astounding 683,461 votes! This was 186,266 more than the 2nd place finisher, Miss Anna Ramsey, of Columbus Township. The count might have been different but several boxes of votes were delayed by the trains and did not arrive until after the contest closed. The total votes cast was 1,333,458 of which 1,081,893 votes were received in just the last two days of the contest. 

Warrensburg MO Journal-Democrat
3 June 1904

Georgia's prize was an "Elegant Lindeman & Sons Piano" valued at $400 courtesy of the Martin & Vernon Music Co. of Kansas City. The 2nd place prize for Miss Anna Ramsey was a "Buggy" valued at $85. The next prizes were a $40 bedroom suit, a $35 sewing machine, a $35 china set, a $30 combination steel range, and other smaller items of lesser value. 

The piano was described as "a splendid instrument of the latest style and mahogany case" and I suspect it was an upright piano, though Lindeman did make so-called "square pianos" which were actually rectangular flat cases with the keyboard on a long side. Such a fine piano was clearly a special prize for someone like Georgia who actually played one. 

A few days later the Warrensburg Journal-Democrat published a letter from Georgia thanking everyone for their support. It's such a beautiful note of appreciation that I feel compelled to share it here. 

Warrensburg MO Journal-Democrat
24 June 1904

Card from Miss Georgia Gibson.

    There is in my possession to-day a beautiful Lindeman piano, which was won by me through the generosity and indefatigable essay of my friends.  The friendship alone accorded me in this contest is a prize, the intrinsic value of which is priceless, and I could not better express my sentiments of gratitude than to wish for my friends lives as full of music as is ensconced within my piano.  With genuine appreciation, insufficiently expressed, to each of my loyal friends,

            I am sincerely

                    Georgia M. Gibson

What made this more interesting is that barely a month later on Wednesday evening, 27 July 1904, Miss Georgia M. Gibson married Mr. Pemberton Cooper at the home of her parents in Jefferson Township. A correspondent to the Warrensburg MO Journal-Democrat reported on the event:

        Nature seemed desirous of lending her charms of beauty and splendor to the occasion.  A shower had made fresh and cool the air.  And as the wedding guests were gathering at the bride's home the sun was setting on the margin of a crimson sky as if to betoken an unclouded future. The moon at the same moment appeared in the east shedding its mellow effulgent light, dispelling any approaching gloom.  Thus Nature's two  great lights seem to stand as harbingers of a bright future to those so soon to be joined in wedlock....

    But in a time like this when two hearts are to be made one, we have no inclination to discuss decorations of adornment,  These are unimportant.  They sink into insignificance in comparison to the vows to be taken.  The anxious mothers and pensive fathers impress us with the fact that the destinies of two lives are hinging on the actions of the next few moments.  We forget environments when we hear coming from the keyboard of the bride's new piano, fingered by Miss Elsie Harvey, the sweet, impressive strains of the wedding march.  Linked arm in arm as their lives soon will be, the bride and groom appear to take their position  near the arch of oak. Brother Burgin in his staunch and impressive manner takes their vows and offers a fluent, eloquent invocation to our God to guide, direct and protect the shallop now launched on life's great ocean, and never could life's boat sail on smoother surface or children leave parental mooring under more auspicious surroundings than on this occasion...

   The number and choice of presents, though they requested there be none, indicates the great esteem in which the bride and groom were held by their friends. 
    Miss Georgia was accomplished in music and painting and was a most successful teacher.  To be conservative, she was one of our most cultured, amiable and sweet girls. We shall miss her much.  Mr. Pemberton Cooper, has a good home in Jefferson township.  He is a strong student and successful young business man.  And while it is not all, it is enough praise to say he is worthy of so good a wife as Miss Georgia.

It would be difficult to find a more romantic account of even a royal wedding. Following the ceremony, the happy couple traveled to St. Louis to visit the World's Fair. Pemberton and Georgia M. Cooper (Gibson) settled in Johnson County and in 1909 had one child, a daughter. Pemberton died in 1957 and Georgia passed away in 1959 at age 84. They are buried together in Windsor, Missouri. 

* * *

What first attracted me to this postcard was the picture of the earnest young violinist and his quirky message about water wings. Though he might have been writing to a cousin or a family friend, reading between the lines, I suspected there might be a different connection and that it might be through music. 

As my research revealed, Georgia Gibson, Mrs. Pemberton Cooper, was much admired for her talent in music and education. I don't think her marriage would have stopped that passion and she very  likely continued to promote music education and mentor young people. So I believe that at some time before 1908 she was a teacher for this young violinist, possibly in music of maybe in typing too! The hints of her personality found in newspaper reports were charming enough to imagine a young boy forming an infatuation with her, however innocent. I can't prove it, but I think it makes a nice story.

Discovering Georgia's story of winning the Warrensburg piano contest plus finding her picture too gave me a rare opportunity to tell a larger story about life in American small towns. From our 21st century perspective we see rural farm towns in decline, diminishing in population and losing the memory of the heritage and traditions that founded them. But once upon a time they were vibrant places with strong social and cultural networks. A person's musical talent was admired and praised. It gave value to the individual and pride to the community. 

Let's finish with a classic rendition
of The Typewriter
composed by Leroy Anderson (1908–1975) in 1950
and first performed by the Boston Pops Orchestra in 1953.
Anderson had a long relationship with the Boston Pops
through its celebrated music director,  Arthur Fiedler. 
In this television clip you'll notice that the performer, Liberace, 
uses a two finger method which is surprising given his skill as a pianist.
According to the music's Wikipedia entry
a special modified typewriter is required
which had only two working keys
so to prevent the mechanism from jamming.
Typically it's a novelty solo piece for an orchestra's principal percussionist.

Given the number of performances of The Typewriter
available on YouTube it's clear that this music
still remains popular with audiences around the world.
But I seriously doubt that any kid today
would recognize a typewriter
or understand why its sound is so funny.

Who remembers the purpose of the DING?

This is my contribution to Sepia Saturday

where some bloggers still write the old-fashion way.