Chapter 4 (1921-1930)
By 1929, Americans were buying about 100 million movie tickets a week
and millions of radios and automobiles. Times were good and few realized that they would suddenly
end.
Women's groups pushed for equal rights along with Indians and the Blacks. Women voting
rights and holding public office began in 1848 but women could not vote in any state until 1890.
Then, Wyoming entered the Union and was the first state to give women the right to vote. The
movement continued but by 1913, women could vote in only 12 out of the 48 states.
Blacks had
helped at home too. Over 500,000 moved north during the war to take jobs in factories, mills and
mines. Even though black workers did an outstanding job, most were fired as soon as the war was
over, and they faced discrimination with their civil rights, place of residence, and choice of
schools. The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) was formed in 1913
and still is in existence, although they have made significant gains over the years.
In the
1920's, Americans began buying all these new items on credit; even stocks (on margin) until October
24, 1929 when the stock market crashed and brought on the Great Depression of the 1930's.
EVENTS & HAPPENINGS
On 10/31/21, a wireless phone was installed in East St. Louis. Bell and
Kinlock were made into one system.
Sterling Steel Casting Co. was formed as well as Ultra-Life
Laboratories and Hill Brick Co.
Soldiers' Memorial was unveiled in East St. Louis for the
following wars: Revolutionary, Civil, Spanish-American and World War I.
East St. Louis
Library purchased the Elks Building for $150,000. as a library located at 9th & Illinois Ave.
Cahokia Mound Park was built on 144 acres on Route 40. Today, it is a multi-million dollar
museum and everyone in the area should see this air-conditioned masterpiece.
In 1927, Col.
Charles Lindberg visited Belleville and Scott Field on his way to Dayton, Ohio - Also, Amelia
Earhart, the famous aviatrix from Atchison, Kansas, visited East St. Louis and Governor Alfred
E. Smith of New York and the Democratic presidential nominee for the year 1928.
Summer
1927: H. H. Jost Jr. and Roy Bowman, who were both sophomores at Illinois University, took 50 mules
to Genoa, Italy, from National Stockyards. It took 4 days by railway to New York City where they
boarded the Italian ship "IDA", and another 18 days to Florence, Naples, Genoa and Rome, Italy. On
the return trip aboard the "Martha Washington", in the Gulf Stream, they suffered through a typhoon
which lasted 17 hours. Roy Bowman related in an East St. Louis journal article, by cub reporter Mel
Price, that they had 18 days of spaghetti and macaroni and the next day it was macaroni and
spaghetti. H. H. Jost Jr. (whose father was an officer at the Soutern Bank) sent a copy of the
journal story with the headline "Steamer 24 Years Old Tossed Like Leaf", say 2 Illinois U.
Students.
On July 26, 1930 Flag Pole sitting became the rage in St. Clair County and various
records of endurance were made. County Judge W.R. Weber ordered all juvenile pole sitters to
"Return to Earth."
DEPRESSION
On Jan. 20, 1930, for the first time in 25 years, East St.
Louis had a "soup line". The basement of the City Hall served as a home for the homeless during the
winter and was used as the headquarters for the bread line. The service was kept up by a fund
provided by the public.
Here were two very important periods in East St. Louis history that I
thought showed the caliber and determination of its people: 1) Depression of the 30's and 2) World
War II.
East St. Louis was a city of many nationalities, ethnic groups, work backgrounds, etc.,
but primarily they were blue and white collar and mostly middle class and religious people. They
respected the rights of their neighbors and were proud to be called East St. Louisans. Even today
the feeling still prevails.
As an example, I received a beautiful letter from an old friend of my
father's and also of mine. Creasy Chadwick still lives on Goose Hill (Stockyards area) and has
lived there since the 1930's. Her husband, "Shack" Chadwick, was the Democratic precinct
committeeman and after his death, Creasy served in his place. Several times I took my father to her
house for political meetings. I am printing her letter verbatim and I want you to know that her
letter contained a $5.00 bill (which I returned with many thanks). I want to say that if there were
more people like her in this life, the world would be a better place.
(Footnote: Her $5.00 bill
was the only cash contribution that I received.)
Creasy Chadwick's letter reads:
I am a
senior citizen and I live in the Goose Hill area; 9th &Exchange, 4th&Winstanley, Collinsville
Ave.& St. Clair to National City, St. Clair - First St. My memories of Goose Hill was all the
employment in this small area.
Hunter, Swift, Armour & Circle Packing. National Stock Yard.
We had restaurants, beauty shop, barber shop, grocery stores, hardware, druggist, 2 schools,
3 churches, confectionery, moving van, lead company, tailor shop, cleaners, Jessie Harris
Manure, taverns, 2 serum plants, funeral home, 2 lumberyards. These are just a number of
places to find employment. We used to have 2 precincts 37 & 38. Employment for anyone seeking
employment.
We in the Goose Hill area are still together. The last week in August, we have
what is called a Goose Hill Reunion. Friday night a dance, Saturday all day picnic. Sunday we
worship at a Church, a parade.
I used to work at the English Inn at 1st & St. Clair.
In this
area now we have a lot of vacant land with weeds, where there used to be houses and grass.
With all these problems that we are having, I still love East St. Louis, especially the Goose
Hill area.
You do not have to return this message.
We contact as many former residents as
possible to participate in this 3 day affair.
We also hold a memorial service, at one of
the Churches. We have a Queen and King contest. We have a Souvenir Book.
Enclosed is $5.00
MRS. CHADWICK
I also received an invitation from Maxine Isaac of 256 Winchester Place,
Belleville, IL 62223. She was ViceChairperson of the Goose Hill Reunion in 19910 a invited me to
attend (8th year). She told me that she had lots of pictures and information that would be good for
my book. I was unable to attend.
A JOB FOR MEL PRICE
H. H. Jost Jr. also told a story that
Emmett Griffin, Superintendent of Parks, hired him to work at Jones Park swimming pool which was
the largest man-made pool in the U.S. at that time and had swimmers from all over the country.
Also, that Pat Griffin hired Mel Price as assistant life guard although he couldn't swim a stroke.
However, there was a children's area (3 feet deep) which Mel Price patroled.
EAST ST. LOUIS
HIGH SCHOOL GRAD CLASSES OF 1923 & 1924
I received several copies of Old Estlians, and will
summarize them briefly:
Class officers were Francis Earl Willard (President) and Urban "Buddy"
Gates (Sgt. at Arms). Buddy later owned and operated the old "Estlian Tavern" at 4lst and State
Streets. Members of the class were Ed Mixon, Elburn Wiegmann, William Finke, Chester Drummond, Joe
Goldberg, Wesley Helms (of Parkway Inn fame), Joe Kocher Elwood Johnson, Roy Bowman, Paul Harding,
Adele Thomas, Leland Crank, Oscar Waghalter, Jack Ames, Paul Mullane, Marcellus Bosworth, Glen
(Art) Shepard, Alicia Sheridan, Russell Fowler, John Hickey, Clarice Ames, Lloyd Adams, Ben Day,
Robert Ganschinietz, Herman Jost Jr., Ralph Knewitz, Bernice Fields, Francis Kurrus, Quentin
Spivey, Ruth Boyer, Thelma Chenowith, Mildred Dahm, Evelyn Dahm, Frances Polk, Leita Bremer, Milton
Harrington and Clyde Smith.
EAST ST. LOUIS HIGH SCHOOL GRADUATING CLASS OF 1925
Estlian named
the officers of the February 1925 class as follows: Victor Lukas Jr. (Pres.), Helen Eggmann (V.P.),
Hulda Bareis (Secy.), Harry A. Pfiffner (Treas.) and Paul Fleming (Sgt. at Arms). Other members
mentioned are: John Steuemagel, William Homer, Lawrence Miller, Katherine Meints, Lilian Beckwith,
Helen Sorrells, Margaret Shreve (also Queen of Class), Dorothy Bartlett, and Rae Wilkinson.
Class
officers of the June 1925 class were: Clarence Curry (Pres.), Mildred Ropiequet V.P.), Anna Snyder
(Secy.), Gordon Brown (Treas.), and Edward Powell (Sgt. At Arms) Other members were: Joe Rodriguez,
Robert Thomas, George Condo, Walter Maag, Louis Baumeister, Raymond Burton, Thomas McDonnell,
Margaret Corrigan, Edith Lieb, Margaret Reimann, Ruth
Grote, Julia Eros, Juanita Fiss, Frances
Hackmann, and Helen Hamlin (Queen of Graduating Class).
EAST ST. LOUIS GRADUATES CLASS OF
FEBRUARY 1927
Estlian showed the February 1927 graduating class officers as: Fred Steuernagel
(Pres.), Eugene Tucker (V.P.), Vivian Reischle (Treas.) and Stella Mae Hamlin (Secy.). Other
members: Marion Ropiequet, Robert Kurrus, Charles Schiele, Sam Fein, Leroy Larsh, Robert Knauer,
Ralph Herrin, William Guyton, Glen Anderson, Willard Keenan, Jack and Thomas William Yakelevich,
and Eugene Tucker (Captain of Football Team), which was first year in Southwestern Illinois High
School Football Conference.
Note: They won 8 out of 10 games scoring 145 points to the opponents
12 points with only 16 men on the Varsity squad.
Class song was "East Side We Love You", class
songster was Nellie Carmichael and class poet was Naomi Machery.
EAST ST. LOUIS HIGH SCHOOL
GRADUATING CLASS OF JUNE 1927
Class officers named in the June 1927 Estlian were: Virgil Manker
(Pres.), Roy Culbertson (Treas.) and Joe Reader (Sgt. At Arms). Other members were: Nathan Crystal,
Mary Jean Maule, James McRoberts, Robert Knauer, Robert Kurrus, Wesley Helms, Helen Broderick, Sol
Cohn, Esperance Hill, Louise, Hyatt, Elizabeth Hockaday, Everett Erlinger, Jan. Sheridan, Chris
Reynolds, Mildred Kolb, Margaret Healy, Thelma Hatch, Tom Prindable, Mildred Noble, Vivienne
Lawler, Henry McStay, John B. Kramer, Lilian Smith, William Cullinane, Francis Dillon, Joseph Eros,
Carl Wimmer, Helen Corrigan, Robert Boylan, Carl Baldwin, Earl and Carolyn Jackson, Inez Hammond
Morrison, Elsie Cervenka West, Fred and Liz Begeman, Irma Peterson, Holle, Norman Aud, and Betty
McKittrick Foster.
WILLIAM C. FINKE
Bill Finke has been a tremendous help to me on
information for the various East St. Louis High School classes. He is a very dedicated person and I
want to give special mention to Bill and his wife (Marianna Reiss) who passed away July 13,1989.
Bill spent his early years at Monroe School and operated a paper route. He remembers his junior
Prom on the steamer J. S. and going to Forest Park Highlands where he had a basket picnic.
His
family's first car was a Model T Ford Touring Car. Gasoline was 12 cents a gallon.
He was hired
by Continental Can Co. as a timekeeper starting at $15.00 per week. He was there for 40 years. He
visited Chicago's World Fair (1933) and visited Chautauqua (Grafton, IL). Married (1940) to
Marianna Reiss of Tau Delta Phi Sorority at Lansdowne Christian Church with the reception at the
Broadview Hotel.
CHARLES VIRGIL MORRIS
I received a very nice letter from Charles Virgil
Morris of Granite City, IL. who was a 1928 graduate of East St. Louis High School. He lived in
Lansdowne in the 40th St. and Waverly Ave. area. He worked at America Zinc in Fairmount City and
Monsanto as a pipefitter and lead burner. He was a classmate of Howard Vogt (St. Louis Post
Dispatch photographer and writer) and Carl Baldwin.
JULIE WIER
Julie Wier wrote about her
husband Jack Wier's family of railroad men. His great grandfather was a conductor for New York
Central. His grandfather, William Frances Bolam, was chief dispatcher for the C. B.& Q. for years.
His dad, Jack Sr., worked as a railroad engineer for the Burlington Northern. Jack Jr. worked as a
switchman, fireman and then locomotive engineer until he graduated from college when he went into
management. She wrote about the family barbecues the stories would start off by recalling the
latest merger changes on the East St. Louis railroad scene.
Donald G. Moore of Belleville sent me
a couple of pictures of a 1907 St. Teresa's Academy float in a St. Patrick's Day Parade and an
excellent picture of Swift Packing Plant.
Peggy Fitzpatrick sent a picture of Illinois Avenue
with the Majestic Theater in the background.
PARKWAY INN
Aunt Mary Helms and her husband
James, a/k/a Pop, opened "Parkway Inn" on May 30, 1926 and operated it 29 years until May 31,1955.
At that time they moved the new Parkway Inn to Lawrenceville, IL, on Highway 50, ten miles
west of Vincennes, Indiana, but East St. Louis people will never forget the old "Parkway Inn".
Her son, Wesley Helms, and his wife Virginia are still living (Creve Coeur, Mo.) and they
lent me the 1937 Blue Book. Virginia Helms mailed a copy of a Journal story by Russ Maxwell "We
Shed a Tear".
"WE SHED A TEAR"
Many a nostalgic tear, no doubt, was shed here Wednesday. For
"Aunt Mary" Helms is closing Parkway and moving to another community.
Parkway Inn is what she
called her place officially. To thousands of youngsters yesterday and today, thousands of parents,
it has been and always will be plain "Parkway".
It was at Parkway that Many a kid learned to
dance, between youthful orgies of barbecued beef and chili mac and thick malted milks. It was at
Parkway that many a romance blossomed later into marriage of responsible citizens had its budding
over a coke and sandwich. And always, the lady with the warning finger and the twinkle in her eyes
presided.
East St. Louis will miss Aunt Mary Helms and her family. In leaving, we feel,
she somehow is cheating the coming generations of one of the really heart warming experiences a
kid could ever have in our town.
Virginia also sent me a copy of a newspaper story and pictures
of Parkway Inn and the four members, of the Helms family. The news story states "Boys and girls
of high school age find their way to Parkway Inn, when they begin going places. As they grow older,
they continue to patronize Parkway Inn. Thus, the place remains one of the most perennially popular
meeting places of hungry or thirsty persons in East St. Louis".
Thousands of us East St. Louisans
will never forget Aunt Mary's hamburgers, chili macs, barbecued beef or pork sandwiches, and their
fountain cokes and milk shakes.
(The reason for the Helms to move to Lawrenceville was they owned
only the building and leased the ground from Sinclair Oil Co. who wanted to rebuild and expand the
old Sinclair Service Station.)
I have visited with Wes and Virginia Helms at some of the reunion
lunches held by East St. Louis High graduates of the 1920's and I have enjoyed their company and
their friends.
AMERICAN LEGION POST 53
The American Legion was started in Paris in 1919 and
East St. Louis had two posts (Enright-Hay Post 53 and the 124th Artillery Post 316). They were
merged into Post 53 on July 1, 1925. The Post has had many homes and is still surviving in
Caseyville, IL thanks to the efforts of many fine Legionnaires such as James A. Egan (wife -
Virginia), Gerald Murphree (wife - Mary), Charles Spicuzza (wife - Claire) and others.
Jim Egan
(adjutant) was nice enough to send me a brief history of Post 53 and a complete roster of all
Commanders from 1919 to 1991. Prominent among the' Commanders are: Dr. Stanley A. Wynn (1st,
1919-1920), Dr. Cameron Wilson, G. Edwin Popkess, W. Fred Powell, Everete Smart, Kenneth Ferguson,
Dr. Harry Schmulbach, William C. Huber, Edward Thies, John Gerhard, James H. Egan, Charles Ashton,
Hiram Modglin, Paul Ruggeri, Marion Owen, Stan Sieron Jr., Leo J. Sullivan, Joseph Olsson, Michael
Bova, Richard Bugg, 0. H. Robinson, Rudy Copotelli, James A. Egan, G. Elmer Touchette, Vincent
Buneta, Loy Cartwright, Ralph Guzman (8 years) and Gerald Murphree.
The American Legion Post 53
has done a wonderful job in East St. Louis and I am happy to be, along with my brother (Jack
English), a life-time member of Post 53 since the end of World War 11 (1946).
O'LEARY - HICKEY
FAMILIES
Emmett O'Leary and Ruth (Hickey) O'Leary just recently celebrated their 50th wedding
anniversary given by Vinny OLeary (Emmett's youngest brother and only survivor) at the
Belleville Elks Club on September 25, 1990. Their family home was on 18th Street south of State
Street and other family members were Dan, Steve, Eddie and Eileen. The Hickey family lived on
16th Street and St. Louis Avenue and Ruth's two brothers were Jim and Bob (attorneys). Bob
married Lennamae (Ryan) Hickey.
COYNE FAMILY
Kenny Coyne has been a good friend of mine
since we were 5 years old on St. Louis Avenue. He gave me several pictures of O'Leary's Tavern
(1939) on 15th & St. Louis Avenue (Pinochle Tournament), East St. Louis Police Department (1927) ,
St. Joseph's Grade Schoo1 (1914) and Triple F Club Football Dance Committee of 1940, showing Bill
Delaney, Dick Glasow, Ken Coyne, Bob Joyce, Frank Biegler and myself.
Pinochle at O'Leary's
Tavern
The Coyne family home was at 1738 St. Louis Avenue and family members were (with
birthdates): Chris - 1883; Thomas - 1885 (Kenny's Father); Nicholas - 1887; John J. - 1889; Mary E.
- 1891; James E. (Pet) 1894 (Policeman); Lucille (Ducky) - 1897.