Electricity!

I may eventually delete this post and include these documents in a larger entry about The Brown House.
There are a lot of papers and pictures to process.
For now, though, here is a bill from 1926 for an occasion that Mother clearly remembered. She was eight years old at the time.  Her comment must have been added to the envelope in the 1990s.
How typical that it is in pencil.  She would not have wanted to do anything irrevocable to the document.

Next question:  Why was this building always referred to as the Brown House?
Maybe what I should be looking for is documentation of its re-siding.

The caption on this picture is Grace's.

House on Naaman's Road built by Nils Kwick C 1920.

 
The house was brown shingled in 1947, but I'm sure that the siding was far from new then.

Yes, that's me.  Twelve days old.

The Simon Lake Connection

I was recently asked about Grandpop Kwick's diving, so went looking for a story I had heard once.
Sure enough, Mother had documented it.

Simon Lake was an inventor of the submarine, both for military and commercial uses.
Here is a link to information about his salvage machines.
http://www.simonlake.com/html/salvage_subs.html
It is not difficult to find more about him online.

Simon Lake visited Grandpop Kwick in 1934.
And then wrote to him later.

In 2000, Grace wrote:
" I remember the visit that Simon Lake refers to in this letter.  He came to the house one evening and he and Pop talked a long time while a taxi waited in the driveway.  Impressive!
..
Simon Lake was interested in Pop's diving to help raise the de Braak which had recently been discovered sunk someplace along the Atlantic Coast.  Apparently that fell through, but the de Braak has been in the news off and on ever since, and I think it was finally recovered in the 90s.  Someplace I have a newspaper clipping about it.
At the time of his visit I was under the impression that he was the inventor of the submarine, but I don't think that is right.  I'll have to look that up."

The HMS de Braak was recovered in 1984, apparently somewhat irresponsibly
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMS_Braak_%281795%29
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Maralia/HMS_De_Braak


It is interesting to note that Nils was 59 years old in 1934.
While the 1910 Census listed his occupation as "submarine diver", in 1920 he is called a carpenter, then in 1930 he is again listed as a diver.
I think there are more records to find.

More diving-related pictures are in this post from January 6, 2012
http://stuffstories.blogspot.com/2012/01/january-6-grandpop-kwicks-birthday.html

Well Loved Little Rocking Chair

This little upholstered rocker appeared in my life when I was two or three.

I think of it as always being around.
It featured in early Christmas Card pictures.

There was some way we played with it - probably making forts - that involved lying on the floor with the chair upside down over our heads.  I remember this because it was such a shock one day to realize that I was too big to do that anymore.  My shoulders wouldn't fit between the arms.

My kids sat in it, and I am still looking for  more photographic proof of that.I know there are more pictures to find.
Here are Sarah in Grantsburg and Karen in Range.

At some point the chair was reupholstered in blue, and was at the Bon-Keen's.
Amanda and David both sat in it.

Karen and Brian had it for a while for their kids.

 Now it stays at my house.  Waiting for another generation.

Another Ruth employer

This is the west entrance to Black Point, another of the mansions on the Gold Coast in the Hamptons, featured in various books on the fabulous architecture of the Gilded Age in the area's history.

Cousin Ruth's photo albums don't have pictures specifically labelled for this location, but I suppose that some of her photographs of groups of servants were taken here.

We do know that she worked here, because there is this letter - unfortunately undated - presumably from the head housekeeper for Mrs. H.H. Rogers.

"She is leaving of her own accord rather than spend the winter in Southampton."
Love it.
Also interesting that "she is specially talented at arranging flowers."

(I am tagging this 1920s because this mansion was torn down in the mid 30s.)

Donnie Donaway

Donald L. "Donnie" Donaway Sr.

Age 68, of Frankford, died Saturday, January 28, 2012 at his residence.

Born in Wicomico County, he had been a truck driver for many years and most recently he was a trolley driver for the Town of Bethany Beach. He was a member of St. Ann's Catholic Church in Bethany Beach and a Friend of Bill's.

He is survived by his mother Leola (Donaway) Richards of Wilmington; a brother, Bruce Richards and his wife Cindy of Hockessin; a sister, Christeen Richards of Wilmington, DE; his daughter, Sharon Harris and her husband Steve; his boys, Michael Doherty and his wife Jinny and Daniel Doherty and 5 grandchildren and 3 great-grandchildren.

He was preceded in death by his son, Donald Lee Donaway Jr. in 1990, a grandson, Justin Lee Donaway in 2005 and his soul mate, Ruth Alice Rowles in 2010.
----

Published in The News Journal on February 5, 2012
----

Donnie. I am very glad that I had the chance to know him a little bit when I visited Ruth several times in the last few years.  Mother had always remarked on what a remarkable and improbable combination Ruth and Donnie were, and it was indeed wonderful to be around them.

I am very glad to see Ruth's family included as his own in this write-up.
The worst aspect of Ruth's funeral was that the priest in Virginia simply refused to acknowledge Donnie at all.  That made me very angry.  The priest at their home church was fine, but this guy ... 

The obituary says that Donnie was a truck driver.  Well, he was driving a truck, carrying feed for some southern Delaware chicken operation when we met him.  However, if you got him talking, you found out that earlier in his life he worked on fishing boats - ocean or bay, I am not sure, but I think Ocean or both.  He also could tell stories of storms and damage to the whole Ocean City, Maryland area, and the associated changes in the shoreline over the years.

On my last visit there before Ruth got so very ill, Donnie drove us around back roads through the little towns just inland from the tourists.  We visited Assateague State Park when it was practically deserted (October).  The non-commericalized uninhabited beaches made a huge impression on me.   Then, of course, Ruth and Donnie knew some great little small town place to eat lunch...

The last time I visited, Donnie was amusing us by making a big story about how the town bigwigs wanted a special sign on the tourist trolley for the Labor Day parade, so they had one printed up on a magnetic sheet.  Fine.  Except that the body of the trolley is fiberglass.
We decided that duct tape would be an appropriately classy solution.

Donnie was a fun and gracious man, who rescued and beautifully supported and loved my cousin.  Glad I knew him.

Here is a picture of the the two of them that will have to do until I find one that is better of Ruth.

Just because it is such a great picture of Carl

 

Alice, Swea, and Carl.

This picture must have been taken in the spring of 1907.

Alice was born in September of 1905 and Swea in November of 1906.

Big brother Carl was born in August of either 1903 or 1904 depending on what records you believe.

This picture of him always make me smile.

Here is the Uncle Carl I remember.

We didn't see him often.  He was the only one of Mother's siblings who didn't live in the Wilmington area.  He worked for DuPont in Clinton, Iowa, at a cellophane plant.

We knew when he was visiting, though. If we came home from school to the smell of a cigar in the house, it was, "Uncle Carl was here!"

If he visited in the summer, it was probably an excuse to have a picnic at Alice's.

Carl was a safety engineer for DuPont.  I remember his saying that one of the things he had to do was make sure that no jewelry was worn around the machinery.  He said that it was not unusual for a young man to resist taking off a new wedding ring, but that he had some pretty unpleasant pictures to show the machine operators the reason for the strict rules.

huh.. (4/30/2012)  I found a postcard of the DuPont Cellophane Plant in Clinton.