Manhattan in the Early Years
Manhattan American, Wednesday, January 15 1986.
The following story was sent to Mrs. Vera Borden from Blanche Robbins Nielsen of Elm Grove, Wisc. Mrs. Nielsen is a former resident and was asked to send some of her memories of her early days in Manhattan. She is one of five children of the late “Robb” Robbins and his wife Cora Robbins. The couple’s other children were Arleen, Clyde, Neva and Margaret. Mrs. Nielsen sends best wishes for a big 1986 and hopes we have a big centennial celebration.
MANHATTAN IN THE EARLY DAYS
by Blanche Robbins Nielsen
“As I turn the pages of my father’s scrapbook, 20 pages of colorful cards and cutouts tell much about this area 100 years ago. My father was Robert I. Robbins and his scrapbook was a wholesome hobby that kids had in those days. Each page is a veritable rainbow of shapes sizes and types––colorful cards showing awards of merit from school, religious pictures from church, commercial cards and cutouts from friends. Collecting advertising trading cards must have been popular. There were patent medicine ads such as Hood’s Sarsaparilla, Fairbanks Fairy Soap, self-adjusting corsets, Red Crown Deodorized Stove Gasoline, American Sewing Machine, McLaughlin’s Coffee, Henderson’s School Shoes, Clark’s Mile-End Thread and J.P. Coat’s Six Cord. Garland Stoves had their card printed in both English and German and Acorn Stoves had a pretty little girl with acorn necklace. There was beautiful series of kings and queens of England, a series on coffee production, one on far-away countries and one on wild animals.
The pictures show much about the time––the fashions of full skirts, small waists, ruffles, sailor suits, hats and bonnets and high top shoes. There were dogs, horses, spring wagons and two-passenger road carts. There were horns, balloons, dolls, children playing leap frog, ice skating and swinging. This was a time for gathering wood for the fire, writing with quill pens and turning the hand wringer on the wash tub. One advertised Ivory Polish for the teeth that perfumes the breath.
People 100 years ago faced some of the same problems that we have today. I have a 90-year old newspaper from a nearby city. News items concerned obscene literature, Greeks and Turks fighting, shady politics, rape, providing textbooks for public and Catholic schools, murder and the low price of grain––corn 18 cents. But also the news covered weddings, deaths, the buying and selling of property and such things––not much different from today!
My earliest recollection is that of my grandfather, William Frederick Robbins, and my grandmother Cora Sophia Seward Robbins, moving to Manhattan. I can still see them taking the piano out on the front porch to be loaded on to the wagon. Grandpa had come from English, Irish and German stock. Grandma was from the illustrious Seward family who arrived in the colonies in 1640. Both were pioneer families coming to Wilton and Joliet in 1850. Grandma came to teach school in Wilton and met and married Grandpa (I have her old school bell). Now at about 63 years of age he was retiring from farming and moving to town like many of the other farmers around Manhattan. This was about the time of Halley’s comet. My dad often talked about how people gathered in their back yards to view the comet. I suppose that I saw it too, but I have no recollection.
Grandpa’s house in Manhattan was on Park Street. It was a large two-story house with a barn (later used for a garage), an outhouse which was often tipped over on Halloween, a chicken house and a garden. Across the street was the Lutheran church and down a few doors the Episcopal church. There was a furnace, electric lights, a bathroom with a tub on legs and a toilet with the tank above and you pulled the chain, and concrete sidewalks. Those modern conveniences were things that they didn’t have on the farm.
Our house in the country was destroyed by fire when I was seven; so I came to live with my grandparents and attend second grade. I remember the old pictures on the wall. One was a wreath of flowers made out of locks of hair of various members of the family and one was a collage of pictures cut from magazines in about 1825. Here I learned to skate and I remember the bruised knees. I played marbles with Lola Fehr and dolls with Thelma Eberhardt. I also remember headlines saying war had broken out in Europe (that was the First World War). I thought we were friends with Germany and couldn’t believe we were against them. I attended the Methodist Episcopal Church Sunday School; my grandparents were loyal supporters of that church. Eventually I got homesick; so one rainy day my grandfather took me out to the end of the gravel road where my dad met me with the buggy.
On the farm we always had chicken on Sunday and we often shared that chicken dinner with friends. We always enjoyed getting together with the Flatts. There were five children in their family and five in ours. So after church we’d go to their house or ours. We played games while the women cooked and the men talked. It was certainly fun and I remember the pies, the bowls of Jell-O and the delicious chicken. Mamma would catch the chicken the day before and either wring off its head or chop it off. Then the chicken would dance around without a head. Then she’d scald it in hot water, pull off the feathers and singe it over flame to remove the hairs. Much different from the packaged cut up chicken we get today!
The influenza epidemic hit Manhattan and took its toll. I remember staying in bed. Dr. Brannon seemed very businesslike and gruff but he made the rounds to see the very sick night and day. He was a good doctor even though he couldn’t save his own daughter, Laura, from this terrible flu. His wife was a very kind lady and a help in his profession. Of course I remembered Londus and George Brannon as handsome young men who followed in their father’s footsteps to become doctors. I remember his Ruth who studied law; I admired her flamboyant and colorful clothes. On a summer’s evening we used to go out for walks in the countryside with Julia McGowan, Eleanor Jones (whose father had the Manhattan State Bank) and others.
I lived off and on in Manhattan for several years, staying with either my grandparents Will Robbins (born 1854 in Wilton) and wife Cora (born 1856 in New Lenox) or my Uncle Gus (August Anton Tennysen born 1852 in Germany) and Aunt Fan (Frances Robbins Tennysen born 1858 in Wilton). Grandma died in 1916 and later Grandpa married Pauline Hawthorne Ward, who also died in Manhattan. Grandpa died in 1928.
Gus Tennysen had come with his family to this country. His mother lived in Wilton Center and his cousin Harry Gerdes from Wilton Center retired later to live in Manhattan. Uncle Gus ran the drug store for many years and I helped in the drug store while attending high school in Joliet riding the bus each day. I helped in the store summers and for a year after graduating from high school as I was still too young to teach school.
The drug store had a variety of goods––jewelry, cameras, auto licenses, candy, newspapers and magazines as well as patent medicines such as Castoria; Doan’s Kidney Pills; Beef, Iron and Wine Tonic and even Corn Huskers Lotion. This was also the place to pick up morning and evening newspapers and to linger to hear the local news and gossip.
Uncle Gus kept long hours from 7 o’clock in the morning to 11 o’clock at night. He swept the floor each morning and fired the furnace and he seemed to enjoy it all. Aunt Fan was a gourmet cook––if they had them in those days––and she was also an angel of mercy. Many a time she was seen with a basket of food on her arm taking it to someone who was ill or hungry. She never mentioned it to anyone; she would just slip out of the house with her basket of help.
Uncle Gus was really my great uncle and his daughter, my father’s cousin, was the postmaster for many years. “Not the postmistress,” she’d say, “I was appointed postmaster.” She too, was tied down day after day with her work in the post office and she helped in the drug store besides.
We had a girls’ baseball team and played teams from the surrounding area; sometimes I pitched. Some of the churches had volleyball teams; so I played volleyball too. I can’t forget the dances at the Coliseum. The boys always came around to ask for a dance and you kept your program on a slip of paper. Also we had dances upstairs near the old post office; that was also a roller skating rink at one time.
We had the “Manhattan Frolics” to pay for the tennis court. It was a vaudeville production put on by a producer from Chicago using local talent. My sisters, Margaret and Neva, were in it plus dozens of others and I have the names of those budding actresses.
Then there was the Charleston contest at the theatre. Many entered including my sister, but I believe Mildred Wagner won. We used to go to the movies at that theatre. Earlier we took dancing lessons, Irish jigs, from a Mr. McNamara who came weekly from Chicago.
The theatre reminds me of the adjacent Hoermann’s Hotel. I remember the ice cream treats and the wonderful bread. My sister and I took piano lessons from Mrs. Hoermann who was an excellent musician. I went to my grandparent’s house to practice.
Thinking of music reminds me of the vocal talents of Mamie Sippel and Dr. Faulkner. They were always ready to sing at the weddings, funerals and entertainment and their harmonizing was beautiful. Dr. Faulkner was the veterinarian and he covered the countryside for miles around.
Down the street from Hoermann’s was the big Catholic church. Across the street was Schroeder’s Department Store where we bought cloth, thread and a large variety of goods. Timm’s Garage was nearby and the big old hotel next to the railroad track run by the Evans family. Across the track was the Alexander Lumber Co. and Consumer’s Hardware. Down the street was the Manhattan Telephone Company office. My grandfather was instrumental in getting telephones and was president of the company for many years. That reminds me of the Lynks and his association with the Telephone Co. Florence Lynk was well known around Manhattan and she also went with us on our evening walks.
Then there was the First National Bank and Claude Henry. I worked in the Bank three summers helping during vacations. Jim McGrath was very patient in teaching me how to run the posting machine. Mr. Momson ran the barber shop and later his son, Clifford took over.
Goodwin’s Store was the home of fine groceries and delicious meats. Sons Ivan and Ralph helped at the store. Next door to Brannons lived Koerners, with a household of nice children. Aunt Susan Robbins and cousins, the French’s, lived around there. Each day going to the house from the drug store, I passed Jordans, Grogans, McGurres, Andrews and other homes. Old Mr. Baker lived on up street. The Phelans lived next to my grandparents and always looked forward to the coming of their grandchildren from Chicago each summer. There were many other families with whom I was acquainted––Reitz, Loucks, Hertel, Manning, Long, Minger, Waldhausen, Poehlman, Weber, Heitman’s dairy, Dean the blacksmith, McHugh, Dr. Pederson and many others.
I hope this gives you a glimpse of early Manhattan. Memories fade but recollecting is fun. In drug store you meet many people and keep up with the news; I was fortunate to have this opportunity.”
