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Today was the kind of field trip historians love. Ridge Historical Society folks visited The American Perforator Company in Frankfort, IL. This company started with patents in the 1890s and was incorporated in 1910. The late Carl Spencer joined the company as a salesman, and in 1960, Carl and his wife Elaine Spencer, now RHS president, bought the company. Ownership has passed to Bryan Spencer, their son.

The company makes machines that perforate, or stamp holes into, documents, checks, ID cards, X-rays, even leather and other items. The perforated message becomes a permanent, non-removable, secure identifying mark on the document. Typical messages include date stamps and status of the document – paid, voided, approved, etc. The perforations might be used to cancel a document, for example, to invalidate an ID or cancel a credit card. These machines have been purchased through the years by many businesses, government agencies, universities, hospitals, etc., from all around the world.

Visiting this company that has been in continuous business for about 130 years is like walking into a little working museum for the Second Industrial Revolution. This is the term used for the "technological revolution" of the late 1800s – early 1900s, marked by innovations in manufacturing. An important part of this revolution was the increased use of machine tools to produce standardized, precise parts. Numerous inventions were patented during these years – such as machines that could perforate.

This visit came about because Elaine Spencer's life story will be used as part of the upcoming "Real American Girls of the Ridge" exhibit. RHS received a donation of five original American Girl dolls from the historical series. This exhibit will pair the dolls with real people connected to the Ridge from the same time periods. Elaine was a youngster during World War II and her story will be paired with that of the Molly doll.

A final look at the American Perforator machine, from the company's brochure. The next time you see a perforated document – a cancelled check, a food label with a code, anything of that nature – you will know the background of the process. Great historical trivia brought to you by the Ridge Historical Society!

The Ridge Historical Society has to start over with the post about Pleasant Thiele Rowland’s connection to the Ridge. Ms. Rowland, of course, is the founder/inventor of the American Girl line of dolls. RHS recently received a donation of five of the original historical-time-period dolls that we will be using in a new exhibit premiering for the public on March 1, “Real American Girls of the Ridge,” which will pair the dolls with real women connected to the Ridge from the same time periods.

We reported that Pleasant’s grandparents lived in Beverly and her father spent his teen-age and young adult years here, and that Pleasant spent a lot of time with her paternal grandmother. All this is true.

But we have now discovered that Pleasant herself, with her parents of course, lived in West Beverly, from around 1947 to 1951, at 2754 West 108th Street.

This is the story: Edward August and Maude Daugherty Thiele, and their children, Edward Morton, William Harrison and Barbara Claire, moved to 9556 South Winchester Avenue during the 1920s.

On June 2, 1940, son Edward Morton Thiele, 26, still living on Winchester Ave. with his folks, married Pleasant Johnson Williams of Decatur, Illinois. The new bride, known as “Petty,” was the daughter of Mr. and Mrs. George A. Williams, a socially prominent family in Decatur. We’ll call Edward Morton “E. M.” and his wife “Petty” from now on because the duplicate family names get confusing. The newspaper reported that after a honeymoon in the East, the couple would live in the Marshall Field apartments in Chicago.

On March 8, 1941, E. M. and Petty welcomed their first child, daughter Pleasant Williams Thiele.

In 1942, on his World War II draft registration, E.M. listed his address as 1373 N. Hudson, Chicago, which is part of the Marshall Field Garden Apartments.

In the late 1940s, E.M., Petty and family are listed as living at 2754 West 108th Street. This house was built in 1947 and was put up for sale in 1951.

E.M. was a rising star in the advertising industry. He joined the Chicago-based advertising firm Leo Burnet Co., Inc. in 1951 and rose to president 10 years later. Some of the famous marketing campaigns from his era include the Marlborough Man, the Jolly Green Giant, and the slogan, “When you’re out of Schlitz, you’re out of beer.”

In 1951, when daughter Pleasant was 10 years old, E.M., Petty and family moved to the well-to-do far North Shore community of Bannockburn, Illinois. They maintained connections to Beverly through family and friends.

In 1969, Edward August and Maude Thiele sold the Winchester Ave. house and moved to Florida. Edward August, 87, died in 1976. His obituary said he had been vice president and sales manager of Tranter Manufacturing, Inc., which was formerly Kold-Hold Manufacturing Co., with whom he was associated for 25 years. Maude, 96, died in 1986 in Palm Beach.

In 1970, E. M. became vice chairman of Leo Burnet, the position he held until 1974 when he retired. In retirement, E. M. and Petty Thiele shared their time between North Palm Beach, Florida, and a lakeside cottage in Douglas, Michigan. He died in 1982 at the age of 68. Petty died in 2010 at the age of 94.

Please read the captions with the pictures for more of the story.

Next up: Pleasant’s life as a young girl in Beverly.

On Valentine’s Day, February 14, we celebrate romance and love. It is one of the oldest holidays we recognize.

The origins of the day go back to the folklore about several saints named Valentine. One was St. Valentine of Rome, believed to have been martyred in AD 269 for ministering to early Christians and performing marriages for Roman soldiers forbidden to marry.

Another is Valentine of Terni, again, an early Christian who was martyred. The Catholic Encyclopedia includes a third Valentine, of whom little in known except he was martyred in Africa.

The feast day of St. Valentine was set as February 14 in AD 496 because it is believed to be the date St. Valentine of Rome was martyred and buried. Because of the unknown history, however, the Roman Catholic Church actually removed this feast day from the official calendar in 1969, relegating it to local recognition. It does remain an established feast day in some other Christian churches. It is not a public holiday in any country.

The idea of associating the day with courtly love became popular in England in the 14th century thanks to poet Geoffrey Chaucer and his circle. By the 1800s, presenting flowers, candy and greetings of affection, particularly poetry, were common practice. Mass-produced valentines have been around since about 1850 in the U.S.

The U.S. greeting card industry estimates about 190 million valentines are sent each year, about half from children. If you add in homemade valentines, the number one recipient is teachers. No surprise, Valentine’s Day is a major day for gift buying – the flower, candy and jewelry businesses do particularly well.

Also as no surprise, valentines have incorporated political and other messages depending on the times. This little gem from about 100 years ago incorporates a pro-woman suffrage message in it. In 1920, the 19th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution was ratified, granting women the right to vote.

Presidents Day (no punctuation according to the Associated Press Stylebook) falls on Monday, February 17, 2020. This is a confusing holiday, known by different names and even celebrating different events in different states. In fact, a federal holiday by this name doesn’t even exist – it’s really Washington’s Birthday by federal law.

The day started as a recognition of the birthday of George Washington, the first President of the U.S. But even that is confusing. Washington’s birth date in 1731 was February 11, under the Julian calendar recognized by the British Empire at the time.

The Julian calendar goes way back to Julius Caesar in ancient Rome. In 1582, Pope Gregory XIII came up with a new calendar, realigning days and months. It’s all complicated with astronomical solstices and equinoxes and leap days that we won’t go into here. The important thing to know is that a date on the Julian calendar is typically 13 days earlier than the Gregorian one.

With time, most countries switched over to the Gregorian calendar, including Great Britain, in 1752. Wednesday, September 2 was followed by Thursday, September 14. For a while, dates in both calendars were given, making things confusing historically.

Going back to 1731, it was determined that Washington’s birthday would have been February 22 under the Gregorian calendar, and that is the date we go by now. In 1879, the U.S. Congress enacted a federal holiday on February 22 to honor Washington. This stood until the Uniform Monday Holiday Act of 1971, which standardized some holidays to create three-day week-ends. Washington’s Birthday was moved to the third Monday in February, which means it will always fall between February 15 and 21, and never on his actual birthday no matter what calendar you use.

Now, to complicate matters further, Abraham Lincoln’s birthday is February 12. It was always this date as he was born in 1809 after the Gregorian calendar was adopted. In Illinois, the “Land of Lincoln,” this is an important date – he is our main man, presidentially speaking. His birthday was never a federal holiday but some states, including Illinois, recognized it.

It was proposed at various times to establish some kind of official Presidents Day to recognize all men who have served in that office but such a federal day has never been established. The term Presidents Day started to be used in the mid-1980s, due to advertisers. It’s a popular day for sales.

It is entirely a state or popular edict as to how to term and celebrate the day. As it falls between Lincoln’s and Washington’s birthdays, about half the states use the day to celebrate both Presidents. But not all states do this – in Alabama, the day celebrates Washington and Thomas Jefferson, whose birthday is April 13. In Massachusetts, they recognize Washington’s Birthday in February, then have Presidents Day on May 29, the birthday of John F. Kennedy.

In Illinois, we recognize February 12 as a state holiday for Lincoln and the third Monday is officially Washington’s Birthday, and it is a federal holiday – federal offices and many schools are closed, there is no mail delivery, etc.

But popularly, the day is known as Presidents Day, and we celebrate both Washington and Lincoln.

Tomorrow, we will review some of the Ridge’s connections to Lincoln.

The Ridge Historical Society is wrapping up Presidents Day with a look at some of the connections between Abraham Lincoln and the Ridge.

The Illinois slogan is "Land of Lincoln." Although Lincoln was born in Kentucky in 1809 and spent much of his youth in Indiana, it was in Illinois, where he moved in 1830, that he became a self-taught lawyer practicing out of Springfield, became active in politics, and was elected the 16th President of the United States in 1860. He was assassinated in 1865, and his remains were brought back to Illinois for burial.

Lincoln traveled the legal circuit on his horse, Old Bob. With certainty, he rode through the Ridge on the Vincennes Trail on his many trips to Chicago. He came to Chicago often for legal business, social interaction, and most importantly, politics.

Three of the people from the Ridge that were in Lincoln’s circle were Ebenezer Peck, Austin Wiswall and Charles Ten Broeke. See the accompanying pictures for their connections.

The Ridge Historical Society salutes Black History Month, celebrated in February. It is a time to remember important people and events in history. We have two stories from Ridge history today, an unofficial stop on the Underground Railroad (UGRR) and a woman named Cornelia Reeves.

The UGRR was not really a railroad that ran underground. It was the name given to the secret network of safe routes and locations that escaped slaves from the southern U. S. could use to reach the northern states and Canada in the early to mid-1800s.

The Gardner Tavern at 9955 Beverly Ave. was built around 1836 by Jefferson Gardner. It served as his home and as a way-stop for travelers along the Vincennes Road. A “tavern” back then was more like a motel.

William Wilcox bought the property in 1844 and owned it until 1870. The building was never an official stop on the UGRR but there are stories about fugitive slaves sleeping in the barn and out-buildings. In 1934, when the old tavern was finally torn down, Alice Barnard wrote in The Weekly Review newspaper, the forerunner of today’s Beverly Review, that these people “were fed and went on their way.” There were four Wilcox sons who served in the Union Army. A picture of the Gardner Tavern as it likely appeared in 1837 was included with the article, drawn by architect Murray Hetherington who designed many fine homes in the Beverly-area.

It was kept very hush-hush when an escaped slave was discovered. One of the many pro-slavery people in Illinois could report this to the authorities. The law was not on the slave’s or property owner’s side. Runaway slaves could be returned to the South for a bounty and there were some very prosperous slave hunters.

RHS is including its information on the Gardner Tavern in the new exhibit, “Real American Girls of the Ridge,” which opens to the public this Sunday, March 1. This exhibit pairs dolls from the historical collection of American Girl dolls with real women who were connected to the Ridge from the same time period. Addy Walker, the African American doll from the Civil War period, is part of the exhibit. She is paired with Cornelia Reeves.

Cornelia Reeves was a former slave who came to the Ridge with her children and grandchildren in the late 1880s. According to a 1936 article in the Chicago Defender, as a small child in Virginia, she saw her parents and siblings sold, and never had any contact with them again. The article claims her family were the first African Americans to settle in Morgan Park. Mother Reeves, as she was known, and her family were active with the Beth Eden Baptist Church.

RHS is doing more research on Mother Reeves and is reaching out to descendants who may still be in the area. As more is learned, the section of the exhibit on Mother Reeves will be expanded.

One of the duties of a legitimate history organization like the Ridge Historical Society is to investigate and either verify or "debunk" local myths and legends to maintain historical accuracy. It's not always easy to get to the truth, and it can be dismaying and downright upsetting to the public to find out something they have believed for years is just not accurate.

Case in point for Morgan Park: The widespread belief that the Hopkinson-Platt House at 108th and Drew Streets was a stop on the Underground Railroad. As we finish up Black History Month, let's take a look at this local urban myth, which someone referred to on an RHS post today.

The Underground Railroad (UGRR) was a network of safe stops where escaping slaves could find refuge and help as they made their way north to freedom. The locations were passed along by word of mouth and secret symbols.

The Blue Island Land and Building Co. began platting and selling the land bordered by today's Western Ave., Ashland Ave., 107th St., and 119th St., in 1869, after the U.S. Civil War ended. William Hopkinson purchased that land at 108th and Drew and built that house in 1871, too late for the Underground Railroad.

The Platts owned the house in later years. What appears to have happened is that a man investigating an ancestor's escape to freedom using the Underground Railroad told Mrs. Platt that the ancestor's journal described a house with windows like the ones on the Hopkinson-Platt House. From this, Ms. Platt drew the conclusion this was the house. But the dates just do not confirm this.

Some people will say there might have been a building there before the Hopkinson-Platt House that runaway slaves used. That is not relevant to this discussion. Mrs. Platt made this claim about the current house, and it just does not work out date-wise.

There are oral histories that confirm that escaping slaves passed through Beverly/Morgan Park and hid in barns. And there are several verified Underground Railroad stops on the South Side. But, unfortunately, the Platt House was not one of them.

So what about the "hidden room?" Well, it could have been a storage area, or changes could have been made to the house at any time along the way.

Does this lessen the historical significance of the house? Not at all. It is one of the earliest structures in Morgan Park, and has a fascinating history. Its nearly three acres of never-developed land make it a prime spot to study for potential significance to the Native Americans who lived in the area. And the Platts were fascinating people. A post about them is in order – but not connected to the UGRR.

Two pictures here show, first, the house in its early years, then owned by Christian Zeiss, when the front entrance faced Prospect Ave. As land around the house was sold off, the house was remodeled to create the entrance on the Drew St. side, which is shown in the second photo, the way the house looks now.

– Adapted from a post from February 2019

This Sunday, March 1, 2020, is the grand opening of the new exhibit at the Ridge Historical Society, 10621 S. Seeley Ave., Chicago. "Real American Girls of the Ridge" pairs American Girl dolls from the Historic Collection with real women from the same time period who were connected to the Ridge. The event runs from 2:00 to 5:00 p.m., is free and open to the public. Refreshments will be served. Watch the RHS Facebook page for features from this exhibit.

The new exhibit, “Real American Girls of the Ridge,” opened at the Ridge Historical Society on March 1. This exhibit pairs dolls from the historical collection of the American Girl Dolls with real women connected to the Ridge from the same time period. During March, Women’s History Month, we’ll begin to look at some of these women’s interesting stories.

But first we need to finish the story of the connection between Pleasant Thiele Rowland, the founder of the American Girl Doll line, and the Ridge.

If you scroll through the posts on the RHS Facebook page, you will find the first post about Pleasant, made on February 13. We reported that Pleasant’s paternal grandparents, Edward A. and Maude Thiele, lived for decades at 9556 S. Winchester Ave., and her father, Edward M. Theile, lived there as a teen-ager and young man.

We also reported that Pleasant’s parents, Edward M. (E.M.) and Pleasant “Petty” Theile, moved their young family to the Ridge from 1947 to 1951, residing at 2754 West 108th Street. Pleasant was 10 years old when her father took a job with Leo Burnett Co., Inc., a well-known advertising agency, and the family moved to Bannockburn, Illinois.

There are “clues” as to what young Pleasant’s life was like on the Ridge.

First, her mother appeared in the newspapers for society and charity events. Petty was active with the Infant Welfare Society, a non-governmental volunteer organization founded in 1911 to help low-income women and children. The organization still exists today. For many years, the organization ran thrift shops, including one in Beverly, to raise funds.

One 1948 Chicago Tribune article reports that the Beverly volunteers, including Petty, were restoring used dolls to sell in a thrift shop in Roseland. The group also held annual balls, and Petty was listed as an assistant. A 1951 Chicago Tribune article had Petty assisting with a tea at Mickelberry’s Log Cabin restaurant on 95th Street.

Second, a childhood acquaintance of Pleasant’s shared some remembrances. Her mother was friends with E.M.’s sister, Pleasant’s aunt, Barbara Thiele.

This acquaintance called Pleasant “precocious and fun” and shared with us stories about Pleasant’s birthday parties, at her grandparents’ house and up north. The girls dressed very nicely, embroidered organdy with ruffles in the summer and velvet in the winter. Many photos of children in Beverly were on the Chicago Tribune society page.

Keeping in mind that T.V.s were just becoming available then, and there were no home computers and smart phones, children relied on books and visits to museums for entertainment and information. This acquaintance remembers the dolls, doll clothes and doll furniture at the Chicago Historical Society, and the miniature Thorne rooms at the Art Institute. There was also the Marshall Field and Co. toy and doll department. Surely we can also add the Colleen Moore Fairy Castle at the Museum of Science and Industry to the list of exhibits that likely influenced Pleasant.

A third influence on Pleasant was her paternal grandmother, Maude Daugherty Thiele.

In 2003, the Wisconsin State Journal newspaper ran an article stating that:

“Pleasant Rowland grew up in Chicago’s Beverly area. At age 10 she moved to north suburban Bannockburn, Ill.

“’My childhood was one of loving to read and of loving to put on plays and act out stories and marshalling the neighborhood to put on the carnival or the Fourth of July parade,’ says Rowland in a rare interview. ‘It was a very active life of the mind.

“’My interest in things old was piqued by my paternal grandmother. She loved to go antiquing, and I would go with her. I began to see the value of old things and other times through her eyes.’”

In the early American Girl catalogs, Pleasant told stories from her youth – learning to crochet from her grandmother, etc. Some of these stories surely were from Beverly.

Pleasant also grew up listening to successful marketing and advertising people, as her father rose to become president of Leo Burnett.

Pleasant graduated from Wells College in 1962. She married Richard Henry Rowland, Jr., from South Carolina. Although the marriage did not last, she kept the Rowland name professionally. She had a career as a teacher, news reporter and anchor, and children’s textbook writer.

She developed two highly regarded reading programs. The first was a comprehensive language arts program. The second was the Superkids Reading Program that is used in thousands of U.S. classrooms.

She married businessman and philanthropist Jerome Frautschi from Madison, Wisconsin in 1977.

In 1986, she founded the Pleasant Company, which began manufacturing the line of 18-inch dolls from different historic eras, with authentic period clothing, furniture and accessories. Very important to the series were the books with stories told from the perspectives of girls eight to eleven-years old.

Pleasant said she was motivated by two things to start the line of dolls. First, a visit to Colonial Williamsburg got her thinking about girls’ stories from various periods in history.

Second, while trying to buy dolls for her nieces, she found the only real options to be Barbie or Cabbage Patch dolls. Both dolls forced girls to assume grown-up roles – fashion model or adoptive mother. She wanted dolls that let girls be girls to play at the appropriate age level.

In 1998, Pleasant Rowland sold the Pleasant Company, now called American Girl, to Mattel, the American multinational toy manufacturing and entertainment company, for $700 million. Today she and her husband continue other business and philanthropic activities.