Playing Sewing Machine Detective

If you have read a lot of the previous entries you know one of the things I enjoy about collecting machines is finding out their history.  Well today I had an internet adventure thanks to the 1953 201-2.

The '53 has taken up residence in the Model 40 cabinet in the den just in case I feel the need for some electric 201 action.  That scream you just heard is Wicked Queen's response to having another electric set up to run in the house.  I'm sure there will be a needle through my finger next time I sew on her.

Today I went up to the sewing room after shoveling to get all the accessory boxes that came with the 53 and Centennial 201 to sort through them.  I emptied one of the boxes and found this!

All kinds of good info to go on here for my search.  Original owner, address, store address... kinda, saleman's name.  Woohoo!  Off I went.

Googling, my first hit was for our salesman Mr (Rev) George Straight.  Rev Straight was born in Rochester, New York in 1929.  After high school he went into the Navy for 3 1/2 years.  After the Navy he began his career selling sewing machines at Your Singer Sewing Center.  He later moved on to Chevrolets, much to Marge's chagrin.  He studied at the Angelican School of Theology in Dallas and in 1976 was granted the Licentiate in Sacred Theology Degree and ordained a Deacon.  He became a priest in 1991, retiring in 1995.  He passed away in 2004.  That information was published by the Dallas Morning News and posted on their website here. Interestingly. His obituary states that he didn't move to Dallas until 1968.  But he sold this machine in Fort Worth in 1954 when he was 25.  hmm.

I should explain how I found out that this machine came from Your Singer Sewing Center in Fort Worth.  After I found that obituary I began googling the street names and "Dallas".  Eventually I hit on the fact that Forth Worth has both a Race Street and a Dalford Street.  More googling of possible address numbers of the 29?9 address thinned it down to two possibilities.

2909 Race Street from Google shows us this -

And 2929 Race Street shows this -

Neither of those appear to be a place I imagine festooned with the large red S that Marge repainted daily with the fresh blood of those who failed to live up to her standards.  The 2929 appears to have some possibilities though.  If at some point the front was bricked up.  I can imagine the Singer sign above that blue awning.

So at this point I'm comfortable enough with my opinion that prior to his official move to Texas, George Straight spent some time in Fort Worth selling machines on Race Street.

Next it was on to Mrs E. B. Cade.

Her house was easy to find.  A cute place built in 1948.  It's still a residence so I won't post photos.  Continued googling showed a Mrs E. B. Cade (nee Pauline Walton) living with her parents and husband in Fort Worth in 1940.  Pauline was listed as being 23 and Eugene was listed as being 29.  Mr and Mrs E.B. Cade are all over the social pages of several Dallas area newpapers during the early to mid 50s but after that the information dries up.  I continued digging but things get really fuzzy from there on out.  The only records I could find for a Eugene B. Cade of the same age range are those for one being born in 1915 which would make him 4 years younger than 29 in the 1940 census.  But everything else about him adds up.  Maybe he lied about his age to the in-laws so they would think he was more stable?  Or...

Well whatever the reason.  It just gets too hard to follow after that.  The machine somehow made it up to Kansas where my sister bought it from a house cleaning auction several months ago.  There was a Pauline Cade who passed away over in Missouri in the 90s, but she was Pauline (Richardson) Cade.  So that didn't work out.  My sister is trying to get in contact with her friends who ran the auction to see if the owner who auctioned it off has any history about where she came into possession of it.

Even running into internet dead ends it's pretty neat to have found Pauline and Rev Straight's history with this machine.  Oh, and one more cool thing about the receipt.

Remember corporate watermarks?

Oh I almost forgot.  Pauline got $50 trade in on her old machine.  That machine was a 1937 99.  Sheesh!  That's like $460 in today money.  Talk about generous.  I'd give about five bucks for an old 99 at best.

Okay I'm easily entertained.  But it was sn snowy here today.