olden-timey days

I have a thing for old things. Which is not uncommon. Lately, I've been preoccupied with research on the neighborhood I live in.

After doing a bit of sleuthing through old census records, I found out about some of my house's former occupants. The house was originally built at the turn of the century, sometime around 1896. (The picture above is a plan for an unrelated bungalow I found on the internet.)

Minnis P Lansford was a blacksmith from Tennessee, who moved into a Fort Worth boarding house as a young man. His guardian (and perhaps, mother-in-law), Mrs. Margaret J Smith, helped him purchase his own place (our Spinster Farm) sometime between 1900 and 1910. He found work at a bridge building company headquartered in downtown Fort Worth and married Etta, his guardian's daughter, originally from Arkansas.

In 1910, his cousin Emmett, a factory worker, moved in for a brief period. By 1920, the Lansfords could afford to keep their niece, Ruth Dechert, and two servants, who lived in the quarters in the back yard (now a storage shed, but there's still a really old creepy toilet in there! I think things live inside it now.)

In 1930, Minnis disappears from the census, presumably deceased. The servants are also gone. Etta remains in the home with her niece Ruth, who takes up a job as a court stenographer.

From what I know, the house changed ownership in the late 1930's, perhaps after Etta passed away. I've also been told that it was owned by a single woman up until the end of the 20th century. Was the home turned over to Ruth Dechert, making her the first spinster of Spinster Farm? Or was the house sold to another spinsterly gal?

These are things I hope to find out.

The 1940 census has not yet been released and won't be publicly available until August 2012. Until then, I'll be scouring other avenues. I did find an old newspaper record that had a memo for Minnis to come pick up his mail at the post office. Can you imagine, reading a personal reminder in the newspaper to pick up the mail waiting for you at the post office?

I think a lot of people are quick to jump to the conclusion that the age of social networking on the internet has lead to everyone's business being publicly available. But it seems like back in the day, airing one's business openly was somewhat the norm, at least in smaller towns and communities.

The ad below is from the Morrison & Fourmy general directory 1896-1897. Minnis is listed as an employee at the Southwestern Bridge Company in that directory. I found it at the Portal to Texas History, a really great resource.

Hopefully, I'll uncover more.