Amanda Glade Millinery & Dressmaking

The Millinery and Dressmaking trades impacted significantly on women throughout the nineteenth and early twentieth century. Millinery and dressmaking was among the very few respectable trades that women could enter. Often, milliners and dressmakers enjoyed freedoms their 'sisters' could only dream of. But the business was precarious and highly seasonal. There were few successes and many failures. Milliners and dressmakers very often had short-lived careers, or they cycled in and out of the profession as their circumstances changed.
"To be sure, factories produced both the accompaniments and the 'foundations' of nineteenth-century women's fashion-cloaks, shawls, corsets, hoop skirts, and bustles. But well into the twentieth century, women's dresses and hats were made either at home by amateurs or to order by professionals." The millinery and dressmaking trade evolved throughout the nineteenth century from a highly personalized profession that would eventually be replaced with ready-made, cheap department store goods-but not until well into the twentieth century. The impact of fashion as dictated in ladies magazines of the period played an important part in both trades. "Most dressmakers and milliners were indebted to the technological innovations engineered at Waltham, Lowell, and Lawrence........But factory production of textiles made stylish attire-and the services of milliners and modistes-available to middle-class, even working-class consumers. Technological innovation impacted the industry through the nineteenth century - for instance, the development and later refinement of the sewing machine played an important role.
Most millinery / dressmaking businesses were not solo operations. Most shops had an apprentice, Milliner and a Trimmer, ,with the Trimmer at the top of the list. "...hat- and dressmaking retained the customary division of labor between apprentice, maker or finisher, and trimmer or fitter." The Dressmaking trade workers included apprentices, seamstresses, dressmakers, cutters and fitters. In this case, the apprentice and seamstress were on the bottom of the heirachy. Most milliners and dressmakers felt themselves "above" a seamstress as well as most other trades that accepted women as workers. Ideas about marriage, financial and personal independence, control over sexuality, and psychological independence.
The millinery trade also impacted the natural environment. The millinery industry used many animals and animal parts for decoration of hats which had the effect of bringing many species to the brink of extinction. The development of the Audubon Society was directly related to the use of birds and bird feathers in the millinery trade.
Millinery and dressmaking trades were alive and well in Hall County Nebraska. A millinery shop in Railroad Town would allow for the discussion of not only national issues, but local as well. Who were the milliners and dressmakers of Hall county? Where did they come from? Married, Single, Widowed or Divorced? How much did they make? How long were they in business? Where did they get their supplies? Did fashion dictates reach Hall County?
While reading the 1885 census, there was only one are where the Millinery trade was recorded in the manufacturers schedule. This was in Wood River.
Annie Shelton had $300 of capital invested, 3 employees - two of which were over the age of 15. 10 hours were spent daily in ordinary labor, and from November to May the days were at least 10 hours long. Average daily wages were $1 and the total paid through the year was $200. Her operation was 12 months full time. Annie was 25 years old, listed as the head of the household and hailed from Illinois.
Anna Sensen also had $300 invested, but had no employees, worked 10 hour days, including May to November, but had only 8 months of full time operation. Anna lived with her mother and brother, was 25 years old and was born in New Jersey.

US Post Office, Railroad Town, Nebraska

Tuesday, March 4, 1902, became a melancholy day for several of Grand Island's old-timers when an early morning fire, triggered by an exploding gasoline stove, destroyed a lunch room operated by A.H. Barber.
Grand Island firemen had torn away part of the outer sheeting on the front of the lunch room, a one-story, clapboard structure located on the east side of today's 300 block North Locust, one lot south of Locust's intersection with West South Front Street. Underneath the outer boards, the firemen found painted the work "SALOON."
The fire had removed one of the city's oldest landmarks. "Yes sir," the Daily Independent quoted an old resident, "that was about the first frame building in Grand Island."
Makeley, like other old-timers, could remember when the firegutted structure had sat at the southeast corner of Front and Locust, facing north on Front and the Union Pacific's tracks and was operated as a saloon by John D. Schuller.
John D. operated the Grand Island City post office from his tiny cabin home. And that cabin, unlike his 1867 post office-saloon in the Union Pacific town of Grand Island, has survived. It no serves as the post office in Stuhr Museum's "Railroad Town."
The U.S. Post Office Department never could get his name correct. He was first listed as John David "Shulton," later as "Joseph" D. Schuller. The 1870 census taker also flunked, recording John D. "Schutter."
Schuller, a much-traveled bachelor, is believed to have arrived in Hall County in 1862, where he claimed 160 acres of land, northeast quarter of section 22, Washington Township. His cabin stood near the intersection of today's South Cherry Street and East Phoenix Avenue, north of Fonner Park and South of Bismark Road. He later acquired 80 additional acres, a narrow strip extending south to the Wood River.
This colorful early settler was born in France, the old province of Alsace, separated from Germany by the Rhine River (part of the Alsace-Lorraine region that France and Germany fussed and fumed over for years).
He emigrated to the United States in 1854, and began a vagabond existence - farm labor and canal construction in the state of New York, laborer in Indiana, wood chipping in Tennessee and Mississippi, more farm labor in Illinois, and finally a trip to today's New Mexico and then north to Colorado, where he prospected for gold in 1860.
Schuller then drifted east to Nebraska, working in hay fields near Fort Kearny and then on a ranch before locating in Hall County.
Hey! Here was the kind of role-model that adventure novelists favor.
Based on folklore, Schuller was known as the man with funny shoes during his early residence in Hall County. The toes of his feet, so the stories go, had been frozen, and he wore heels on both the front and the back of his shoes. Apparently this made walking easier on his crippled feet. There are different versions of how he froze his toes. Some said that he once shot a buffalo while a blizzard was brewing. To keep from freezing, he crawled inside the warm carcass of the buffalo, but left his feet hanging out. Others claim he froze the toes after getting his feet wet on a cold winter day while crossing Hall County's so-called "warm slough," which ran near his cabin.
That old Schuller cabin, now the post office in Stuhr's Railroad Town, was build by placing bricks of dried clay between upright studs. The bricks, probably from clay taken from the warm slough, likely made excellent insulation. The bricks were covered over with plaster inside the cabin, and on the cabin's exterior they were covered with siding.
When the cabin, donated to the Hall County Historical Society, was moved to the museum grounds in August, 1965, most of the inside plaster disintegrated. The bricks have been left exposed, allowing museum visitors to see the original construction. An addition was made to the original structure, toady the east end, probably in the 1890s.
After abandoning the saloon business, Schuller concentrated on truck farming, apparently a major supplier of fresh produce to the Grand Island community. In 1873, he married Sophia Frederica Rohlf, a native of Holstein, Germany. About 1890, he build a new brick home for his wife and three children. The old cabin was then used for storage. Schuller died on August 12, 1895, age 64.
Door-To-Door Mail Delivery Sparked Grand Island's First Numbering System For Homes and Businesses by Tom Anderson
There was not unexpected grumbling last month when the postage stamp, first-class rate, was hiked from 25 cents to 29 cents. [1991]
Shucks, no reason to get steamed. Look what happened in Grand Island back in October, 1887. The price of a postage stamp was doubled -- from one cent to two cents. Since most residents felt they would reap a benefit from the increase, there was little talk of overthrowing the government.
On September 7, 1887, the Grand Island Daily Independent had proudly announced: "Orders have been issued in Washington establishing the free mail delivery system in Grand Island, to take effect the first of October. This will be a great convenience to many of our citizens, and will save much wear of shoe leather in running to and from the post office for 'that expected letter,' as when it arrives it will be brought right to your door without extra charge."
Since the new service would increase the price of a stamp, "free" delivery and "without extra charge," might have caused a few cynics to scoff.
Yes, prior to the fall of '87, citizens of Grand Island had to trudge, rain or shine, to the post office to get their main. In those days, the post office was located in the Masonic Temple Building, a two-story brick erected in 1882 on the site of the present seven-story Masonic Building, 217 North Locust Street. The Masonic meeting hall was on the top floor of the '82 building, the post office in one of two ground-level business fronts.
Grand Island, population near 7,000, had felt slighted back in December, 1886, when mail delivery to homes and businesses was approved for Hastings, Fremont and Beatrice. But Grand Island's new postmaster, Lafayette Myers, quickly made application to extend this service to his community.
The job of postmaster at this time was considered a political plum -- "to the victor goes the spoils." Myers, an enthusiastic Democrat, had taken office on May 1, 1887, appointed by Democratic President Grover Cleveland. A native New Yorker, Myers had been an enterprising coal dealer in Grand Island since 1876.
Of course, to get mail delivered to homes and businesses required letter carriers. So Myers announced he would hire four, and was swamped by 60 applications for the positions that would pay a salary of $600 the first year, a boost to $850 promised the second year. "It is quite plain that he [Myers] cannot accomodate all who are willing to sacrifice themselves for the country's good," teased the Independent.
But shrewd Postmaster Myers, not wishing to stir up political controversy, formulated a plan that would relieve him of the responsibility of selecting the carriers. He turned to three of the city's most influential organizations -- the G.A.R. (Grand Army of the Republic), the Knights of Labor and the Liederkranz Society. Each organization would select a worthy candidate for letter carrier from it membership.
The G.A.R., that national fellowship of Union Army veterans from the Civil War, picked Benjamin Gardner. The K. of L., an early American labor federation which had made inroads at the Union Pacific Railroad's car shops in Grand Island, picked George A. McConnell. Grand Island's Liederkranz selected William Ivers.
When it came to the fourth letter carrier, Myers showed his true political colors. He allowed the community's "Young Democrats" the privilege of selecting Levi H. Matchett.
But before the delivery system could be implemented, a plan for numbering houses and businesses had to be devised. The numbers became part of the street address on mail, guiding the letter carriers to the proper final destination. The numbering task fell to city engineer William Ensign. The Grand Island city council backed Ensign with an ordinance, approved June 15, 1887.
A family would no longer live on just Third Street or just Pine Street. They would now live on East Third or West Third of North Pine of South Pine. Ensign's north-south dividing line became Third Street, and Pine Street became the east-west dividing line. "Each 22 feet facing a street shall be designated a number for a house," City Ordinance No. 108 instructed, and "each fractional 22 feet shall be designated by 1/2." Ensign assigned even numbers on the north and west sides of streets, while the east and south sides got odd numbers.
No longer did Ensign and his wife, Hattie, dwell at the southwest corner of Monroe and First Streets. Their post office address became 304 South Monroe, the Ensign home on the west side of Monroe facing east.
Once assigned a number and notified, home owners had to post the number in "a conspicuous place on the structure," the ordinance stated. Failure to comply within 10 days could mean an appearance before police court judge Henry Garn and a fine not to exceed 10 dollars.
The numbering system also triggered the publication in 1887 of Grand Island's first city directory, a 247 page project by a couple of moonlighters -- Robert J. Barr, superintendent of Grand Island's public schools, and D.H. Vantine, Barr's principal at Howard School. The directories were printed by the Independent.
Ensign's numbering system has remained nearly intact. However, a major change came in 1926 when First Street, not Third Street, became the north-south dividing line.
During October, the first month of the new service in 1887, 29,904 pieces of mail were delivered by Grand Island's letter carriers, Myers reported. This climbed to 39,789 pieces during January, 1888, a "remarkable showing considering the month and the fact that it was only the fourth month of our free delivery system," the Independent commented. In 1888, a fifth letter carrier, Christian Woelz, was added.
Despite his success at introducing the free mail delivery system to Grand Island, Myer's career as postmaster was brief. The November election of 1888 saw Benjamin Harrison, the Republican, oust Cleveland from the White House.
The ever-efficient Myers immediately place this notice in the Daily Independent:
Applicants for the position at Grand Island, Nebr., are now in order. Republicans will please hand their applications into the post office between the hours of 8:30 a.m. and 5 p.m. so they can be properly recorded, numbered and filed away for future reference. Would suggest to the applicants the propriety of not overcrowding the office with their applications, so as to interfere with the regular business of the office. They have until the 4th of March to file.
Lafayette Myers, P.M.
Grand Island, Nebr. Nov. 9th, 1888

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