Making a Living from a Manhattan Newspaper Stand in 1918

My uncle's future mother- and father-in-law ran a Manhattan newspaper stand during the second decade of the 1900s. In the 1910 US Census, Lena Kaplan Katz (1879-1963) gave her occupation as "newspaper keeper." In his 1918 draft registration card, her husband Litman Leon Katz (1881-1944) said he was self-employed, running a news stand at 53 East 30th Street. That address was just a few steps from a busy commercial district of New York City, half a mile south of Grand Central Terminal.   

As shown in the New York Public Library photo above, news stands also sold magazines, candy, gum, and other convenience items. News stands were everywhere--on city streets, near or in subway stations, inside hotels, at bus and railroad terminals. This was because the Big Apple was awash with morning, afternoon, evening, and weekly newspapers, many published in English and some in the various languages of those who lived and worked in the city. Papers were the definitive source of local, national, and international news in those days before radio and television.

I checked newspapers for, well, news about news stands during World War I, and discovered that distribution hit a snag in early February of 1918. The dealers who supplied papers to 5,000 local carriers ("newsies") went on strike in a dispute over money. At top, you can see a special box printed on the front page of the New York Tribune (Sunday, Feb 3, 1918), explaining the newspapers' position.

According to a New York Times report on Monday, Feb 4, thousands of people in New York City (and suburbs) had been desperate to get a Sunday paper on the previous day. They besieged news stands, publishing plants, hotels, and other locations where papers were ordinarily sold. The police had to restore order in a few instances, as demand surged well beyond supply. Publishers eventually used taxicabs to ferry any extra copies to outlying distribution sites.

I imagine that Lena and Litman sold out quickly that Sunday and then tried to obtain more newspapers. They definitely weathered the strike (since Litman's 1918 draft registration was dated that fall and he was still running the stand). By 1920, with World War I over, the couple converted their newspaper stand into a fruit stand and soon parlayed that into a grocery store. Later still, they ran a small restaurant, quite a different living from the modest newspaper stand they originally ran.

"Working for a Living" is this week's #52Ancestors prompt from Amy Johnson Crow.

Find a Grave Forums and GenEvents

At the bottom of every page, Find a Grave has quick links to various pages such as help and, as shown above, forums.

Although I've never participated in forum discussion groups, I was interested to see the blue banner on the forum page. When I clicked "Support Delays," I found this message, dated March 3, 2026:

Due to higher than normal volume we are running behind on processing email, edits, and merges and apologize for the delay. We appreciate your patience as we work through all the email, edits, and merges that have been sent in. You can learn more about these topics in the links below, provided for easy reference.

The actual forums, organized according to topic, have thousands of posts, as shown in this screen grab below. Any Find a Grave user can register and participate in these discussions by asking questions, answering questions, offering comments.

More: Look again at the screen capture at top of this post. To the right of the word "Browse" is "GenEvents." When I clicked that link, I discovered a calendar of genealogy events, as shown here: 

I usually look for genealogy events at ConferenceKeeper. Now that I've noticed these Find a Grave extras, which are free, I'll keep peeking from time to time. 

Happy Anniversary to John and Sophie

My husband's grandmother had a trio of brothers who rose to prominence as military bandmasters in Canada. Born into dire poverty in London, England, they prospered by joining the military early, with one ultimately settling in Toronto, one in Vancouver, and one in London, Ontario.

The most famous brother was John Daniel Slatter (1864-1954), who married Sophie Marie Elizabeth Le Gallais (1861-1943) on April 21, 1887 at Christ Church Cathedral in Montreal, Canada. They had three children together before John applied for and was appointed to the position that would make his name.

John became the second bandmaster of the 48th Highlanders Band in Toronto, Canada. He led the band for an astonishing 50 years as they toured the world for months and fueled the fad for kiltie bands. 

Here is the story of his appointment, from the Daily Mail and Empire newspaper of Toronto, published 25 January 1896, with my comments in brackets:

The Band Committee of the 48th Highlanders, composed of Major Cosby, Capt. Robertson, and Lt. Hamilton, have selected a successor to Bandmaster Griffin [founding bandmaster]. From a large number of applicants Mr. John Slatter, at present residing in Detroit, has been appointed as bandmaster, and will be here on the first of February [1896] to take charge. Mr. Slatter was highly recommended, and after a careful examination he was given the appointment.

Mr. Slatter, who is between 30 and 35 years of age [actually almost 32], is, in appearance, somewhat like the stalwart sgt-major of the Highlanders. He has served in the 7th Royal Fusiliers' and 1st Life Guards' bands, where he made a reputation as a soloist and instrumentalist, besides being considered a [musical] writer of merit. He has a thorough knowledge of military band music, and has been in the orchestra of the Grand Opera house here, and for a time a member of [John Philip] Sousa's band.

John and Sophie had four more children after Slatter took up his post in Toronto, although one baby sadly died in infancy. The couple enjoyed 55 years of marriage before Sophie's death during World War II. 

John continued to lead the 48th Highlanders Band until 1946. He received honors galore and maintained his devotion to military music throughout his life. 

Happy 139th anniversary to John and Sophie.

Unexpected: "Unlikely to Become An Efficient Soldier"

You just never know what handwritten notes you'll find on a document unless you put your eyeballs on the actual image, in addition to reading the transcription or index.

Case in point: In researching James, a New York-born man on my husband's side of the tree, I discovered that he volunteered for the Canadian Overseas Expeditionary Force in October, 1915, for World War I service.

At the time, James was a clerk living in Saskatoon, married with four children. The youngest child was just 2 years old!

Still, he volunteered, signed his attestation paper, and was pronounced physically fit by the physician who examined him.

Yet the handwritten note says he was "discharged Nov 1915, unlikely to become an efficient soldier."

Why? Because, depending on which birth year I believe, James was either 43 or 44 years old.

I'm not revealing his full name, but I am wondering what his wife thought about the idea of her husband, approaching middle age and with a growing family to support, volunteering for the military to get sent overseas. 

Was this unexpected and unwelcome news?! I've never seen a notation like this--quite unexpected.

"Unexpected" is this week's genealogy prompt for Amy Johnson Crow's 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks series.

Book Review: Women Patriots in the American Revolution

 
Jack Darrell Crowder wrote Women Patriots in the American Revolution (Genealogical.com, 2018) to honor "the colonial women who were the secret weapons that the Americans had in the effort. They were the weapons the British could not control or defeat." As a former teacher, Crowder has devoted many years to studying the American Revolution and this is only one of several books he's written to examine various aspects of that pivotal period. 

This highly readable book shines a light on both well-known and little-known stories of women who exhibited courage and compassion during the fight for freedom. For a full alphabetical listing of the women featured in the book, including which the state where each woman lived, see Genealogical's post here.

The first half of Crowder's book is devoted to "Women Patriots," such as Margaret Cochran Corbin (1751-1800). Born in Pennsylvania, she married John Corbin a few years before the revolution. Her husband decided to join the fight against the British, and she became a camp follower--until he was killed in battle while firing a cannon at Fort Washington. Margaret, who had been at his side, took over his position and fired away, despite being shot and wounded. She was taken prisoner,  paroled, and hospitalized. Margaret later became part of a regiment that tended wounded soldiers at West Point. There she met and married a man who was recuperating and after he died, she successfully applied for a pension--highly unusual for a woman at that time and place. Years later, Margaret was memorialized with a monument at West Point.

The second half of the book is devoted to "Heroic Women of the Battle of Lexington and Concord," such as Elizabeth Page Stark (1737-1814). Known as Molly, she was well versed in the use of a gun when she married Major General John Stark. As the Battle of Concord and Lexington got underway, John took off so quickly that he left some gear behind. Molly realized what he needed, saddled up, and caught up with him many miles away to hand over the equipment. When John was about to go into the battle at Copp's Hill, Molly went on horseback into the surrounding area to rouse more Patriots for the fight.

While Molly and Margaret have been remembered by history, many of the women in Crowder's book are far less well known. I appreciate that each entry goes beyond names and dates, providing narratives and sometimes quotes from correspondence and historical publications to illuminate the stories of these women. In addition to a detailed bibliography and listing of sources, the index covers the women and the men in their lives. 

Some entries are fairly skeletal. Mrs. Whitall (no given name) was seated at her spinning wheel inside a fort during battle. Rather than fleeing in fear when a British cannon ball landed nearby, she simply moved to the basement and kept up her spinning. Compared with the activities of most other patriots in the book, Mrs. no-first-name Whitall and her spinning wheel don't really leap off the page.

Other entries have a great deal of color and depth. Emily Geiger was just 16 when she volunteered to carry a message from General Greene to General Sumter in 1781. A Tory woman and her daughter were asked to search Emily when she was detained by British scouts, but found nothing incriminating. The daughter recollected years later that the prisoner seemed to be "a sweet young girl about my own age, looking as innocent as a pigeon." In reality, the teenager had memorized the message and swallowed the paper. She was let go and went on to deliver the message verbally.

I'm sure the author is correct when he writes: "For every act of courage reported in this book there are hundreds of courageous acts that will never be known." This book is a worthwhile read for the many fascinating stories of women in Colonial America who played a role in the fight for freedom.

In this year of America 250, I appreciate books such as this for different perspectives on the revolutionary war period in US history.

Note: I received a complimentary copy of this book from Genealogical.com in exchange for an honest review. The opinions in this review are entirely my own and not affected by any outside influences.

This is WikiTree Connect-a-Thon Weekend

From Friday morning till breakfast time on Monday, I'm going to be busy adding dozens of ancestors to the free worldwide collaborative tree at WikiTree.

Hundreds of volunteers will be participating in teams, adding some friendly competition to an intense weekend of ancestor documentation. 

As shown in the table at top, previous "thons" have connected tens of thousands of new ancestor profiles to the worldwide tree, listing sources as well.

Once again I'll be part of Team L'Chaim, adding Jewish ancestors from every corner of my family tree (you know how I love in-laws and in-laws of in-laws). Also I plan to document non-Jewish ancestors from my husband's family (in-laws and well beyond). 

A few cousins have connected with me via ancestor profiles on WikiTree, so I'm looking forward to adding even more ancestors throughout this weekend. UPDATE: I added 73 ancestor profiles!

FINAL number of all profiles added over the weekend by all teams: 75,651.

Checking Out Newspaper Finder

 
Thomas MacEntee recently wrote about Newspaper Finder, a new website to help find newspapers in any of 32 databases. These include databases that are freely available (such as Chronicling America) and those behind a paywall (such as Oldnews.com, newspapers.com, etc.).

The founders of Newspaper Finder were frustrated with the process of locating newspapers for genealogy research because of the many different databases available. Now, instead of going database by database, users simply search by place/date range and Newspaper Finder shows all the newspapers available, organized by source. Here is a closeup of the databases covered by the search:

As noted on the search page, you can filter out certain databases (maybe you don't want to see results from fee-based databases, indicated by $). Maybe you want to exclude databases that are clearly outside the geographical area. You can also use the date range to narrow the search to avoid having too many results.

Example of a search and mapped result is at top. Here, I searched all databases for newspapers from Upper Sandusky, Ohio, between 1850 and 1980. My husband's grandma Floyda Steiner was from this area and I wanted to see more news items about her. 

Up popped a map of Ohio with pins for various cities in that area. By clicking on the Upper Sandusky pin, I could see the names of the newspapers, the dates, and which database has each. Also I looked at other pins nearby, such as Bucyrus, because I know newspapers sometimes had overlapping coverage.

If only I could click to go directly to each newspaper in the list...but at least now I know where to look. 

As reader Doris notes, we can click on the name of the newspaper and immediately go see it in the database where it is held! I tried it and it works well.

Easy and useful! Give it a try.