Enter - The Kewpies

   ©  Kathy Duncan, 2021

In August 1910, The Woman's Home Companion announced that Rose O'Neill's Kewpie characters would be introduced to their audience for the first time in September.

By Christmas 1913, Kewpies were all the rage and were being marketed in every form imaginable including a sugar candy figure.

The Jacobs' Stores in Atlanta, Georgia carried a fill line of Kewpie products, including dolls which were introduced for the first time that year. In 1913, Kewpies ranged from 4 1/2 inches to 11 inches. Although we think of Kewpies as being blue-winged, naked cherubs, some were dressed. It is impossible to tell from the ad what materials these Kewpies were made of. Size seems to have dictated their price with the large 11-inch being the most expensive at $1.50, which translates to $40 in 2021.

Nell Brantley, Doll Collector and Girl Hero, 1914

  ©  Kathy Duncan, 2021

On 23 November 1914, The Atlanta Georgian ran a huge photograph of Nell Brantley and her doll. She had won the doll in one of the newspaper's contests, but that is not why they were featured in the article.  The previous May, Nell's house at 152 Forrest Ave. in Atlanta caught on fire, and she was the first person in the household to realize they were in danger. Some accounts claim that she ran to her mother and reported the fire. Then she ran to a bedroom where her convalescing sister was and began carrying her nephews out of the house and laying them in the yard one by one. Another account claims she had one child climb on her back and grabbed the other two and took them all out at the same time, which would have been a staggering feat for a ten-year-old. In reality, she rescued two nephews and a niece all under the age of five or six. Then she returned to help rescue her mother and sister. Her older brother Emmet and a passerby named Clarence Williams were also involved in helping the adults get out of the burning house. Realizing that her little dog was still in the house, Nell returned for him and grabbed her six dolls, which were in a box under the bed. One account has her staggering out of the house with just the dog and returning for an arm full of dolls while another has her bringing the dog and box of dolls out at the same time. In both accounts, she battles through choking smoke to go back upstairs for them. An account, that was published just after the fire, related that she then turned back to reenter the house and rescue the canaries, but a fireman grabbed her and stopped her.

My mother pointed out that houses burned more slowly then, so Nell would have had plenty of time to rescue her family, dolls, and dog. Houses were made of wood and most of the windows were open all the time. Children were trained to hang their clothes with the hooks going over the rod so that they could grab their meager wardrobes on the way out.  

While the details of the event vary from account to account, the one constant is that Nell received a gold medal from the Ralston Hero Commission of St. Louis for saving the lives of her two nephews and niece. 

So far, I have only been able to locate one article from the time of the fire. 

This article was picked up from an Atlanta paper that originally published the account on May 23, 1914, which would place the fire on May 22.

Other papers later published a photograph of Nell and her little dog Togo. This one is from The Detroit Times of 3 June 1914. 

Nell's full name was Vera Nell Brantley. She was the daughter of Joseph and Mary Oma (Davis) Brantley. By 1910, her father was deceased. Most of the older children had moved out by the time fire. However, her older sister Johnnie Louise (Brantley) Sullivan and her three children were also living in the household. 

Nell had won her doll from The Atlanta Georgian newspaper, which ran a contest for boys and girls to win Christmas toys in 1913, specifically dolls and teddy bears for girls and tricycles, trains, and rocking horses for boys.  

Nell's name appears in the lists of children who were competing for prizes, evidently, she won one of the dolls. Given its large size, perhaps 30" or more, I think it would have been one of the more expensive dolls.

However, this was not Nell's first contest. The Atlanta Georgian frequently ran contests that involved getting "votes" that were tied to subscriptions and "votes" or points varied based on whether they came from existing subscribers or subscribers. 

One list of entrants reveals that little Nell Brantley was a "newsie" or newspaper carrier. 

In this contest from the spring of 1913, children were competing to win a Shetland pony and outfit, which seems to have varied from a pony cart to a saddle. Vera Nell Brantley appears in District No. 1 throughout the lists that were published as the contest unfolded. One list places her address as 31 Alexander, which is different from the address at 152 Forrest Ave, where the family was found a year later when their house burned. 

The Brantleys don't seem to have lived at 31 Alexander for long. 

The seven room house was for rent in December of 1912, and occupied a month later.

It is not hard to imagine an enterprising widow swapping her sewing skills for music lessons for her children. I believe that the occupants were Oma Brantley and family. 

For most of the Pony Outfit Contest, Nell Brantley's name appears as one of the top contenders in District one. Then about the time her name is dropped from the list this advertisement appeared.

I am not sure exactly how the Brantleys figured out this vote exchange would work to their advantage, but someone did the math and calculated that Nell would probably not be able to win in the newsie category, but that if they exchanged their votes, one of her siblings could win as a school child. This seems to have been within the rules. Shortly afterward, Nell's sister Helen Brantley appears on the contest list for District one, and she won. Of the dozen Shetland ponies to be given away, she would have the sixth choice.

Remember the prize was a Shetland pony and outfit. This was a much more complicated prize than a large doll. The pony would have had to be stabled and fed at great expense to a family that appeared to be struggling. So, why did they work so hard to win it, even going to the trouble and expense of placing an ad so that they could exchange votes?

It appears that the Brantleys never intended to keep the pony. It was put up for sale almost as soon as they gained possession of it.

By December of 1913, Nell was competing in District No. 4 in The Atlanta Georgian's Christmas toy contest. I think this is an indication that the family had moved, probably to the house on Forrest Ave. that burned later. 

In December of 1913, Helen Brantley also won The Atlanta Georgian's Great Want Ad Contest, which was a two-person tour to California. The Brantleys must have liked what they saw in California because the family eventually relocated there. 

In late May 1914, the house on Alexander St. was available to rent again, and I wonder if the Brantleys moved back there after the Forrest Ave. house fire.

Vera Nell  Brantley went on to have a brief career in California as a silent film actress in the early 1920s. 

Her films included, Darwin Was Right, Fast Fightin', Cyclone Saddle, and White Thunder. She was then married briefly to John Hugh White, and they had one son Jay Hugh White. I don't know if Nell was widowed or divorced.

Her next husband was "Buddy" Jackler. They were married for decades and lived in Palm Springs, California. Nell played golf often, and she and Buddy were occasionally photographed for the society pages. In the picture below, from 1978, Nell (Brantley) Jackler is the second from the left. 

Won't You Dress This Doll?

  ©  Kathy Duncan, 2021

In the early 1900s, dolls mostly appeared in newspapers as line drawings rendered for store advertisements at Christmas time. They tend to be blurry and lacking in detail. 

A photograph of a doll in a newspaper was extremely rare. However, The Atlanta Georgian enthusiastically published photographs of dolls in connection with their pet project: The Empty Stocking Fund. The purpose of the fund was to raise money to buy toys for the underprivileged children of Atlanta. Dolls figured prominently in that effort. They were used in articles about fundraising endeavors, they were dressed and sold at auction, and they were given to poor children. The actual fundraising efforts ran the gamut from youth theater productions to what appears to have something bordering on burlesque shows to concerts to bazaars where doll clothes were sold. There seem to have been a couple of activities each week during the time between Thanksgiving and Christmas.

The Fund purchased new unclothed dolls in bulk, which would have saved a substantial amount of money, and then prevailed upon the girls and women of Atlanta to donate their fabrics and time to make clothes for the dolls. This doll seems to have come with stockings and shoes, which would have made her a little pricier than a barefoot doll. 

This appeal to the women of Atlanta to rush to the newspaper to pick up a doll to dress was published in The Atlanta Georgian on 3 December 1914 and written from the doll's point of view. Its depiction of the dolls' possible fate is a bit drastic, but the call to dress the doll pulls at the heartstrings. 

Won't You Dress This Doll and Brighten Some Little Girl's Christmas?

Told To The Christmas Editor.

I am a doll--as yet undressed and unadorned. I am doomed to be forever the chattel and bond slave of some child. No thoughts of suffrage or equal rights ever come to me, for my lot is foreordained, and I accept it.

But I am content. I would not swap my fate to be Queen of the Carnival. For I was created that a child might be happy.

I will grow old early. My hair will disappear--not in single strands, one by one, but at one fell swoop, like the scalp of an Indian's victim. I expect that my nose will be cracked before long, and my eyes punched in.

But it will not be through neglect. No. I will be loved as tenderly as ever, in spite of my mishaps and mutiliation. I will be all in all to some little girl, who will hug me with a fierce devotion as long as there is a scrap of sawdust left to be hugged. I am glad.

I am the spirit of Christmas. I am happiness incarnate. And because I have been selected as a gift to one of the children of Atlanta's poor, I am likewise a symbol of charity. And again I am glad.

But it is not well that I go to my little mistress unclothed. It may be that I am destined for a home whose children themselves are cold for lack of clothing, and in which there is little brightness and attractiveness. Will you not clothe me?

Won't you please put a bit of ribbon at my throat and my waist, and make for me a little dress, perhaps with a scrap of lace here and there, so that I may go forth gloriously to my mistress on 
Christmas Day and make her doubly happy?

It will be indeed the finest charity if you will dress me and my sisters who are at The Georgian office. I do ot ask it through vanity, but I ask it because by making me more beautiful you lighten the gloom that has settled about the heart of the little girl to whom I am going, and that may taint her spirit forever. A little child is so sensitive, so impressionable. I who am only a doll know that. I know that when the soul and the heart of a child are concerned you must be more careful than you would with my fragile body.

Even as I am now, unclothed and ashamed of it, the little girl to whom I am going will be glad to have me. But dressed as the practiced hands of girls and women can dress me, I will transport my little mistress into a heaven of happiness, where she will remain for many blissful days and weeks, forgetting the poverty and misery about her, and thinking the wholesome, wonderful, fairy thoughts that all little girls should think.

So, won't you dress me?

I am at the office of The Atlanta Georgian, No. 20 East Alabama street, together with a great many other dolls that the Empty Stocking Fund is buying. Think of it, and if you are interested, send your check to the Christmas Editor. 

Panton & White Co. Doll, 1906

©  Kathy Duncan, 2020

Sometimes it is possible to establish the provenance of a doll with the help of period newspapers.

The sticker on this lovely jointed, bisque doll owned by Ken Deuel provided plenty of clues: "Compliments of Panton & White, Co. Christmas 1906."

Photo Courtesy of Ken Deuel

Photo Courtesy of Ken Deuel

Ken is a Christmas collector, and this little doll is a Christmas collector's dream.

Photo Courtesy of Ken Deuel

A search through newspapers revealed that Panton & White, Co. was located in Duluth, Minnesota. This particular doll was one of 5,000 given away on Thursday, December 6, 1906, to any man or woman willing to stand in line to receive one.

Click on Image to Enlarge

The advertisement also reveals that each doll came in her own box. I wonder if all the dolls were identical? Could the box have had a name for the doll on it, or would it have been printed with advertising for Panton & White, Co.?

Click on Image to Enlarge

Panton & White, Co. was located on the Glass Block in Duluth, Minnesota. A brief history of the firm and a photograph can be found here.

Face Masks

©  Kathy Duncan, 2020

Like every other quilter in the nation, I've been making face masks for my family. Eighteen shipped today:

I especially enjoyed making these masks for my granddaughter. I hope that the monkeys and foxes are cute enough that she finds them fun to wear instead of scary.

Here in Dallas County, Texas, where I live, masks will be required for visits to essential businesses, essential business employees, and travel on mass transportation starting Saturday, April 18, 2020.

Little Fox Construction Step Three

©  Kathy Duncan, 2020

Where did step two go?

Several weeks ago I was working on step one of the Little Fox crib quilt:

I kept plugging away and step two happened:

Now they are coming together as blocks in step three:

One block down and eighteen to go. All of the blocks look like this, but they will be turned to create a secondary design.

Then rows will happen...

Little Fox Construction Step One

©  Kathy Duncan, 2020

I am wrapping up step one of the Little Fox quilt. These units will comprise one half of each block.

There are thirty-eight of these total. Hmm....that's 228 pieces!

Little Fox Quilt Under Construction

©  Kathy Duncan, 2020

Some piecing did happen during my winter break!

I am working on the Little Fox Quilt from the Quilt Factory Shop on Etsy. The first time I saw it was in the Keepsake Quilting catalog when, of course, I did not order it. After a lot of searching, I tracked it down on Etsy.

My printer is on the fritz, so I've had to use my kindle to read the instructions. That's different for me. Usually, I'm strictly a paper girl.

The original pattern calls for navy blue, light blue, and grays. I'm girlifying the quilt for my new granddaughter by substituting pinks for the blues. The backing fabric carries on the girly fox pink and gray combination.

I'm still in the middle of step one. So far, a lot of hst have happened. When I contacted Deb, the designer, she recommended that the magic-8-method for the hst, which is my preference anyway. I love how quickly they go together although squaring them up is always tedious. The gray fabric is not quite as dark as it looks here.

A Little Christmas

© Kathy Duncan, 2019


I have my fingers crossed for getting some piecing done next week. Looking forward to trying out my new lock block ruler. I did manage to make a winter block for my quilt group's Christmas drawing but did not get around to making a picture of it. Baby steps. Baby steps.

You can get a copyright-free image here.

Happy Halloween!

© Kathy Duncan, 2019


Hope this Halloween finds you having a spookticular time. I won't be stitching this evening, but I will be treating the little ones.

Anna A. (Lohry) Gallanar, Newspaperwoman

© Kathy Duncan, 2019

Today, Barbara  Brackman's blog Civil War Quilts reveals the fascinating story of Susan Deering Lohry's Grant Quilt and her family travails. Barbara's blog "digresses" into information about Susan's daughter Anna Lohry who married George W. Gallaner and who also ran an early newspaper in California. Barbara followed Anna's story quite a distance but opted not to follow it further because her blog is focused on quilts.

Since my blog is a bit more loosey, goosey than that, I decided to take up the chase for Anna's story, and what a story it is. Murder. Betrayal. Endurance.

Anna Ashebrook Lohry married George Washington Gallanar in Uniontown, El Dorado County, California on 18 July 1876.

The Gallanar's published The Pacific Grove Review in Monterey County, California about 1890 or a little earlier. By 1892, Anna (Lohry) Gallanar owned and operated it on her own.

A history of central California counties written in 1893 by Henry D. Barrows notes that Anna Gallanar was in charge of The Pacific Grove Review. It would seem that George was out of the picture by then.

By early 1894, while Anna was running the newspaper, her sister-in-law Hannah (Kuhn) Lohry, wife of Edward Marshall Lohry, was running the post office at Broderick, Yolo County, California.

However, by the end of 1894, Edward M Lohry had been abandoned by Hannah. This notice signaled that he would not be covering her debts.

In early 1895, the San Francisco Chronicle ran a large article about the newspaperwomen of California. In this profile of Anna, we learn that she was a petite woman in poor health. At this point, George W. Gallaner is not a part of her life, and Anna relies on employees to help with the newspaper.

In mid-1896, sister-in-law Hanna E. (Kuhn) Lohry, also known as Johana files for divorce from Edward M Lohry. Note that she is no longer a postmistress in Yolo County. She has also turned the tables on Edward by accusing him of desertion. 

One of the newspaper articles from George W. Gallanar's murder trial in 1903 reveals a slightly different story. Hannah (Kuhn) Lohry and taken up with her brother-in-law George W. Gallanar. It's hard to know when their affair began, but the article implies that it was while George and Anna (Lohry) Gallanar were still married. George and Hanna must have married shortly after Hannah's divorce from Edward was finalized, probably in late 1896 or 1897.

By mid-1897, Anna's bad health was catching up to her, and she was in danger of going blind.

Evidently, though, this blindness was temporary.

Later in the year, sister Bobbie Lohry was helping keep The Pacific Grove Review up and running.

In 1900, Anna Gallanar sold The Pacific Grove Review to Wallace Clarence Brown. Her son Frederick Gallanar had also been involved in running the paper.

Winter Block 2018

© Kathy Duncan, 2018


I did a tiny bit of quilting this year. Other things were not photographed, but I did take a quick picture of this block made for my quilting group's winter block exchange.

This block was fun to make, and I have plenty of fabric left over if I decide to make more for myself.

By the way, this block is not as catty-whompuss as it looks. My Kindle has its photographic limitations!

Death Notice for Jane Stickle's Father.

© Kathy Duncan, 2018

I keep obsessively hoping to find a death notice for Jane (Blakely) Stickle. Instead, I found one for her father Erastus Blakely Sr. Finding this was not as straightforward as it should have been. It did not turn up in a search for Blakely. Instead, I experimented with alternate spellings for Blakely. For this search I used Blackley. Notice that in the newspaper the spelling is Blakely NOT Blackley. So why did this turn up in a search for Blackley and not Blakley?? This is one of the many mysteries of search engines. In this case, the database was indexed by a computer, not a human. The computer basically interprets shapes or blobs of black on white. For some reason, the computer interpreted Blakely as Blackley. This gives me hope that more information will turn up. It also makes me fear that information will stay lost in plain sight. In any event, this is a lesson for me to apply to my genealogy research.