Stories from Etta Kempton’s Journal, Part 4 – Gladys, Beaver River Teenager
Gladys in the doorway of the Beaver River Station
Try to imagine the life of a teenage girl in Beaver River in the early nineteen teens.
There was no school there at the time and consequentially no school sports or other school activities. There was no telephone, so the only way to communicate with friends and family was face-to-face or by letter. There were no automobiles, so the only way to travel was by walking, horse and buggy or railroad. Popular music was supplied by a wind-up Victrola playing a small stock of 78 rpm records. There was no radio. Television and the internet had not even been imagined. In short, there were none of the things that teenagers take for granted today.
Such was the world of Gladys Kempton. Gladys was seven years old when she moved to Beaver River Station in 1905 with her mother and father. She had been born on August 14, 1898, presumably on Etta’s parents’ family farm outside of North Bangor near the town of Brushton, St. Lawrence County, NY. The first six years of her life were spent on the farm with Etta and her grandparents while her father worked away from home on the railroad. Gladys was eleven years old when Etta’s journal begins and eighteen when it ends. According to census records, during Gladys’ teen years there were no other children of her age living in Beaver River.
Until June of 1912, Gladys attended primary school back in Brushton, so when school was in session she lived on her grandfather’s farm. She spent the summer with her parents at Beaver River Station and also came home on school vacations. Etta’s journal only sporadically contains detailed information about Gladys during these years.
We do learn, however, that during the school vacation in December 1910 when Gladys was twelve her father Will made her a toy top for Christmas. Etta’s Christmas present to her daughter was an overnight trip to Utica on the train to see a vaudeville show at the Schubert Theater. In her journal Etta often refers to young Gladys as “sweetheart.”
When Gladys was a young teen, she and her family socialized frequently with the Dowd family who lived upstairs at the railroad station nearby. John E. Dowd was the station agent. His wife Florence was the telegraph operator. Their son, J. Wesley, was 27 years old and living at home part time while he looked for work as a dentist. The two families spent many evenings together. They would often play cards. Gladys learned to play pinochle at these gatherings. The Kemptons had a piano in their parlor so Mrs. Dowd gave Gladys piano lessons. Mrs. Dowd also started to teach Gladys how to use the telegraph. Gladys spent time outdoors with Wesley as her companion. During the winter they frequently went snowshoeing. When there was no snow, they went for long walks, once to Little Rapids three miles away.
Etta recorded that railroad employees doated on young Gladys. Will’s supervisor, the section manager Frank Vault, gave Gladys a rooster. Other employees occasionally brought Gladys small gifts as did a few members of the section gang. An engineer named Alex Lalonde frequently gave Gladys boxes of candy. In January 1911 Gladys and Alex Lalonde broke a window in the station while goofing around and Etta had to put in a replacement.
Even at just twelve years old Gladys went hunting for rabbits with her parents. She and her mother went out on Jan. 23 but didn’t get any. She and both parents went out on snowshoes on Feb. 12 but didn’t see any rabbits that day either. When her grandfather Nicholas Wagner came to visit in May 1911, Gladys went fishing with him and they got five trout.
Thirteen-year-old Gladys went back to school in October 1911, then came home for the Christmas vacation. She and Etta cut down and decorated a Christmas tree. At the end of December her paternal grandmother died. Gladys stayed home by herself to keep the stove stoked while Etta and Will were away for a few days for the funeral back in Brushton. Gladys was unable to return to school as planned in January because she was sick in bed for several weeks. She recovered and returned to school on January 27th. Gladys graduated in June 1912. Etta travelled to Brushton for the graduation ceremony.
After graduating Gladys lived in Beaver River year-round. Now that she was out of school, Etta expected her to do more chores. Etta specifically noted that Gladys helped her by cleaning the dish cupboard and stacking wood. In November Gladys accompanied Etta on an overnight shopping trip to Malone for clothing then back to Malone a few weeks later on a grocery shopping trip.
A primary school was established in Beaver River at the beginning of 1913 with a young teacher, Ms. Mabel Hall, commuting from Old Forge. Gladys soon became good friends with Ms. Hall and they spent a great deal of time together, going for walks, ice skating and sliding on a toboggan. Gladys also became close friends with Mabel Conkey, the forest ranger’s wife, who was 33 at the time. They walked to Grassy Point together nearly every day to get milk from Pop Bullock who kept a cow.
The two Mabels both played important roles in young Gladys’ life. Mabel Hall, the school teacher, was most likely in her late teens. She was the only woman friend close to Gladys’ age at Beaver River. She shared Gladys’ love of the outdoors and doubtless lent a sympathetic ear as well as advice from a female peer. Mabel Conkey was an older woman friend who could give Gladys practical advice based on her years of running a household in the woods.
In March 1913 Gladys started a small business selling postcards to tourists at the station. For example, on April 2, 1913 Gladys received a package of 100 postcards and by that evening had sold 68 of them. Most likely the cards were what are now called “Real Photo Post Cards” [RPPC] featuring local scenes. Such cards were commonly sold at hotels and train stations. Gladys sold hundreds that year. Unfortunately, Etta did not record what photos were featured on the cards or who took the photographs. It’s plausible that Gladys first developed her interest in photography from postcards. Now that Gladys had some spending money she made some donations to the Alice Hyde Hospital in Malone, bought a climbing monkey toy for Ella, her aunt Daisy’s child, and a new compass for her father Will’s birthday.
During the next year Gladys became increasingly independent. John and Florence Dowd had moved four miles north to Brandreth Station in 1913. The Kemptons continued to socialize regularly with them. Gladys frequently visited the Dowd’s on her own. She started to take short trips away from home with older women friends, even spending a few days in Utica with the Bullock family. Gladys returned to Brushton for a month at the beginning of July 1913, apparently staying with her mother’s sister Agnes. Etta did not record the reason for this trip, but since unmarried Agnes was running a boarding house at the time, it’s plausible that Gladys went to help her aunt with that work. On August 12, two days before her 15th birthday, Gladys returned home to Beaver River accompanied by her grandfather, Nicholas Wagner. Etta made a birthday cake.
In September 1913 Gladys started to take photographs. She bought herself a camera, probably a Kodak Brownie No. 2 that used 120 roll film and sold for $2. It was very simple to operate. Etta noted that Gladys took her first pictures with her “little camera” on September 21. Gladys initially mailed her film back to Kodak to be developed but during May 1914 she learned how to develop her film at home and acquired the necessary equipment. She set up a make-shift dark room in a closet in the section house. By May 30 she had successfully developed and printed her first pictures.
As her skill improved, Gladys wanted to be able to take indoor photos. She told her parents what she needed and they bought her a flash lamp for her sixteenth birthday in August. The flash lamp necessary for indoor photography was introduced just before the turn of the twentieth century. It consisted of a trough for flash powder that was ignited by a spark from a dry cell battery. It must have been a bit tricky to ignite the powder and trip the shutter on the camera at the same time. Etta carefully noted that the necessary flash lamp batteries had to be replaced about twice a year. Gladys got a new camera for her 17th birthday in August 1915, probably an improved Brownie No. 2, model D with two built in view finders as pictured above.
Gladys turned 16 in August 1914. There is no evidence in the journal that she had any social life other than with a few older married women, the somewhat older school teacher Mabel Hall and a younger pre-teen who lived at the hotel, Pearl Sorra. Then, on April 15, 1915 two male seasonal telegraph operators started to work at the station. Ben Packard was 22. Orson Hallenbeck was also in his early twenties. Gladys became friends with both of them and the three of them started doing things together like going for walks, flying kites, hunting for rabbits, playing with fireworks, and taking photographs. Both men loved music. Ben played the piano and violin. Orson also played the piano. On May 12, 1915 the two men were invited to the section house for the first time to participate in the evening’s entertainment.
The evening must have gone well. Etta invited the two young men back to the section house several more times. Etta never mentions her feelings about them, but she was certainly not discouraging them from spending time with Gladys. By early June Gladys was spending a lot of time just with Ben. She took him to meet Delia Weaver at Grassy Point and to meet Florence Dowd at Brandreth. On June 22, 1915 Orson left Beaver River to take an operator’s job at the Lake Clear station. The three friends marked the occasion by taking photos of each other at the Kempton’s piano.
Gladys with Ben Packard
Gladys continued to spend time with Ben over the rest of the summer. Ben bought a new Buster Brown camera on Aug. 13 and Gladys taught him how to develop film. They started to spend many long evenings in the darkroom. Ben was at the section house so much that Etta and Will rented a room to him at the end of September. Up until then he had been boarding at the hotel. Etta’s brother Herman came to visit during hunting season and Ben hunted with him. Ben got a trophy buck and had the head mounted.
The railroad typically hired extra telegraph operators for the busy summer and fall seasons. Ben’s operator’s job at Beaver River ended at the end of October 1915. He immediately secured a short-term job at the Loon Lake station, the next station north of Lake Clear. On Nov. 20 he got an operator’s job at Fulton Chain [Thendara]. After that he was able to visit Gladys regularly on his days off. During the Christmas season he bought Gladys a number of fairly expensive gifts. Their relationship seemed to be going well. For some reason, not noted by Etta, Ben’s job at Fulton Chain ended in early January 1916. He moved back to his home town of Essex Center, VT on January 12. His relationship with Gladys ended. He never visited again. Gladys never wrote to him.
Gladys had learned to use a telegraph key back in 1911. On April 8, 1916 she applied to the New York Central for a telegraph operator’s job. She had substituted for William Partridge, the station agent at Beaver River, on several occasions, showing she was responsible enough to do the job. On June 19, 1916 she went to Utica on the train by herself, took the operator’s test and passed. She started working at the Beaver River Station the next day. She worked at that job until October 31 then took an operator’s job at Long Lake West [Sabbatis], close enough to home to commute daily by train. She was still working there in December when Etta’s journal ended.
Gladys’ story does not end there. In the fall of 1916, the Thompson family was evicted from state land at nearby Loon Lake where they were operating a sportsman’s hotel [see my post of 10/20/22]. The two Thompson brothers, Walter and Clinton, dismantled the hotel and moved the salvage to a lot they bought in Beaver River. Gladys was already somewhat acquainted with the brothers. After they moved to the hamlet, she started to go deer hunting with them regularly. Clinton left for the winter to work elsewhere. Walter stayed to build and operate their new hotel, the Evergreen. From local newspaper reports it appears that beginning in early 1917 Walter Thompson moved to Beaver River full-time. Over the next year he courted Gladys who had matured into an attractive young woman. According to her 1917 hunting license Gladys was 5 feet 6 inches tall, weighed 117 pounds, had brown hair and brown eyes. On May 18, 1918 they were married. Gladys was 19. Walter was 23. After that, she lived in Beaver River with Walter and their children continuously until 1939. Don Thompson, their only surviving child, will tell the rest of the story in my next post.
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| Gladys and Walter Thompson 1918 |
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