Progress Cash Market

My grandfather, Allen S. Crow, was a frugal man. That is perhaps not the best way to introduce any person. Like everyone else who ever lived he had a complex nuanced personality. But for the purposes of this post, I think it is a good place to start. His father and grandfather owned their own businesses, though in his father's case, it was certainly the wrong industry. Making saddles and harnesses during the rise of the automobile is not the way to long term financial stability. His father's financial difficulties certainly colored his view of the world. So he was always looking for ways to diversify his earning power. He obtained a civil servant job with the Surveyor General's Office, took on part time work delivering subpoenas and other paperwork for a lawyer, and eventually obtained a notary licence. His willingness to try his hand at something new even led him to buy a failing market.

The details of the Progress Cash Market have mostly been lost to time, since it wasn't open for business in the memory of anyone I know personally living today. I know the address: 462 East 200 South, Salt Lake City. And I was able to piece together some tidbits from my father and his sister. But really it predates their memory.

It appears that while delivering paperwork for a lawyer, Allen came across a failing grocery store. He may have even been delivering paperwork to the owner of the market, which put him at a certain advantage.  Something about the market peaked his interest and he agreed to buy it (probably for a song) along with assuming the debt that was making the store fail in the first place.

I'm not sure how long he tried to turn it around. I get the impression it was at most one year, but it was probably much less. In May and June of 1933, there were a couple of legal documents served to Allen detailing the money owed to grocery suppliers, and their intent to force collection by liquidating the store. The first Writ was from ZCMI (dba Zion's Wholesale Grocery) for the amount of $208.64 and the other from Symns Utah Grocery[1] for $534.82, for a total of $734.46. The writ specified an 8% interest rate per annum. Over the 80 years since then, that comes to $350,879.54

The writ asked the Constable to take possession of the store and sell the items inside to pay off the debt. The perishable items in the store were listed for sale. I couldn't find a period price for all the items, but the sample will give you an idea. I doubt there were $50 worth of items to be sold. It included:
- 31 loaves of bread (8 cents per loaf)
- small quantity vegetables (2-3 cents per pound)
- 23 asstd cakes
- about 3 dozen eggs (18 cents per dozen)
- 29-1/2 lbs. cheese (23 cents per pound)
- 52 yeast cakes
- 23 quarts of milk (25 cents per quart)
- 4 pints of milk (25 cents per quart)
- 2 pints of cream
- 2 half pints of cream
- 4 Bluehill pimento cheese (15 cents per pound)

Included in the paperwork were the names of 24 families who apparently owed the market money for items purchased on credit, an odd arrangement for a store named "Progress Cash Market". The names included addresses and the amount owed, varying from $2.50 to $6.60 for a total of $108.20. Most of the addresses were on the 200 thru 500 blocks of 2nd South or nearby cross streets. Not all the addresses still exist, but enough do to give you an idea of where his customers lived.

The basket is the location of the Market, while the blue
points are known customer addresses

I'm pretty sure none of these people are alive, though it is technically possible they could be. If you are related to one of the people below, I can provide you the address listed on the document, though I have no interest in collecting on a $2.50 bill from 80 years ago. It was likely the Constable canvassed the addresses and collected some thing, though in 1933, I'm sure he didn't collect very much.

Austin, Fred & Leola
Brody, Geo & Fanny
Bergman, Max M & Bert
Burgers, Henry & Henrietta
Bertram, Murrn & Novella
Christensen, Sena
Doty, Delvar & Ida
Everets, Johanna
Eidt, Geo & Florence
Fisher, Ray & Frances
Humphrey, Roland & Mattie
Johnson, Elna
Johnson, Frank & Maud
Lentz, James & June
Mitchell, Ellis
Nyland, Stephen
Prudence, Anna
Rowley, Leroy
Rammell, Earl & Zolla
Shelley, Lottie
Simmeck, Geo.
Samsel, Abbie
Wells, Wm. & Burdina
Zackerson, Anna

[1] I have run across several reports of Symns getting in trouble with the FTC for attempts and price fixing and boycotting suppliers who deal with their competitors. Zion's Wholesale Grocery is sometime named in the same newspaper reports.

My Grandfather's First Car

[Updated with photo below Oct 13, 2011]
On Tuesday, July 18th, 1922, Allen S. Crow went down to the Covey-Ballard Motor Company to buy his first car. The car dealership was owned at the time by Stephen M. Covey (1869-1959) and Melvin Russell Ballard Sr.(1897-1982). It was probably not the really big showroom at 464 South Main that was later turned into a dance hall. That did not open officially until February 1923. This was probably the showroom at 601 South State Street. The car he picked was a Ford Touring 1922. I'm no expert in cars, but I'm guessing that was what we today call the Model T.

The Report of Sale shows some great information about the deal. Aside from his name and address it listed the terms of the sale: amount of sale $537.40, a $25.00 deposit, with an additional $175.00 due on delivery which was to be on Saturday July 22nd, 1922. The balance was due in 60 days and there would be no interest charge. He also had to get the auto licensed. The dealer would provide him a spare "tire, tube & cover", 5 gallons of gas and 1 quart of oil, extra, meaning he would get charged for them. His salesman was Martin Gutke Brixen (1891-1979). If you have ever bought a car, you can almost hear the deal being made.

The car was ordered - he kept his copy of the Retail Buyers Order - but he didn't pick it up until July 25th. It was mostlikely that the car was just not ready. Plus it was Pioneer Day weekend, so not much else was going on business wise. I can just imagine his disappointment at not having the car for the pioneer day celebration. He paid his additional $175.00 and was given a free set of Ford tools from the Goodwin Dickson Auto Co. The address for the Auto Co. was on the same block as the showroom, so it was probably the service department right next door. After that he had the car licensed [$10 plus a $2 filing fee] and inspected by the Motor Vehicle Department for 50 cents by Elias J Strong (1899-1968). For a premium of $14.18 he had to purchase an automobile insurance policy for $450. His insurance agent was Joseph Arthur Jennings (1859-1943).

There was some personal information on the Conditional Sale Agreement. He listed his salary with the "U. S. Surveyor Gen." ($100 a month) and he had to list his life insurance ($1,000 with Metropolitan). He also said he was 24, unmarried, and had no dependents, which already I knew. He gave his address [156 East 17th South was his parents' home], and he stated he was buying the car for "Bus[iness] & Pleasure".

He saved a bill he received for the balance of $368.41 which he paid on October 5th, 1922, which was 70 days after delivery. It was 10 days late, but he does not appear to have been charged any interest.

A month or so earlier he started dating a young woman, Alpha Pearl Coolbear, from the Farmers Ward. But they hadn't been dating long when she was sent to live with relatives in Hinkley, Utah (near Delta) which was over 140 miles away.  I don't know if dating her, and her subsequent move, was his motivation for getting the car, or if he ever drove out to Hinkley to see her [I doubt it], but I do know she moved back home in August 1922 and they drove around together quite a bit before they were married in the Salt Lake Temple on September 18, 1924.

A few weeks before his 95th birthday, my brother was taping a conversation he and his wife had with my grandfather about how he met his wife. After describing their first date he slipped naturally into talking about his first car.

"But then I bought a Ford, and we used to go traveling around in the old Ford, and it had isinglass windows, and the snow would come in, and the cold weather, and the wind would come in the isinglass curtains on the side. So that wasn't a very satisfactory Ford, I was glad when we got rid of it. But I've had several since." (Interview 30 May 1993)

His stories of the car seem to be tied to his dates with Alpha. From a short autobiography written sometime after 1961 he said...

So our dates began. Once while parked in my old Ford in front of her house at 2294 South 9th East, someone bumped into us. Down into the deep irrigation ditch went the car. We dated and courted for two years...

In among the papers was an envelope from his office with penciled notes about the cost of the car. There was one item he included that was not on the sale paperwork (license) and he did not include the insurance, or the oil on his itemization. In total the car cost him....

443.00 Base Price
  18.60 Freight
  75.80 Delivery
537.40 sub total sale price
  13.43 Tire & Case
  12.50 license/inspection/filing fee (paid separately)
    2.50 gas
565.83 sub total (on his hand drawn note)
    0.90 oil
  14.18 insurance
580.91 Grand Total

  25.00 Deposit
175.00 Paid on delivery
368.41 Balance paid 70 days later
568.41 Paid to the dealership
  12.50 license/inspection/filing fee paid separately
580.91 Total Paid

I don't know how long he had the car. I see no evidence of it after they were married. But grandfather would not have replaced it until he needed to and he worked hard to save every penny possible. So barring some accident or mechanical failure, he probably had it for some time.

Allen S. Crow and his "Class in Auto Mechanics at G.H.S" (Granite High School?). My grandfather is in the center with the ratchet in his right hand. On the back are the names, Hyrum Jensen, Hugh Stanford, Allen Crow, Harold Knudsen, LeRoy Erickson, Henry Madsen. I'm glad my grandfather took the time to label his photo.

Family Papers

A few weeks ago my father sent me a handful of papers belonging to his father, Allen S. Crow. These were papers that my uncle had saved after my grandfather had passed away in 1993. My grandfather was a meticulous record keeper. He saved every paper that at one time was important, or at least he tried. His wife, my grandmother, balanced out his tendency to save paperwork by encouraging him to get rid of it all. I don't really know when most of his papers were thrown away. It may have been before grandmother's death in 1985 or after his death, but what I have in front of me today is a shadow of what he tried to keep.

That isn't to say he was a hoarder in the sense that we now see on television. When I was at his home it was always meticulously organized, if not strictly clean. The papers were kept where papers go, cabinets and file boxes. Items he showed off to guests were kept in display cases. There were no piles of items in every corner that he could not bring himself to throw away.  But there were things you might expect a normal person to keep, the bill of sale for a car, for example, except that he kept it for 70 years. And there were many of these kinds of paperwork.

In the end he probably saved too much paperwork. Instead of picking just the most important ones, or the most representative, he had too much for anyone to sort through. Whoever went through his papers was probably overwhelmed by the sheer volume and chucked it all. (note to self: go through my papers and chuck the ones I think aren't worth saving) The few papers that survived were at the bottom of a box that was overlooked in the purge. They give a glimpse of what he was doing, or trying to do, financially. There are a few personal items. A few photos. The obituary for his wife. A program from a daughter's missionary farewell. Some tracts from the RLDS church. But mostly it is financial paperwork.

So I have taken these papers on as a task. It is sort of my portion of a larger task to organize what we have on my grandfather before his children become too old to fill in the blanks. Already my uncle, who was sort of an amateur historian too (he collected their love letters), is no longer lucid enough to provide guidance, or even tell stories.

I'll be sorting though the papers and putting them into groups by content. From this I've created something like a finding aid and now I'm scanning the individual documents. I am even toying with OCR software to make the scans searchable. Then I'll burn copies to CD's for his children and grandchildren.

Finally the analysis. Every page, or group of pages tells me something about my grandfather. With my father's help as well as my aunts' I should be able to turn those pages into a narrative. And I'd like your help too. If you see something that I write that should be expanded or that you know a trick about how to find out more, let me know.

Love letters

In 1921 Allen Crow met his future wife, Alpha Coolbear, at a Farmer's Ward dance. Alpha was visiting with a friend. Since they didn't live near each other, they wrote letters. I don't have many letters that Allen wrote, but Alpha's have survived. Below is an undated letter written by Alpha between 1921 and 1924.

     Dearest Allen:
     Anyway your are the dearest Allen I know.

     We have been invited to another Halloween party. Edna Sims, one of my friends is giving it. It is next Monday so will you please write across that date reserved. We are to come in costume. Don't groan. It is hanging out on the line to dry the witches. I have no time to consult your taste but dont you dare say you wont wear it. I'll tell something that will sure bring you --- now don't get shocked --- I'm going to wear my ears fully exposed to view!!! Will you rub them if they get cold? Adaline says you wont be seen with me but I know you wouldn't miss it. Be carefull the goblins don't get you on the way home tonight because I want a peice of you to kiss Sunday.
                                                                   Alpha

P.S. My wouldn't it be awful if someone should get hold of this letter? They would wonder what in the world ails me.

                                                                   XXX

I kissed the last one so hard it blurred.