What You Find In A Cigar Box

 Last December I wrote about old pictures of my paternal grandmother, Bessie, given to me by my cousin's husband after she died. (Grandma was Barb's great aunt.)

A few days ago his daughter-in-law brought me this cigar box. It was stuffed full of newspaper clippings that Grandma had saved. The box itself is a treasure. The lid advertises the St. Louis World's Fair commemorating the centennial of the signing of the Louisiana Purchase Treaty. The blue rectangles are corners of the "U.S. Inter Rev." stamp that sealed the box.

The notice on the back cautioned against the reuse of the box for cigars. 

The box is 5"x8" and 1" deep. It originated in FACTORY No. 2260, I (Or1) DIST. PENN. 25 ((I think refers to number of cigars in box) then [PHILADELPHIA]

At the top, on the inside of the lid, Grandma had written their names and ages and the date they were married. Two clippings inside the box were these: On the left a picture, taken in 1920, of the old mill on the Middle Nodaway River in Mt. Etna. Even though it was gone before my time I was always aware of where it had been and had seen pictures of it because at one time it was operated by my great-great grandparents, David and Catherine Lippincott. 

Until I read the clipping I did not know that the mill was moved to Creston and located at Union and Birch Streets where it was occupied by the Farmer's Feed and Grain Company until it "burned down several years ago" according to this clipping which Grandma had dated as October 16, 1967. (I checked the Adams County History Book just before I published this and it does tell about moving the mill to Creston. So I had known that at one time and had forgotten it.)

In the right clipping, dated October 1963 is a photo of a steam locomotive and below it a partial picture of people waiting to board the train. The man wearing sunglasses at the far right is my dad, Louis Lynam. On the left is a woman holding a young child. I am almost certain that is me holding Douglas. The occasion was the last run of 'old 5632'. It would take us sixty miles west to Pacific Junction, turn around and come back. Dad, Mom, Doug and I went because the elementary class my younger brother, Leslie,  was in was one of the classes picked to go. It seemed like a great adventure to begin but by the time we got to PJ and back I was so done with the smell of smoke and cinders blowing around.  

Other clippings included an old photo of men and twelve horses which powered a thresher in the 1890's. Grandma had written at the top: "I remember this when this was the way they did it."

A March 1955 Rosary Hospital Financial Report: "Out of each dollar you spend for hospital care ... we must spend: Nursing Service - .45; X-Ray and Laboratory - .10; Operation of Plant - .22; Food - .12; Laundry - .04; Administration - .07; Total - $1.00. During the past year the cost per patient day of hospital care was $20.15. This cost covers food, fuel, nursing care, drugs, other medicinal supplies as dextrose, oxygen, cost of laundry, housekeeping, maintenance of building and equipment. Some interesting statistics for the year are: Average length of stay -- 5.7 days. Births -- 245. Deaths -- 40. Laboratory tests -- 8,252. Patients treated -- 1,560. Surgery -- 365. X-Rays -- 874 and Patients' Days -- 7,854." 

She saved a full page titled: "That Plant May Be Pretty, And Common -- and Poison." I knew that about some of the plants featured in the article, but not all of them. I will keep this handy for possible future reference. 😈😍

There's a publicity photo of a man with a microphone and at the bottom "Colonial Manors - Where People Grow Young". Someone had written "Joe Feeney" on the photo. Grandma lived at the Corning Colonial Manor the last years of her life. When I look up Joe Feeney I find that he was a tenor singer and a member of The Lawrence Welk TV show. Did he entertain at Colonial Manor?

Grandma also saved a clipping about Billy Cole: "Profile...WHO's new country music DJ." I wrote a blog post about Billy and his Corning connection a year and a half ago - December 6, 2023. I wonder if my grandmother was also a fan of his.

She saved five full page schedules from the late 60's and early 70's about the opening day of the school year which also included members of the Board of Education, Administration, Office Personnel, Teachers' Aides, Teachers, Bus Drivers, Custodians, cost of school lunches and activities and special dates. Also three clippings from the early 1960's showing the salaries for teachers, administrators, bus drivers, teachers' aides, substitute teachers, office personnel and custodians. But why? She did live directly across the street from an elementary building and a block away from the high school. Perhaps that was the reason. One of my favorite teachers (junior year English and senior year Journalism) earned an annual salary of $3,916.68. The one I babysat with his five children for only earned $3,600.04. No wonder I only got .25 cents an hour for babysitting. 

With my love of history, this box and these clippings are treasures. The fact that they are things my  Grandma Lynam saved makes them even more so. I was curious about the cigar box, thinking its age might make it collectible and tried to learn more about it but found nothing on the internet.

Just thinking about cigar boxes in general reminded me of how available they used to be. It seems like we could ask for an empty cigar box at the grocery store and we could have them free. They were handy for storing small items and could easily be stacked on a shelf. We might have also gotten some from our landlord because he was a cigar smoker.

Maybe this box was one my Grandpa Lynam kept. I don't remember much about him, I was only four when he died, but had he been a cigar smoker? 

Well, there is this photo of him from the 1920's and it does look like that could be a cigar in his mouth. So....

The young boy is my Dad. Grandma Bessie is on the right. The woman on the left is Grandma's sister-in-law Ruby Duncan.

It really is interesting what you might find in an old cigar box.