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| Mabel Magnolia Cavallin with Ruth Evangeline Paulson, Iowa, circa 1903. |
Having discovered that the woman, “Mabel from Texas”, referred
to in my grandmother’s final letter and the mysterious “blonde” in so many of
the family pictures in Iowa was one and the same person – Mabel Cavallin
Peterson, I began to “search” for her in Iowa in the early 1900s. And there she was.
In December 1904, I found “Mabel Cavillin” playing “Lucy
Rosebud.” in “The Old Maid’s Club” along side her friends, Amy Paulson (playing
“Faith Snowmore”) and Nellie Paulson (as
“Dora’s Double”), part of The young
Ladies’ Missionary Society of St. Paul’s Lutheran church. (Davenport Daily
Republican, December 15, 1904, pg 7.) I’ll have much more to say about the St.
Paul’s church, the Young Ladies’ Missionary Society, and the play “Old Maid’s
Club” in future posts.
In the 1905 Iowa Census of Davenport Iowa, there was Mabel again,
living at 728 Belle Ave, the home of my family of photographers, the Paulsons.
This fact is illustrated nicely by the
picture of Mabel sitting on the steps of that very house with the youngest
Paulson daughter, Ruth, in the picture above.
Interestingly, Mabel's name in the census list is not with the
Paulson family’s but listed slightly earlier - directly after the Nils Peter
Swenson family, relatives of the Paulson family who lived just down the street
on Belle Ave. Perhaps Mabel was visiting when the census taker arrived?
In the 1906-1907, Davenport City Directory, Mabel is found
once again. Now living with the Paulson
family in their new home at 707 Belle Ave, she is listed as “Cavallin, Mabel
Miss, dom r 707 Belle Ave.” “dom” , the
directory tells us, is their abbreviation for the occupation of “domestic” .
Indeed, Mabel would go back home to Texas and later (circa 1910) work as
a servant in the household of a family in Austin for a year or two.
So there we have it, a little “bread crumb trail” of an
adventure in Iowa!
Ruth Evangeline Paulson (Aug 2 1899- September 10, 1996)
Date: circa 1903, based on Ruth Paulson's apparent age
Related Posts
“Young Ladies’ Society Will Give A Play” Davenport Daily
Republican, December 15, 1904, pg 7. Accessed through www.newspapers.com,
“Cavallin, Mabel Miss, dom r 707 Belle Ave.” Stone’s
Davenport City Directory, 1906-7, pg 190. Accessed through Ancestry.com.
1905 Iowa Census. Accessed through Ancestry.com
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