The Definitive Dwiggins no. 107—Richmond, Indiana, Part II: Residences

In December 1880, when he was six months old, W.A. Dwiggins moved from the hamlet of Martinsville, Ohio (population 355) to the thriving industrial city of Richmond, Indiana (population 12,742). From that moment until the fall of 1904, when he moved east to Hingham, Massachusetts, he always lived in an urban setting. A sense of the size of Richmond during Dwiggins’ childhood can be gained from seeing the “bird’s eye” map of the city made by C.H. Bailey in 1884. [1]

Map of The City of Richmond, Indiana 1884 (Boston: C.H. Bailey & Co., 1884).

The map (looking from west to east) is incredibly detailed with accurate depictions of city “landmarks” such as churches, civic buildings, and factories. However, there is inevitably a bit of license in the drawings of ordinary houses and businesses. [2] Bailey shows the city to be more densely populated than the January 1886 Sanborn fire insurance maps do. For instance, the city’s numerous alleys are not shown and there seems to be fewer vacant parcels of land. Nevertheless, the “bird’s eye” map is very helpful in visualizing what Richmond in general looked like as well as the neighborhoods that Dwiggins grew up in. In this post I have excerpted portions of Bailey’s map to show the immediate surroundings of every residence, except one. I have also included details from the two Sanborn maps made during the time that Dwiggins lived in Richmond, one dated January 1886 (but made in 1885) and one dated May 1891. [3]

Dwiggins lived in six different locations during his years in Richmond, four while his father was alive and two others after his death. Of the six buildings, only two survive today. The others were all demolished many years ago.

Detail from map of The City of Richmond, Indiana 1884 (Boston: C.H. Bailey & Co., 1884) showing location of 114 South 12th Street.

114–116 South 12th Street (the pink dwelling just below the “Richmond, Ind.” oval). Detail from Richmond Indiana January 1886 (New York: Sanborn Map and Publishing Company., 1885)

114 South 12th Street (1881–1882)
This brick two-story, two-family structure was the first house in Richmond that W.A. Dwiggins lived in. Located between South A Street and South B Street, it shares an address on the west side of the street with 116 South 12th Street. Still standing today, it was painted celadon green when I photographed it. In the Bailey illustration it should be one of the buildings in the middle of the block on the far side of 12th Street (the topmost east-west street with the two tall buildings at the left). On the Sanborn map—which is upside down from the Bailey illustration—the house is the pink colored structure just below the “Richmond Ind” stamp.

114 South 12th Street, Richmond, Indiana (2006). Photograph by Paul Shaw.

Detail from map of The City of Richmond, Indiana 1884 (Boston: C.H. Bailey & Co., 1884) showing location of 202 North 8th Street (diagonally across from no. 12).

202 North 8th Street (at the corner of North B Street). Detail from Richmond Indiana January 1886 (New York: Sanborn Map and Publishing Company, 1885).

202 North 8th Street (1883–September 1885)
The second Richmond house that Dwiggins lived in was closer to the center of town. 202 North 8th Street was a two-story brick structure located at the corner of North B Street, kitty-corner from Public School House No. 3. (The pink dwelling just above “North B” on the Sanborn map; the house diagonally across from the cupola-topped building labeled no. 12 at the left of the Bailey illustration.) But Dwiggins did not attend that school until later since it only handled seventh and eighth grades. Instead, he would have gone to Public School House No. 2 at Fort Wayne Avenue and North 7th Street, about three blocks away, where his first grade teacher would have been either Miss Mary M. Dennis or Miss Julia E. Test. [4]

Dr. Dwiggins may have chosen to move to North 8th Street because of the proximity of St. Stephen’s Hospital a block away. The hospital, the first in Richmond, was established by St. Paul’s Episcopal Church in 1884. It was directed by T. Henry Davis, a practitioner like Dr. Dwiggins of homeopathic medicine. [5] For a year, or possibly two, James F. Dwiggins and his wife Sallie lived with his older brother Moses’ family at this address. [6] Today there is a playground where the house used to stand.

Detail of map The City of Richmond, Indiana (Boston: C.H. bailey & Co., 1884) showing location of 25 North Street and 31 North Street (both to the left of No. 96).

25 North 9th Street and 31 North 9th Street (between North A Street and Sailor Street). From Richmond Indiana January 1886 (New York: Sanborn Map and Publishing Company, 1885).

25 North 9th Street (October 1885–Spring 1889)
In October 1885 Dr. Dwiggins moved his family even closer to the business center of Richmond with a combined residence and office at 25 North 9th Street. The two-story brick building on the east side of the street was midway between North A Street and Main Street (near narrow Sailor Street). On the Bailey “bird’s eye” map it may be the building to the left of the one marked 96. It was opposite J.C. Albright & Co. (“tinsmiths, galvanized iron work, slate and iron roofing and general jobbing”) at 22 North 9th Street; Samuel Lippincott, undertaker, at 20 North 9th Street; and T.F. Morgan & Son, plumbers, at 18 North 9th Street. [7]

To the west on North 10th Street—the block behind the Dwiggins residence—was the Grace Methodist Episcopal Church, its steeple dominating the excerpt above from the Bailey “bird’s eye” map and present on the Sanborn map at the upper left. At the intersection of North 9th Street and Main Street were a number of major businesses and institutions: the old Masonic Temple (which housed several businesses including a clothing store and a photography gallery), the YMCA, and the Palladium Building.

Advertisement for T.F. Morgan & Son, plumbers (1886). From Richmond City Directory for 1886–1887… (Richmond, Indiana: M. Cullaton & Co., 1886).

31 North 9th Street (Spring 1889–1890)
In 1889 Dr. Dwiggins felt compelled to moved his practice and home down the block to 31 North 9th Street. The owner of the house next door to 25 North 9th Street had built a business room which blocked the light to his office. But Moses had to make repairs to his new office himself, complaining to his father that, “The new landlord is one of the meanest, grinding kind of men: he would almost let a house rot down before he would spend a dollar repairing.” [8]

Moving to North 9th Street did not affect Willie’s schooling. He remained at the Second District School at Fort Wayne Avenue and North 7th Street. For third grade his teacher was Miss Caroline L. Salter; for fourth grade it was Miss May Woodard; and for fifth grade—his last in Richmond before his father died in January 1890—he had Mrs. Elizabeth Close for fifth grade. [9]

Both Dwiggins residences on North 9th Street are long gone: 25 North 9th Street was razed to the ground in 1894 and replaced by a new Masonic Temple which itself was knocked down in 1906 for a Telephone Exchange building; 31 North 9th Street was replaced by an automobile sales and service business in 1920.

124 North 7th Street (on the opposite side of the street from St. Mary’s Catholic Church). From Richmond Wayne Co. Indiana May 1891 (New York: Sanborn-Perris Map Co., Limited, 1891).

124 North 7th Street (April to August, 1891)
Within a month of the death of Moses Dwiggins at the end of January 1890, Eva and Willie left Richmond. They moved briefly to Zanesville, Ohio and then to Los Angeles before returning to Zanesville in September of that year. At the beginning of 1891 Eva and Willie moved back to Richmond, moving into two-family wooden house at 124 North 7th Street. The house did not exist in 1886, but on the 1891 Sanborn map it is shown combined with 122 North 7th Street on the west side of the street. On the opposite side of the street, at the corner of North A Street, was St. Mary’s Catholic Church. The building is still standing today, though in decrepit shape.

Willie would have joined the sixth grade in mid-year, once again at Public School House No. 2 at Fort Wayne Avenue and North 7th Street. His teacher would have been Miss Caroline Salter for the second time since she had advanced in the school hierarchy. [10]

122–124 North 7th Street, Richmond, Indiana (2015). Photograph by Paul Shaw.

Detail from map of The City of Richmond, Indiana 1884 (Boston: C.H. Bailey & Co., 1884) showing location of 36 South 9th Street.

36 South 9th Street (opposite The Ezra Smith and Co. Mfg. Assn.). From Richmond Indiana January 1891 (New York: Sanborn Map & Publishing Company, 1890).

36 South 9th Street (September 1891–July 1892)
In the fall of 1891 Eva and Willie moved to 36 South 9th Street, their last address in Richmond. Their residence was half of a two-story, two-family brick building (shared with 38 South 9th Street) located between Main Street and South A Street, across from the Ezra Smith & Co. Mfg. Assn., a coffin manufacturer. [11] The building no longer exists.

Willie spent his final school year in Richmond at Public School House No. 1, located at South B Street between South 4th and South 5th Streets. His teacher was Miss Anna P. Hill. [12] In July 1892, after the end of the school year, Eva and Willie moved to Zanesville again where they lived with William G. Scott, the widowed husband of Eva’s sister Carrie, and his son Don until 1895. [13]

Notes
1. The City of Richmond Indiana 1884 (Boston: C.H. Bailey & Co., 1884). A digital version of this map is available from the Library of Congress.
2. Selected businesses and professionals are listed at the bottom of the map with numbers keyed to their locations. Presumably these companies and individuals paid for the privilege. Moses F. Dwiggins was not among them.
3. Richmond Indiana January 1886 (New York: Sanborn Map and Publishing Company, 1885) and Richmond Wayne Co. Indiana Sanborn Perris May 1891 (New York: Sanborn-Perris Map Co., Limited, 1891).
4. For information on Richmond schools, including which teachers taught which grades, see Richmond City Directory for 1886–1887… (Richmond, Indiana: M. Cullaton & Co., 1886), p. 305.
5. St. Stephen’s Hospital is shown on the Sanborn map, but not on Bailey’s “bird’s eye” map. It was probably under construction when Bailey was preparing his drawings. Memoirs of Wayne County and the City of Richmond, Indiana… by Henry Clay Fox (Madison, Wisconsin: Western Historical Association, 1912), vol. I, pp. 245–246.
6. James and Sallie Dwiggins are listed in 1883 at 202 North 8th Street but by 1885 they had moved to 118 North 17th Street. See Richmond City Directory for 1883–’84… (Richmond, Indiana: M. Cullaton & Co., 1883) and Kramer Publishing and Advertising Company’s City Directory of Richmond, Indiana 1885–1886… and Wayne Co. (Lafayette, Indiana: Kramer Publishing and Advertising Co., 1885).
7. This description of J.C. Albright’s business is from an advertisement in The Richmond Item 28 March 1883. The 1886 Sanborn map describes the firm as “tinners and sheet iron workers, gutters, spouts, tin, slate, and iron roofing”. For information on J.C. Albright & Co. see Manufacturing and Mercantile Resources & Industries of the Principal Places in Wayne, Henry, Delaware and Randolph Counties, Indiana… (n.p.: Historical & Statistical Publishing Co., 1884), p. 40.
8. Moses F. Dwiggins to Zimri Dwiggins 29 March 1889 in Folder 14, Box 27, W.A. Dwiggins Collection, Boston Public Library.
9. The school information is from Richmond City Directory for 1886–1887… (Richmond, Indiana: M. Cullaton & Co., 1886), p. 305; Richmond City Directory for 1888–1889… (Richmond, Indiana: M. Cullaton & Co., 1888), pp. 324–325; and Emerson’s City Directory of Richmond, Ind., 1890–91… (Richmond, Indiana: M. Cullaton & Co., 1890), p. 423. Dwiggins’ elementary school teachers can be identified with fair certainty because the Richmond city directories prior to 1893 list the teachers for each schoolhouse along with the grades they taught. There is only one instance where two teachers are listed for a single grade.
10. Emerson’s City Directory of Richmond, Ind., 1890–91… (Richmond, Indiana: M. Cullaton & Co., 1890), p. 423.
11. The Ezra Smith & Co. Mfg. Assn. originally manufactured school furniture, but by 1884 it had switched entirely to coffins and caskets (apparently marketed under the name Richmond Coffin and Casket Works). See Manufacturing and Mercantile Resources & Industries of the Principal Places in Wayne, Henry, Delaware and Randolph Counties, Indiana… (n.p.: Historical & Statistical Publishing Co., 1884), p. 43.
12. Emerson’s City Directory of Richmond, Ind., 1890–91… (Richmond, Indiana: M. Cullaton & Co., 1890), p. 423.
13. Eva Dwiggins and William G. Scott and their sons lived at 333 Putnam Avenue. Eva’s parents Rev. B.Y. and Sarah Siegfried lived next door at 335 Putnam Avenue. See Zanesville City Official Directory 1894 (Akron, Ohio: The Burch Directory Co., 1894), pp. 163, 336 and 343.

I want to thank Eric Frazier, Reference Librarian of the Rare Book & Special Collections Reading Room of The Library of Congress for the images of the map of The City of Richmond, Indiana 1884 (Boston: C.H. Bailey & Co., 1884); and Sue King of The Morrison-Reeves Library (Richmond, Indiana) for the Richmond, Indiana Sanborn map details.