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Pleasant Street

Pleasant Street, according to the 1899 City Directory, had nineteen (19) buildings, from Pleasant Street's start at North Seventh street, to its supposed end at about North 13th Street where there once was a cemetery. According to Mr. Bigolin on his 2008 Corn Fest tour, there had been a cemetery at about 13th and Pleasant Street that became abandoned. Eventually, a developer decided to buy the old cemetery and convert it to a subdivision -- which he received permission to do, on the condition that the bodies were exhumed and interned instead at some other cemetery. This he promised, but apparently failed, to do. There is one small unprepossessing, slab-built blue house along Pleasant Street that Mr. Bigolin said was rumored to be haunted. Various owners of the house had reported hearing a small child -- perhaps a young girl -- crying in the house. Research revealed that there had been only one infant interred at the cemetery, a girl of less than two year's age, and located roughly where the house was located. Pleasant Street now has approximately two to three times the homes in the five block area that it did in 1899. Further down the road is a sign welcoming one to the Pleasant Street neighborhood -- a section of town that also did not exist in 1899. East of the "new" neighborhood is an industrial section terminating at Peace Road. To my amusement, traveling over Pleasant Street to the east, I found a bakery, of all things, tucked into this industrial neighborhood. Since my survey confines itself to the 1899 town, I turned back around. 1899 must have been a time of construction and expansion. many of the houses are close to each other, while some have gaps between them (circa 1899 at least) that suggests lots were being developed as the workforce grew. Most of the population were laborers. I imagine a blue-collar neighborhood, muddy, with bustling people walking to work at the barbed-wire factory, the sound of carpenters and smell of fresh-cut wood heavy in the air. *****************************************************************************

Travelling north on Seventh Street, I turned right on Pleasant Street, to be immediately greeted at the corner by 816 Pleasant Street. This was the home of Theo Carlson, a laborer, and Guy Cornell, a laborer. I noted that Frank Cornell, possibly a relative of Guy, lived on the other end of the street, at 1221 Pleasant Street. While this is a large building, it does not strike me as being an apartment building. At least, it doesn't look like what I would call an apartment building. But then, I live in 2009. I wonder the circumstances of two male laborers who chose (?) to live together. Were they two men who decided to share expenses while conquering the wild west? Such arrangements were not unheard of. For example, in her "little house" series, Laura Ingles Wilder writes of two men who bought lots next to each other. The bachelors then built a cabin on the property line, put a furnace in the dead center of the cabin, then bunked against opposite walls. On the other hand, in 1899, DeKalb hardly considered itself a frontier town. And while some women are mentioned in the 1899 City Directory, few are. This makes me wonder if the traditional family unit -- such as live-in girlfriends or wives and children were excluded, and only adults of working age were reported. I suspect that the later is true. In that case, it would be interesting to find who actually owned this house, and if it was constructed as a "duplex," or if the two men had in fact worked together to make what to me seems a rather large and elaborate home for a pair of laborers. It is also possible that laborers meant more than it does today, and the men had a better standard of living than today's unskilled blue-collar worker.

Notice the sidewalk that leads into a vacant lot, for a home that had not yet been built in 1899 and is not still standing today.

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817 Pleasant Street, exactly opposite 816, has the same impressive size and an odd batch of residents. First. F.D. Kennedy has a business address of 250 Main (east or west?). The business is "Billiard Hall," certainly a bit disreputable for the time. He is not listed as the owner or proprietor, but I do not doubt that he was. Also listed at this address is one "Miss Maggie Kennedy, compositor." A search of the omniscient wiki shows that a compositor was one who set type-face by hand. That seems a rather humble occupation for the (wife? lover? sister?) of a business owner. Type was continually covered in ink, so I imagine a type-setter's hands were perpetually blackened. I also am not completely sure of the meaning of the "Miss" in front of women's names. I have heard -- mostly through Ms. Manners, that all women used to be known as "Mrs.," before there was a feminist movement to demark single women. The title "Mrs.," so it goes, was only to be placed in front of the husband's name. So although widely used, there never was, properly speaking, a "Mrs. Jane Doe." The only proper use would be "Mrs. John Doe." So the appellation "Miss" was formed to differentiate those women who were unmarried and wished -- for whatever reason -- to advertise this fact. Later on, women (who can never make their minds up) decided it was a bad idea to differentiate between married and unmarried women by title and decided on the almost universally used "Ms.," pronounced "Miz," rather than "Miss." Based on all that, I can only assume "Miss Kennedy" was a sister of the billiard's man and for whatever reason, decided to cohabit. ************************************************************************************

823 Pleasant Street, the "W.H. May residence." ************************************************************************************* 833 Pleasant Street I did not take a picture of 833 Pleasant Street. Pleasant Street is not really "Pleasant" in 2009. After being followed by no less than three cop cars for my unusual behavior of driving slowly and taking pictures of houses, I decided an arrest at the hands of DeKalb's finest wasn't worth a complete photo chronicle of Pleasant Street. Perhaps some other day. 833 Pleasant Street was the home of H. Ferguson, foreman, and (his sister?) Miss Anna Ferguson, profession unknown. ************************************************************************************* 903 Pleasant Street, home to George Lake, operator. A decent, probably single-family home for presumably skilled labor. In 1899, this was the only house on the "odd-numbered" side of the block. It is now a two-family apartment, with homes on either side. ********************************************************************************** 916 Pleasant Street, home of Charles Carlson, laborer, now an empty lot. It was at one time the only house on the even-numbered side of the 900 block of Pleasant Street. ********************************************************************************* 1009 Pleasant Street, one of three buildings on the even-numbered side of the 1000 block of Pleasant Street. Home of F. Fowler, carpenter. ********************************************************************************* 1015 Pleasant Street, the only home on the odd-numbered side of the street. Home of William Marshall, laborer. *********************************************************************************** 1022 Pleasant Street, A.J. Higgins, laborer and A.A. Stone, laborer. Notice the roof-line's similarity to 1028, and to some extent, 1115. ************************************************************************************* 1028 Pleasant Street, Charles Stone, Wire-maker. ************************************************************************************* A newer building now on the 1000 block of Pleasant Street. It is presently a spanish-language only "supermarche." ************************************************************************************ In 1899, the 1100 block of Pleasant Street had the most buildings of any other -- 5 0f 19. Now it has 13 buildings, 6 on the odd side and 7 on the even side. 1102 was the home of Miss Emma Fowler and Jay Fowler. ************************************************************************************* These two pictures show what is now a small apartment house with the address of 1101 and an empty lot beside it. The 1899 Directory mentions that in 1899, property owners were lax about the numbers on their houses, leading to much confusion. It also mentions that every ten feet of street in the fire district (whatever that was, it isn't specified) was assigned one number, and that odd and even numbers were on opposite sides of the street. Since 1101 is only one number (i.e., ten feet) off of 1103, it is very probable that this structure is, in fact, the 1899 1103 Pleasant Street. To hedge my bets, though, I include the walk-up to the adjacent, now-empty lot. It is very possible that this lot was, like 916, a building built after 1899 and destroyed before 2009. In any event, 1103 Pleasant was once home to a William Banks, wiremaker and a Horton Walt, miner. The last intrigues me because the Walts are an established DeKalb family, owning a factory of some sort and also a "law and mediation center," whatever that is. I wonder what a miner was doing here. ************************************************************************************ 1115 Pleasant Street, Jacob Jacobson, laborer. ************************************************************************************ 1123 Pleasant, which I assume from neighboring addresses is actually this structure now numbered 1125, was home of A. Campbell, laboerer and Larson Stines, fencemaker. ************************************************************************************ I did not get a picture of 1129 Pleasant Street, also assumed gone, former home of Charles Weston, a painter. ********************************************************************************** The logical site of 1209 Pleasant, now a garage for some industrial business. Once the home of Pat Flynn, laborer. ********************************************************************************* 1230 Pleasant Street, home of Pat Hoskin, foreman. ********************************************************************************* 1233 and 1234 Pleasant Street. These are bad pictures, the last I took before I decided the coppers were making it an unpleasant day on Pleasant street. The nearest structure is certaintly not circa 1899. 1233 was the home of Sherwood Keeling, moulder and "jno" Sturbenz, nailmaker. 1234 was home of Pettit Thomas, watchman. ****************************************************************************** The 1200 block, once home to only 4 buildings, now has 9 and this nifty sign viewed as one is driving west on the pre-1899 portion of Pleasant Street toward the 1899 portion. *********************************************************************************

113 North Main Street

The mayor of DeKalb lived at 113 North Main Street in 1899. 113 North Main street isn't any more. The address would have been somewhere between these two houses. Mr. Bigolin notes that the yellow house was built as 115 North First at about 1924. The red building dates back to 1987.

Introduction

Steven Bigolin has researched and written four books about DeKalb County. I have all four books, the video made from the books and attend his lectures when I can. He might not know how much he has inspired me and how much I enjoy the old houses of DeKalb. For six years now, I have walked the streets of DeKalb, watching the houses, imagining the houses and the lives of people who don't get put into books. This is a story as best I can find it, of the house in DeKalb circa 1899 and still standing -- or not.