Treasure Chest Thursday ~ The Traveling Dentist's Business Card

Last week I shared with my readers the Doctor of Dental Surgery Diploma which was awarded to my Great-Grandfather, Frederick Emory Webster in 1896.

Today I have another treasure to share with you.  It's Frederick Emory Webster's business card.  This little gem was included in a bag of photos my mom brought over to me.  I wish I knew just how old this business card is.  I know it's at least 67 years old because Frederick died on July 21, 1946 in Sao Paulo, Brazil.

It looks like Frederick, or "Frederico" in Portuguese, had a business partner, a Mr. Benjamin Tomas.

Frederick and Benjamin's business was in Santos, Brazil.  This business card is written in Portuguese, and I neither read nor speak Portuguese.  But my mom does, so I asked her to translate this for me.

Original:

Escriptorio Commercial, Cartas

de Chamadas, Naturalizacao,

Certificados, de Reservista, e Licencas em geral.

Horarios

Das 8:30 as 12: e

Das 14: as 17: hrs.

Praca Ruy Barbosa 14, 2 andar,

Santos.

Translation:

Commercial Office, Calling Cards,

Naturalization,

Certificate of Reservist and Licensing in general.

Office Hours

From 8:30 to 12:00 and

From 2:00 to 5:00

Praca Rui Barbosa 14, 2nd floor,

Santos

Well, this is a rather surprising translation.  Why?  Because I thought this business card was for Frederick's dental practice.  But, according to this business card, it seems that Frederick was involved in another type of business venture as well.  And I'm not really sure what kind of business it was.  Calling cards, naturalization, licensing, etc.?    It's a mystery to me.  But, whatever kind of business it was, it appears that Frederick had a side business in addition to his dental practice.

I shouldn't be surprised that Frederick was involved in more than just dentistry.  After all, he did have an Optical Boat and a Photo Boat docked next to his Dental Boat.  And speaking of his Dental Boat, have you seen the photos of the shark hanging in front of the Dental Boat yet?  Whoever caught that shark must have had a great fish story to tell!

Oh, Great-Grandpa Frederick!  You were such an interesting and colorful character.

Thanks for reading!

Jana

© 2013 Copyright by Jana Last

Wednesday's Child ~ Remembering Fred Lincoln Webster, Asbury's Brother

A few weeks ago I wrote a post about Asbury Bateman Webster, who died of inflammation of the lungs at nine years of age.

Today we remember Asbury's youngest brother, Fred Lincoln Webster.

Fred was born on  October 28, 1863 in Pecatonica, Winnebago, Illinois.  He was the youngest of eight children born to Moses Augustine Webster and Amanda Melvina Carlisle.  His oldest sibling, Ebenezer Perry Carlisle Webster (my 2nd Great-Grandfather) was 25 years older than him and had already served in the Civil War by the time Fred was born.

Another older brother, Watson Emery Webster (not to be confused with my Great-Grandfather, Watson Emory [Frederick] Webster, a.k.a. "The Traveling Dentist") had also served in the Civil War before Fred was born.  Both Ebenezer and Watson were discharged from the service in Feb and Jan 1863 respectively due to disability.

I've only found Fred in one federal census.  Here's Fred living with his parents, Moses and Amanda in the 1870 Blairstown, Benton, Iowa U.S. Census.¹ His brother Watson and his family are living in the household as well.  Sadly, one year after this census was taken, Fred's mother, Amanda died.  She was only 51 years old at the time of her death.



1870 U.S. Federal Census, Blairstown, Benton, Iowa
Ancestry.com (see footnote)

As you can see, Fred was six years old at the time of this census.  A short seven years after this census was taken, Fred passed away.

According to the History And Genealogy of the Gov. John Webster Family of Connecticut, Volume 2, page 1185:²

"Fred Lincoln Webster, b. Oct. 28, 1863, was killed by accident, Aug. 21, 1877."

Fred was just two months shy of his fourteenth birthday when he died.  I don't know anything about the accident that caused his death.  I've tried to find newspaper accounts regarding Fred's death, but haven't been able to find anything yet.

I'm not even sure where Fred died.  He could have died in Iowa or even Kansas.  Why Kansas?  Because in the 1880 U.S. Census, Fred's father, Moses, was living in Marshall County, Kansas with his son Ebenezer.  It is possible that sometime following the death of Fred's mother, Amanda, in 1871, Moses and little Fred moved from Iowa to Ebenezer's home in Kansas.

As I related in my post about Fred's brother, Asbury, four of the eight children born to Moses and Amanda Webster died at young ages.  I'd like to remember the other two children in future posts.

Thanks for reading!

Jana

© 2013 Copyright by Jana Last

---

1 Year: 1870; Census Place: Blairstown, Benton, Iowa; Roll: M593_376; Page: 198B; Image: 400; Family History Library Film: 545875.Ancestry.com. 1870 United States Federal Census [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2009. Images reproduced by FamilySearch. ^↩


2 William Holcomb Webster and Rev. Melville Reuben Webster, D. D., History and Genealogy of the Gov. John Webster Family of Connecticut (Rochester, New York: E. R. Andrews Printing Company, 1915), Vol. 2, pg. 1185^↩

 

Follow Friday–Fab Finds for February 22, 2013

My Fab Finds for this week are (in no particular order) -

1. Little boy lost AND The boy who lived by The Legal Genealogist
2. Stained Glass, Stone Coffins and Blind Corners by The Family Curator
3. From Sheepshead to Casper by The Irish In America
4. Did You Know? by Life From The Roots
5. Stop the Presses! by Family Cherished
6. Monday Mailbox: FamilySearch Responds by The Ancestry Insider
7. Dear Randy - Do You Have a Check List to Track A Person's Information? by Genea-Musings
8. Submarines by Who Knew?
9. What To Do with Conflicting Data? by Past-Present-Future
10. It's Gone! Now What? by Midwestern Microhistory:  A Genealogy Blog
11. Alien Registration Records by Kimberly Powell, About.com Guide
12. Family History Through the Alphabet – Find A Grave by GenBlog
13. 5 Design Rules No Blog Should Break by Jonathan Bailey at BloggingPro.com
14. Ambush on a Revenuer by A Southern Sleuth
15. Small Town vs. Big City: The Snark Factor AND Postscript on a Divorce: No Trophy Wife Here by A Family Tapestry
16. What are your thoughts on cemetery behavior? by Leaves For Trees
17. Wedding Wednesday – The Clue on the Cake by Abbie and Eveline
18. FindTheBest Genealogy Database Comparison Tool by GeneaBloggers

New Blog Discoveries

• Discovering Family Roots
• The Single Leaf
• Cousin Linda
• Ancestoir

In Case You Missed It….My Contribution to the Genealogy Blogosphere This Week

• Treasure Chest Thursday–The Big Reveal ~ What's In The Old Metal Tube?

Thanks for reading!


© 2013 Copyright by Jana Last

Treasure Chest Thursday–The Big Reveal ~ What's In The Old Metal Tube?

Remember the mysterious old metal tube I told you about in my previous post Treasure Chest Thursday ~ Grandpa Debs' Black Briefcase?  Well, it's time for "The Big Reveal."



When I took the lid off of this unique metal tube, I pulled out something wrapped in a brown waxy paper.  Unrolling the wax paper I discovered several amazing documents.

One of these documents was my Great-Grandpa Frederick Webster's Doctor of Dental Surgery Diploma from the Western Dental College in Kansas City, Missouri, dated April 2, 1896!  Unbelievable!  Here I was holding a document that was 116+ years old!  How cool is that?!  I just had to share this amazing find with you.

So here it is!



Frederick E. Webster
Doctor of Dental Surgery Diploma
April 2, 1896
Click to Enlarge

I'd say this document is in remarkably good condition considering how old it is.  The diploma measures approximately 19" x 14" so it was too large for my flatbed scanner.  I used my Flip-Pal to scan the diploma and it worked great!

My regular readers may know that I sometimes like to crop and enlarge portions of the images I share in my posts.  I chose to do this in this post as well.

Let's start with the college name on the diploma – Western Dental College of Kansas City, Missouri.




I did a little research about Western Dental College and this is what I found:

The University of Missouri-Kansas City website states the following,

"The lineage of the UMKC School of Dentistry reaches back to the 1881 founding of the Kansas City Dental College, then a department of the Kansas City Medical College. Eventually, the Dental College merged with the Western Dental College to form the Kansas City-Western Dental College. In 1941, the Dental College affiliated with the privately supported University of Kansas City and became that institution’s School of Dentistry. Twenty years later, the University of Kansas City joined the four-campus state University of Missouri system, and became the University of Missouri-Kansas City. As part of the merger, the dental school became the UMKC School of Dentistry."

Congratulations on your wonderful achievement Great-Grandpa Frederick!

"By virtue of the authority vested in this College by the State of Missouri and upon the completion of the prescribed Course of Study and the fulfilment [sic] of all requirements of this College it has this day conferred upon Fred E. Webster the Degree of Doctor of Dental Surgery, who shall be accorded all the honors privileges and legal rights pertaining to the Degree."

It was actually nice (and kind of a relief) to know that my Great-Grandpa Frederick really did become a Doctor of Dental Surgery (D.D.S.), and that he wasn't just traveling around on his dental boat "practicing" the art of dentistry.  Yes, I did say "dental boat."  Below is a photo of the "F.E. Webster Dental Boat." 



F. E. Webster Dental & Photo Boats
1896-1902 at Lake Charles, Louisiana

I love that Fred had a Photo Boat too.  It's the boat next to the Dental Boat in the photo above.  And, believe it or not, Fred also had an Optical Boat with a sign out front that said "Eyes Tested Free."  You can see a photo of that boat here.


And here are the official signatories on Fred's Doctoral Diploma.

"In Witness Whereof is affixed the seal of the College and the signatures of the Directors and Professors.  Done at Kansas City Missouri U.S.A. Second day of April, 1896."

I thought it would also be important to transcribe the signatures at the bottom of the diploma, in case any descendants of theirs may be reading this blog post. It's always fun to find an ancestor's signature.  Some of these signatures are difficult to decipher, so I'm afraid this transcription may not be as accurate as I'd like it to be.  (Trying to decipher doctors' signatures…what was I thinking?)

Left Column

J. M. Gross MD D.D.S	Secretary
D. J. McMillen MD D.D.S	Operative Dentistry, Crown and Bridge Work, Dean of Faculty
K. ?. Ashby D.D.S	Prosthetic Dentistry
Edward Bumgardner AM MD D.D.S	Metallurgy
Geo Halley MD	Oral Surgery
J. M. Gross MD D.D.S	Dental Pathology and Therapeutics
T. H. Cunningham D.D.S	Dental Pathology and Therapeutics
C. F. Wilson Ph.D.	Chemistry
C. F. Wainwright MD	Anaesthesia
John W. Kyger M.D.	Syphilis and its Influence on the Teeth
C. E. Nilson MD	Anatomy

Right Column

W. G. Price D.D.S.	President
W. F. Kuhn AM MD	Physiology
W. F. Fairbanks ?	Physiology
Jim Allen AB MD	Materia Medica and General Therapeutics
A. M. ? AM MD	Materia Medica and General Therapeutics
J. M. Thompson MD	Histology
H. O. Howawalt MD	General Pathology
John Punton MD	Neurology
H. H. Sullivan D.D.S.	Hygiene
John H. Johnson MD	Eye and Ear
W. C. K. Buchanan D.D.S.	Embryology
W. J. Brady D.D.S.	Orthodontia and Dental Techniques

So that's it!  The Big Reveal!  This remarkable 116+ year old document is truly an amazing family heirloom.  Thank you Great-Grandpa Frederick and Grandpa Debs for keeping this special document for your descendants to discover and enjoy.

Thanks for reading!

Jana

 © 2013 Copyright by Jana Last

Follow Friday–Fab Finds for February 15, 2013

My Fab Finds for this week are (in no particular order) -

1. Old Cookbooks by Ancestry Paths
2. The Importance of Old Newspaper Advertisements to Genealogy by Gena Philibert-Ortega for GenealogyBank Blog
3. Remembering my Opa ~ Adalbert Haf ~ by Ginisology
4. 10 Years and 1, 929 Blog Posts Later by The Olive Tree Genealogy
5. Researching Newspapers for Genealogy for Free by The Ancestor Hunt
6. Exciting News - I Met A Cousin Because of My Blog! AND My Newly Found Cousin! by My Mother's Family History
7. Our Scamps and Scoundrels: The Counterfeiting Twins by Nuts From the Family Tree
8. Illinois Statewide Databases Online by Genealogy Decoded
9. Finding A Cousin -- Kismet, Karma, Fate or Simple Serendipity Made Possible By The New Golden Age of Genealogy?? by Filiopietism Prism
10. 20 redundant phrases to eliminate from your genealogy writing & other writing tips! by Upfront With NGS
11. Moonshining in Alabama by A Southern Sleuth
12. A handwritten letter from a Civil War Soldier – Genealogy Gold AND Thursday Thoughts on Genealogy and Everything Else by Cindy Freed's Genealogy Circle
13. Tech Tuesday—Blogging by The Stephen Sherwood Letters
14. Are They Encouraging the Use of FindAGrave Photos? by Rootdig
15. School Valentines, 1967 by A Sense of Family
16. A New Country, A New School by Many Branches, One Tree
17. New! Mapping feature for Land Documents by Bureau of Land Management (Thanks Thomas MacEntee for alerting us to this on Facebook)
18. Treasure Chest Thursday ~ 1898 Genealogy Correspondence by From Maine to Kentucky

New Blog Discovery

• Filiopietism Prism

***Special Announcment***

The new Going In-Depth free digital genealogy magazine by The In-Depth Genealogist has arrived!   Make sure you check out this amazing new publication.

Going In-Depth

 Thanks for Reading!


© 2013 Copyright by Jana Last