Ray M. Southworth and West Lafayette
By Susan Curtis
The
decision to clean up a site in the Village known as “Gum Ball Alley” led to a
fascinating trace of the history of West Lafayette. A black and yellow sign painted on the brick
wall on the east side of the alley advertises Southworth Books. If you look closely, you can see that it was
painted over another advertisement for apartments available for rent. From an aesthetic point of view, the sign is,
well, pretty uninteresting. But from a
historical perspective, the sign restores to our awareness a business that
anchored the West Lafayette Village for the better part of a century.
For those of us who are relative
newcomers to West Lafayette—I first arrived in greater Lafayette in 1989—the
name Southworth is completely unfamiliar.
In order to learn something about the business and the person whose name
it bore, I dug into some local archives to figure out who the proprietor, Ray
M. Southworth, was and what role he played in the civic life of West
Lafayette. This is a report on my
preliminary findings.
Ray M. Southworth
Ray Southworth was born on February
11, 1885, in Indiana, and he died sometime in the mid-1930s. From the early 1900s until the time of his
death, Ray Southworth was the proprietor of a store located at 308-310 State
Street. He sold clothing, books, and
supplies primarily of interest to Purdue University students. From accounts I have read so far, Southworth
was a highly respected civic leader, involved in both politics and society in
Lafayette and West Lafayette. His life
reflects the impact of modernization on personal life.
Southworth’s first appearance in a
public record is in the 1900 Federal Census, where he is listed as a grandson
of Mary and William Martin, his maternal grandparents who lived at 413 State
Street in West Lafayette. His mother,
Laura Southworth, and a cousin, Geneve Jamison, were also living with the
Martins, and Mrs. Southworth is identified as a seamstress. This living arrangement at first glance
suggests a broken family—Southworth’s father is nowhere to be seen, so it is
not clear if Laura was a widow or a divorcee. Furthermore, the census record is
smeared where William Martin’s livelihood is entered, so it is not certain how
the family was supported.[1] But in just six years, Southworth’s wedding
announcement made Society Page news in the Lafayette
Morning Journal.
The wedding to Flossie P. Minch took place on June 27, 1906, and the Lafayette Morning Journal on that date
included no less than three stories on the event about to take place. It noted first that “Ray Martin Southworth
whose marriage to Miss Flossie Minch will occur this evening will entertain his
ushers at a 11 o’clock breakfast today in the ordinary of the Hotel Lahr. Covers will be laid for six and a twelve-course
breakfast will be served.”[2] A
twelve-course breakfast was obviously meant to mark the wedding as an event on
the society calendar. It turns out that
the evening before, Mrs. Richard A. Moore of Lafayette hosted a “pretty
luncheon” in honor of Minch and Southworth and their bridal party. There were flowers, place cards, candles, and
food. The evening was capped off by a
private concert by Miss Viva Johnson, and the story hinted that this was not
the only party given in their honor; indeed, it “proved a fitting close to the
numerous parties” they already had attended.[3] Finally, the Morning Journal offered a preview of the evening wedding, noting
the names of the ushers, flower bearers, the minister, and the musicians.
The detailed account of
Southworth’s wedding discloses that already at age 21, Southworth was
considered “a young man of excellent standing.”
He was further identified as “proprietor of the West Side students’
supply store.” Flossie was described as
“an attractive and accomplished young woman,” and “popular in social and
musical circles in the city.”[4] The newlyweds took a two-week honeymoon trip
before settling in to a routine of managing their student supply store.
Southworth’s business took off in a
big way three years after his wedding. Publisher’s Weekly announced in mid-1909
that Southworth had joined forces with Jaques-Mueller Co., which carried books,
stationery, office supplies, pictures, and school supplies in Lafayette. The consolidation did not result in a new
corporate name; the business continued under Southworth’s management. But most importantly, it was announced that
“They have broken ground for a new store at 308-310 State Street, in West
Lafayette, which will be 40 X 100, two stories.”[5] The new store provided one of the anchors to
the business district in West Lafayette’s Village in the early twentieth
century.
What do we know of Ray Southworth
as a person? Without personal papers and
private archives, of course, it’s hard to say.
But here’s what can be gleaned from various records. Southworth seems to have been a perfect
example of the modern American impulse to join organizations. He was a 32nd degree Mason, a
member of the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks, a member of the West
Lafayette Country Club, a Mystic Shriner, and the permanent treasurer of the
Harlequin Club of Purdue University. His
involvement in these organizations may well have led to his reputation for
trustworthiness and to his position as president of the Remedial Loan association
and the Hoosier Chemical company, as a director of the Farmers’ and Traders’
bank, and ultimately to his election as a State Senator, a position he held
from sometime in the 1910s to the mid-1920s.
Southworth
was married three times. After all of
the hoopla surrounding their 1906 wedding, Flossie left her husband sometime
after 1920 to marry Bruce Gollaw, a state representative. She and the two children she bore to
Southworth moved to Indianapolis after her marriage to Gollaw. In 1925, Southworth married Mrs. Suzanne
Zartman Retherford of Kokomo. Obviously
married before, Suzanne Retherford had been supporting herself as the manager
of the Victory theater in Kokomo. She
had graduated from the University of Illinois and was a member of the Alpha Xi
Delta sorority. And regardless of the
circumstances surrounding his divorce from Flossie Minch Southworth, he was
described as “the proprietor of the Ray M. Southworth company establishment in
West Lafayette and…one of the best known members of the upper house of the
Indiana general assembly.”[6] Moreover, when that marriage ended, it did
not prevent him from marrying another “highly accomplished young woman”—also a
college graduate and member of a sorority.
Sixteen years Southworth’s junior, Mary Simison had returned to the area
from a summer’s trip abroad, where she must have acquired the “Paris model of
green flannel, fashioned with a pleated skirt and silk blouse, embroidered in
silver,” that she wore on her wedding day.[7] The couple remained married until Ray’s
untimely death in the mid-1930s, around the age of fifty.
What
stands out in this personal history is that attitudes toward divorce and
re-marriage may have been changing at this juncture. As late as the 1930s, notices of divorce that
appear in the Journal and Courier
always explain the basis of the suit—cruelty and abandonment being two stock
reasons for divorce. Perhaps the end of
Ray and Flossie’s marriage produced a local scandal; more research is needed. Perhaps the second marriage came about when
Ray was on the rebound—the two children from his marriage to Flossie moved with
her to Indianapolis—and it just didn’t work out. It certainly did not last long. Who knows what might have happened with Mary
Simison Southworth had Ray not died sometime between 1935 and 1937, when the
Lafayette City Directory listed her for the first time as his widow.[8]
The
other issue that stands out in these bits and pieces of personal information is
that Southworth lived at a time of transition in which education became
increasingly part of what set the most “promising” and prominent people
apart. Southworth succeeded with no more
than a high school education; he was in business already at the time of his
first wedding. But by the time of his
second wedding, he was attracted to women who had gone to college, who had
traveled, and who were accomplished in their own areas of endeavor. Politically, Indiana in general and the
Lafayette area in particular remained staunchly Republican, but that did not
hamper a wider interest in changing ideas, ideals, and ways of being in the
world.
Ray M. Southworth Company
Like
other businesses in the twentieth century in West Lafayette, Southworth’s is
one that catered to Purdue students and that evolved as standards and
expectations on campus changed.
Southworth’s Co. was in business before the building at 308-310 State Street
was erected, but once the building went up, the business had a continuous
presence in at least 308 State Street until the early 1970s. In the first two and a half decades of the
twentieth century, Southworth’s positioned itself as a place where gentlemen
would acquire fine clothing as well as other “furnishings” to signal
refinement. Intermingled with the Hart,
Schaffner & Marx suits, fine jewelry, and writing implements, one could
find school supplies. Only later did
Southworth’s cater more directly to the school supplies and textbooks demanded
by students in West Lafayette.
Advertisements
from the 1920s focus heavily on the high quality clothing available at the
store. A 1922 advertisement, for
example, promised shoppers, “YOU WILL ENJOY THE SUMMER IF WE FURNISH YOUR
FURNISHINGS,” among which were Dixie-weave and Gabardine suits, straw hats, and
summer underwear. Beneath the company
name, appears this tag line: “Home of
Hart, Schaffner & Marx Good Clothes.”[9] A little more than a year later, Southworth
insisted, “We sell Furnishings for the Ambitious Man. You never saw a wide-awake up-and-coming
progressive man who did not appear the part.
The many little details that go to create the effect are hard to
describe, but you feel them instantly when they are there. Let us show you furnishings that are
correct.” He also invited denizens of
Lafayette to “Cross the river and save money.”[10]
A
curious story published in the Jewelers’
Circular in 1922 confirms the fact that Southworth sold more than clothes
at his store. Walter R. Miller was
arrested in Logansport after having robbed the Southworth store in West
Lafayette, and Southworth himself went to that city in order to find out what
had happened with the fine jewelry, gold pens, pencils, and other items taken
from the store. After interviewing the
thief, Southworth traveled to Springfield, Illinois, where Miller had succeeded
in fencing the goods. The story ended by
reporting that Southworth “went to Springfield and wired the Lafayette police that
he had recovered much of the stolen property.”[11]
When
Southworth placed an advertisement in The
Debris, he listed much more than clothes, however. Under the name of Jaques & Southworth
Company, Southworth’s College Store at 308-310 State Street offered: “College text books, instruments, jewelry,
pennants, shields, fine confectionery:
Ice cream soda, general students supplies, cigars, tobacco, billiards,
pool, bowling, students’ lunch room and restaurant.”
Sometime
before 1931, Southworth had severed ties with Jaques. He listed himself as the President of Ray M.
Southworth Co. and his third wife, Mary B. Southworth, as the Secretary and
later Vice President of the company. The
couple had moved to an up-and-coming neighborhood in Chauncey into a modern
house at 429 Littleton Street, where they resided and had the headquarters of
the Southworth Company. In 1937, Mary B.
Southworth appears in the City Directory as the widow of Ray M. Southworth, but
the company headquarters remained at her residence on Littleton Street.
By
1953, Southworth’s had confined its business to just one building at 308 State
Street—gifts could be found in the basement and books and school supplies on
the main floor. The business also
advertised itself as a Western Union Branch Office and noted that a Notary
Public was on site. Seven years later,
in 1960, Southworth expanded to a “West Branch Store” at 1410-1412 West State
Street in the Purdue Service Center. And
by 1964, the west branch began carrying the additional name of “Follett’s.”
Mary
Southworth makes her last appearance in the City Directory in 1967, but
Southworth remained in business at both the 308 State Street and 1400 State
Street locations through 1970. It is not
until 1971 that one finds only Follett’s books and supplies in business. In the image below, we can see that in 1962,
when the picture was taken, one of Southworth’s competitors across State Street
was a book store owned by Horace G. Reisner and Son. Reisner lived just down the street from the
Southworths at 492 Littleton Street.
The
business started by Ray M. Southworth at the dawn of the twentieth century
anchored the Village business district for nearly seven decades. His business was part of the fabric of West
Side life. The faded sign recently
uncovered clearly dates from the end of that era and is part of the faded glory
of the Southworth story in the city. The
man whose store evolved with the twentieth century helped shape the city,
represented Tippecanoe and Benton counties as a state senator, filled the
society page with his gala weddings, and served in long-standing social and
civic organizations. He is a person whose
life sheds some light on the emergence of modernity in West Lafayette in the
1910s and 1920s.
This
brief sketch raises as many questions as it answers. I wonder how Southworth campaigned for public
office—what were the issues that mattered to him and that resonated with local
voters? Why did two failed marriages within less than a decade fail to tarnish
his standing in the community? Was Ray
Southworth a leader in the business community in West Lafayette? How did his lack of a college degree affect
his business in furnishing supplies to men and women seeking a college
degree? When Ray and Suzanne moved into
the Varsity Apartments after their 1925 wedding, how was that decision
perceived? What about the move to Littleton
Street with Mary—was that decision evidence of his desire for one of the
“modern” bungalows that line the street?
Perhaps most importantly, I wonder if the evolution of the Southworth
Co. can shed light on some of the critical watershed moments in the history of
the West Lafayette community.
[1]
All references to the Federal Census are to the manuscript census. I viewed the census documents through
Ancestry.com.
[2]“Stag
Breakfast,” Lafayette Morning Journal,
June 27, 1906, 3, col. 3.
[3]“Entertained
Bridal Party,” Lafayette Morning Journal,
June 27, 1906, 3, col. 3.
[5]
“BUSINESS NOTES,” The Publisher’s Weekly
1956 (July 24, 1909): 219.
[6]“Saturday,” The Kokomo Daily Tribune, Tuesday, June 30, 1925, 7; and
“Retherford-Southworth,” Lafayette
Journal and Courier, June 29, 1925, 5, col. 4.
[7]Weddings: Simison-Southworth,” Lafayette Journal and Courier, August 1, 1928, 3, col. 5.
[8]
The Tippecanoe County Historical Association and the Tippecanoe County Public
Library have long runs of the City Directory.
They are organized alphabetically by year. Although there are special sections devoted
to business and to advertising, the entries for individuals and businesses are
intermingled through much of the twentieth century.
[9] See
ad in the Lafayette Journal and Courier,
May 12, 1922, 4.
[10]
See ad in the Lafayette Journal and
Courier, October 30, 1923.
