The Barber School Mystery

Frank Farnham Scott (1894-1961)

Gertrude Selma Sealy (1892-1983)

maternal grandparents

Taking time to review my research notes before I begin working on an ancestor is time well spent. So is looking at old family pictures. But because the photos I have were at best sorted roughly by surname, the details, clues, and small stories didn't exactly jump out at me.

If the lack of organization wasn't enough to motivate me to do something, then my mind's horrifying image of all the photos suddenly degrading and disappearing into a pile of dust right before my eyes should have done the trick. Not so ‒ even that didn’t keep me from procrastinating about organizing and storing them properly. I probably would have moved a little faster had I known that by getting the photos in order I would make a surprising discovery about my grandfather. 

Right after Christmas 2019, I finally tackled the job – sorting, labeling, and organizing all the family photos in my possession. There were boxes, large envelopes, photo albums with sticky, magnetic pages, and every time I thought I was done, I found more. There were some gems in all of it – a few tintypes, a couple of ambrotypes, carte de visites, and numerous cabinet cards, all dating somewhere between 1860 and 1900.

I worked fairly steadily every day, completing the project about eight weeks later. In addition to having peace of mind knowing the photos are stored safely in archival boxes, it's now possible to quickly locate pictures of just about anyone. With that job finished, I returned to some puzzling photos of my grandfather.

– THE MYSTERY PHOTOS –

Among the photos is a group of four that places my grandfather in Detroit, Michigan in October 1915. This is where, according to my mother, Grandpa attended barber school. However, that part of his life was a complete mystery, so I wanted to find out more about the school and his experiences there. I started by taking a closer look at the photos. 

The first was a small photo of twelve people sitting on the porch steps of a house, with an older woman standing on the porch behind them. Grandpa wrote “Frank A. Reed School, Detroit, Mich.” on the back. This must have been a warm-up picture before the final photo because many of the people are smiling – a rare thing in a picture at that time. When I noticed that it made me smile, too.

Grandpa is in the middle of the back row adjusting his tie. (Detroit, Michigan, 1915)

A larger picture has the same group from the smaller photo, plus two additional people. There is a house number (387) clearly visible on the front door. I think this was probably the final portrait of the group since everyone is behaving themselves and sitting up straight. But was this a photo of a class of future barbers? A few things didn’t seem right.

Grandpa is the second from the left in the third row. 

Of the fourteen people on the steps, there are two boys who are clearly too young to be away at a barber school. There are also two men who look quite a bit older than my 21-year-old grandfather ‒ they actually look old enough to have already established a career path. Then there are the women in the photo. Female barbers were uncommon in 1915. So what was this place?

 

– AN UNEXPECTED DISCOVERY –

At this point I was sure it wasn’t a barber school, but if not that, then what? My initial searches yielded no information about a Frank A. Reed School in Detroit or anywhere else. Then I came upon a set of books about the history of Detroit covering 1701–1922. (FamilySearch) It was here I found information about the Frank A. Reed School, 387 Hubbard Avenue, Detroit, Michigan. Jackpot! 

The woman on the porch is Mrs. Etta Sellick Reed, the principal and executive head of the school. Just as I suspected, this was not a barber school. But I wasn’t prepared for what it actually was. The Frank A. Reed School was a school renowned for its techniques to train people to stop stammering. I was completely shocked. Grandpa stuttered? No one ever mentioned that. Being a stutterer would have had a profound effect on Grandpa’s life but it’s quite probable that the family just didn’t talk about that sort of thing.

 

Grandpa was about three years old when this photo was taken by his uncle, Rodney Scott, a professional photographer in Forestville, New York. It is highly likely that Grandpa was already stuttering when the picture was taken.

Stuttering usually presents itself between the ages of two and six years, with boys being three to four times more likely to stutter into adulthood than girls. There is also a genetic factor, as there are usually other family members that stutter (NIDCD/NIH)

That makes me wonder if someone else in Grandpa’s family might have stuttered.

My grandfather was the baby of the family. He had two older sisters, Grace, who was about nine when this photo was taken, and Helen, who was around seven. I studied the look on Grandpa’s face. Then I started thinking of Grandpa as the little boy in the photo instead of the adult I knew. 

I began to picture him running around and playing. But whenever he tried to say something, he kept getting stuck on the words. Did his sisters tease him, as siblings tend to do? Were his parents, George and Margaret, patient with him? Did they give him time to get the words out or did they rush him or scold him? 

 

Thinking about what it would have been like for Grandpa a few years later when he was in school, I envisioned this scenario with Grandpa as a boy about age ten. 

 

The teacher is having the students read aloud in class. Row by row, seat by seat, each student takes a turn. As his turn approaches, Grandpa starts to tense up, which he knows will only make the stuttering worse, but he can’t stop the feeling. His face starts to get warm and he knows it’s probably turning red. He also knows his classmates can see his discomfort. Then suddenly it’s his turn. He begins to read and the stuttering and stammering start. So do his classmates’ comments and giggles. He wants to crawl in a hole and disappear. At recess, a few of his classmates imitate his stammering, point at him, and laugh.

While scenes like this are all too familiar even today, they were more common in the early twentieth century due to a lack of knowledge and understanding of stuttering as a fluency disorder. Unfortunately, the perception of stutterers as intellectually inferior, incompetent people still persists.

With that in mind, the realization of what my grandfather’s childhood life was probably like is heartbreaking. As a stutterer, he already faced many challenges as a young boy, and they weren't over. By the time he was ten, my grandfather experienced major life changes that tore his family apart.  

 

– SOME BIG CHANGES –

The 1900 Federal Census, taken on June 16, shows my grandfather's family living in the small village of Silver Creek in Chautauqua County, New York. Grandpa’s father, George, is working as a carpenter and his mother, Margaret Kilburn Scott, is today’s equivalent of a stay-at-home mom. A husband, wife, and three children are living under the same roof. It all looks good on paper. Note, however, that George and Margaret have been married twelve years, had five children, with only three still living as of this census.

 George, Margaret, Grace, 10, Helen, 9, and Frank, 5, in the 1900 Federal Census, Silver Creek, Chautauqua County, New York. (Ancestry.com)

The 1905 New York State Census tells a completely different tale. Margaret, 36, is listed as the head of household, so Grandpa’s parents separated or divorced sometime in the five years between censuses. The strain of their disintegrating marriage would most certainly have caused a great deal of tension in the household, a situation that would only add to Grandpa’s stress and stuttering. 

In addition to that, Grandpa, his mother, and sisters are now living in Forestville, another small village about seven miles from Silver Creek. For some reason Grace, now 15, is boarding with DeEtta E. and Columbus Montgomery, who are unknown to me. All three children are attending school; Margaret is working as a telephone operator. My grandfather is just a few weeks shy of being eleven years old.

Margaret and children, Helen and Frank – 1905 New York State Census, Forestville, Chautauqua County, New York. (Ancestry.com) 

An interior view of the Bell Telephone Office in Hamburg, New York, showing four workers; two  women operators work at switchboard, ca. 1905-1910. (Library of Congress)

 

Between 1905 and 1910, Grandpa’s parents separated or divorced, the family moved, his sister, Grace, moved out, and his mother started working, instead of being at home as in the 1900 Census. On top of that, Grandpa had to change schools, which meant dealing with a new set of classmates, along with the stigma of not having a two-parent home. Whether George is nearby or not is unknown since he is nowhere to be found in the 1905 census. In five years, everything in my grandfather's life changed except his stuttering. It was a lot for a young boy to handle.

– TRANSITION TO ADULTHOOD –

As upsetting as all the changes had to be for everyone in the family, I would like to think the move to Forestville was made because Grandpa’s Uncle Rodney, his father’s brother, lived there. Margaret and the children lived within a block of him. In a best case scenario, Rodney would have been a source of moral support for all of them.

By the time the 1910 Federal Census for New York was taken on April 16, more big changes had taken place. Grandpa was almost 16. Grace married on February 17, 1909, then moved about ten miles away to Dunkirk, New York. Just two months later, Margaret married her second husband on April 17, 1909, and moved twelve miles away to Dayton in Cattaraugus County, New York. 

 

Margaret and her second husband, Charles H. Crowell. This was a second marriage for each of them. As in the 1900 census, the last two columns indicate that Margaret was the mother of five children, only three of whom were living in 1910. (Ancestry.com)

This left Grandpa and Helen to fend for themselves. They still lived in Forestville within a block of their Uncle Rodney, who was now married. Both Grandpa and Helen were working for the telephone company, she as an operator and he as an operator’s helper, as seen in the last two columns of the census record below. Perhaps he was considered too young to be an operator or maybe that job was for females only but, most certainly, Grandpa’s stuttering would likely have precluded him from that position.

 

Grandpa and sister, Helen, in the 1910 Federal Census, Forestville, Chautauqua County, New York, taken April 16, 1910. (Ancestry.com)

 

In October 1912, Helen married and moved to Buffalo. At barely 18 years old, my grandfather was alone. Currently, the time between Helen’s marriage in 1912 and the summer of 1915 is a blank. What happened in those three years? Did Grandpa end up staying in the house he and Helen had shared, did he move someplace else, or did he stay with his Uncle Rodney? Did his sisters and mother stay in touch and did he ever hear from his father? So many unanswered questions.  

 

– ON HIS OWN –

While there is no record of Grandpa in the 1915 New York State Census, the now organized family photos offered some clues as to his whereabouts in the summer of 1915. I found him in Gerry, another small village in Chautauqua County, twenty-three miles from Forestville. I don’t know why he went there originally, or if he actually lived there at that time, but I do know from the photos that he was socializing with people and, somewhere along the way he met my grandmother, Gertrude Sealy.

 

Summer 1915 – Left: Gertrude Sealy, my grandmother, and Grandpa holding his camera – most likely taken in Gerry, New York.  Right: Grandpa looking pretty sharp in his suit, hat, and two-tone wingtip shoes with his Brownie camera next to him.

  

– THE REED SCHOOL & BELLE ISLE PARK, DETROIT –

It must have been around this time that Grandpa found out about The Reed School in Detroit. Below is an advertisement that he, a friend, or someone in the family might have come across in a magazine or newspaper.

 

Advertisement circa 1913 (Period Paper Historic Art) 

 

By the fall of 1915, my grandfather was in Detroit attending a six-week session to correct his stuttering at the Frank A. Reed School for Stammerers. Grandma and Grandpa were married the following summer on June 26, 1916. 

I will probably never know the circumstances surrounding Grandpa’s stuttering – the causes, if there was anyone else in the family that stuttered, how he found out about the school, if he was able to control his stuttering after attending The Reed School, or even how he was able to pay for it. I will just have to live with those unknowns and be satisfied that in the process of trying to find out more about Grandpa’s experiences in barber school, I instead discovered something new and very significant about his life.

The barber school mystery remains unsolved.

 

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While in Detroit, it appears Grandpa did find a little time to relax with a few of his friends from school and enjoy beautiful Belle Isle Park, not far from The Reed School.

 

Taken at Belle Isle Park, Detroit, Michigan – Grandpa is on the right. He wrote the date and place on the back; the blue ink is mine.

The Reed School was about eight miles from Belle Isle Park. There was a good trolley system for transportation. (Google Maps 2020)

 

– FINAL THOUGHTS –

 

Mr. and Mrs. Reed founded their school in 1902 as a way to help others, given that Mr. Reed was a stutterer himself.  After her husband died, Mrs. Reed continued the work they had started together, which included not only working with stutterers, but also with special needs students. 

The image below is that of an ink blotter distributed by The Reed School around 1907. It was a way of highlighting the methods the Reeds used to address stuttering. They considered their methods to be natural, as opposed to what they considered the unnatural methods used by other schools. It illustrates the techniques many schools were using to “cure” people of stammering – methods the Reeds didn’t use. They did not claim to cure people but, instead, taught their students how to break what they had determined to be the habit of stammering.  

 

An ink blotter distributed by The Frank A. Reed School for Stammerers ca. 1907. (MNSU, ASHA Magazine)

 

After a considerable amount of reading on the topic of stuttering, as well as the Reed philosophy and methodology, it appears to me they were on the right track. Even though some might not consider the Reed Method to be science-based in today’s terms, the fact remains that Mrs. Reed had a lasting influence on the Detroit education system. Through her efforts, the Speech Correction Department of the Detroit Public Schools was created in 1910, which is testament to the quality of her work. (MNSU, ASHA Magazine) 

 

As I got to know Etta Reed through her own writing and that of others, I found her to be an intelligent, savvy businesswoman, as well as a compassionate educator. Ultimately, Mrs. Reed must have had a good number of successes and, hopefully, Grandpa was one of them.

 

– Family photos from The Scott Collection held by Jodell Bradish.

Bradish-Scott Family History – April 2020

 

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– Update July 2021 –

 

 MYSTERY SOLVED!

My mother told me on many occasions that Grandpa attended barber school in Detroit. I was never able to verify that. But after I wrote “The Barber School Mystery,” I made a happy discovery. I found the Moyler Barbering College, 215 Gratiot Avenue, Detroit, Michigan. The school offered an eight-week course that was limited to 40 students, and it was less than three miles from the Frank A. Reed School.

This is the only reference I found for a barber school in the Detroit area, so it would have to be the school Grandpa attended. It makes me wonder if Grandpa took the barbering course and the six-week course at the Frank A. Reed School for Stammerers back-to-back to minimize travel expenses back to Chautauqua County.

Listing from Education in Detroit, 1916. (Library of Congress)

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