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Reply To: | Go preserve a yurt, why don'tcha. |
Date: | Tue, 19 Dec 2000 00:43:15 EST |
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Many thanks to all those who contacted me for tech help;especially John and
Jim and those that contacted me privately ...especially Mary Krugman who has
helped with the whole discovery and donation
.The following is a story soon to be in print regarding the find....More
later as I have been working in Mobile and just got home ..best Michael all
rts/2000
Hidden Closet reveals lost archival Treasure.
After the death of JAT Davidson of upper Montclair his newphew Michael
Davidson was helping his Aunt move some furniture from a basement storage
room where they hapened upon a large locked book case that they were unable
to move.
Help was called for and with the assistance of several family members they
were able to move the book case.
There behind the book case was discovered a hidden closet door of
considerable size.The door was constructed with very fine joints locked and
painted over.
The men were able to pry the lock and open the door to reveal the dark musty
smell of past decades ...
.There in the dim basement light the men could vaugely see a large cache
of bound books all dated. However to remove the books there was a confused
assortment of bric-a-brac jammed to the closet ceiling which had to be
removed.
Reaching into an old darkened basement cobwebbed closet is not for the weak
willed .Circumstance made the only light very poor to see by.
Anything living or dead may be in there.
The men had to reach in grab hold of something and pull it out to see what it
was that was holding the books so tight..
The first items were several old large ledgers indicating that the closet had
been sealed for reasons unknown sometime around 1952.
The next items that were removed were a Jappanese officers sword and
several field grade hari kari knives all in excellent condition.The hurbis of
all this Milataria was followed by the discovery of a a 6.5 Jappanese sniper
rifle complete with sniper scope and a heavy 11mm German officers Eurfurt
pistol from before the first war.
Next were antiquated cigar boxes; full of several small stacks of old paper
and photos.The photos revealed ancestor family members from Newark and New
Orleans and some late 20's photos of Charles Lindberg and the spirit of st.
Louis with the Davidson children at the opening days of Newark Airport
The tighly bound stacks of paper turned out to be $100,000 dollars in
negotionable bonds.
Now the family members became excited and giddy with their new found
wealth untill it was discovered ; in better light, that the bonds they had
found were Confederate War bonds issued to ancestors back in 1861.
With sobering reality the family searchers returned to the closet and began
to unearth the bound archivals . ..
One by one they came out; covers soot blackened in time and although dirty
the collection appers to be complete bound books of the Montclair Times year
by year from about 1898-1950 all in good to excellent condition.
IThe discovery of an archival in this complete form is invaluable and rare
to the public.
The newspapers reveal not only the town history through its people but they
capture and catolouge the dates and historys of the buildings and much of
the towns growth and infastructure through its social and scolastic
instituitions..
Front and back page stories of familys and personalities long associated
with the towns growth appear. There are cronicled accounts of the building of
many of the towns historic homes and churches including well known names like
kings; Aand P Louis Haris Bonds; Haines and the first train stations.
In the commerical pages the hand drawn advertisemnts show familiar car
dealerships selling Stutz Bearcats with drivers in fasionable dress; and
woman grocery shopping in Victorian dress styles.
Also are the newspapers photos of intrest for early 20th cent Montlcair
depicting horse drawn carts and distinguished visiting lecturers of the day
including Admiral Perry and the widow of George Armstrong Custer to name a
few
There are of course the usual deaths marriages and scandals of note making
for rich story telling.
The find is important as it is a fairly complete archival of the first half
of the 20 th cent for the town of Montclair and should be of keen interest to
researchers for years to come
The family research shows the archival appears to be the collection of Mr.
Palmer Davidson a newspapper man in the roaring 20's who covered such papers
as The New York sun; The Telegraph The Wall street Journal and the Newark
News whre he wrote aviation stories. .
The milatary items found within the closet were taken on the invasion of
Okinawa by his son Paul Davidson a young marine who was severly wounded there
.
Also found within the closet are the News paper headlines from the entire
second war as the Davidsons had 3 sons serving in the Milatary.
.These papers are in fragil condition.
James Davidson most certainly knew of the collection of his father and
cared for it by knowing it was intact and safe. However at his passing no
other family members knew of its existence.
The archival is to be donated to the Montclair public library for research by
Mrs James A.T Davidson , B.P Davidson jr. and Mrs. Charlotte Davidson Albrect
. It will be known as the Palmer Davidson collection.It is the family hope
that the books can be preserved so the public can share in them.
This article was sumbmitted by Michael Drummond Davidson a historic masonry
preservation mason and former resident of Upper Montclair now living in Miss
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