Left to right, Mary Winder, Mary Ann Winder and Edith Shaw in 1920
For Mary Ann Winder the level of change must have seemed overwhelming, but at least she wasn't raising children during the decade, especially girls. Between them, James and sister Edith had six daughters while Florence had two girls in addition to four boys. The challenge of being a parent in the 1920's were difficult enough, but Florence also suffered the tragic death of her husband.
By 1920 James and Mary Winder had been married for 17 years and were still living at 743 Stuyvesant Avenue with their four daughters, Alice (15), Elsie (11), Ruth (7) and Anna (4). Based on the public record, the 1920's marked a decade of role reversal for James and his wife, Mary. After almost 20 years where his name was regularly in the newspaper, James appears in the Trenton Evening Times only once during the period, in 1928 when he was a pall bearer at a funeral. Mary, on the other hand, appears regularly, mostly in her role as president of Grace Church's mothers club. Interestingly while Mary was a leader at Grace, it appears her daughters were active at All Saints Church which was apparently closer to Stuyvesant Avenue.
Elsie Winder with nieces, Anna (left) and Ruth Winder
By the end of the decade Alice and Elsie had graduated from the State Normal School (later Trenton State College and later still, the College of New Jersey) and were teaching at the Jefferson (Trenton) and Homedall (Hamilton Square) schools respectively. One other interesting note about Alice is that in 1922, she received two votes in a contest for the "most popular red head in Trenton." It couldn't have gone to her head (sorry) as she was a mere 1629 votes behind the front runner.
While hopefully everyone found some humor in this, raising children in the 1920's was no laughing matter. It was a period of radical change perhaps best symbolized by changes in women's dress and appearance. Skirts which in 1919 were 6-7 inches off the ground were at the knee ten years later. The many layers of clothing worn at the turn of the century were reduced so much that the amount of material needed for a women's outfit (excluding stockings) had fallen from 19 1/4 yards to only 7. Out of favor too was the hour glass figure, replaced with an ideal figure that was "boyishly slender."
Picture of Elsie Winder from the Trenton Evening Times - April 22, 1923
Early in the decade younger women began to favor short bobbed hair which by the end of the 1920's was popular with women even in their sixties. These far more convenient hair styles were topped off with a "small cloche hat" instead of the more massive styles of the 1890's. All of this was major change, but it went far beyond dress and appearance as women drinking and smoking in public became far more common place along with a loosening of sexual mores which would seem tame to us, but were uncomfortably revolutionary to parents brought up in the Victorian era. Indeed at the time, describing something as "Victorian" was to be harshly, if not bitterly, critical of it.
Trenton Evening Times - November 16, 1927
How much of this was an issue for James and Mary with their four daughters, especially Alice and Elsie is unknown, but it seems almost impossible that there weren't challenges and tensions along the way. Edith and her husband, Philip, must have also faced the same issues with Edith and Phyllis, who were 13 and 8 respectively in 1920. The Shaws hardly appear in the newspapers at all, since for part of the period they had moved from Trenton to Raven Rock, about 25 miles from Trenton. Daughter Edith must have spent some time in Trenton as in September of 1927, she became engaged to Wilmot J. Hartpence. Having graduated from Trenton High School, Edith was working in John A. Roebling's office while her fiancee was a deputy at the state prison in Trenton. Cousin Alice Winder hosted a shower for Edith in November at 743 Stuyvesant and the young couple were married on November 30th at St. Michael's Church.
Florence Carr and children, I'm confident that the boy is Leon G. Carr Jr and the girl is Mildred Florence Carr, but less sure of the infant. Next in order would be Mary Ann Winder Carr, but considering the ages of the other two in the picture, the infant may be James William Winder Carr
While Florence and husband, Leon, also had two girls to cope with, Mildred and Mary Ann who were 4 and 2 respectively in 1920 were probably too young throughout the decade to get caught up in the dramatic changes in women's lives. There is a 1921 newspaper account of Mary Ann's third birthday party which was attended by a number of her Winder and Shaw cousins indicating the Winders maintained some level of family relationships. The decade saw three more additions to the Carr family, James William Winder Carr (1921), Earl Foster Carr (1924) and Leonard Phillip (1926).
In the 1920 the family was living at 1617 South Clinton Avenue and Leon was employed as a packer in a bakery . Raising a family of six was difficult enough for two people, but tragedy hit the family in 1927 when Leon was fatally injured in an industrial accident at C. V. Hill. He was rushed to the hospital, but was too badly injured to survive. At the time the family was living at 331 Rutherford Avenue with Mary Ann and Elsie, but they eventually moved to 1928 South Clinton Avenue where in 1930 they were living with Leon's brother and it appears household income came from him and eldest son Leon, a draftsman at a refrigerator company, probably C. V. Hill.
Trenton Evening Times - May 21, 1927
While Mary Ann was employed in 1920, this was no longer the case in 1930, but exactly when she stopped working is unknown. Certainly by 1929 with twelve surviving grand children, her grandmother responsibilities could have occupied all of her time. She also kept busy with travel and church activities. In 1921, she and daughter Elsie visited Niagara Falls and Canada, a year later they vacationed in the Adirondacks and Saratoga Springs. Christmas of 1921 must have been a special time in Mary Ann's life at St. Michael's Church. As part of its Christmas observances, the church dedicated a new chantry ("an exquisite little piece of worship"). Included in the ecclesiastical accouterments were two sets of altar linen which were edged with "filet lace with an ecclesiastical pattern of alternating crosses and chalices," made by "Mrs. Mary Ann Winder, a parishioner of many years at St.Michael's."
Trenton Evening Times - December 25, 1921
The 1920's saw many technological innovations which made the physical aspects of home making somewhat less strenuous. However, the biggest technological change of the decade didn't so much make life easier,but instead offered access to dramatically wider rangers of entertainment and information. Introduced by station WKDA in Pittsburgh for the 1920 presidential election, radio took off during the winter of 1921-22. From total sales volume of $60 million in 1920, annual sales of radios reached $843 million by 1929, an increase of 1400%. Families could now enjoy music, drama and comedy every night without leaving their homes, using the radio sections of their daily newspapers to find local connections to national shows. In 1929, for example, millions tuned in at 7:00 each evening to listen to Freeman F. Gosden and Charles J. Correll, better known as "Amos n Andy," ("Do the name Ruby Begonia, strike a familiar note?")
Trenton Evening Times - October 15, 1929 - the radio choices available in Trenton at the end of the decade
We don't know, of course, if the Winders listened to "Amos n Andy," but it is pretty clear, there was plenty of modern radio equipment at 331 Rutherford Avenue. By late 1927, Mary Ann was listed in an ad as being a customer of Joe's Time Shop for Radios, while in early 1923, Elsie had a "three stage and dector with amplifier and a loud speaker installed in her home." Given her love and aptitude for music, Elise must have loved the broad musical menu now available at the flick of a dial. Elsie's musical career itself continued through the decade including a picture in the Trenton Evening Times and playing at the 25th wedding anniversary of Mr & Mrs. Samuel Hart. Hart, a long time Trenton resident, was a descendant of John Hart, a signer of the Declaration of Independence.
Trenton Evening Times - January 21, 1923
The increased development of electrical appliances plus a strong economy for the last seven years of the decade was good for the refrigerator industry and James' work at C. V. Hill & Co. The economic boom which went hand-in-hand with what seemed to be unstoppable stock market growth led many middle class families to invest in stocks. Sadly a lot of them lost their savings when the boom times ended with the stock market crash of October of 1929. Whether the Winders suffered such losses is unknown, but the absence (to my knowledge) of anecdotal information suggests they didn't. How they would fare in the ensuing great depression of the 1930's is another story which we will examine next.
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