Workday Wednesday - Tools of the Trade

Every tradesman has a collection of tools specifically designed for the job to be done. J. J. Spurlock, my watchmaker grandfather, was no exception.

The unknown author of a magazine feature about my grandfather wrote:

...not knowing that factory made tools could be purchased [he] made his own hammers, pliers, tweezers, mainspring winder, etc., in his father's blacksmith shop. Then he came upon a catalog of Sears Roebuck and found that watchmakers tools were illustrated in it. Recognizing their superiority he immediately sent away an order.[1]

A few months ago while browsing in a local antique store, I found a commemorative edition of the 1900 Sears catalog. Then a few days later, I found that Ancestry had published digitized versions on their website. Here is an image of the page on which watchmakers' tools were advertised:

Sears Roebuck Catalog Fall 1900, Vol. 110; digital images,
Ancestry (www.ancestry.com : accessed 18 June 2011); image 42.

I wonder whether my grandfather selected individual tools based on his needs at the time or if he bought the "complete watch tool set" for $10.00! Perhaps he ordered one of these books on watchmaking as well!

Sears Roebuck Catalog Fall 1900, Vol. 110; digital images,
Ancestry (www.ancestry.com : accessed 18 June 2011); image 242.

[1] "Finds Pleasure at the Bench," Horology: The National Magazine for Advancement in Timekeeping, August 1938, 31. 

© 2011 Denise Spurlock

Workday Wednesday - The Watchmaker

When the itinerant clockmakers and watchmakers came to the parish, he observed them as they went about their work of repairing timepieces. He likely asked questions and examined the tools with which they worked. He fashioned tools of his own and began to refurbish the clocks and watches that others could not fix.

This is how my grandfather J. J. “Jack” Spurlock (1876-1940) learned the basics of the trade in which he would engage for the rest of his life.

Soon after being enumerated as a watchmaker in the 1900 census for Bienville Parish, Louisiana, Jack headed north to sharpen his skills through a training course at the Canadian Horological Institute in Toronto. The institute offered several programs of study. Since he had already acquired the basic skills required for the trade, he likely completed a six-month “finisher’s course.”

By 1905, he was a partner in the firm of Spurlock and McMillan in Nacogdoches County, Texas. After his marriage late that year, he entered into a partnership with his father-in-law and formed the Spurlock Martindale Company in Jacksonville, Cherokee County, Texas.

After several years doing business in Jacksonville, he headed west. In 1913, he worked as a watchmaker in Maricopa County, Arizona. By 1918, he had arrived in California.

Living first in San Diego, he found employment as a watchmaker with J. Jessop & Sons. According to an announcement in the trade publication “The Jeweler’s Circular,” he opened a school in San Diego to train watchmakers in 1919. Sometime during the 1920s, he moved north to Los Angeles where he operated a retail watch store and repair business under his own name until his death in 1940.

He was an active member of the California Horological Association, serving on its Technical Committee and as Vice President. In 1939, he published a book titled Split-Second Chronographs and Timers.

Source: "Finds Pleasure at the Bench,"
Horology: The National Magazine for Advancement in Timekeeping, August 1938, 31.

                        

© 2011 Denise Spurlock

Workday Wednesday - Bahooka Restaurant

This is the restaurant Daddy (Jasper J. "Jack" Spurlock) built!

Bahooka Restaurant
Rosemead, California
on Facebook

OK...he didn't actually build the whole restaurant...he fabricated the ductwork for their air conditioning system. He took us there for dinner when the restaurant opened in the late 60s. I've only been there a couple times since, but it's still in operation.

Within a few years after the Bahooka Restaurant was built, Daddy was disabled and no longer able to work on a regular basis.

© 2011 Denise Spurlock

Workday Wednesday - North to Alaska

Sometime in 1957 or early 1958, my family moved from California to Fairbanks, Alaska; I think perhaps my father had been there before, maybe as early as 1953.

My sister's birth certificate states that my father, Jasper Jackson "Jack" Spurlock, was employed by Greer Sheet Metal in Fairbanks. I tried a Google search and came up with a hit for Greer Tank and Welding in business since the early '50s. I emailed their Fairbanks location inquiring whether it was the same company, and if so, whether they would have any employment records for my dad. I wasn't sure I would get a reply, but I did; unfortunately, it was not the same company.

I recall hearing that Daddy had been to both Nome and Point Barrow, Alaska, and also that he worked on the Distant Early Warning (DEW) line. The DEW line was a series of radar stations in the Arctic regions of Alaska, Canada, and Greenland built during the Cold War to provide advance warning of enemy air or missile attacks over the North Pole. President Eisenhower authorized U.S. participation in construction in 1954; it was completed and deemed operational in July 1957. This map shows the location of the radar stations:

Map from Wikimedia Commons.
Drawn by federal employee, and in the public domain.

I also found several YouTube videos about the DEW line. Here is a short one, just over two minutes, which was uploaded by the National Archives:

Work on the DEW line would have accounted for Daddy being in Point Barrow, but I'm not sure how he came to be in Nome. He did tell us he had looked across the Bering Strait on a clear day and was able to see Russia. It's not likely that experience was a comfortable one, given the state of U.S.-Russia relations at that time!



© 2011 Denise Spurlock

Workday Wednesday - Daddy at Work

Two more photos of my father, Jasper J. "Jack" Spurlock, at work! I think both were taken about the same time; the first photo is dated June 1950. At that time, my dad was listed in the El Monte, California, city directory as a sheet metal worker at L. F. Bowen Co.

Jasper J. "Jack" Spurlock - 2nd from right
Digital image. Original photograph held by
Denise Spurlock [ADDRESS WITHHELD FOR PRIVACY].
2011.

Jasper J. "Jack" Spurlock on left
Digital image. Original photograph held by
Karen Danielsen [ADDRESS WITHHELD FOR PRIVACY].
2011.

© 2011 Denise Spurlock

Workday Wednesday - Houston Compress Company

Sometimes it seems like all my ancestors were farmers, but the records tell me differently. Some of the occupations I've found: shoemaker, milliner, wheelwright, mine worker, preacher, and sawmill owner. I will be using the "Workday Wednesday" theme for sharing photos, stories, and records related to my ancestors' work lives. If you like, join me in posting on your own blog, or as a comment here, how your ancestors spent "Workday Wednesday!"

Last week I posted a copy of the SS-5 (Application for Social Security Number) filed by my father, Jasper Jackson "Jack" Spurlock on which he indicated he was employed by the Houston Compress Company.

This week I discovered that the Baker Library at Harvard Business School holds a circa 1920 photograph album from the Houston Compress Company in its collection. From the description, I learned that the company received cotton into its warehouse at Houston and compressed the bales prior to shipment. [Source: Harvard Business School, Baker Library Historical Collections, Photograph Albums (http://www.library.hbs.edu/hc/pc/photo-albums.html : accessed 7 August 2011).]

From the railroad cars in the background, I believe this photograph of my dad (third from right) and his coworkers may have been taken at the Houston Compress Company:

Digital image. Original photograph circa 1936 in the possession of
Denise Spurlock, [ADDRESS WITHHELD], Lomita, CA. 2011.

© 2011 Denise Spurlock

Workday Wednesday - Jasper Jackson "Jack" Spurlock SS-5

Sometimes it seems like all my ancestors were farmers, but the records tell me differently. Some of the occupations I've found: shoemaker, milliner, wheelwright, mine worker, preacher, and sawmill owner. My dad was a sheet metal worker; I have several photos of him at work. I will be using the "Workday Wednesday" theme for sharing photos, stories, and records related to my ancestors' work lives. If you like, join me in posting on your own blog, or as a comment here, how your ancestors spent "Workday Wednesday!"


My father, Jasper Jackson "Jack" Spurlock, applied for a Social Security number on 24 November 1936; here is a copy of his application:

He noted his address as 129 Harbor Street in Houston, Texas. This was my grandmother's home; even though my dad was working, it appears that he may not have been able to provide a separate home yet for his wife and baby daughter.

I need to do some research about Houston Compress Company for which he was working in 1936.

The best thing about this document is that it has my dad's signature on it; I have only a few samples of his handwriting!

[Source: Jasper Jackson Spurlock, SS no. 454-03-1265, 24 Nov 1936, Application for Account Number (Form SS-5), Social Security Administration, Baltimore, Maryland.]

© 2011 Denise Spurlock