The Lost Tribe of Coney Island
Page 38
My research took me to many fascinating places. Chief among these were the wonderful archives of the county clerk’s office in downtown Manhattan, where Joseph Van Nostrandt went out of his way to help me locate the records of Truman and Else Hunt’s divorce, which had been filed on the wrong shelf. This was a vital piece of my puzzle.
The file contained a copy of the wedding certificate for Truman’s bigamous third marriage, and the only photograph I managed to find of Sallie Hunt. This photograph, and another of Truman, had been clearly marked exhibit A and exhibit B with a thick black pen, and entered as evidence when Else took Truman to court more than a century ago.
Holding in my hands the documents that proved beyond doubt that Truman was a bigamist was a heart-pounding moment. Truman had always been able to evade the law. Now, ninety-six years after his death, here was cast-iron proof of his wrongdoing. This was a document even the silver-tongued Truman could not have explained away.
At the National Archives and Records Administration, I wish to thank Ashley Mattingly and Wanda Williams in St. Louis, and Amy Reytar in Maryland, whose heart must have sank every time she saw an e-mail from me in her in-box with yet another query about the Truman Hunt files. And to Glenn V. Longacre and Scott Forsythe at the National Archives at Chicago; Guy Hall and Shane Bell at the National Archives at Atlanta; and the staff at the National Archives at Fort Worth, Texas.
A huge thanks to the following people for their assistance with my research: Ginger Frere, Karen Needles, Mary White, Erin McConnaughhay, Anthony Timek, Richard Raichelson, and Dyan Hooper.
Thanks also to Frank Stewart and Vincent Clark, archivists at the Shelby County register, who answered numerous queries with extraordinary patience and provided me with invaluable court documents relating to Truman Hunt’s trials in Memphis; to Dozier Hasty at the Brooklyn Daily Eagle; Jenny Lister, curator, textiles and fashion at the Victoria and Albert in London, who shared her extensive knowledge of ladies’ and gents’ fashions at the turn of the century; Scott Daniels at the Oregon Historical Society; military historian Andrew Birtle at the US Army Center of Military History, who helped me to better understand the US military and political presence in the Philippines in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries; the staff and volunteers at the US Army Heritage Center Foundation; to Ron Schweiger, Brooklyn borough historian; Michael Miscione, the Manhattan borough historian; the architectural historian John Kriskiewicz; Melissa Knight Nodhturft, Judicial Staff Attorney at Thirteenth Judicial Circuit Legal Department in Tampa; Professor Alfred Brophy at the University of North Carolina School of Law for answering my legal history questions, no matter how obscure they became—and to my friend Professor Eric Miller of Loyola University in Los Angeles, who put me in touch with him; to Steve Bohlen at Bellevue Hospital Center; the National Personnel Records Center in St. Louis; Dr. Mark Rice; Gene Gill, who was a fantastic source of information on Memphis in the early 1900s and who provided pictures of the Shelby County courthouse and Shelby County jail; the office of the clerk at Cook County Court in Chicago; New Orleans State Supreme Court; Jackson County records office in Iowa; Memphis Police Department; Rachel Diny at the clerk’s office of the Hillsborough County Circuit Court in Tampa; the US District Court Western District of Tennessee in Memphis; the filmmaker Marlon Fuentes; the Philippines embassy in London; communications history experts Professor Gerald Brock, Professor Richard R. John, Diane DeBlois, and Nancy Pope; April Sese and Katie Caljean, who did research at Columbia University into the display of indigenous peoples at the 1904 World’s Fair; Nan A. Rothschild, director of Museum Studies, Columbia University; Mary Ann Goldberg, principal at Wydown Middle School in St. Louis, which sits on what was once the site of the Philippine Reservation at the 1904 World’s Fair; Victor Mendoza; Benito Vergara; Aaron Beebe, the former director of the Coney Island Museum; meteorologist Scott E. Stephens; Max Storm; Joseph T. Gleason, director of archival services at the New York Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children; Cherubim A. Quizon, associate professor of anthropology at Seton Hall University; Stephen Greenberg at the National Library of Medicine; Ernest Hook at the School of Public Health at the University of California; Dr. Tonse Raju at the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development; and everyone else who kindly replied to my medical history queries on the Caduceus medical discussion board.
Many people assisted me with my research in Truman Hunt’s home state. They included the staff of the Cedar Rapids Public Library, Marion Public Library, and Des Moines Public Library; Scott Ketelsen at the University of Iowa and Wendy Stevenson at the University of Iowa library; Dale Gurwell and all the other terrific staff and volunteers at the Iowa Genealogical Society library; and Barbara Mayberry and her colleagues at the Jackson County Genealogical Chapter in Maquoketa.
In the Philippines, I would like to thank Emanuel La Vina; the staff at the National Archives of the Philippines; the National Library of the Philippines; the Bontoc Municipal Library and Kalinga Provincial Library; and the British Embassy in Manila.
I am enormously grateful to Tom Tryniski, the man behind www.fultonhistory.com, an incredible archive of newspaper articles published in New York State, which was invaluable to me. I’d like to thank John Hankey, who acted as my expert guide to American trains, railroad schedules, and services at the turn of the century. Additional thanks go to J. E. Sackey at the Northwest Railway Museum in Snoqualmie, Washington. It was to shipping expert John Hamma, to my father-in-law, Cameron Donaldson, and to Ed Greenberg and the archivists at Canadian Pacific that I turned with queries related to all things maritime. I would also like to express my appreciation to Robert Rydell and Karen Abbott, and to Ian Boyle who provided me with a picture of the RMS Empress of China, the ship that brought Truman Hunt and the Igorrotes to North America.
Thanks to Gina Inocencio at the Smithsonian, who put me in touch with Alan Bain at the National Anthropological Archives, who in turn connected me with Patricia Afable, who has done extensive research on the Igorrote exhibition groups, and who was extremely generous with her time and knowledge. My telephone conversations with Patricia fired my enthusiasm for this project in the early stages of my research. Patricia put me in touch with Carlyn Weibel, granddaughter of Richard Schneidewind, and Deana Weibel-Swanson, his great-granddaughter. I spoke to Deana and Carlyn at length over the telephone and thoroughly enjoyed their stories and recollections of Richard Schneidewind.
I owe an enormous debt of gratitude to my agent, William Clark, without whom the story of The Lost Tribe of Coney Island might never have been told. He believed in this book from the very beginning and his encouragement and early feedback were invaluable. A massive thanks to my editor, Katie Salisbury, who thrilled to every twist and turn in the story, and whose insightful notes and comments greatly improved this book.
Thanks to Claire Coster, Fiona Leith, Laura Vinha, Shari Kaplan, and Eva Soos for their friendship and support. And to Marie Mutsuki Mockett for her generous advice.
The Lost Tribe of Coney Island is a story about a group of human beings who were betrayed by the man who should have been their protector. Truman was an unfaithful husband, a feckless, inattentive father, and a cruel and destructive guardian to the tribesmen and women who relied on him. As I wrote about the inconstant and duplicitous Truman, I was reminded daily of how lucky I am to have my own fantastic family. My biggest thanks of all go to my mum, dad, David, Bram, Al, and Chip. My dad was diagnosed with cancer in the week I learned I had got a publishing deal for The Lost Tribe of Coney Island. It is a great sadness that he is not here to see it published. He was a huge champion of my career, was enthralled by this story, and was enormously proud that I was writing this book. Dad loved to tell stories and if I learned anything about how to spot and tell a good tale I owe much of that to him.
My mum is one of life’s rocks. Thanks to her for her love, her unwavering support, and for all she does to make everyone else’s life better. And thanks to my sister Al for
being the kind of supporter everyone should have on their side. My regular telephone chats with mum and Al helped keep me sane when I was spending long days staring at my laptop. And I am forever grateful for all the babysitting Mum did, which enabled me to finish this book—and take much-needed trips to the cinema.
A massive thanks to my husband, David, who was always there to re-enthuse me whenever I hit a roadblock, for reading the manuscript numerous times without complaining, for buying me a box set of The Golden Girls to get me through the editing process, and for his insightful feedback at every stage of this book. He once jokingly asked me if he was “the wind beneath my wings.” You know the answer, David. And to Bram, whose boundless energy, zest for life, curiosity, and good humor helped keep things real when my obsession with this story threatened to get out of hand.
Photo © Solen Collet
CLAIRE PRENTICE is an award-winning journalist whose work has been published in the Washington Post, the London Times, the Guardian, the Sydney Morning Herald, BBC Online, Cosmopolitan, and Marie Claire.
Notes
Introduction
1. I use “Igorrote,” rather than the alternative “Igorot,” as this was the spelling commonly used to refer to the tribe in America. I also refer to them as “Igorrote” rather than “Bontoc Igorrote,” as this was how the tribespeople were known in America. I use the plural “Igorrotes,” which was widely used in the US press in the early 1900s rather than “Igorrote,” which is more strictly accurate.
2. Jenks, Albert Ernest. The Bontoc Igorot. Bureau of Public Printing, 1905.
3. The Macon Telegraph, September 11, 1904.
4. Ibid.
Chapter 1
1. Translation of Simeon A. Villa diary. Manuscripts and Archives Division. The New York Public Library.
2. Ibid.
3. Jenks, Albert Ernest. “Building a Province.” The Outlook, May 21, 1904.
4. Ibid.
5. Third Annual Report of the Philippine Commission 1902 Part 1, Bureau of Insular Affairs, War Department, Washington, Government Printing Office, 1903.
6. Brooklyn Daily Eagle, June 4, 1905.
7. Ibid.
8. Jenks, Albert Ernest. “Building a Province.” The Outlook, May 21, 1904.
9. The Los Angeles Times, April 24, 1904.
10. Rydell, Robert. All the World’s a Fair. The University of Chicago Press, 1984; 171.
11. The Macon Telegraph, September 11, 1904.
12. Ibid.
13. Ibid.
14. Ibid.
15. Rasmussen, R. Kent, ed. Dear Mark Twain: Letters from His Readers. University of California Press, 2013.
16. Forbes-Lindsay, C. H. The Philippines Under Spanish and American Rules. The J. C. Winston Co., 1906; The New York Times, January 23, 1921.
17. The Seattle Daily Times, April 20, 1905.
18. The Seattle Daily Times, December 11, 1904
19. Afable, Patricia O. “Journeys from Bontoc to the Western Fairs, 1904–1915: The ‘Nikimalika’ and their Interpreters,” Philippine Studies vol. 52, no. 4 (2004); 445–473. Ateneo de Manila University, 2004.
20. While Truman was in the Philippines, the exhibits from the St. Louis Philippine Reservation were on the way, all fifteen carloads of them, to New York, where they had been secured for the collection of the American Museum of Natural History. The exhibits included bows and arrows, copper pots, woven baskets, fish traps, looms, a full-sized Igorrote hut, and the obligatory G-string. The New York Sun, February 18, 1905.
Chapter 2
1. The Independent, October 5, 1905.
2. Jenks, Albert Ernest. The Bontoc Igorot. Bureau of Public Printing, 1905.
3. The Independent, October 5, 1905.
4. The Seattle Daily Times, May 17, 1905.
5. Sallie sometimes signed her name Sallie and other times Sally. The spelling varies in government reports and personal and official correspondence. I have used Sallie, which is the spelling used most often in official and personal documents.
6. Blount, James H. The American Occupation of the Philippines 1898 to 1912. G.P. Putnam’s and Sons, 1913.
Chapter 3
1. The Independent, October 5, 1905.
2. Dengay’s name sometimes appears in the official record spelled Dangui and Dengui.
3. Ibid.
4. I have used the spelling of Falino Ygnichen’s name that appeared on the passenger list of the ship that carried the Filipinos to North America. His name appears in newspaper coverage of the tribe variously as Falino Ygnichen, Falio Yguichen, and Faliao Ygnichen.
5. The Independent, October 5, 1905.
6. Ibid.
Chapter 4
1. The New York Morning Telegraph, April 13, 1905.
2. Ibid.
3. Ibid.
4. Ibid.
5. Ibid.
6. Newspaper article, February 3, 1912 source unknown, in Clippings, Thompson, Fred., Billy Rose Theater Division, New York Public Library (referred to hereafter as the BRTD and NYPL).
7. The Buffalo Express, date unknown, from Clippings, Thompson, Fred., BRTD, NYPL.
8. The Cleveland Leader, date unknown, from Elmer Dundy obituary in the Robinson Locke Collection Envelopes 2342A and 2164, BRTD, NYPL.
9. The New York Morning Telegraph, April 13, 1905.
10. Ibid.
11. Ibid.
Chapter 5
1. The Seattle Daily Times, April 20, 1905.
2. Ibid.
3. Ibid.
4. Ibid.
5. Ibid.
6. National Archives and Records Administration at College Park, Maryland, Record Group 350, Records of the Bureau of Insular Affairs, File No. 10111.
7. Ibid.
8. The Morning Oregonian, April 24, 1905.
9. Ibid.
10. The Seattle Daily Times, April 25, 1905.
11. Ibid.
12. Ibid.
13. Ibid.
14. Ibid.
15. The Seattle Daily Times, April 24, 1905.
16. The Seattle Daily Times, April 26, 1905.
17. Ibid.
18. The Seattle Daily Times, April 30, 1905.
19. Ibid.
20. Ibid.
21. Jenks, Albert Ernest. The Bontoc Igorot. Bureau of Public Printing, 1905.
22. Ibid.
23. Ibid.
24. Ibid.
25. The Seattle Daily Times, May 20, 1905.
26. Ibid.
27. Ibid.
28. Ibid.
29. Ibid. The prospect of the Philippine tribes playing baseball was a subject which captured the imagination of the American press. An article in the Gettysburg Times on September 27, 1916, referred to the Moro tribe playing baseball in the Philippines and imagined the day the Moros and the Igorrotes would replace head-hunting with baseball—a sure sign that American civilization had caught on with “baseball, the leader of all sports, binding the east and the west in a brotherhood of sympathy and understanding. When baseball becomes universal throughout the islands of the archipelago we may consider that the Filipinos are apt candidates for independence, for they will have learned one prime essential of freedom—the willingness to lose a game by a close decision without murdering the umpire.”
30. The Seattle Daily Times, May 20, 1905.
31. Ibid.
32. The Independent, October 5, 1905.
Chapter 6
1. The New York Tribune, May 16, 1905.
2. MTA.info
3. Buffalo Morning Express, May 25, 1905.
4. Ibid.
5. Ibid.
6. The New York Times, May 15, 1905.
7. Immerso, Michael. Coney Island: the People’s Playground. Rutgers University Press, 2002.
8. Porter, Edwin, S., dir. Rube and Mandy at Coney Island, BRTD, NYPL, M16 A 389 R. Edison Manufacturing Company, 1903.
9. The New York Tribune, May 9, 1905.
10. The New York Sun, May 22, 1905.
Chapter 7
1. Tra
ger, James. New York Chronology. Collins Reference, 2003.
2. He was no relation to Frederic Thompson.
3. Coney Island Souvenir Guide. Megaphone Press Co., 1905.
4. The Illustrated Buffalo Express, July 9, 1905.
5. Brooklyn Daily Eagle, June 4, 1905.
6. The New York Tribune, May 26, 1905.
7. The New York Morning Telegraph, May 21, 1905.
8. Ibid.
9. Brooklyn Daily Eagle, June 4, 1905.
10. Ibid.
11. Ibid.
12. Ibid.
13. Ibid.
14. It seems likely that Fuller was describing a scene related by Albert Jenks in The Bontoc Igorot. Bureau of Public Printing, 1905.
15. The New York Times, May 28, 1905.
Chapter 8
1. The New York Morning Telegraph, July 19, 1905.
2. Ibid.
3. The New York Daily Tribune, July 31, 1905.
Chapter 9
1. New York Tribune, July 17, 1905.
2. Intriguingly, the Washington Post and the Atlanta Constitution reported on a double Igorrote wedding at the St. Louis Exposition in 1904, of Laguima to Domingo and Tugmena to Bocosso, in the May 29, 1904, editions of both newspapers. Bocosso and Tugmena are described as belonging to the Suyoc tribe, not the Bontoc Igorrotes. According to the passenger list for the Empress of China, the Igorrotes Laguima and Bocosso who came to Coney with Truman Hunt in 1905 had never been to America before. Was this a mistake, an example of the way names were recycled by the showmen, or were they simply common names? The last two of these seem to offer the most likely explanations. Either way, it shows that weddings were a popular way for the American showmen to bring in the crowds.
3. Jenks, Albert Ernest. The Bontoc Igorot. Bureau of Public Printing, 1905.
4. The New York Tribune, July 17, 1905.
5. Ibid.
6. Ibid.
7. www.elks.org
8 The New York Tribune, July 7, 1905.
9. Ibid.
10. The New York Morning Telegraph, July 29, 1905.