Layered in history

By Wendy Burton
Phoenix Correspondent

July 05, 2009 10:55 pm

— Many years ago, there was a large neighborhood of African-American families and homes north of where Arrowhead Mall is located.
On Girard Street, there is only one house left standing from that era.
Ryan Dorsel began remodeling that home and found a treasure trove of history on the walls.
He began tearing the walls down only to find that someone in the past lined all of them with printing plates from 1922.
So far, all from July of that year, came from the Muskogee Daily Phoenix or Muskogee Times-Democrat.
These embossed plates are actually thick layers of paper that were placed over the tin-type and engravings used to print in those days.
The printer would put strips of adhesive on the reverse side and adhere each page to a “barrel” for printing.
Dorsel's plates are in relatively good condition, especially since it appears there may have been a fire in the home at one time.
One plate, dated July 25, 1922, has a large cut-out photo of a popular local boxer in that day. The story advertises that he will defend himself against “six husky Negroes” at one time at the next big event in Muskogee.
Kellogg's Cereal, Hooker Hardware, and many other advertisements adorn every page.
One page is titled the “Kiddie Corral” and says it was printed weekly for the “kiddies.”
Children could write letters or short stories and send them to “Auntie Eleanor” for printing.
Marriage announcements, local news, and crime reports are also part of several pages.
Dorsel is excited by the history the plates represent.
“My 9-year-old daughter loves history and said I should save these,” he said. “I've been meticulously taking them off.”
Dorsel remodels old homes and has been involved in working on many local historical homes.
The houses he's remodeled in the past, though, had lathe and plaster walls.
In this house, the walls are constructed of 10-inch planks that are only 1 inch thick. No studs for support, no cross studs, no insulation was used.
He believes the homeowner must have put the plates there for some kind of insulation. Over the plates was a layer of lightweight fabric, some with writing on it also.
Then it was covered with nine layers of wallpaper over the ensuing years.
“It's an amazing home,” Dorsel said.
If the plates were put there in 1922, then only a woman named Leatha Daniels could have put them there or hired someone to do so.
Daniels was an African-American widow and mother of a 16-year-old daughter. She “worked out” for another family — meaning she was a maid, according to the 1920 Census.
Another family lived nearby, whose father worked in “public works,” the Census states.
In 1925, Daniels married Benjamin Edmonson, listed in the 1925 Muskogee City Directory as a laborer.
In about 1946, the house became vacant, not being listed in a directory again until 1953. Then Edith Hightower, a single woman who also was a maid, lived there.
Most likely, the plates were placed on the walls in 1922, when Dorsel believes the house was probably built.
“These are the only layer between the original boards and the first layer of wallpaper,” he said. “They had to be tacked up there soon after the house was built.”
The mystery of who put the printing plates up may never be solved, but at least Dorsel and others can enjoy the vast amount of history the plates can provide.

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