Averill Connections in Nebraska

The Averills migrated from Massachusetts to Connecticut, to Illinois and then on to, among other places, Washington State. One place they stopped along the way was Nebraska. That's how we wound up with farmland in Pierce and Cuming Counties. While in Nebraska, the Averill and Emley families intermarried and our dad, Robert, inherited the farmland from the Emley family.

While in Nebraska recently, we visited a cemetery in Wisner where a number of Averills and Emleys are buried. Wisner is in Cuming County. Like many small town cemeterys, there's no full-time office to make inquiries. Instead, they have a map and book of "who's where." In some cases, the guidance is easy to follow. In other cases, one still has to do a lot of hunting around. In still other cases, moisture made the book hard to read.


Still, you'll find out things in a cemetery that you'll never see in census or most other data. Little Clyde never made it into a census...

Older Family Silver

Family Silver - Grandad Rice worked in Seattle for Linstead Silversmiths
Older Family Silver - this post
More on Family Silver - The story of Carl Linstead and Carl Zapffe in Seattle

Apparently, according to my mom, Grandad Rice worked at Carmichael's in Victoria. He was blackballed for doing silversmith work at home on the side. Apparently, the blackball is what led him to move to America and work for Linstead, reprised here. My mom also wrote the item, below, on the back of the card.

UPDATE: I searched Google for information on Carmichael. There's a good link story, here. Carmichael was born and raised in Victoria. It was rare for a native Canadian to be a silversmith at that time and so he's a "historical celebrity" for that reason. There are some Carmichael pieces in the BC Provincial Museum.

Even MORE amazing - if you look at the embedded Google Streetview image, below, you will see that the building itself looks almost IDENTICAL to the card. In fact, they even use a heraldic lion that looks the same as in the old card. A screenshot is below. One wonders if the Fort Street Cycle building was built later, or if the business card simply omitted it. Certainly, the building to the right looks more modern, in a "retro" kind of way.

Family Silver

Family Silver - this post
Older Family Silver - Grandad Rice as a silversmith in Victoria BC
More on Family Silver - The story of Carl Linstead and Carl Zapffe in Seattle

Business Card circa 1959

It has recently become apparent that there's some confusion amongst family members about our collective grandfather, Thomas Rawson Rice. He came over to North America from the UK in the 20's and worked as a silversmith in Seattle. My mom said:

"Grandad went from Vancouver to Seattle and working for father linstead 1951 or so immigrated from Canada. Worked there awhile then moved to Portland in 1954 and back to Seattle in 1953. That's about when city was making the freeway and they probably moved into store on 5 or 4th ave. The son was around then I think . Grandad worked there until he passed in 1973. So was the store."

After she saw the results of an inquiry to Zapffe Silversmiths, the response (on January 4) of which stated:

"Hello. We know we had a Linstead (possibly Carl) who worked here in the late 40's and early 50's. He worked alongside Carl Zapffe and his successor Don Thompson before opening his own shop in downtown Seattle which was then taken over by a son. It closed shortly  after his succession. That is all the information we have."

Clearly the record is gradually getting a bit clouded with time. My sister, "linda bus driver," for example, wondered: 

"That is very cool. I wonder what the address of that shop was. Seems to me it was somewhere around 3rd and Lenora. I remember going there once. That silver that granddad made is beautiful. Hope you will post something on Averill Happenings."

Well, y'all, THIS is that post. As you can see from the ad shown below, the shop was at 2323 3rd Avenue in 1965. I DID try to call the listed phone number, but nothing worked. Same as if you called our own old phone number of LA2-6760. The ad may be found in Catholic Northwest Progress of December 17, 1965.

The address hasn't really changed all that much over the years, well, other than Linstead eventually closing up. It is near the monorail, as I remember it, and you can see the monorail in the Google Maps aerial shot, shown below.

This is what the building looks like nowadays, from Google Streetview

As far as I can tell, Linstead shut down in 1973 or so. Their last ad appeared in the Seattle Times in October of 1972. I imagine that after Linstead and Rice were both gone, there wasn't enough expertise remaining.

As an interesting side note, according to the Seattle City Directory, in 1925, Carl Linstead lived at 6017 27th Avenue NE, just about 3 blocks from where the older Averill kids grew up. Sadly, that house was torn down and has been replaced by a big rectangular box house.