Jennie Eldridge Bawden's 90th Birthday

BAWDEN, ELDRIDGE, RYAN, RICHARDSON, SMITH, MCCLELLAND, VON MAUR, BAKER

Posted By: Carol Bawden (email)
Date: 4/10/2007 at 15:34:44

Sunday Times-Democrat, 17 July 1955 p. 34
“THIS AND THAT” by Pat

It’s difficult for most Davenporters to imagine Indians wandering through the yards of homes in the vicinity of Kirkwood Blvd. and Farnam St.

However, Mrs. Jennie Bawden, 29 Edgehill Terr., doesn’t. In fact, she remembers them!

Daughter of J. M. (Jake) Eldridge, prominent Scott County real estate man for whom the community of Eldridge is named, Mrs. Bawden spent her early years in the family home at Kirkwood and Farnam. One of her earliest recollections is seeing the Indians walk through her yard stopping to greet members of her family. It seems a tree on the property bore the markings of an Indian trail, “I had such black hair, they thought I was a papoose, and they always begged my mother to let them hold me’, the sprightly little lady says.

“Mother would usually offer them a pie, fresh from the oven instead, though, and they’d be on their way,’ she added.

Jennie Eldridge married George W. Bawden. Another memorable experience for Mrs. Bawden was pushing Albert in his baby buggy across the “new” bridge spanning the Mississippi River at Muscatine.
When the Bawdens returned to Davenport in 1895, the First Presbyterian Church was located in the 600 block of Brady St. [northwest corner] in what is now part of the Davenport Public Museum. Construction of the present church in what was then considered ‘suburban’ Davenport (Kirkwood and Iowa) is vivid in the memory of the 90-year-old woman. When the effects of the church were transported to the new building in a procession, the Bawden’s 14-year-old son, Albert, had the distinction of carrying the Bible, his mother reported.
Bicycling and canoeing were two popular sports in those days for young married couples in Davenport such as the Bawdens. Mrs. Bawden recalls many canoe camping trips they took with M.N. Richardson, co-founder of the Morning Democrat, S. S. Smith, Wilson McClelland, C. J. Von Maur and Dr. C. J. Baker.
Another vivid recollection for Mrs. Bawden is the advent of the ‘horseless carriage’ on Davenport streets. One of the first automobile owners was Harry Ryan [possibly a brother-in-law]. Mrs. Bawden recalls embarrassment the day Mr. Ryan was a caller in their home. They looked out the window in time to see her teenage sons, Ray and Harry, and the boys’ chum, Dana Waterman, taking a spin down the boulevard in the new limousine.