Meet Me in St. Louis

The Short Life of Percy Bell

 Meet me in St. Louis, Louis,
Meet me at the fair,
Don't tell me the lights are shining
Any place but there.

   "Meet Me in St. Louis" (Lyrics by Ralph Blane and Hugh Martin)

Edward Percy Bell (1889-1923) grew up in a large Irish-Catholic family in Savannah, Georgia. The second-youngest of eight children, Percy’s parents had both died by the time he turned 10, followed shortly by his oldest sister Maggie (1873-1900). To add to their sadness his baby brother Charles died of the measles in 1905. Percy, then age 14, was already working as a clerk for W.W. Gordon, a cotton factor, commercial merchant, and prominent citizen who had a warehouse and storefront on Bay Street at which Percy apparently apprenticed for several years. Percy’s employer was the father of Girl Scouts founder Juliette Gordon Low. At age 20, Percy was employed as a bookkeeper for J.J. McDonough, a fellow Catholic, former mayor, and an entrepreneur who owned the Savannah Locomotive Works and Supply Company,¹ where Percy worked for at least two years. Three of his siblings were married and had started families by this time including his oldest brother John (1880-1926), who eventually settled in Atlanta. At some point between 1911 and 1918, Percy made his own move west.

St. Louis, the World’s Fair, and the Hotel Jefferson

In 1915 Savannah was a quaint small town when compared to St.
Louis, Missouri, which after the Civil War exploded into one of America’s
largest cities. More railroad lines were said to meet at St. Louis’ Union Station than anywhere else in U.S. In 1904, St. Louis simultaneously hosted the World’s Fair and the Summer Olympics.

The Hotel Jefferson on North 12th Street² was built in 1904 and finished just in time for the World’s Fair. The fair was held to commemorate the centennial of the Louisiana Purchase, which had been orchestrated under the presidency of the hotel’s intended honoree Thomas Jefferson. The Hotel Jefferson hosted the 1904 and 1916 Democratic National Conventions, whose latter delegates may have been served by a clerk named Edward P. Bell – then about 800 miles removed from his brothers, sisters, nephews, and nieces.

1920 Census

According to the 1920 census, Percy boarded at the Hotel Jefferson with 46 other wage-earning employees – 38 female and 8 male. While St. Louis was one of the most integrated cities of the early 20th century, in 1920 every hotel employee was classified as white. Percy was single and listed his age as 32. (He was actually 30. More on that later.) All but four of his fellow wage-earners were also unmarried, though ten were listed as widows. About 2/3 were from Missouri, Illinois, or other nearby states, about 1/3 were born in Europe, with two from New York and Percy’s Georgia being the lone distant states represented. Thirteen co-workers listed very recent Irish roots. Percy would have related well with them, though he never knew his Irish-born grandfather.

Percy was one of five room clerks, and nine clerks in general. All the clerks were male with the ironic exception of the mail clerk. She, along with the auditor, housekeeper, cleaner, night assistant, cashiers, and seamstresses were all female, as were the twenty-six house-, parlor-, night-, linen-, and private maids. As there was only one “desk clerk” listed – a 43 year-old man – the room clerks must have been some sort of junior desk clerks.

Why St. Louis?

Why did Percy move to St. Louis? His employer J.J. McDonough was undergoing bankruptcy in the mid 1910s. Did Percy lose his job, and did he know someone who promised him work out west? Did he take the train to Atlanta, and wonder what lay further down the tracks? Maybe he had wanted to go to St. Louis since reading all the headlines in 1904, or perhaps he desired the anonymity of a large city. This last reason is the most intriguing.

Selective Service Act of 1917

“The Great War” had been raging since 1914, with the United States avoiding direct intervention while working diplomatically to promote a peace. Early in 1917 events dictated an American military entry, but the standing Army was far from adequate. The Selective Service Act of 1917 was enacted, which required all men ages 21-30 to register for the draft on June 5, 1917. Percy had turned 28 in late March, and yet he did not do so. As an unmarried man with no dependents, Percy would have been among the very first conscripted. His brother Theodore (1885-1940) was 32 on that date, but as he happened to be an officer in a Georgia militia unit at the time, Theodore was called into Federal service exactly two months later and eventually served in France.

Did either of these events cause Percy to desire the anonymity of a large city? Did his young friends shame or shun him for not registering? Could it be that his family shunned him? After all, their deceased father was a Civil War veteran who was wounded in combat.³ In any case, there was no running from Uncle Sam.

Second and Third Registrations

A second registration period was held on June 5, 1918 for those who had turned 21 over the past year, and a third on September 12, 1918 – this one for all men age 18 to 45. This is where we first find Percy living in St. Louis.

Note Percy’s age and birth year in the document. They are purposely incorrect. Had he written his actual year of birth (i.e. 1889), he would have had to explain why he did not register fifteen months earlier. There is some sad irony to Percy’s deception. Not only was the need for combat troops negated with the signing of the Armistice less than two months later, but the years he washed away with his pen that day were a shadowy prophecy of the shortness of his remaining life.

Tuberculosis

As mentioned in the first paragraph Maggie Bell, Percy’s eldest sibling, died in 1900 at age 27. The cause was tuberculosis. Tuberculosis, or “consumption,” was a contagious and debilitating disease that resulted in bloody coughing, hacking, chest pains, and fatigue. The only cures at the time were quarantines and “sun treatment”- plenty of fresh air. Antibiotic regimens were developed in the mid 20th century, but too late for Maggie and Percy, the latter of whom who returned to Georgia in March of 1923 at the latest. He spent his 34th birthday at the State Tuberculosis Sanatorium in the North Georgia town of Alto. There he died the following week. He is buried in the Bell family plot at Bonaventure Cemetery.

 

Adapted from A String of Bells: Stories of a Southern Family © 2020 by Nick J. Guevara, Jr.

¹John Joseph McDonough: Rich man, poor man, business man, son; Husband, father, politician by Dorea E. Yeager. Savannah Biographies Vol 12. Armstrong State University Special Collections

² North 12th St is presently N. Tucker Blvd. The building, now called the Jefferson Arms Apartments, is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

 ³ Personal Note: I write all this without judgement of our ancestor. The Selective Service System still requires all young men to register for the draft at age 18. This I did many years ago, making sure to write “Conscientious Objector” on the form. The only thing I really objected to was dying prematurely on a battlefield.