An 1892 Souvenir, Two Tailors, and the Mystery of the Missing "R"

In 1892, photographer Walter H. Kennedy published a photographic souvenir of Poplar Bluff, Missouri, preserving images of the buildings, businesses, residences, and streets that helped define the growing community.

More than 130 years later, an original copy of that booklet survives in the collection of the Poplar Bluff Museum. Recently loaned to Historic Poplar Bluff for digitization, the booklet has now been preserved in digital form and made available for the public to explore.

But while examining its cover, we noticed something that would lead us in an unexpected direction.

Written across the top, in faded blue handwriting, was a name and address:

Charles Gierse — 1118 N. Main

Who was Charles Gierse? And how had his name come to be written on a photographic souvenir published in 1892?

As it turns out, answering those questions would introduce us to not one, but two men with remarkably similar names.

A Glimpse of Poplar Bluff in 1892

Kennedy's Souvenir of Poplar Bluff, Mo. — Indelible Photographs was copyrighted in 1892 and produced by the Albertype Company of New York.

Its pages offer a fascinating visual record of nineteenth-century Poplar Bluff, including prominent residences, hotels, businesses, and other familiar landmarks of the period.

Among the buildings pictured are the Morris House, Gifford House, the residence of Dr. Bartlett, and the home of Hon. J. P. Johnson. Horse-drawn transportation, Victorian architecture, and streetscapes from another era remind us how dramatically the community has changed.

The booklet itself also tells a story. Its aged cover, handwritten notations, punched binding holes, and traces of earlier repairs reflect the long life of a physical object that has survived generations.

Thanks to the Poplar Bluff Museum's preservation of the original, these photographs can now be studied and enjoyed without further handling of the fragile booklet.

Explore the complete 1892 Kennedy souvenir booklet in the Historic Poplar Bluff digital archive.

Following a Handwritten Name

The inscription on the cover led us to Charles Gierse, a longtime Poplar Bluff businessman who operated a cleaning and dyeing establishment at 410 Vine Street.

Born in Farmington, Missouri, in 1883, Gierse was already operating a tailoring establishment there when he married Louise M. Schwaner in 1907.

According to his obituary, he moved to Poplar Bluff on April 1, 1914, establishing a cleaning business that would become a familiar part of the downtown commercial community.

In 1924, Gierse moved into a newly constructed residence on North Main Street. Later records confirm his address as 1118 North Main, matching the handwritten notation on Kennedy's much older booklet.

The connection was intriguing, but it also raised an important distinction. Gierse was only a child when the booklet was published in 1892, and the North Main residence did not yet exist. The inscription therefore appears to have been added many years after the booklet's publication.

Exactly when it was written, and how the booklet came into his possession or household, remains unknown.

And that might have been the end of our investigation—except that another name began appearing in the historical records.

Wait... Another Charles?

While searching old city directories and newspapers, we repeatedly encountered advertisements for a merchant tailor named Charles Giese.

At first, the difference seemed easy to overlook. Perhaps an old newspaper had misspelled Gierse's name, or perhaps the family had used different spellings over the years.

But the records told a different story.

Charles William Giese was born in Germany in 1861, more than twenty years before Charles Gierse. He had operated a tailoring business in Poplar Bluff since at least the nineteenth century.

An 1898 newspaper profile described Giese as the city's oldest merchant tailor. By the early 1900s, his establishment was located at 415 South Fourth Street, and his family lived at 625 Poplar Street.

In September 1912, Giese relocated his tailoring business to a newly renovated storefront on Main Street, later listed as 208 South Main.

His family also appears frequently in contemporary newspapers. In 1913, his daughters Mazo, Bertha, and Lorine hosted a reception for visiting university students at the family home on Poplar Street.

The evidence became unmistakable: Charles Giese and Charles Gierse were two different people.

And remarkably, they were engaged in nearly the same profession.

The Name With the "R"

By April 1914, both businessmen were operating in downtown Poplar Bluff.

Charles Giese offered tailoring, cleaning, and pressing services at 208 South Main Street.

Charles Gierse had established his cleaning and dyeing business at 410 Vine Street.

The 1914 city directory even listed both establishments separately under cleaners, dyers, and pressers.

Imagine the potential confusion.

Two businessmen named Charles. Two surnames differing by only one letter. Two establishments offering similar services, operating within the same downtown business district.

And then we found a newspaper advertisement that suddenly seemed to explain everything.

In the April 15, 1914, edition of the Daily American Republic, an advertisement promoted Gierse's new cleaning works at 410 Vine Street.

Beneath the business name appeared an unusually specific slogan:

"THE NAME WITH THE R."

Was Charles Gierse deliberately reminding customers that his establishment was not the similarly named Charles Giese's business?

We cannot say for certain. No contemporary explanation of the slogan has yet been located.

But with both men conducting similar businesses in Poplar Bluff at the same time, it is certainly a compelling possibility.

One can almost imagine the conversations that may have inspired it.

"Gierse's cleaning works. That's Gierse—with an R!"

Whether the slogan was born from mistaken deliveries, confused customers, or simply clever advertising, the historical circumstances make that little letter unusually interesting.

Two Businesses, Two Histories

The more we researched, the clearer the distinction became.

Charles William Giese had established himself as a merchant tailor long before the younger Gierse arrived in Poplar Bluff. His business was associated with Fourth Street and later Main Street, while his family maintained a residence on Poplar Street.

Charles Gierse began his career in Farmington before establishing his Vine Street cleaning business in 1914. He later expanded his operations, endured a damaging shop fire in 1918, and continued working in the cleaning and laundry industry for decades.

He sold his cleaning establishment in 1945 and eventually retired in 1963. He died in Poplar Bluff in August 1974 at the age of 90.

Charles William Giese had died more than fifty years earlier, in 1921.

Their stories were separate, but for a period in the early twentieth century, their names and businesses occupied a remarkably similar place in Poplar Bluff's commercial life.

What an Old Photograph Can Lead Us To

Our investigation also brought us back to Kennedy's photographic work.

Other surviving Kennedy souvenir booklets contain photographs of an early tailoring establishment and a residence associated with the Giese or Gierse name.

With the two businessmen now distinguished through contemporary records, these photographs deserve closer examination. The older Charles Giese and his documented residence at 625 Poplar Street may help identify the subjects of those images, although the precise identification of the house remains unconfirmed.

It is a reminder that historical research rarely follows a straight line.

Sometimes a name in an old directory leads to a newspaper advertisement. An advertisement leads to a family record. A family record reveals that two people we thought were one were actually quite different individuals.

And sometimes the smallest detail—a single letter in a surname—turns out to matter quite a lot.

Preserving the Stories Behind the Photographs

The original purpose of our work was simple: preserve and share an extraordinary photographic record of Poplar Bluff in 1892.

That remains the most important part of this story.

The surviving Kennedy booklet gives us a rare opportunity to see the community through the lens of a photographer working more than a century ago. Its pages preserve buildings and places that might otherwise exist only in scattered memories or written descriptions.

But the handwritten inscription on its cover reminds us that historical objects also accumulate stories of their own.

We may never know precisely when Charles Gierse's name was added to the booklet, or who first purchased it in 1892.

What we do know is that following that small clue led us to two distinct businessmen, decades of local newspaper history, and perhaps an explanation for one of downtown Poplar Bluff's more curious advertising slogans.

All because of an R.

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Explore the Original Booklet

Souvenir of Poplar Bluff, Missouri — 1892
Photographs by Walter H. Kennedy
Original preserved by the Poplar Bluff Museum
Digitized and presented by Historic Poplar Bluff

View the Complete 1892 Photographic Souvenir

Historical research note: The identification of Charles Giese and Charles Gierse as separate individuals is supported by contemporary newspapers, city directories, and family records. The possible explanation for the advertising slogan and the identification of a residence in another Kennedy booklet remain interpretations under investigation.