On December 6, 1924, Lincoln School student Emery Bricker won the Alton Township spelling contest. He spelled 100 words correctly out of 100. Two Horace Mann students rounded out the top three: Thelma Chapman came in second (96 words), and Adolph Clayton came in third (93 words). Bricker and Chapman went on to compete at the County Spelling Contest in Edwardsville on December 13, where about forty students from across Madison County participated. In spelling the first 100-word list, three students missed none. Those three students were given a list of 25 additional words, and the results showed the following ranks:
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1st - Virginia Highlander from New Douglas
2nd - John Monroe from Collinsville
3rd - Olive Hill from St. Jacobs
4th - Iris Cooley from East Alton
Emery Bricker tied for 5th place with three other students. He was not named in the article, but the Alton Evening Telegraph noted that one of the 5th-place students went to Lincoln School, and Bricker was the only possibility.
So that was straightforward enough. I decided to see what Emery Bricker did later in life. But when I started looking, he was impossible to find. I knew so many things about him from the December 6, 1924, article, “Emery Bricker Wins Township Spelling Test.” I knew that he was a student at Lincoln School, was 14 years old, his father’s name was Frank Bricker, and he lived at 620 East Ninth Street. However, the only information I could find on him was in the December 6, 1924, article. The only other results in the newspaper for his name were references to that first article: the “Our Past” sections in December 1949 (25 years later), December 1974 (50 years later), and December 1999 (75 years later) all told me that Emery Bricker was the winner of the Alton Township spelling test. But why couldn’t I find evidence of a life beyond that? Where were articles about his graduation, possible marriage, or obituary? Why wasn’t his family listed in the Alton City Directories? What about census records? I’ve been doing genealogy research professionally for a decade. With a name, date of birth, father’s name, and location, I can find some information on just about anyone. WHERE WAS EMERY BRICKER?!
Not to worry, readers, I found him. Emery Bricker was actually Emery Brickey. A correction notice in the Alton Evening Telegraph on December 8, 1924 told me that Emery Brickey of 31 Ridge Street was the township spelling contest winner. “The records of the contest gave the name as ‘Bricker,’ but today, Mrs. Brickey gave to the Telegraph a correction in the spelling of the name.” Wrong name, wrong address. He was still 14, and his father’s name was still Frank, but the wrong name and address explained all of my trouble. I was then able to find him everywhere and to construct an outline of his post-spelling contest life. James Emery Paris Brickey served in World War Two, married Esther Louise March Brickey, had a son, worked as an insurance agent, truck driver, and city marshal, and lived into his late eighties. He died in 1998 and is buried at Riverside National Cemetery in Riverside, California.
It is a hilarious twist that the organizers of a spelling contest recorded an incorrect spelling of the winner’s name. Still, incorrect information makes its way into records all the time. Before 1880, official government census takers were allowed to just ask the neighbors to name family members in a house if no one was home. My great- grandfather has the wrong birth year on his headstone. The Bricker/Brickey article and research are a perfect example of the kind of work we help patrons with at the Hayner Genealogy & Local History Library all the time. I invite all of you to come in and learn more about your ancestors. And I can assure you that we’re all too stubborn to give up before we’ve exhausted all avenues of research.
Sources
“25 Years Ago.” Alton Evening Telegraph (Alton, IL), December 7, 1949.
“Emery Bricker Wins Township Spelling Test.” Alton Evening Telegraph (Alton, IL), December 6, 1924.
“Emery Brickey Won Spelling Test.” Alton Evening Telegraph (Alton, IL), December 8, 1924.
“East Alton School Items.” Alton Evening Telegraph (Alton, IL), December 15, 1924.
“Our Past: Dec. 7, 1924.” Alton Telegraph (Alton, IL), December 7, 1999.
National Archives at St. Louis; St. Louis, Missouri; WWII Draft Registration Cards For Colorado, 10/16/1940-03/31/1947; Record Group: Records of the Selective Service System, 147; Box: 28
Reid, James Allan. 1912. Alton, Illinois; a Graphic Sketch of a Picturesque and Busy City. Its Leading Points of Interest and Some Characteristic Phases of Its Life .. Saint Louis, Mo.: J.A. Reid.
“Telegraph of Yesteryear: News from 25 and 50 Years Ago.” Alton Telegraph (Alton, IL), December 6, 1974.
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