Author Topic: Puzzle #1788 - White Steamer / Calliope played by Miss Dennalla Eisenbarth  (Read 620 times)

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Offline Otto Puzzell

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Please, respond below and share your knowledge of what this car is, who is the girl, and what is she doing?

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« Last Edit: November 29, 2010, 07:41:26 AM by Otto Puzzell »
You wanna be the man, you gotta Name That Car!

Offline Otto Puzzell

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Re: Puzzle #1788 - What's Cooking?
« Reply #1 on: November 27, 2010, 05:42:19 AM »
Time to put some Expert heat on this one....
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Offline Aaron65

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Re: Puzzle #1788 - What's Cooking?
« Reply #2 on: November 27, 2010, 08:33:16 AM »
From what it looks like, that girl is playing a steam powered pipe organ, so I'd think the car is steam powered...I'll start with the most prolific steamer--Stanley...No idea on the girl yet.

Offline Otto Puzzell

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Re: Puzzle #1788 - What's Cooking?
« Reply #3 on: November 27, 2010, 09:00:25 AM »
Steam powered it is. And, not technically an organ.
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Offline Tom_I

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Re: Puzzle #1788 - What's Cooking?
« Reply #4 on: November 27, 2010, 09:35:01 AM »
This type of musical instrument is called a calliope (after the Greek Muse of epic poetry), and consists of a set of whistles (originally locomotive whistles) operated by steam or compressed air.

This one is fitted in the rear of a White steamer, and is pictured at Marietta, Ohio in 1910. The car was owned by a Captain E.E. Eisenbarth, and the calliope is being played by his daughter, Miss Dennalla Eisenbarth.

And here's the whole family!

In the front passenger seat is Ellsworth Eugene Eisenbarth, and next to him is his son Eugene Harry. Dennalla (or it may be spelled Denella, there seems to be some doubt) is in the centre at the rear, and on her left is her sister Ignace (so named as she was born in St Ignace, Michigan). There were four other children, who it seems did not survive. Three of them died on different dates in 1893, so I'd guess it was from some infectious illness. The lady in the right hand back seat is Ellsworth's second wife Jennie Selina (born Brown), who he married in 1908. The children's mother, Julia Ann (born Henderson) had died in 1906.

It's amazing what you can find on the internet, if you dig a bit!  8)
« Last Edit: November 29, 2010, 06:23:55 AM by Tom_I »

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Re: Puzzle #1788 - White Steamer / Calliope played by Miss Dennalla Eisenbarth
« Reply #5 on: November 29, 2010, 07:42:03 AM »
A bit skimpy on the details, weren't you?  ;)
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Offline Tom_I

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Re: Puzzle #1788 - White Steamer / Calliope played by Miss Dennalla Eisenbarth
« Reply #6 on: November 29, 2010, 05:44:28 PM »
A bit skimpy on the details, weren't you?  ;)

Actually I was going to post some biographical details of the owner of the White steamer, who was quite a colourful character, but I thought it might be a bit boring, and I had been tedious enough already. So I decided not to.

But having seen that comment, I have just changed my mind!  :D


There are some interesting snippets available online, but sadly it seems that many are inaccurate, when you come to cross-reference them with other sources. But here's a brief summary of things that can't be easily disproved.

Ellsworth Eugene Eisenbarth was born on October 22, 1864 in Ironton, OH, son of the wonderfully named Christopher Columbus Eisenbarth, and the grandson of Casper Eisenbarth, who had emigrated from Germany in 1830. Ellsworth left home to attend a Theological College in Waynesburg, PA, but became disillusioned with religion and opened a stationery and print shop in New Martinsburg, WV in 1884. The following year he was publishing the "Weekly Paragraph" in New Matamoras, OH, and on February 28, 1886 he married Julia Ann Henderson at Sistersville, WV.
  
By 1888 he was calling himself Dr. E. E. Eisenbarth, and was running a travelling sideshow, selling quack medicines, allegedly of native American origin. Then he bought a riverboat and fitted it out to be a floating entertainment venue called the Eisenbarth Combined Wild West and Opera Show (picture below).

By 1900 Ellsworth and Julia were running the Eisenbarth-Henderson Floating Theatre, Temple of Amusement. On September 5, 1902 their showboat was struck by another vessel and sank. A new boat was built, and business carried on as the Modern Temple of Amusement (picture below). Later Ellsworth gave up waterborne entertainment, and bought a theatre in Marietta, OH, which he renamed the Hippodrome.

On July 17, 1823 he died at Marietta, and was buried in New Martinsville, WV in the same place as his first wife Julia.

Among other biographical details it is mentioned that he had a calliope fitted into a steamer car and drove around Marietta in it. It is not stated whether he did this to drum up business for his show, or merely to annoy people. ;D (Calliopes make a lot of noise, and steam-driven ones in particular are difficult to tune accurately, as the pitch of the whistles changes slightly with temperature.)

As a footnote, Dennalla, the girl playing the calliope, lived to be 90 years old, and died in 1984. She would have seen some changes in the world by then!

Photos below: Eisenbarth's first showboat, the Modern Temple of Amusement and a poster for it, and Ellsworth and his second wife Jennie in 1920.

And if you have been bored by this, then it's all Otto's fault!  ;)
« Last Edit: November 29, 2010, 06:25:26 PM by Tom_I »