HISTORICAL COMMENTS BY GEORGE CHEVALLIER 8-4-12

HEARTBREAK

I possess a large cent of 1851. The cent was found in a box left by my great-uncle when he died in October, 1954, aged 69. My grandmother told me the story behind the initials crudely punched into the coin. It seems that Uncle Johnny (the JPK on one side of the coin were his initials for John P. Kelly) was in love with a girl whose initials were JSD. According to my grandmother, his sister, she broke his heart. Either she didn’t know who it was or she wouldn’t tell me. I can only guess that he put the initials on the coin as a grim reminder of his love lost. The hole in the middle was probably put there at the same time as the initials and he may have worn it around his neck. The 1851 date on the coin means the coin was in circulation for over 50 years and shows the wear of the many years since it was struck. As a result, he never got married. He lived his entire life in one room in the Brewington Building, which is on the NW corner of Main and Division Streets. Many will remember it as the old Read’s Drug Store. He never owned or lived in a home. He worked his way up to shipping supervisor at the Manhattan Shirt Factory which is now Season’s Best Antique Mall. That worked out nicely for him as he never owned a car and his employment was within walking distance. He also ushered at St. Francis de Sales Church which was also downtown within walking distance. You could find him there every Sunday.

In this day of people owning multiple homes for a variety of reasons, this is how one man’s life was changed by a simple act of amorous rejection. He apparently settled into his way of life and it was actually a very simple life. When he died, he had enough in the bank to buy several homes and a car. But, by this time, he had made the adjustments to his life that suited him and who is to say he didn’t have the right idea. A nice orderly life is something that few seek today.

Somewhere along the line we have developed the mentality that we always have to have more. Satisfaction is a very personal thing and something we have more control over than we think. The screen saver on my computer was taken from a sign my grandmother had in her kitchen. It reads, “Happiness is liking what you’re doing, not doing what you like.” A lot of wisdom from an old cedar sign with its pinked edges.

So, something as mundane as an old coin with some initials punched into it may just have a story to tell. This one did and I was just lucky enough to have someone still around that could tell it.