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"Durward Nickerson, Western Union messenger #55. Birmingham, Alabama. 18 years old. Lives in Bessemer, R.F.D. #1. Saturday night, Sept. 26, 1914, he took investigator through the old Red Light on Avenue A, pointed out the various resorts, told about the inmates he has known there. Only a half dozen of them were open now. Durward has put in two years in messenger work and shows the results of temptations open to him. He has recently returned from a hobo trip through 25 states. He was not inclined to tell much about the shady side of messenger work, but one could easily see that he has been through much that he might have avoided in a profitable kind of work." View full size. Photo by Lewis Wickes Hine.
Durward M. Nickerson was the son of Otis Graham Nickerson & Hattie E. Shepard, great-grandparents of my husband, Jack Graham Weaver. Durward died in 1937 in Bernalillo County, New Mexico, at the age of 42.
Patsy Weaver
[Oh my. What happened? Did he leave a family? Thanks for the info. He seems like a dashing young man. - Dave]
He looks old beyond his years. Great idea for a blog. I subscribed to your feed.
I had no idea messenger work could be so seedy.
Lewis Wickes Hine: Photographer, social reformer and busybody party-pooper extraordinaire.
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