Saturday Night Genealogy Fun

Calling all Genea-Musings Fans:

It’s Saturday Night again –

time for some more Genealogy Fun!!

Here is your assignment, should you decide to accept it (you ARE reading this, so I assume that you really want to play along – cue the Mission Impossible music!):

1)  What are three things about one of your ancestors that you have learned doing genealogy research?)  

Thanks Randy for the challenge to review my ancestors. While I have learned lots of interesting ‘stuff’ about many many of my ancestors, I tend to share it here on my blog when found. In thinking about this particular question, one of my first thoughts was that I learned my grandmother, Pauline Briles, went for an airplane ride in the 1930s. Since I grew up knowing my grandmother, there haven’t been a lot of other interesting tidbits that I learned about her after starting researching my family history.

While I knew my grandmother Briles, my grandfather Briles died when I was 4. And his short life is full of interesting details that I learned by researching my family history.

Thresher

Around 1916, my grandfather, Edward Osmond Briles, obtained a threshing machine. In 1918, he and his crew threshed over 1700 bushels of grain. In 1919, his threshing crew threshed the wheat for his Crandall and Thompson neighbors

Car Salesman

In 1922, E. O. Briles owned Briles Auto Repair and Garage in Iola, Kansas. In 1923, sold the Chandler car with the Pikes Peak Motor at his garage. He also sold the Cleveland Six Sedan for $1295. In August, he drove the service car for the Iola Chamber of Commerce Good Fellowship Tour.

Service Car Along
Trouble Auto will contain Extra
Supply of gas, tieres, Air
and Mechanic

A service car from the Briles Garage, that will contain an extra supply of gasoline, extra tires, air, oil, and tools will be taken on the Chamber of Commerce, good fellowship tour on next Thursday, when more than twenty-five carloads of boosters will visit eleven different neighboring towns.
The trouble car will be taken along for the convenience of the boosters, in case they should have any tiere or engine trouble, or run out of gasoline or oil. This will be a great convenience for those that should have trouble, and it will enable them to be on the road again within a short time.
The trouble car will be driven by E. O. Briels proprietor of the Briles Garage of Iola, and a mechanic will be with Mr. Briles throughout the trip.
Plans for the all-day trip, are being completed by A. L. Meisinger secretary of the chamber of Commerse. The trip is being taken for the purpose of boosting the Allen County Fair, which begins here Monday, and the new Junior College of Iola, which will open here next month.
Mr. Meisinger has arranged for nearly thirty cars to make the trip and there are still a number of merchants and car owners about the city who are planning to go. It has been asked that all those who can possibly make the trip, or those who have promised to go, and have later found it will be impossible to do so, call the Chamber of Commerce at once.
The trippers will line up on the square at 8 o’clock Thursday morning, and the pilot car will leave promptly at 8:30. The boosters are expected to arrive back home shortly after 6 o’clock, after spending a short time for a band concert and speeches in eleven towns.

Picture Show Man

The in 1930, E. O. Briles gave up the automotive business to become the ‘picture show man’ in Buffalo, Kansas. From Buffalo, the family moved to Emporia, Kansas where E. O. Briles owned the Lyric theater in 1932. In 1936 he added a ‘picture house’ in Excelsior Springs, Missouri. Then in 1937, he added a theater in Cottonwood Falls, Kansas. In 1940, E. O. Briles was listed in the Motion Picture Herald as one of ‘550 names to testify against majors’

Protestor

However, one of the most intriguing facts about my grandfather was that he was arrested and found guilty for operating his theater on a Sunday in violation of city ordinances. This act of civil disobedience was repeated for several weeks in an attempt to change the ‘blue laws’ that prohibited showing a motion picture on Sundays. While we no longer have such laws, my grandfathers attempts to get them changed did not cause them to change.

Arrest Lyric Owner
E. O. Briles Is Arrested Twice for
Showing Movies Sunday.

E. O. Briles, Proprietor of the Lyric theater was arrested twice Sunday by city police for violating the Sunday labor law as contained in a city ordinance. Briles’ arrest was ordered by City Attorney O. L. Isaacs when the theater man opened his house for movies at 2 o’clock in the afternoon and again at 8 o’clock in the evening. The two programs were completed after Briles had given bond for his appearance in police court at 5 o’clock Tuesday afternoon.
When the officers went to the theater shortly after 2 o’clock, Briles was operating the projector, Miss Glennis Wasson was selling tickets. Briles and Miss Wasson were taken to the police station where Briles was charged with violating the Sunday labor statute in the city ordinance. He gave $100 bond for his appearance Tuesday before Judge J. H. J. Rice. Cleo Smalling was found operating the projector when police returned to the theater and he to was taken to the station. Neither Smalling nor Miss Wasson were charged. They probably will be used as witnesses along with 10 movie patrons whose names were obtained by the officers. Briles continued the movie program after his release on bond, but did not start another scheduled performance at 4 o’clock. Police warned Briles that he would be arrested at each succeeding showing.
Briles opened the theater again at 8 o’clock and was re-arrested. His bond was fixed at $200 this time. He furnished the surety and was released.
Briles announced Saturday that he would show on Sunday and invited arrest to test the legality of Sunday shows in Emporia. He said he was acting upon the recommendation of an attorney.

While I knew that my grandfather operated the Lyric theater in Emporia, that was all I knew about him. Thankfully, newspapers helped me uncover his colorful life!

For more about my grandfather, see his profile on

• my Heartland Genealogy tree on Ancestry
• his WikiTree profile
• his FamilySearch profile