Tuesday, May 26, 2009

Okay, so I got interested in searching. I think actually it's GOULDER not GOULDEN (I can't always read the old copperplate).

There are no Charles GOULDEN listed for Cleveland. But there wass a Charles Goulder in 1900 Cleveland.

He was in real estate. Of course, "my" Charles could just as well have been his son and been a student. Or perhaps the real-estate-Charles had made enough money in his career to indulge an interest in buying books.

And this may have been a commercial building he owned. (It looks sad now; it seems that part of Cleveland has gone downhill. It's what used to be called Superior Avenue. Poor old Charles; I'm sure he'd hate to see what had become of the building he had an addition made to in 1911. If it is even the Charles Goulder who owned the books I now own)

I'll never know. But it's interesting to speculate.

And, the internet being what it is? If you know someone - or are someone - who was related to Mr. Goulder, and know something about him, I'd LOVE to know it. All I know is that he either lived in (or perhaps went to school in) Cleveland, Ohio in 1891 and 92, and he bought at least a few Shakespeare plays. (I wonder if there was originally an entire set, and I just got the ones that were left. Oh, to be able to reassemble the hypothetical complete set! Yes, I do tend to have somewhat quixotic dreams)

1 comment:

Charlotte said...

Is there a way to search the Cleveland phone directory? Years ago there was a WhitePages site you could access but I don't know if it still exists. My thought is you might find a listing for a Goulder and could contact them either via phone or a note.