A Persian Prince in Chester

In reviewing the recently released 1940 U.S. Census records for any information which could be gleaned on the topic of Rock Springs Park, I came across a name which gave me pause. A man by the name of Raphael Emmanuel was shown to be living in a tourist home on Carolina Avenue in Chester, WV, when the census taker was completing his now 72-year old document. It was not so much Emmanuel’s name but a combination of several other factors which thoroughly engaged my curiosity. He was born in Turkey, had lived in Pasadena, CA at the time of the previous census, and gave his occupation as lecturer and writer.

Chester, at this time, was a stop on the coast-to-coast Lincoln Highway, so it would be reasonable to assume that perhaps he just happened to be staying at the tourist home on his way through town when the census was taken, but this explanation seemed unlikely. There had to be more to it.

Who was this guy and what was he doing in Chester?

My first search for Emmanuel led to some children’s books he authored in the 1940s. The books, labeled as “juvenile fiction” and with such titles as The Pasha of the Dessert and The Prince of Istanbul, tell of the Middle East, Persian Princes and camel caravans across the ancient lands of the Bible – Mesopotamia of old and Iran and Iraq of today.

Inside book cover of The Pasha of the Desert by Raphael Emmanuel.

It did not take long to discover that prior to his children’s book writing career, Raphael Emmanuel was most famous for speeches he gave across the country to Christian churches and public schools. He would appear dressed in the costume of his native land and recite his own original poems, sing traditional songs and share the many legends of his people.

Area newspapers record that he spoke at the Zion Evangelical Church in Rochester, PA on Sunday morning, August 11, 1940 and earlier at an evening event held in Youngstown’s Grace Lutheran Church on July 14 on the subject of “Bible Lands Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow.”


"Sheik Emmanuel traces his ancestry back to King Nebuchadnezzar and comes from the land of the Patriarch Abraham." Berleley, CA Daily Gazette, Oct. 21, 1933.




The tourist home in Chester where Emmanuel was a lodger was known as The Timothy House run by Carrie Timothy and located on the land now occupied by the Hancock County Savings and Loan.

The Reading Eagle on May 15, 1929 gives a good description of Emmanuel’s lecturing style. “Although of the real "sheik" type, Raphael did not rely solely upon his ‘good looks’ to sway his audience. This he accomplished with his native high-pitched voice in both speaking and singing. His native songs and legends of tribal life in Mesopotamia were outstanding features."

It seems then that the man who caught my eye on the 1940 census was also attracting the attention of thousands of others back in his day. He must have been quite a celebrity in a small town like Chester, comprised mostly of shop keepers and mill workers. One can almost picture the scene in which a beaming Miss Timothy tells the census taker, “Oh, the lodger in Number 3? Why he is none other than Sheik Emmanuel, the Persian Prince!”

The Reading Eagle of Nov. 24, 1939 states that Emmanuel "is a resident of Virginia and has been appearing in many churches of all denominations."

The Oxnard, CA Daily Courier July 15, 1921, explains that Emmanuel was indeed in California prior to his stay at The Timothy House in Chester, WV.

1940 Census, Part I: Clarence Durbin and Alvin and Hazel Babb

The 1940 census records were released online by the U.S. National Archives on Monday, April 2, 2012. The records, which include names, addresses, and income and employment information, are rich in personal details. It was interesting, for example, to find my own grandparents listed in the Chester, WV census and to see my father and his younger brother living as independents at ages 4 and 2. We all know our parents were kids once, but seeing this fact on an official government document crystallizes it some weird way. My grandfather’s occupation at the time was “manager retail drug store” and the value of his home was $4,000 or about $70,000 today. (Based on the dollar rate and not reflective of the property’s actual value.)

Fact: Census data for individuals is protected by privacy laws for 70 years after the census is conducted.

The records provide details into family history for genealogists, but they also are an important research tool for historians. By looking for the names of important individuals from the history of Rock Springs Park, I was able to uncover some interesting facts about which I was previously unaware.

One of the biggest surprises was the fact that a lot of folks who were involved with the park lived in my neighborhood. It’s no great revelation that workers in a small town amusement park were my neighbors, but I was not aware that a handful of them lived just a few doors down.

It should be noted that I was raised in the same house in which my father lived in 1940. My grandparents moved out of this house to the suburbs in the 1960s and our family moved in. My father was a pharmacist at the corner family drug store like his dad , and so our experiences growing up were not all that different. We swept and mopped in the store, stocked pill bottles, delivered hot meals to our dad on the job and passed the same houses on the way. And more often than not, these homes had the same families living in them in the 1970s who were listed on the census record in 1940.

Rock Springs Park photographer and the man whose pictures I have been studying and used in the book , Clarence O. Durbin, lived only two doors down. It was his father's house and Clarence, age 40 in 1940, lived there with his wife and son. Clarence’s dad, Elmer Durbin, at age 59 was listed as head of the household and was employed as a decorator and kiln operator in a local pottery. Meanwhile, Clarence worked as a “heater” in the local tin mill. Photography at that time was just a hobby for Clarence.

Two other Rock Springs Park notables were listed in our ward as well. Alvin and Hazel T. Babb rented an apartment around the block on Second Street. They actually met because of the park. The Salem News celebrated Hazel’s 100th birthday two years ago in an article released in May of 2010. She recalled, “I was born on May 22, 1910 in New Haven, West Virginia in a world vastly different from the world as we know it now. England had a king, the United States consisted of 46 states, William Taft was president and the Titanic had yet to sail. There were no televisions or computers. Heck, zippers didn’t exist yet in clothing. I moved to Chester, W.Va. and that’s when I met the love of my life at Rock Springs Park. Alvin was part of an orchestra playing at the dance hall. We spoke when the band had a break and I learned his band was leaving the next day for Spain. I asked if he would keep in touch and he replied that if I started dating him, he wouldn’t go. Needless to say, he stayed put.”

According to the 1940 census, Alvin worked at that time as a motor freight accountant. Alvin passed away in 1998 at “90 years young,” and his obituary tells us that he co-founded Y.E.L.P. Trucking service prior to World War II. A feature story about him appeared in The Youngstown Vindicator. In it, we learn that the Babbs lived and worked for most of their married lives in East Liverpool, Ohio, but in 1940, at least for a short time, they lived just around the corner in Chester.


Next time - The 1940 Census (Part II): The Finley Brothers and C.A. Smith.