Harry J. Cable

Status: looking for family

In the last few posts, we dove into a large family tree, which ended with Mae A Cable, the daughter of George Hewitt, granddaughter of Mary Humphries Hewitt, and great granddaughter of Catherine Peterson Dolbow.

In Mae's post, we introduced her husband, Harry Cable, who she married around 1900 or possibly slightly before. Along with the photos of Mae, George, Mary, and Catherine (and a handful of others that have yet to be posted!), I found a photo of a baby, labeled "Harry Cable, my baby, 2 years". This, of course, is Mae's husband, Harry.

Harry was born on March 27, 1874 to Charles W Cable and Barbara Cole. Either Charles or Barbara labeled baby Harry's photo (my bets are on Barbara! See reverse of photo below) and noted that he was 2 years old at the time, meaning his portrait was taken about 1876.

He married Mae Hewitt on March 23, 1898 and, thanks to Newspapers.com, we are able to show you this:

Sure enough, on the 1900 census we find Harry, Mae, and their recently-born son George living in Wilmington, DE, but not at 706 King Street as the news clipping says - instead, they live at 401 Poplar, an address that appears not to exist any more (or at least the house doesn't exist!). The 1900 census says Harry works as a 'printer' which might align with the above clipping (which tells us Harry was the manager of the Advertising Department of The Sun), but it also aligns with this curious newspaper clipping:

Reverse of Harry’s photo

The article goes on about the case, but doesn't provide any other identifying information as to who this Harry J Cable is... it is our Harry, husband of Mae? According to their marriage notice, Harry was working at the newspaper at the time of their marriage, but only a few months later, by December of the same year, he is supposedly a proprietor for a printing company? Indeed, by the 1900 census he does list his profession as a printer...so perhaps in the short time span between March and December 1898 he had switched jobs?

What is strange, though, is that he apparently switched jobs again by the 1920 census. In 1920, he has apparently undertaken a new profession as a clerk at the "Dye Plant" - probably Dupont Dye Works in Carney's Point, NJ. And then, by 1930, he is apparently back to working at the newspaper!

All of this seems a little weird, and makes me question if we have the right Harry. After all, there was apparently at least one other Harry J Cable living around Wilmington at the same time: a Harry J Cable, engineer, also married to a Mary/Mae (nee Danser) who lived in Camden, NJ.

Rest assured, there could be an explanation as to why Harry had undertaken a job at the Dye Plant by 1920. According to a little newspaper clipping on 16 November 1916, Harry was elected Justice of the Peace in Upper Penns Neck. You'll recognize this town name, of course, from previous posts. It would seem that this is indeed our Harry. Perhaps he was discouraged from retaining his job in media once he became a public official; or perhaps this was an unpaid position, albeit one that he deeply desired, and so he undertook a job with the biggest employer in the area just to pay the bills? After all, the clipping even mentions Dupont:

In 1921, Harry and Mae moved their family back over the river to Delaware, settling in 'The Strand'. You may remember from Mae's post the beautiful brick house they occupied.

That's the house we find them living at in the 1930 census, the last census Harry appears in.

Harry died seven years later, in 1937. I'll let the news tell the rest of his story:

So there you have it folks: Harry undertook a job with Dupont Dye Works not to simply pay the bills but probably to support the war effort.

It's still unclear where Harry was in 1910 - one obituary notes that for a brief time he worked for a Philadelphia newspaper, though no Harry Cable was found in the 1910 census living in Philadelphia. As for Harry the proprietor of the printing company? That mystery is still unsolved. But what we do know is that Harry, the little 2 year old in the found photo, had quite the life.

See Harry's FindAGrave here.