Sioux Falls, Circa 1927:

A Portrait of a Prosperous, Mature

 & Relatively Cosmopolitan Urban  Community

and A Few Footnotes on Its Ethnic Diversity

Stephen R. Cusulos

Thursday, April 24, 2014,

10:00 am  - 12:00  noon

University Center

4801 North Career Avenue

Sioux Falls, S. D.

 

The decade between the First World War  which end in 1919 and the stock-market crash of 1929 is generally known as The Roaring ‘20’s.  Sometimes this period is referred to as The Jazz Age.  And it has also been called  The Age of Electricity.  Or The Era of the Automobile. It was an era when consumer-culture came of age – along with mass-market advertizing techniques. We can also think of this period as the Age of the Great Transform, a time when the our nation moved away from its agricultural base to become an urban centered society.  Or as The Age of the Great Migrations, when many African-Americans moved from the rural South to the industrialized cities of the North. Finally, we might view the 1920’s as “the age of the flapper” (when free-spirited young women bobbed the hair, wore lose-fitting, low-cut dresses, and danced “the shimmy” –  which some members of the older-generation associated with “low morals”).

When taken together, the various labels used to describe the 1920’s suggest that it was a time period characterized by significant societal  changes taking place on numerous fronts and across the county.  Newsreels and popular magazines from the time also suggest that the new ways of life and life-styles tended to tended to be moret prominent in  the larger urban centers like a Chicago or New York City.  But what about a place like Sioux Falls.  Given it was “the metropolis” of one of the most rural states in the union, the question comes to mind as to whether or to what degree the winds of social, cultural and economic change might have come “roaring” into the city.  In other words: “Was the Sioux Falls of 1927 align with the forces of modernism which had swept across much of the nation? Or did the city remain a providential outpost of a bygone era?” 

This question can only be addressed by digging deep down into the historical records.  And what those records clearly reveal is that by 1927, Sioux Falls had to a large extent become a prosperous, mature, and relatively cosmopolitan  urban  center, not unlike many  a big  city.  But though it was like many a big city in that that it was characterized by significant economic and social stratification, there is overwhelming evidence that in terms of ethnic diversity Sioux Falls was much more open and inclusive than some of its larger urban brethren. 

The presentation on Sioux Falls, Circa 1927 will use a wide variety of the primary sources-documents to create a “historical portrait” of the city illustrating the ways it had grown and developed during the decade. Vintage photographs, postcards, and historic maps and newspaper ads from the Argus-Leader and the Sioux Falls Daily Press will be used to create a visual understanding of the city in and around 1927. And demographic data and other types of information gleaned press-clippings, city business directories, census documents and governmental publications of the 1920’s will be used to provide an economic and social overview of the city and the conditions within which residents lived and worked.  

It should be noted that the up-coming  presentation at the University Center will be in the form of a power point slide-lecture and will last about two hours.  There will be a fifteen minute break at the midway point and time will be reserved at the end of the program for questions and discussion. The presentation is free and open  to the public and is design for anyone who might have an interest in or curiosity about South Dakota and its history. The  University  Center is located northwest of quadrant of the city just south of West 60^th Street North and several blocks west of I-29 (exist #83).   There is amble free parking.

Sioux Falls, Circa 1927 is not completed a study; but rather a work in progress.  A first draft for this study was presented as a public program for the Old Courthouse Museum, Sioux Falls in the Fall of 2013. The research for the study would have been seriously limited without access to the archives of the museum and the assistance and support of the museum’s staff.

Sioux Falls Circa 1927 is of a larger, long term research project entitled:

Assimilation, Integration and Diversity:

An Exploration of the Lesser Known Ethnic Communities

Rooted in the History of South Dakota

(for more information, email grassrootsminnesota

This presentation is part of the spring program series offered by the Osher Life Long Learning Institute, Sioux Falls

The Mohammedans of Sioux Falls

The ‘Mohammedans’ of Sioux Falls, 1900 – 1920:

 From Peddlers to Grocers

A Public Lecture*

by Stephen R. Cusulos

Thursday, October 24, 2013

7:00 p.m. – 8:30 p.m.

Gilbert Science Center, Room 100

Augustana College

Free and open to the public

This presentation will explore the growth and development of the Syrian/Lebanese community of Sioux Falls, a commun-ity that had its beginnings over one hundred years ago.  This community was unified to some degree by a common language (Arabic), a common homeland (the area of the Middle-East that is now Lebanon), common customs (food, music, “a gift for gab”), common occupational proclivities (from peddlers to grocers). And it would appear these common roots led to common bonds; this despite the fact that the community was bifurcated religiously. On one hand, there were families with roots in Christianity (primarily in the Eastern Orthodox Church); on the other, there were those whose religious lineage was “Mohammedan” (an antiquated term then used instead of “Muslim”). The focus of The ‘Mohammedans’ of Sioux Falls will be on those for whom the Koran was the common book of prayer. But given the commonalities within the community, the discussion will sometimes make reference to the larger community of “peddlers and grocers”.

A Presentation Preview:

Census documents from 1900 reveal Sioux Falls experienced what might best be described as An Invasion of the Peddlers. Over fifty were recorded. According to the census documents, all seemed to have been recent immigrants.  And under “place of birth”, we find Syrian, Assyrian, and Turkey.  By South Dakota standards, their names were somewhat odd: Mohamed Chmme, Mohamed Hash, Abraham Salem, Joseph Alex, Joseph Odga, Ameal Abdella, Assam Hammod, and Assine Farras, among others (and magnified by the fact that the spelling is sometimes hard to decipher).  What is also somewhat odd is that most of these persons whom we’ve identified as peddlers seem to have been “Mohammedans.”  (A fact that can be evidenced through various kinds of cross-referencing with primary source documents).  And there is something else that might seem a little odd: in 1903, six of the thirteen dry-goods stores located in downtown were owned by individuals from the Middle-East, and of those six stores, four were owned by persons whom we can indentify as being “Mohammedans”: The Dahrouge Bros.; Hasen Kareeb; Mahadeen & Asankie and Rashed Sweiden.

Among the non-Muslim immi-grants during these early years were the Nemir Bros. (Frank, David, Paul, and Abe) who were engaged both in “peddling” and in the dry goods business. They ran a store at 223 South Phillips, a location which would become incorporated into the site for the Carpenter Hotel.

The photo to the right was taken in or about 1900 and presents David Nemir with his peddlers-wagon. Around this time, such a wagon would have been a typical form of transportation used by peddlers when they traveled out into rural farming communities. The photo was taken directly in front of the Pay Building, which still stands at or about 124 South Phillips Avenue in downtown Sioux Falls.  

David Nemir in front of the Pay Building (Photograph courtesy of Rob Nemir)

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