In 1811 Alexander Bowman Reed paddled his birch bark canoe up the west branch of the Susquehanna River into central Pennsylvania. He was there to survey the land for some business people in Philadelphia in the newly formed county of Clearfield. The name of the county was most likely derived from the many cleared fields of the valleys formed by the bison herds and also by old corn fields of prior Native Americans tribes. The heavily forested land quickly gave rise to a timber industry. Of which Alexander quickly bought several thousand acres of. And became very wealthy from.
Alexander's son, George Latimer Reed, carried on the timber business and also prospered greatly. By 1870 George was a modern day millionaire. Making sure the family would continue their status in the future, he sent his sons, Frank and George, to a private all-male preparatory school in New Jersey. One of the oldest preparatory schools in the United States was in Lawrenceville. It was founded in 1810 as the Maidenhead Academy by a Presbyterian clergyman named Isaac Van Arsdale Brown. As early as 1828, the school attracted students from Cuba and England, as well as from the Cherokee Nation. It had several names, including the Lawrenceville Classical and Commercial High School, the Lawrenceville Academy, and the Lawrenceville Classical Academy, before its current name, "The Lawrenceville School," in 1883.
Alexander's son, George Latimer Reed, carried on the timber business and also prospered greatly. By 1870 George was a modern day millionaire. Making sure the family would continue their status in the future, he sent his sons, Frank and George, to a private all-male preparatory school in New Jersey. One of the oldest preparatory schools in the United States was in Lawrenceville. It was founded in 1810 as the Maidenhead Academy by a Presbyterian clergyman named Isaac Van Arsdale Brown. As early as 1828, the school attracted students from Cuba and England, as well as from the Cherokee Nation. It had several names, including the Lawrenceville Classical and Commercial High School, the Lawrenceville Academy, and the Lawrenceville Classical Academy, before its current name, "The Lawrenceville School," in 1883.
Lawrenceville Prep in the 1880s
Frank, thirteen years senior to George, returned to Clearfield after graduating from Easton College. He would become sole owner and proprietor over the Clearfield Machine Shops and Foundry. The foundry was formerly the Bigler Reed & Company and partly owned by his father. The Biglers were also in-laws of the Reeds.
When George B. Reed finished preparatory school he returned home to work for his older brother in the machine shops. But, after a couple years he moved to nearby Williamsport and went into the furniture business. It was called Chambers Megahan & Reed.
The existence of fire clay in Clearfield county was discovered as early as 1833. Like coal, however, the manufacture of fire brick (refractories used for lining steel furnaces and for other high heat purposes) did not flourish until railroad transportation was available to eastern markets. In the same year that the first rail line reached Clearfield, 1869, fire clay mining and shipment began at Woodland four miles east of the town of Clearfield. The mining industry in Clearfield county is confined almost entirely to coal and the fire clay located underneath of it. By 1900 George had returned to be Superintendent of one of the clay mines of his brother's company.
Clearfield Clay Works Foundry
Over the next 25 years George ran clay and coal operations at the clay works. Finally, at 60 years old he retired from the everyday grind. Fortunately, his wealth carried him through the depression in good shape. In the 1930 census it shows him living in a nearly $400,000 home in the town of Clearfield.
In 1929 something prompted George to invent a new playing card. His revolutionary design was a concave sided card to make it easier to hold a hand of up to thirteen cards.
In 1929 something prompted George to invent a new playing card. His revolutionary design was a concave sided card to make it easier to hold a hand of up to thirteen cards.
The Standard Playing Card Company (SPCC) of Chicago bought his idea to produce. Using the design shown as Figure #1 in his patent SPCC created the New Era Playing Card #665. The Encyclopedia of American Playing Cards lists this deck as O24 NEW ERA CONCAVE PLAYING CARDS, Standard Playing Card Co., Chicago, Ill., 1929. The shape is unusual and the deck is difficult to handle.
This Deck Has A 1929 Tax Stamp On It
The new shape did not really catch on. It appears that SPCC transferred/sold/gave the design to the Chicago Playing Card Company very soon after.
The Chicago Playing Card Company was incorporated by John Magnus in 1930 with only $1,000 of stock. John Magnus & Co of Chicago was one of the largest buyers of domestic pottery and glassware in the West at the time. He was also known as a mail order company. In 1920 Magnus purchased a five story warehouse for his business on the south side of Thirty-fifth street just west of Morgan.
1039-1047 West Thirty-fifth Street
I have an undated letter from the Chicago Card Company announcing their new cards coming out on the market. I have only proven the company was in existence for three years. If anyone has more information I would appreciate being contacted. I have not yet found a New Era deck with Chicago Playing Card Company on it yet.
The cards mentioned in the letter also appear in a Chicago Playing Card Company brochure.
Undated Chicago Playing Card Brochure
Also mentioned in the newspaper ad and letter is Cell-U-Tone/Celutone. Standard Playing Card Company copyrighted that name. But that's another story.
RESPONSE TO THE STORY
Shortly after posting this story I had an interesting response from a Pre-1950 Playing Card Facebook group member.
Laherte Guerra
I presume "New Era" also was printed by the USPCC after Standard PCC's 1930 final merger into the Consolidated-Dougherty Card Co., which might account for the quick substitution of the far more common anonymous AoS (replicated in miniature on the joker), showing a "M" letter-code for the year 1930 on the example below, copied from the WWPCM, and also on the pack I own. Are those cards known with printing codes for any subsequent year?
On a distinct aspect, the letterhead of the Chicago PC Co. reproduced on your website depicts the standard court cards of the Arrow/Arrco PCC: I guess in the hypothesis the former had some corporative connection with the USPCC, which controlled both SPCC and Consolidated-Dougherty, it would not have used designs from a competitor that way. This fact, allied to the absence of mention to Chicago PCC in the Hochman Encyclopedia as a card manufacturer in that period, makes me suppose it was a mere distributing business. On the other hand, is it possible that company was linked with the also Chicago-based Arrow/Arrco?
Laherte Guerra
I presume "New Era" also was printed by the USPCC after Standard PCC's 1930 final merger into the Consolidated-Dougherty Card Co., which might account for the quick substitution of the far more common anonymous AoS (replicated in miniature on the joker), showing a "M" letter-code for the year 1930 on the example below, copied from the WWPCM, and also on the pack I own. Are those cards known with printing codes for any subsequent year?
On a distinct aspect, the letterhead of the Chicago PC Co. reproduced on your website depicts the standard court cards of the Arrow/Arrco PCC: I guess in the hypothesis the former had some corporative connection with the USPCC, which controlled both SPCC and Consolidated-Dougherty, it would not have used designs from a competitor that way. This fact, allied to the absence of mention to Chicago PCC in the Hochman Encyclopedia as a card manufacturer in that period, makes me suppose it was a mere distributing business. On the other hand, is it possible that company was linked with the also Chicago-based Arrow/Arrco?
Thank you Laherte. Maybe more information will soon turn up from other collectors.