Bulletproof Vest

By Kaley E. Brown

Catalog Number: 1991.003.04

Although this article of clothing looks like a standard 1930’s wool suit vest, it has a secret-- it’s actually armor.

Donated by the La Crosse Police Department, the Dunrite Bulletproof Vest was most likely manufactured in the mid 1920’s to the 1930’s. It was made by the Detective Publishing Company Chicago, one of the oldest and largest Police suppliers in America at the time. The vest itself is wool with four pockets on the front and black plastic buttons running down one side. The back does not follow the typical vest shape and is more rectangular. The front and back of the vest are connected by snaps at the shoulders as well as elastic straps on the sides to allow the size of the vest to be adjusted. Beneath the wool outer layer lies 15 pounds of metal to protect the wearer from any bullets shot their way.

These vests were popular for gangsters of the 1930’s because they were inconspicuous and were light enough to allow them to make a quick getaway. In fact, a Dunrite Bulletproof vest was found in the back of Bonnie and Clyde’s Ford V8 with a few bullet holes after the couple was finally apprehended in 1934. These vests that found themselves in the hands of gangsters were usually stolen from police officers. A former worker for the Detective Publishing Company, Elliott Wisbrod, took the Dunrite model and created his own version of the vest and patented it. He is rumored to have given vests to other famous gangsters like the notorious John Dillinger.

Though the name states the vest is bulletproof, it actually only offered minimal protection from the weapons of that era and would never stand up to the high powered bullets of today. The fine wool used for Dunrite vest shows that it was made to be seen, but also to discretely blend in with the style of the day. This very classy early body armor helped pave the way for the high tech Kevlar bulletproof vests that protect our officers today.  

This article was originally published in the La Crosse Tribune on October 16, 2016.

This object can be viewed in our online collections database by clicking here.

West Point Academy Dress Hat

By Kaley E. Brown

Catalog Number: 2016.fic.128

As part of my internship at the La Crosse County Historical Society I do research on artifacts in the collection. In our current survey of uniforms, we processed a box of military hats with absolutely no donation records. These items had possibly been saved many years previously for costuming purposes, put with collections, and forgotten.

Among them I found an undocumented West Point Military Academy dress hat. This classic 20th century hat is grey wool, with a black visor and a metal badge on the front with the West Point Academy coat of arms.  The hat contained a card with the name “David Dearman” written in a child’s hand writing and the name “Kirkegaard M” typed on the other side. I found Martin L Kirkegaard, class of 1958, on the West Point Alumni’s website and then wrote to him asking for information on how we acquired his hat. A week later I received a phone call from Washington State and began learning all about the interesting life and career of Martin Kirkegaard.

Mr. Kirkegaard’s father came to the U.S. when he was only 17 and they are direct descendants of the famous Danish philosopher Soren Kierkegaard. Mr. Kirkegaard graduated from West Point in 1958 and then went to infantry basic training and jump school before also going through flight school. He was then sent to Berlin for ground duty for a few months as part of the B Company 1st Battalion 19th Infantry. His company helped support the Berlin Brigade. He watched the Berlin wall be built and knew Checkpoint Charlie before it was called Checkpoint Charlie. Part of his duties included taking a convoy through East Germany a few nights a week and reporting on what he saw on the other side. He was stationed in Olsberg, Germany for the next few years. Afterwards, he came back to the U.S. and began flying Mohawk Aircrafts. He was then sent on his first tour in Vietnam as part of the 131st Surveillance Airplane Company. His company was one of the first to be sent over and they observed the construction of the Ho Chi Minh Trail. It was a dangerous job and Mr. Kirkegaard was the only pilot out of seven to return home. After two more tours in Vietnam, he was forced to retire in 1980 as a Lieutenant Colonel due reductions in the military during President Carter’s tenure.

After retirement, Mr. Kirkegaard held a variety of jobs, including 17 years with Boeing training mechanics how to service the 757 and 767 commercial airliners. He is now fully retired and is excited to travel back to West Point for his 60th reunion in two years.

But how did the hat end up in La Crosse if its owner resides in Washington? It turns out that West Point has a tradition of graduates throwing their hats in the air at the end of their graduation ceremony to symbolize the end of training and their new rank as second lieutenants. The children of the military personnel at the school then collect the hats and play with them. So David Dearman must have been the child who was lucky enough to get the hat of Mr. Martin Kirkegaard and then bring it to La Crosse years later. Even if we had found a deed of gift for this donation it would not have included the fascinating history of the man who wore it.  This just goes to show that by losing one thing, you may just find more than you expected.

This article was originally published in the La Crosse Tribune on October 8, 2016.  

This object can be viewed in our online collections database by clicking here.

Nott Steam Pumper

Peggy Derrick

Catalog Number: 1945.020.01

The Nott steam pumper fire engine, officially named the La Crosse, was purchased in 1905 for use at Station No. 1 at 414 State St. It cost the substantial sum of $5,000.

The La Crosse was pulled by two large horses, and it was capable of pumping 1,000 gallons each minute. Steam from the engine’s boiler provided the pressure to pump water from cisterns, or hydrants, into the fire hoses. Because the pumper had to be ready at all times, the boiler was kept warm by a special heater in the floor of the fire station while it was parked. Once at the fire, the boiler would be stoked with coal brought by a utility wagon.

Fire horses were trained to respond to fire alarms by dashing to their place in front of the wagon or steamer. An 1890 newspaper article described how the twice-daily event would draw a crowd of spectators to see the horses respond to the sound of a gong by rushing out of their stalls and running to their place in front of the fire trucks to be hitched.

With specially trained horses and quick-fastening harnesses, a fire alarm box at the corner of Third and Cass streets (six blocks away) could be answered by the State Street station in just 90 seconds.

The Nott Fire Engine Co. of Minneapolis supplied many Midwestern states with steam pumpers in the first decade of the 20th century. The largest manufacturer in the game, the International Fire Engine Co. of New York, made no secret of its intention to become a monopoly. Nott played David to the monopoly’s Goliath and survived, largely because of patronage from cities like La Crosse.

But steam pumper engines were all but obsolete by the 1920s thanks to gasoline-powered engines. In 1931, the fire chief requested that the Nott steam pumper be disposed of because it was obsolete. It was eventually transferred to the La Crosse Historical Society in 1945.

For many years it was driven in parades, and the last time the steam boiler was fired up was 1964, during Oktoberfest. Records show that “two dandy draft horses” pulled it in the 1962 Maple Leaf Parade, for example, but only after Robert A. Farnam, then-president of the La Crosse County Historical Society, gave it a “full-fledged test” by firing up the boiler.

This article was originally published in the La Crosse Tribune on September 24, 2016.

This object can be viewed in our online collections database by clicking here.