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Ferguson St., Ed Brackins, 1953

Remember the mystery of Ed Crackins-or-Drackins? I passed a clear stamp tonight, on the west side of Ferguson Street just north of Vine, that solves it. The name is Brackins. I’m sorry this is so dark, but there wasn’t a near enough street lamp, and attempts to capture it with a flash washed it out entirely.

“Brackins” is a more plausible reading of the previous stamp I found than “Crackins,” since the letter isn’t round enough on the left side to be a C. The classifieds I turned up advertising for Ed Crackins were probably OCR glitches, because I can find similar ones spanning the same time period (the 1950s through early 1970s), and more importantly using the same phone number, for Ed Brackins.

On October 29, 1958, the [Lansing] State Journal ran a piece titled “Career Events Set.” The Iota Phi Lambda business women’s sorority and the NAACP were sponsoring a program titled “Careers – Unlimited” at the Friendship Baptist church at 925 West Main Street. (That address appears to have been obliterated by I-496.) The article goes on to list all the professionals who would be providing information at the career fair, and one of them is cement contractor Ed Brackins.

The dates involved suggest that this could be Edward E. Brackins, Sr., 1912-1983, buried in Chapel Hill Memorial Gardens in DeWitt (according to Find a Grave). That is just a guess, however, since I can’t find his obituary.

I’m standing over the stamp here, though it isn’t visible, and facing southwest toward Vine Street.
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N. Fairview Ave., Herb Riebow, 1953

I was delighted to find this pair of stamps on the west side of North Fairview Avenue between Fernwood and Saginaw. Why? Because they solved a previous mystery. I had found another Herb Riebow stamp on Vine Street, but was unable to fully read the last name.

The northern stamp.

Unfortunately, I can tell you little about Herb Riebow besides that he existed. The Traverse City Record-Eagle of April 10, 1947, reports that Mr. and Mrs. Herb Riebow of Lansing were in town staying with relatives, having been driven from their home by flooding. From this I infer that they must have lived near the river. The 1940 census places the Riebows in Ward 7, but I confess I don’t know where that would have been. Lansing currently has only four wards.

The southern stamp. Interestingly, they both face in the same direction, instead of opposing each other as is more usual for paired stamps.

The August 4, 1953, Lansing State Journal reports that “Herbert Riebow of Lansing was awarded a contract to install curb and gutter on S. Cedar St. in front of the new West Side grade school, and a sidewalk on the west side of S. Cedar, between Columbia and W. Ash, extending from Ash to the school, and also down the south side of Ash to connect with the existing walk.” Later in the 1950s and early 1960s, however, I find a few scattered classified ads suggesting that Riebow was now in the real estate business instead.

Looking north on Fairview with the southern stamp at lower right. The other stamp is on the next block.

Herbert S. Riebow is buried in Deckerville, having died in 1993 at the age of 84. Obituaries are often a useful source of information on people’s businesses, but they don’t seem to have run one in the Lansing State Journal and I don’t have access to the Deckerville Recorder.

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Lathrop St., DPS, 1953

I found another DPS stamp. Like the others, it’s from the 1950s. It’s on the east side of Lathrop Street between Prospect and Eureka.

It snowed today, so this is the best I could do. At least the S is very prominent!
The stamp is on the next one past the stamp with the ridges. I included the fire hydrant for context, and some late holiday lights in the upper left corner as a bonus. I went this way specifically because I knew there were still some lights on this street.
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S. Clemens Ave., DPS, 1953

This is another DPS stamp, on the east side of South Clemens Avenue between Prospect and Michigan. I don’t have much to say about it. I’m trying to figure out the time period for these, but this is only the second one I’ve found.

Looking north on South Clemens. The stamp is right at the bottom edge.