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William G. & Lula Stein Laurenson William
G. Laurenson (1880 - 1967) who according to his obituary was born in
Kansas City of Irish descent and died in Dallas, Texas; however
according to his World War II draft registration card, he was born in
Irvington, New York. He and his wife would be buried in Fairview
Cemetery, Denison, Texas although neither one of them ever lived in
Grayson County.
Lula Laurenson (1881 - 1951) was the daughter of wealthy Austin, Texas residents, Isaac and Eliza Stein; Isaac owned a jewelry store on Congress Avenue. Lula's four siblings were Minette (1877-1942), Wildley Alphonse (1878-1944), Carrie (1883-1928) and May (1885-1970). Isaac Stein died in his store on December 21, 1897 as the result of a heart attack. Eula and her five children continued to live in Austin until 1904. Carrie Stein married her childhood sweetheart, Howard G. Howland, in 1903 in East St. Louis, where his family had moved from Austin to Mexico City in 1897, not to see each other again until the week of their marriage. In 1899 Howard returned to Texas from Old Mexico to enlist in the 33rd Regiment, Texas Volunteers Co. E and sail to the Philippines to fight for his country. After his service, Howard remained in Manila where he found work. Then he wrote Carrie Stein asking her that age-old question and soon Howard moved to East St. Louis where his family had moved in the meantime. After starting a career as an electrician for a large packing house, he and Carrie were married in November 1903. (St. Louis Dispatch, November 19, 1903, pg. 1) By 1916 the Howland family had moved to Parsons, Kansas (1916 Parsons, Kansas City Directory) and then to Bakersfield, California by 1922. In 1928 Carrie Stein Howland was living only with her son, Granville H. Howland, Jr.; she died February 9, 1928 and is buried in an unmarked grave at the historic Union Cemetery in Bakersfield, California.  Three months after Carrie's death, Granville Howland, Sr. announced his intention to marry in the Los Angeles Times.
 In 1905 Eliza and her four other children were listed as living at the same address in the 1905 Dallas City Directory. In 1906 May, the youngest child and daughter, married Joseph Pinkney Thomas, a co-worker at E.M. Kahn, Dallas' oldest clothing store. They remained in Dallas and reared eight children. By 1910 Eliza, Minette, Wildley Alphonse "Al" were living in separate residences in Dallas; but by 1912 all three were again living together in Ft. Worth where Minette and Al were stenographers. Living at the same address as the Stein family was Roy Van Campen, recently arrived from Indiana and a bookkeeper for August A. Busch & Co., the American brewing company. Minette and Roy, who was 10 years her junior, married and shortly thereafter Roy took a job as bookkeeper at Denison's Crystal Ice Co.; about five years later Roy became the bookkeeper and treasurer for Munson Realty Co. Eliza moved with her daughter and son-in-law to Denison where they lived at three or four different addresses before Roy's death in 1925. Roy was the first member of the family to be buried in Fairview Cemetery in Denison. Lula visited them at least once from Kansas in 1919 when they were living at 1315 W. Sears St. Al was married for a short time to Anyce (Anice) D. Stein with whom he had one child, Aubrey Alphonse Stein (1904 -1964). Wildley's World War I draft registration lists him as a stenographer for Gulf Refining Co. in Port Arthur in 1918. In 1920 he was listed as "widowed" and working as a stenographer in Beaumont while Ancye Stein is listed as "widow of Al" in the 1920 Dallas City directory, so evidently the couple was divorced sometime between 1914 and 1920. Lee Stein, Eliza's unmarried sister, had moved from Austin to San Antonio by 1900 where she and her mother were living when her mother died in 1914. Lee B. Stein was listed as a doctor's assistant in the 1926 San Antonio City Directory. According to the 1929 Denison City Directory, Eliza and her widowed daughter were joined by her divorced son, Al, and Eliza's unmarried sister, Lee Beauregard Stein. The 1930 census for Denison lists Al as a secretary for a lumber company in Denison. The four of them lived from late 1920s until their deaths at 317 N. Scullin Ave., Denison. Within a few years the rest of the Stein family died and were buried at Fairview Cemetery - Minette in 1942; Al Stein in 1944; and their mother, Eliza, in 1945. Lee Stein lived alone in the house for less than two months before succumbing to "cerebral apoplexy"; her body was returned to Austin for burial in the same cemetery as her parents. Lula Stein moved to Kansas City around 1908, where she met and married William G. Laurenson December 7, 1912. The Laurensons incorporated the Non-Spi (or NonSpi) Deodorant Company in 1914. Advertisements for the product appeared in newspapers and magazines early on and could still be found in 1951. NonSpi Co. was located on Walnut St. in Kansas City, Missouri. The antiseptic liquid was advertised as unscented and containing no artificial coloring matter; only two applications per week were needed. The Laurensons sold the company in 1930. 
The
Antigua bottle below was stumbled upon on Labor Day weekend 2020
at Post Oak Creek. The bottle was in good condition except for
wear from rocks and gravel, with the original stopper still inside.
When examination of the bottle was done, a "letter" was seen to
be inside the bottle, wet and wedged inside the neck of the bottle.
When the paper was carefully removed with tweezers and unfolded,
the paper wasn't a letter at all, but instead a Merchants &
Planters National Bank check dated May 22, 1931 during the Great
Depression and signed by Phil Bennet in the amount of $200.00. On the front page of the Sherman Daily Democrat dated May 14, 1922 is a full page advertisement for Keith's Drug Store on page 5. The owner had just installed an up-to-date and sanitary Soda Fountain; the readers were invited to visit the store on Wednesday, May 17, 1922. On the left side of page 5 is an small advertisement for Nonspi deodorant. The
bottle has a kidney shape indention on one side and is flat on the
other side with "Nonspi" embossed on each side of the bottle.
The bottle had its original rubber stopper. Nonspi was a deodorant product for women. From The Nonspi Co. advertisement: Inside the bottle was the wet Merchants & Planters National Bank check, dated May 22, 1931.    The couple moved to their home
in Kansas City, Missouri, located at 1216 W. 60th Terrace, in 1925,
which was five or six miles south of downtown. Lula Stein
Laurenson died in Kansas City in 1951 but her body was shipped to
Denison, Texas, and buried alongside her mother and siblings in Fairview
Cemetery.  Lula's
will was filed in the probate court of Jackson County, Missouri, in
1952, with her estate valued at more than $1.5 million (in 2017
dollars). The bulk of her estate went to a trust for the benefit
of
her husband, a sister in Dallas, and other relatives. Later that
same
year William moved to Dallas, Texas, to live out the remaining 15
years of his life. W.G. Laurenson died in 1967 and was buried in
Fairview Cemetery at Denison as well.    Biography Index Susan Hawkins © 2024 If you find any of Grayson County TXGenWeb links inoperable, please send me a message. |
