STOYLE & LEE Carpenters & Builders US lookup

[001uk]

He wasn't a good speller, or at least his sign maker wasn't.

Don't you think it's too tall to be a utility pole?

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I have looked for Edward Stoyle in 1920 on Ancestry.  No luck.  And I haven't found any immigration record for him, either.

He might have been one P short of a pod but good at carpentry!
I don't think the "pole" is a utility pole as it narrows towards the top and is an irregular shape...although I stand corrected.

[001uk]

“I had these done 4 months ago, purposely to send you, the chance came and I took the opportunity to have them done, just to show what Sally? wrote home to say Tom was manager of at 10 £ a week, she is the bloodiest liar.  Ted”


Does this say Sally?  And who would she have been?  Ted’s wife?  Tom’s wife?  Or maybe a sister?

Yes, it does look like Sally.Not sure what else it could be as it's clearly someone's name.
It's odd the way he's written the amount of Sterling. Any Briton would write it £10 and not 10 £

[johnnyboy]

I have also just noticed metal pegs running up the "bare tree trunk" directly facing, taking over where the wooden steps finish.

There is no pole at the right! At the far edge there's a lot of ivy growing up to where the leaves start. This is a building.

Thanks for your continued interest~Paul

Sorry, I meant the left side of the photo. I wanted an enlargement of the pole to see if there were any spikes in it or other telltale signs of the telephone pole. But your mention of metal pegs seems to confirm that it is a telephone pole.

If this photo is from 1910 or earlier or depicts something put in five years or so earlier than when it was taken, then I would wouldn't be too concerned about the tapering. I notice blemishes on the pole that remind of the blemishes on wooden telephone poles in the U.S. These poles are usually cedar, and this looks like the trunk of a cedar.

But if you can enlarge the pole itself, we  might get a better look at the dark blemishes (probably where branches grew from the trunk).

John  

[001uk]

Yes, it was obvious that the sign maker did the work too "promtly."

The only thing that makes me question whether it's a telephone pole is that it appears to a little crooked--to the right. But that could be an effect created by the tree foliage.

It is crooked furthermore at the top it becomes about half the diameter of the base.Would telephone poles been used that were so irregular? OR was it a dead tree that the phone company decided to utilise?!

[johnnyboy]

It is crooked furthermore at the top it becomes about half the diameter of the base.Would telephone poles been used that were so irregular? OR was it a dead tree that the phone company decided to utilise?!

If it were a dead tree, it would have to have been hardwood. And it would have had to be dead for some time but not rotted.

If you look at it in relation to the sidewalk, it was put next to or appears to have grown directly next to the sidewalk.

I think it might have been a temporary pole put in by the telephone company, using an irregular shaped pole. That's what the guy wires are there for. To keep it stable. Above, you mentioned wires: I see one spiraled twice around the pole, but I also see what appear to be two wires above the roofline of the house. These are pulled taught and are running straight. They look like actual telephone wires.

Perhaps we can't see the crossbars of the pole. They might be small and hidden by the dark of the foliage.

I also noticed that the sidewalk is light in color, like recently poured concrete. Older neighborhoods in New York, particularly in Brooklyn, had (and still have) bluestone sidewalks. These are made with 3 foot by 4 foot slabs with a dark, bluish hue, hence the name. You can still trip and kill yourself in my old neighborhood in Brooklyn on those sidewalks. But not all streets in the same neighborhood would have had these bluestone sidewalks.

What we need is to find Edward (Ted) Stoyle in the U.S. or in the U.K.

[Erato]

I’m not convinced we should be looking for an Edward/Ted Stoyle.  From the information in the postcard we know that:

1)  Tom was the manager of Stoyle and Lee.  So I think we can assume that Tom was either Tom Stoyle or Tom Lee because the business doesn’t lookk big enough to have had a manager who was not one of the owners.   We don’t know Tom’s nationality.

2)  Sally, whoever she was, must have been British because it says that she wrote home.  Ted was also apparently British and, whoever he was, knew Sally well enough to know what she had said in that letter.  He also knew the layout of the shop.

3)  We don’t know who the man in the photo is.  It could be either Tom or Ted [or possibly even someone else].

[johnnyboy]

I think this is a case of she said, he said. Ted called Sally a liar, which means either that Tom is not manager of Stoyle and Lee or that he does not earn 10 pounds per week.

If Sally's lie is about Tom being the manager, then perhaps Ted is or is not the manager. If Ted is lying in saying that Sally is lying, then Tom could be the manager.

Ted could be Ted (Edward) Stoyle or another Ted.

The one post by Ambra confirms the existence of an Edward Stoyle, who worked as a carpenter and apparently came to the U.S. after 1904 and before 1910.

I only suggest finding Ted (Edward) Stoyle because it normally would be easier to trace than Tom Lee.

[001uk]

Tree/pole at left herewith. Hope it's a high enough res to see.Took several atempts to chop it down in size.
The tree is in a small area of turf/mud. The actual pavement does look a little like fresh concrete but it's exposure doesn't help.

[Erato]

It certainly looks like a dead trunk and it has foot things on the side, so I agree that it's a utility pole.