If you enjoy history and education then you may already know Charles Dison Koch. He was a Pennsylvanian educator, farmer, and author who co-authored The Weber-Koch-Moran series of arithmetic in 1925, with Katherine Ellen Moran Samuel Edwin Weber as well as an autobiography of another then-popular educator. This series became an important part of American education.
I have a box that I inherited from my grandfather's estate that he inherited from his father. It contains photos, correspondence from many people, many pages of writings as well as rough drafts and research done of the autobiography that he had written, bills, rent receipts from 1908-1911, PA driver license from '31, '35, '42, '54, war rations, Military photos, 1947 tax bill in an envelope marked 1917, and other stuff all the way down to the well-used rubber stamp with his name on it.
There are a lot of items in this collection, 508 images to be exact. Everything from postcards to rough draft papers and research papers. When my grandfather passed away I discovered a box with all of these things that had been saved since the 1700s including a couple of hand-painted bibles that are really big and really heavy.
I'm going to break this up into multiple posts because otherwise, it would get overwhelming like it was taking all of the photos for this post!
If you'd like to look, here are the links to his books on Amazon and AbeBooks
I'm going to start out with his photos so you can see the man himself. He seems all fit and proper but behind that is a hard-working guy living on and farming 134 acres. As far as I know, these are the only known images of him.
Sadly there is no date on this, that I have found yet. All it says on the back is "Charles Dison Koch"
This picture was taken when he was still a Bucknell student sometime in the 1890s. Notice the tennis racket above his desk. He instilled a love of tennis in his son who then passed it on to my grandfather. Every day I can remember my grandfather would play tennis. They say it's great for your body and my grandfather passed away at 98 so he was doing something right!
Again, CD as a student still earning his education at Bucknell University. Either this photo was taken on the same day, or he had the same haircut and suit on in the last photo. Or, he only liked that suit? The back of the photo says "Charles D. Koch, possibly at Bucknell graduation in 1898"
I don't have a date but I can only assume this is after his college days because my great grandfather is still young. The back says "Charles and Fannie Carlisle Koch and son John"
Just the way he holds himself and dresses makes me think he must have been a cool professor to have.
Charles Dison Koch, June 24th 1936
May 7th 1937. I don't know who she is. The photo only shows the date and says "Uncle Charles Koch" Could be Fannie? I don't know.
No date, sometime in the late '30s I think. This photo reminds me of some mafia guy standing guard outside a hospital lol
No Date on this one but I'm going to say the mid-'40s?
That is the end of the photos that I have of him.
I will be releasing updates in this order:
- Photos of Charles Dison Koch
- Receipts from 1900s
- Postcards, Stamps, and Envelopes
- Driver Licenses
- Typed papers and letters (Photos) I will type out and post each one individually in a separate series.
- War Ration books
- Utility Bills
- The Torch Club
- The Leather Journal
- The Bison Club
- Religion
- Bucknell
- Newspaper Clippings
- Miscellaneous photos and memories.
You can use this first post in this series as the main menu for this series if you've missed any in the past. Just come to the bottom here to see more.
Thanks for reading!
That’s it for this update, make sure you follow me if you want to keep up on the rest of the series. Thanks for reading!
Please note, these images may not be reproduced, copied, or used in any way without my consent.
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Here is a sneak peek at my next post
Wow, how much would three days in the Hospital cost you today?
