Stephen Lee Ely

BAWDEN, ELY, MONTEMAYOR, VILLAREAL, GILPIN

Posted By: Carol Bawden (email)
Date: 4/3/2007 at 14:13:59

STEPHEN LEE ELY, youngest son of Mary Elizabeth Bawden and Samuel Leander Ely, born 2 January 1905 in Davenport, Scott County, Iowa, seven months after his father’s death. He was brought up by his mother and grandmother in his grandparent’s home (Stephen Douglas Bawden) on 1315 E. 11th St. (4th Avenue originally).

“Lee” is remembered by his school friends as being very popular, a near genius in his studies and could play on the piano any tune he heard. He and Bix Biederbecke attended Davenport High School together and they shared many friends.

He earned his Bachelor of Arts, Master of Arts, and PhD from the University of Wisconsin at Madison. He was also a member of Kappa Sigma social fraternity and Phi Beta Kappa national honor society. He became Associate Professor of Philosophy and taught there for 15 years. During this time, he wrote the controversial book “Religious Availability of Whitehead’s God” and numerous reviews and articles in the field of philosophy.

In 1945, Lee Ely married Bertha Montemayor in Chicago, Cook County, Illinois. She was born 15 June 1921 in San Antonio, Bexar County, Texas, the daughter of Gustav Octavius and Elvira Villarreal Montemayor, About 1926, the Montemayor family moved to Janesville, Rock County, Wisconsin where Gustav worked for the Parker Pen Company. Bertha attended Janesville schools and the University of Wisconsin/Madison where she met Lee.

They had one child

Elizabeth Montemayor Ely, b 30 July 1945 in Madison, Dane County, Wisconsin.

Stephen Lee Ely died 7 May 1947 in Madison of cancer. His cremains are interred in Roselawn Memorial Park, 601 E. Broadway, Monona, Wisconsin. For two weeks after Dr. Ely’s death, the flag over the university was flown at half-mast for this talented and beloved teacher. [If this was the American flag, only the President of the United States can declare such a situation.]

Bertha Montemayor Ely married Robert Crafton Gilpin on 29 September 1949 in Madison. Robert was studying at the university. Elizabeth was legally adopted by Robert. They moved to Indianapolis, Marion County, Indiana in 1965 where Bertha attended Butler University, earning a BA in languages. As of January 1985, she was teaching Spanish at the private Park-Tudor School in Indianapolis. She is now retired.
Excerpts from a letter written by Stephen Lee Ely’s friend Richard W. Ballard, Memorial Day 1985. Richard’s father owned a drug store in Davenport where many of the Bawdens shopped.

“He was by all current standards a true savant, but a very well-balanced one; he sight-read Latin (even Cicero) to the extent the teacher was certain he had a ‘pony’ hidden over-leaf. There was none. In spite of his mastery of just about everything with a once-over-light, he didn’t appear to be bored, or even arrogant, as some of these unfortunates are likely to be.”

[In his letter, Mr. Ballard refers to “Stiffen Lea”. This was a nickname - Lee Ely’s father’s middle name was Leander, a name which had become humorous to school boys by 1900, and the name ‘Stiffen’ referred to an occasional overindulgence of alcohol during his high school days.]

Lea Ely was a strike-breaker or scab, of which I’m one. Summer of 1922, the Maintenance of Way Union went out nationally. They were shop and round house, and gandy dancers (section hands) but the Brotherhoods didn’t support them. Even so, their work on locomotives and cars and right-of-way was beginning to be felt by June, and we’d just graduated from DHS - pretty cocky, us! (Central High School, Davenport, Iowa).

A classmate wrote that unbelievable wages were being paid, and come on to join him. We took the night day-coach for Des Moines; even then strikers were riding the trains, looking for strike-breakers. When identified as such, they were treated roughly, even before they were employed as such. Lea and I, both using our Boy Scout packs, said we were on our way to a Boy Scout Camp, and we were allowed to go on. We got a room at the ‘Y’ opposite the Brown Hotel that night, and went to 15th & Walnut, early next morning with our Boy Scout packs. We were hired as fire-builders.

I’d spent some time at Rowland William’s father’s farm in Cordova [Illinois], where he made a living repairing Stanley Steamers, and I had a fair idea of steam engines, their care and feeding, after a few summers of doing the grunt work. Lea had absolutely not the foggiest of what it was about but he was quick to take at anything. Lea elected to work the night trick, and I the day shift, as night wasn’t very busy, and he could pick up what the job was easiest that way.

Please understand a steam locomotive is the contrariest, hardest to lubricate, expensive to maintain AND inefficient invention of modern man. That’s why they only last a hundred years - 1840 to 1940, when the railroads discovered the Diesel. The locos Des Moines Union owned never got on the main line, but were Yard Goats, so their fires had to be pulled at the end of each shift, the grates turned over, and new fires started. That was our job; hitching up a blower to the smoke box, throwing kindling (old ties) up on the deck to see if there was water in the boiler, set the brakes, toss in oily rags, and when there was a good fire, load her up with coal.

It took about 3 hours to get one ready for the job with enough steam to get out of the yard, So we had several ‘tallow pots’ at once under our car. We worked different shifts for another purpose; to guard the other guy’s belongings. There were about 45 stiffs like us doing the work of 175 union men; we didn’t do it well, but there were no breakdowns in service. Maybe some engines didn’t steam as well as they might. Unions truly do great jobs!

The food started out good, but as the strike degenerated, so did the food. About the middle of August, we got stewed raisins that were half flies, so we quit, wired our money home, and started walking; we couldn’t figure why there was no eastbound traffic. It was opening day of the State Fair! We walked as far as Altoona (about 25 miles) with no water, no food, so we slept in a school house, and each ate an apple from the teacher’s desk that night. Both Lea and I never forgave ourselves for that, but it was a life-saver. Next morning, we caught a ride clear to Davenport. Two weeks later, Lea went to Wisconsin, I went to Iowa (University of), but we were the best of friends. Last time I saw him was summer of 1926 (we’d graduated); he was sitting in a car, smoking a cigarette, a bit drunk, and explained the Fourth Dimension!