San Antonio Express-News (Sunday)
Goodwill’s first start came to a mysterious end
I wrote you back in 2015 when I asked about our store on Fredericksburg Road because so many people thought that building was an airplane hangar in the 1920s. You provided us with so much information ( Aug. 15, 2015 ), and we continue to refer to your information today.
Now we have another question: In March 1937,
Mrs. S.P. Cunningham was instrumental in bringing the Rev. Edgar J. Helms to San Antonio to speak before the Woman’s Club about the Goodwill he founded in Boston. We don’t know anything more about her than that. Would you happen to know if there was ever any write-up in the paper about her? We’d love to know more about her, especially if there was a photo of her in the paper and what her first name was. We think “S.P.” may be her husband’s initials.
Ours wasn’t one of the first cities to support Goodwill, but San Antonio seems to have committed to starting a branch at least twice before the rehabilitation-and-resale nonprofit was able to take hold here — with a mysterious gap in the timeline in between.
Founded in Boston in 1902 by a young Methodist minister, Edgar James Helms, Goodwill Industries is famous for serving two populations — workers with disabilities who receive training and employment, and those who need the low prices of the refurbished clothing and household goods sold in Goodwill stores. The idea of collecting donated items for repair spread to cities all over the country during the first two decades of the 20th century, often after a visit from Helms.
Goodwill first was established here “during the 1930s Depression,” says an editorial in the San Antonio Express, Jan. 21, 1952, observing the 50th anniversary of the movement. This was the period when Lucy Hill Cunningham was involved, as was Helms.
“Organization of a unit of Goodwill Industries … was started with (the) arrival of its founder, E.J. Helms,” who was flanked in a photograph by colleagues R.C. Adair, regional director from St. Louis, and Millard Heath from Dallas.
Only a few months later, the local Goodwill appeared to be “ready to operate,” according to the Express, July 18, 1936. The
San Antonio branch “soon will be prepared to begin its campaign to give employment to destitute San Antonians,” as announced by “Mrs. S.P. Cunningham, manager.” She would have been wellknown to many readers, as the widow of Dr. Samuel Preston Cunningham, a former president of the Bexar County Medical Society who died in 1930, and as an active clubwoman (Medical Auxiliary, Daughters of the Republic of Texas, Woman’s Club and others) in her own right.
Quoting Cunningham, the story says the Goodwill group “had obtained a truck from ( junk
dealer) Max Adler, 208 San Pedro Ave., who would be in charge of collecting castoff clothing, furniture and other materials to be rehabilitated by unemployed San Antonians.” To donate, readers were asked to “notify Mrs. Cunningham” (no contact information given). The truck would call for the items, which would be “stored until enough of them have been collected to employ a number of persons.” Once repaired, “the goods would be placed on sale for the amount expended on wages (starting at 80 cents a day) and reconditioning.”
Typically, a Goodwill unit was supposed to be at least 85 percent self-supporting, with the remainder coming from the community. The next effort may have been to try to get financial contributions, because the previous announcement seems to have been premature.
When Helms returned the next year, Cunningham told the San Antonio Light, March 2, 1937, that
although the city “(did) not have a branch … a movement had been set in motion to create such a division (here).” Helms was coming back to speak to the Kiwanis Club in the Gunter Hotel on March 5, 1937, and would be “available to speak to other civic and church groups,” Cunningham said. As a director-at-large and committee chair of the Woman’s Club, according to its yearbooks, she probably was able to program Helms as a speaker there.
Maybe because of the Depression, then World War II, the Goodwill movement seems to have lost momentum. Helms died in 1942, and Cunningham, born in 1878, was not listed with an occupation in city directories nor the 1940 U.S. census.
When Goodwill came back to San Antonio — this time to stay — it was with new leadership.
Clothing manufacturer William Sinkin headed a board of 27 local clergy and business leaders when the reborn local branch bought a 7-acre site at 3500 Pleasanton Road, as reported in the Express, Nov. 16, 1945. Cash donations were solicited up to $25,000 to qualify for a grant of $7,500 from national headquarters, and “old toys, clothing and other items” would be collected later “to augment over 10,000 pounds of materials already on hand.”
Were those the materials picked up by Adler’s truck in 1936 and stored in hopes of getting Goodwill done? It’s not clear, but this was the location that lasted.
We don’t know if Cunningham, who died in 1970, was part of the effort that stuck, but she must have been proud when the city brought its own Goodwill — the nation’s 90th chapter — over the finish line at last.
MARKER MAKER: Kent
Rush, whose photographs illustrate Patsy Pittman Light’s book “Artisans of Trabajo Rustico: The Legacy of Dionicio Rodriguez,” is looking for information about another local craftsman, Guadalupe Ybarra, who made tile-covered concrete crosses for grave markers.
There’s a mention of Ybarra in Terry Jordan’s “Texas Graveyards: A Cultural Legacy,” noting that Ybarra “was responsible for many of the tile-covered crosses in and around San Antonio,” using whole and broken tiles in his home workshop, after the fashion of existing markers. Ybarra doesn’t appear in city directories in connection with this work, although he may be listed under another occupation. Concrete artists consulted by Light have some familiarity with Ybarra or his type of work but were unable to provide further specifics.
Rush, a professor emeritus of art at the University of Texas at San Antonio, is preparing a presentation based on the many photos he has taken in South Texas cemeteries during the past 10 years and would like to include details of Ybarra’s life and work. To share, contact Rush at kentrush@sbcglobal.net.