Life in Photos 20230309 | Philander W Barclay

Philander W. Barclay (September 16, 1878 — July 7, 1940) was a bicycle merchant and mechanic. In his spare time, his hobby was documenting the early years of his hometown, Oak Park, Illinois, a suburb west of Chicago. He preserved early Oak Park history through photographs and their related data and stories. Through sound recordings (wax cylinders), Barclay captured the voices and stories of a few of Oak Park's elderly residents, for which he earned national attention. He also collected or took photos of neighboring River Forest and Forest Park. However, documenting Oak Park’s history was Barclay’s primary goal and ongoing passion.

Philander Barclay: The Village Historian’s Life in Photos

By Anna-Maria Manuel

Published March 9, 2023.

Updated May 15, 2023.

According to Philander Barclay, Oak Park’s first Village Historian, this photo of him on a Cheyenne was taken around 1895, in the front yard of Judge W. G. Hines in Trinidad, Colorado. The “faithful dog” in the photo was Jet, owned by the judge.[1]

Walter G. Hines was married to Prudence Barclay, one of Philander’s aunts. Born in Bowling Green, Kentucky in 1845, Hines settled in Colorado in 1879. Beginning in 1885, Hines served as county judge in Las Animas County for 11 years. [2] As county judge, Hines acted as a trustee under federal law and did his part in establishing boom towns in the area. [3]

When 17-year-old Barclay visited his uncle, Hines may have been still living at 423 Colorado Avenue, in Trinidad, his residence in 1892. [4]

From time to time, Luan, Philander’s sister, resided with the Hineses. [5] When she lived with them in the late 1910s, Luan worked as a clerk for Hines, then the Public Trustee in Las Animas County. [6]

Photo from: The Historical Society of Oak Park and River Forest.

1. Information from back of photo from The Historical Society of Oak Park and River Forest, Philander Barclay Collection.

2. Semi-Centennial History of the State of Colorado; Volume II; The Lewis Publishing Company; 1913; pgs. 329-330.

3. Morris F. Taylor; “The Town Boom in Las Animas and Baca Counties”; The Colorado Magazine; 55/2 and 3; 1978; pgs. 113-118.

4. Trinidad (CO) City Directory; 1892; pg. 83.

5. “Luan Eliza Barclay, Long Time Resident in Village, Is Dead”; Oak Leaves; July 1,1937; pg. 66;

Oak Leaves; January 5, 1907; pg. 6;

R I Polk Directory Company’s Trinidad City (CO) Directory, 1918-1919; pg. 51.

6.1920 US Census; Trinidad City, Las Animas County, Colorado;

R I Polk Directory Company’s Trinidad City (CO) Directory, 1918-1919; pgs. 51 and 116.

Barclay at work in Wright Elsom Jr.’s bicycle shop, in the rear of 117 Marion Street. (Today, 117 N. Marion Street.) The photo was taken in 1898, the year he began working there. This was Barclay’s first job. [7]

Elsom Jr.’s shop sold and rented bicycles and offered bicycle storage. It also sold and repaired electrical goods. [8] According to Barclay, in the early days, the shop “took in every sort of work that came along”: repairing bicycles, automobiles, motorcycles, racing sulkies, wheelchairs, baby buggies, umbrellas, hot-water bottles, and rubber shoes. [9] “We had some variety to tackle in those good old horse and buggy days of long, long ago,” remembered Barclay. [10]

Photo from: The Historical Society of Oak Park and River Forest.

7. Information from back of photo from The Historical Society of Oak Park and River Forest; Philander Barclay Collection;

Current address from Architectural Survey Downtown Oak Park and The Avenue Business District; Oak Park Historic Preservation Commission; Conducted in 1975 Updated 1981 and 2005.

Philander Barclay; “Famous Bicycle Barclay in Front of His Shop”; The Oakparker; Jubilee Number; November 29, 1935; pg. 41.

8. Directory of Oak Park; 1898; Delos Hull, Publisher; pg. 38;

Ad for Wright Elsom Jr.’s shop; William Halley; Halley’s Pictorial Oak Park; 1898; accessed at Internet Archive on November 14, 2022.

9. Philander Barclay; “Famous Bicycle Barclay in Front of His Shop”; The Oakparker; Jubilee Number; November 29, 1935; pg. 41.

10. Ibid.

Elsom Jr.’s Oak Park Cycle and Automobile Depot in 1903. Barclay is in the left most vehicle, a Locomobile Steamer, the “first ‘horseless carriage’ in the village” in 1898. Elsom Jr. is standing on the sidewalk with his hand on the signpost. [11]

In 1903, Elsom Jr. moved from his shop on Marion Street to this structure at 141 North Boulevard, which was purpose-built for his business. The front half provided space for an office and salesroom. The rear housed a machine shop for repairing automobiles that were starting to appear in Oak Park. [12]

The Oak Leaves described Elsom Jr.’s well-equipped, pioneering garage like this:

Here lathes and other machines are driven by individual electric motors. An air compressor keeps a large tank filled for the instantaneous inflation of pneumatic tires and lubricating oil, kerosene and gasoline are on tap by the barrel. A deep pit lets the workman undearneath [sic] an automobile with ease, while the machine [automobile] is stationed above him.

There is also a vat for washing bicycles in kerosene, a sink for washing automobiles, and apparatus for boiling bicycle and automobile chains in graphite. [13]

Years later, Barclay recalled that during those days, the barrel of gasoline was not labeled as such. This had disastrous consequences for Barclay in late April 1904, when Wright Elsom Sr., then 69 years old, [14] mistakenly put gasoline in the kerosene lamp that Barclay was using. [15] The resulting explosion left Barclay burned “about the head and face . . . . The blaze was violent enough to nearly blind the young man and for several hours serious consequences were feared.” [16] Due to the accident, Barclay had a permanent scar on his forehead. [17]

Photo from: Illinois Digital Archives; Oak Park Public Library; Philander Barclay Collection.

11. Philander Barclay; “Oak Park’s First Horseless Carriage”; The Oakparker; Jubilee Number; November 29, 1935; pg. 113.

12. “Wright Elsom’s Garage”; Oak Leaves; May 1, 1903; pg. 10.

13. Ibid.

14. Wright Elsom Sr. born November 24, 1834, died October 1, 1922. "Illinois Deaths and Stillbirths, 1916-1947," database, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:NQ41-V6T : 8 March 2018), Wright Elsom Sr., 01 Oct 1922; Public Board of Health, Archives, Springfield; FHL microfilm 1,570,833. Accessed May 13, 2023.

15. Philander Barclay; Index-Card File Box (contains Barclay's notes on a variety of subjects); File card: Barclay, Philander, Concerning fire Oak Leaves 4/29/04, pg. 15; The Historical Society of Oak Park and River Forest; Philander Barclay Collection.

16. “Philander Barclay Burned”; Oak Leaves; April 29, 1904; pg. 15.

17. Doug Deuchler; “The Legend of ‘Poor Phil’”; Wednesday Journal; March 17, 1993; pg. 41.

When Barclay opened his own bicycle business in 1906 at 138 Lake Street (now, 1113 Lake Street), he seemed to model it after Elsom’s Marion Street shop, selling and repairing bicycles, offering bicycle storage, and carrying electrical supplies. [18]

By 1913, Barclay announced that he had moved his bicycle shop into the building pictured above. [19] He had taken over Elsom Jr.’s bicycle business. [20] The Oak Leaves commented, “This will in a sense be a renewal of old relationships, as Mr. Barclay learned his trade with Mr. Elsom at this location when bicycles first began to be widely used.” [21]

The building was located at 141 North Boulevard. [22] Based on a Barclay ad, the address was renumbered to 1112 North Boulevard in perhaps spring 1915. [23] Judging by Oak Leaves ads, this was the fourth location of Barclay’s shop.

Only a few ads for Barclay's Oak Park bicycle shop included a photo. Unfortunately, Barclay's face was blurred in the photo; he moved when the picture was taken. He explained, "The minute the photographer snapped his kodak, the telephone bell in my shop rang, and instead of being a good fellow and standing still as I should, I decided that business was business and that duty was calling on me." About his resulting blurred facial expression, he remarked, "Do I look funny; I'll say I do." [24]

Ad from: Oak Leaves; September 6, 1919; pg. 19.

18. Barclay ads in Oak Leaves; March 10, 1906; pg. 12 and September 6, 1906, pg. 7;

Shop’s original address and renumbered address from information from back of second photo (Barclay in Elsom Jr.’s shop); The Historical Society of Oak Park and River Forest; Philander Barclay Collection.

19. Barclay ad; Oak Leaves; May 3, 1913; pg. 8.

20. “Barclay Returns from California”; Oak Leaves; March 1, 1913; pg. 17.

21. Ibid.

22. Barclay ad; Oak Leaves; May 3, 1913; pg. 8.

23. Barclay ad; Oak Leaves; April 3, 1915; pg. 10.

24. Philander Barclay; “Famous Bicycle Barclay in Front of His Shop”; The Oakparker; Jubilee Number; November 29, 1935; pg. 41.

The Borrowed Time Club at the Scoville Institute (library), 1911. [25] Organized in February 1902, the club was a social organization for men 70 years old and over. [26] Barclay (top row, right) was “instrumental” in organizing the club, [27] even though he was 23 years old at that time.

Barclay’s father, James S. Barclay, owned a local drug store. His business was “both drug store and social center, and it was here that Philander grew interested in the development of Oak Park.” [28] Because of his interest in preserving Oak Park’s history, Barclay “appreciated the fact that early gatherings of the group were significant in portraying a period that would pass.” [29]

Photo from: Oak Leaves; Anniversary Number; May 28, 1921; pg. 180.

25. “The Borrowed Time Club”; Oak Leaves; Anniversary Number; May 28, 1921; pg. 180.

26. “Borrowed Timers”; The Oak Parker; November 11, 1927; pg. 58.

27. “Village History His Hobby”; “Hobbies and Hobbyists” section; The Oakparker; April 19, 1935; pg. 49.

28. “History of Oak Park His Hobby”; The Oak Parker; November 11, 1927; pg. 88.

29. “Club Will Hear Wax Records of Voices of Past”; Chicago Tribune; June 18, 1933; pg. WC11.

Barclay made sound recordings on wax cylinders to document Oak Park’s history. He recorded his first group of Borrowed Time Club cylinders in 1905, choosing members Elijah Hoard and Edward Robbins to speak into a recording horn. [30] His next recordings were made during the club’s 25th anniversary celebration in 1927. [31] In this photo, Barclay (third from left) and several club members gathered around a phonograph horn to hear one of his cylinder records during the celebration.

Photo from: Chicago Tribune; February 10, 1927; pg.36. Clipping from The Historical Society of Oak Park and River Forest, Philander Barclay Collection.

30. Philander Barclay; “Phonograph Records for Philander W. Barclay by Mr. E.W. Hoard, Mr. E.F. Robbins, Oak Park Volunteer Fire Bell”; compiled in 1905; The Historical Society of Oak Park and River Forest; Philander Barclay Collection.

31. Philander Barclay; Typewritten, untitled booklet of notes concerning his recordings from 1905 and 1927; compiled in 1927; The Historical Society of Oak Park and River Forest; Philander Barclay Collection.

At the then-new Wieboldt’s department store, Harlem Avenue and Lake Street, in neighboring River Forest, 1937. Nine large photomurals made from enlargements of historical photos from Barclay's collection were displayed on the walls of the River Oak room. Six veteran village residents, called the Oak Park Nestors, were seated beneath one of the murals. They were guests of William Wieboldt and gathered to view the murals, made from scenes they remembered from their youth. From left to right: Harry B. Noyes, Walter N. Kettlestrings, Albert H. Schneider, William Wieboldt, Philander Barclay, Robert A. Lackey, and Frank C. Schneider. Dorothy Lohrberg, the coffee shop manager, is on the left. [32]

Photo from: “Historic Murals and Native Villagers”; Oak Leaves; April 8, 1937; pg. 119.

32. “Historic Murals and Native Villagers”; Oak Leaves; April 8, 1937; pg. 119;

"Historic Murals at Wieboldt's"; The Oakparker; April 9, 1937; pg. 25.