[Mn-at-large] History Article from Dialogue

[David Andrews]

Remember Peggy will be at our meeting this Sunday.

Dave





>Hi All;
>
>As some of you may know, I write the history column for Dialogue 
>magazine.  All of my subjects are blind.  Here is what I wrote for 
>the previous issue of Dialogue.
>
>Thomas Nicholson, A blind electrician,
>
>Thomas Joseph Nicholson was born in May of 1877 in the California 
>territory near  San Francisco.   He became a blind electrician who 
>worked for the Telephone Company in that city.  His was not an easy 
>life   and sadly, it was not an uncommon story..
>
>As a young boy, his parents must have passed away.  At the age of 
>14, he and his sister Mary were living in a rooming house at 14 
>Salmon street in San Francisco, almost a mile from the city 
>docks.  There seemed to be no parents in the home or other adults to 
>help the siblings.  Mary was working as a telephone 
>operator.  Thomas got a job as a messenger for the phone company as 
>well.    His hope was to become a lineman.  In this job, he 
>developed his memory to remember the city, places and people to be 
>the best messenger he could.  At the age of 17, he was playing with 
>a copper wire when a small piece of the wire broke off and hit him 
>in the eye.  Because of the injury and subsequent infection, he lost 
>first, the injured eye and then the other eye soon followed.
>
>Thomas did not accept his blindness well.  He felt that his life was 
>over.  Yet, he began to learn the skills of blindness, such as 
>writing braille with a slate and stylus and to travel the city by 
>himself.  It is not certain where he went for blindness 
>training.  At the time, there was a home for the Adult Blind in 
>Oakland that began to teach Piano Tuning to six men in 
>1896.  Primarily, this was a workshop, manufacturing brooms.  This 
>may have been where he sought blindness training. as it was 
>nearby.   What we do know is that by 1897, he was back living with 
>his sister Mary at 14 Salmon and was advertising himself as a piano 
>tuner in the city directory.
>
>One Saturday night in August of 1898, near Telegraph and Alcatraz, 
>while walking down the street, Nicholson was robbed by a sighted 
>man, Christian Johnson.  The police caught the man and sent him to 
>the City prison.  This must have shook up Thomas as less than a 
>month later, Thomas tried to take his life in a city park.
>
>Thomas got a gun, went to the park, sat down  and shot himself in 
>the chest.  He had been drinking heavily that night.  A police 
>officer was nearby and heard the shot. The officer found Thomas and 
>called for help to take him to the local hospital.  Thomas survived.
>
>Shortly thereafter, Thomas went back to working in the factory of 
>the telephone company, preparing the telephone stands.  He became 
>officially, an electrician at the Phone Company.  At that time, a 
>telephone was a large stand, like a piece of furniture,  to hold all 
>of the equipment, wires, coils, spools and such, to operate.  Today, 
>a phone is so small compared to the first telephones.  During the 
>course of an 8 hour day, Thomas would build thirty to forty 
>telephones, over ten thousand a year.
>
>Thomas got rooms of his own in 1899 at 624 O'Farrell for almost two 
>years and then took rooms at 705 Greenwich, then moved to 1059 
>Broadway by 1903. This was a five story brick building where other 
>employees of the Telephone Company lived.   He finally got rooms at 
>a new boarding house at 2929 Octavia St.  No matter his location, he 
>got to know his neighborhood, taking the street cars and walking to 
>his destinations by himself or with other telephone employees.
>
>In 1902, his attitude had much improved regarding his 
>blindness.  His braille had improved so that he was able to keep all 
>of his notes in braille at work and read them back with ease.  When 
>walking down the street, he kept a fast pace and held his head up 
>straight so as to convey a confident air to those he did business 
>with and came in contact.  He lived alone in a rooming house and 
>cared for himself.
>
>Those in his rooming house often asked him how he did all the 
>personal tasks for himself.  This tired Thomas.   Questions such as 
>"how can you shave yourself?"  "Who combs your hair?" and the like, 
>became frustrating to him.
>
>The ignorance of others did not prevent him from socializing or 
>taking part in the community.  He was a registered voter and partook 
>of some of the political meetings in San Francisco.
>
>A reporter for the San Francisco Chronicle came to visit him at the 
>Telephone Company to interview the "amazing" blind man who worked on 
>every telephone installed on the west coast.  The first thing that 
>Thomas said was that if the reporter just wanted to ask those silly 
>questions that so many sighted people had about how he did the daily 
>tasks, he could forget the story.  Nicholson did tell the reporter 
>some of what it was like to be a blind person, yet, he tried to 
>focus the reporter on the tasks that he performed every day to build 
>each and every telephone for his employer.
>
>Thomas showed the reporter how he worked, building each telephone, 
>running his fingers across the wires, inspecting each piece.  During 
>his work day, he took notes with his slate.  At times he would get 
>up from his station and walk around the shop, not bumping into 
>others as he knew his shop and the layout of the stations.  he 
>listened to the sounds of others as they worked.  His watch did not 
>have a crystal and Thomas could tell the time.  When it was quitting 
>time, he got up from his station, waked to the coat rack and found 
>his coat and hat.  Each night, he would say goodnight to his 
>co-workers calling them by name.
>
>It was important to Thomas to compete with his co-workers on an 
>equal basis.  He did not ask for any more help from them than they 
>asked of each other.  No one escorted him around the shop or to the 
>street car.  Since his attempt at suicide, his attitude had 
>improved, but he did not think of his self as an optimist, rather a 
>fatalist.  What will happen,  will happen and it was not in his control.
>
>During his off-hours, Thomas did not stay in his rooms.  He loved to 
>go to the theaters in town.  He also continued to drink more than he 
>should.  In December of 1907, Thomas had once again had too much to 
>drink and fell prey to a robber who took his gold watch and watch chain.
>
>Then in late July of 1908, while crossing at Pierce and Pine, Thomas 
>was struck by a car and severely injured.  The driver of the car 
>sped away and was unknown to the authorities.  Again, Thomas was 
>taken to the Emergency hospital and underwent emergency surgery.  He 
>had a fractured skull.   Doctors did not believe that Thomas would 
>pull through.
>
>But again, Thomas did pull through, got well and went back to 
>work.  More trials befell Thomas.  near the end of 1908, he was 
>robbed once again on the streets.  This took a toll on his spirits 
>and self-esteem.  It was implied in news articles that he had 
>continuing pain from the car accident earlier that year.
>
>In March of 1909, he attempted to commit suicide again. Thomas 
>turned on the gas in his small apartment and then laid down on his 
>bed.  Neighbors smelled the gas and called for a policeman.  When 
>the officer came, he found Nicholson's door locked and was forced to 
>break it down.  They took Thomas to the hospital and there was some 
>hope that he would recover.
>
>However, by 1910, there is no mention of Thomas in the city 
>directory, nor does he turn up in any government records after 
>1909.  At this time there is no death record for him, but it is 
>believed that his attempt at taking his life, finally succeeded.
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