[Nfb-history] {Spam?} History Article from Dialogue

[Peggy Chong]

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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