Many of us recall the “good old days” when laundry was done each week using a reliable wringer washer. Clothes were hung on a line outside to dry and later brought inside. The next day they were ironed. I learned the process when I was about nine years old.
Laundry has always been a necessary but dreaded chore, and women of means usually avoided doing their own. They relied instead, on the services of a laundress. These women did laundry at home as a way to earn money while still managing their own homes and children.
Another service that saved time and effort for busy citizens was the commercial laundry, which promised prompt service, clean clothes, and home delivery. Steam laundries had agents at various business locations who coordinated the pickup and delivery of laundry. The advent of the commercial steam laundry changed many communities by providing a muchneeded service and employing local residents.
One of the earliest and longest-operating commercial steam laundries in Bryan County was the Durant Steam Laundry, located at Beech and 12th and incorporated in March 1902 with a capital of $10,000; T. R. Lander, president, O. F. Kolb, vice-president, and Miss Mollie Morris, secretary and treasurer. Luther Moran was their agent in Caddo and promised to collect laundry on Tuesday and deliver on Friday of each week. In August of 1905 the laundry installed a second mangle and doubled the space in the dry room. Mollie Morris is listed as the manager of the laundry in 1906 in a lengthy article expounding on what a splendid service they provided. “This city has an up-to-date steam laundry, conducted by a lady who thoroughly understands every detail of the business.”
In late October of 1907 the Durant laundry suffered a setback when much of their machinery and a great deal of laundry was burned in an early morning fire. The loss was $7,000 with only $3,000 covered by insurance. However, they quickly began installing new equipment and resumed operations. Mr. Kolb sold his interest in the business and opened City Steam Laundry in partnership with Rev. T. B. Norwood and Green Thompson. He later moved to Texas and engaged in the laundry business there.
There is no further explanation for this announcement in September of 1910. Either might have been employed by the laundry. “Alvin Byron and Miss Eufa Damron were united in marriage yesterday afternoon at the Durant Steam Laundry by Rev. Boyet. Both parties are residents of the city.”
Sometime in the teen years, A. C. Finley, one of the drivers for the laundry, became a partner in the business. In July of 1915 “Mollie Morris and A. C. Finley” sold the laundry to Ed Selvidge of Brownwood, Texas. “Mr. A. C. Finley will continue with the Durant Steam Laundry after the change of ownership is made.” Mr. Selvidge had thirty years of experience and planned major renovations.
The laundry was burglarized in the spring of 1916, but the only items stolen were a clean shirt and several collars.
Mr. Kolb returned to Durant in 1917 and once again bought an interest in the Durant Steam Laundry. There were major policy changes that year, including a new billing system.
Mr. Kolb attended the State Convention of Laundrymen in Sherman, TX in 1918.
1920 was a challenging year for the management of the Durant Steam Laundry. In early January a letter sent to “Mr. Cobb (sic)” by the Central Labor Body of the American Federation of Labor informed them that unless they signed up to hire only union workers, “all union crafts refuse to let you or your drivers have any more laundry of any kind”. In a lengthy reply comparing the union demands to slavery, Mr. Kolb and Mr. Mc-Donald replied that “We can not meet your demands and maintain our freedom and respect”. There was an editorial in the Caddo Herald supporting the laundry’s defiance of the warning. The editor called the boycott the “weapon of intolerance”. “Unions, by their unreasonableness, have made themselves very unpopular of late, and the open shop system is being established everywhere”.
On January 19, 1920 a letter was published in the Durant Daily Democrat by ten employees of the Durant Steam Laundry. “They informed the public that they had been “discharged from further service” for “trying to unite to better our conditions and see if we could not obtain (a) more sanitary place to perform our work in”. They reported that in the winter the laundry was often cold. “Several times during this winter we have arrived in the morning to find not even a fire in the boiler; no fires to deep us from being uncomfortable and wet wash frozen”. They asked for the support of the community in securing better working conditions. And while they had not made any demands regarding wages, they did point out that despite the fact that prices were set by the laundry association, wages were not. The Hugo laundry paid higher wages to its employees. Positions were listed as: washer, fireman, marker, head mangle, mangle, body ironer, linen marker, starcher, and others. Hugo washers were paid $33.60 per week; Durant washers $22.50. Hugo head mangle, $12.00; Durant, $8.00. The letter was signed by Nora Bartee, N. E. Wombal, Pearl McIntyre, Grace Wilkey, Mary McGinnis, Inez Gossett, Beulah Lane, Wm. Allen, Elsie Allen, and Mrs. M. L. Coker.
From January through August help wanted ads appeared in the paper: “seven more girls”, “boy over 18”, “two girls”, “three ladies”. In October the laundry moved to a new building. It was all concrete, with a modern sky light and electric lighting. It was located at 124 S. Second Ave.
In the spring of 1921, the laundry was forced to close for a few days after a strong storm damaged their smokestack.
The “Durant Steam Laundry and Dry Cleaning Plant” was under new management in the summer of 1927, after purchasing the Cheney Dry Cleaning Plant from C. R. and N.P. Cheney. O. F. Kolb, H. M. Smith, and A. C. Finley operated the steam laundry. Oscar’s son, Key Kolb and Velmer Barnes ran the dry-cleaning operation. The improved business boasted twenty employees and a new “Wayne water softener plant” added at a cost of $1,800.
The laundry further expanded in 1928 when it bought the Moore Bros Laundry from D. H. Moore and moved it to 126 South Second Avenue, “in the building adjoining the Kolb Dry Cleaning Plant”. A contest was to be held to name the new laundry.
During the Great Depression Mr. Kolb’s ads mentioned that they were supporting seventeen employees and their families.
The laundry was once again robbed in 1933 by three young men who were later captured and confessed to other robberies in Durant.
After more than thirty years of service to the public, Oscar F. Kolb retired from the laundry in 1934 and sold it to A. P. Russell of the New Ideal Laundry. “Conditions in the laundry business and unnecessary operating expenses caused by duplicating services and other overhead operations can be eliminated to the mutual advantages of all concerned”.
Oscar died in Tulsa in 1950.