Copyright © 2021 by Wendy Waszut-Barrett
From 1882 until 1886, C. W. Corey was associated with the Sosman & Landis Scene Painting Studio. He built stages and installed scenery during the 1870s and 1880s. Newspaper articles listed Corey as a stage architect, stage carpenter and master mechanic. His title varied from one project to the next. By 1882, Corey was linked to several stage projects with scenery by Sosman & Landis. He was an asset to the firm, arriving with ample experience and national connections. Although Corey’s permanent residence remained in Chicago, his projects ranged from Pennsylvania to Florida, and stretched westward to Kansas. By 1886 Corey began representing Sosman & Landis, listed as a master mechanic for the firm. He also worked for Lemuel L. Graham’s studio, a Sosman & Landis affiliate in Kansas City, Missouri. Some of the earliest projects completed by both Corey and Sosman & Landis were located in the southeast in 1882 -Alabama and Florida.
On September 2, 1882, the “Montgomery Advertiser” listed Corey as the stage architect for a new theatre in Montgomery, Alabama. The article reported, “The owners of the Theatre are putting it in thorough repair. They have made a new stage with all the modern improvements, so that combinations and spectacular performances can now be exhibited with ease and to the greatest advantage. They are also placing in the house an entirely new and complete set of very handsome scenery, eighteen feet in height. The stage is being constructed by Mr. C. W. Corey, one of Chicago’s best stage architect’s; and the scenery was made and put in by Messrs. Sosman & Landis, scenic artists of Chicago. When finished the Theatre will be first-class in all of its appointments” (page 4).
On Dec. 1, 1882, the “Pensacola Commercial” reported, “Mr. C. W. Corey, stage carpenter, of Chicago, Ill., arrived in the city last Wednesday, and has gone to work with a good force on the stage of the new opera house, and will have it ready for Ford’s company, who have an engagement here beginning on the first of January” (page 3).
Corey was again linked with the scenic studio of Sosman & Landis in 1884. The new opera house proprietors in Vicksburg, Mississippi, Messrs. Piazzo & Botto, hired Mr. Corey as the stage carpenter to build the new stage when the opera house was renovated. They also contracted the firm of Sosman & Landis to provide the new set of scenery for the stage. Both were from Chicago. On July 10, 1884, “The Vicksburg Herald” reported, “Mr. Henry C. Barrow, scenic artist, representing the big scenery house of Sosman & Landis, of Cincinnati, arrived here yesterday, to contract with Messrs. Piazza & Botto, proprietors of the opera-house, for a new set of scenery for that building.” On September 23, 1884, the “Vicksburg Evening Press” announced, “Mr. Charles W. Corey, of Chicago, the stage carpenter engaged by Messrs. Piazza & Botto, arrived by this morning’s train. He is much pleased with the appearance and arrangement of our new Opera-house, and says it will make decidedly one of the handsomest places of amusement in the South. He says it is one of the nicest arranged places for an Opera-house he has seen anywhere South. Mr. Corey will proceed with work at once, and says that there will be no delay whatever from now on in pushing the work to a rapid and satisfactory completion. The managers of the Opera-house state that Mr. Corey has a big reputation as a stage carpenter, and that they are charmed with his favorable opinion of the house, because his opinion is that of a man who has had splendid experience in such matters and knows what he is speaking about” (page 1).
In the fall of 1884 Corey built three stages: Vicksburg, Mississippi, Aberdeen, Mississippi, and Gadsden, Alabama. On October 4, 1884, the “Vicksburg Herald” reported, “Yesterday morning, Mr. C. Corey, the stage carpenter employed by Messrs. Piazza & Botto of the opera house to arrange the stage of the new house returned here from Gadsden, Alabama, where he arranged the stage of a new theatre. Mr. Corey says that he will finish his work in a week or ten days, and by that time it is thought the house will be ready for opening. The chairs and railings have been shipped from New York and will arrive here in ten days” (Vicksburg, Mississippi, page 4). On October 16, 1884, the “Aberdeen Examiner” reported, “Mr. Corey, the representative of the stage fitting contractors in Chicago, is busily employed in erecting the scenery in the Masonic Temple Opera Hall, in our city. His zeal in the work is worthy of thanks and commendation of our people, for he is crowding two weeks labors into the one, in order that the hall shall be ready for Monday night and they shall not be disappointed” (page 3).
By 1886, Corey was recognized as a master machinist with Sosman & Landis. He was part of the staff that focused on western installations by the mid-1880s. On March 6, 1886, the “Titusville Herald” in Titusville, Pennsylvania described the scenery in the new Emery Opera House (page 4). After a fire destroyed the Parshall Opera House, Capt. Emery decided to remodel the Armory. The article reported, “The scenery was furnished by the well-known firm of Sosman & Landis, of Chicago, and consists of two drop curtains, a double drop curtain and eleven sets of scenes. The principal drop curtain depicts a view in Palestine and was painted by the celebrated Tom Moses of Chicago. The work has been excellently done and has been put up in good shape by the competent master machinist of the firm, Mr. C. W. Corey.
On September 19, 1886, the “Fort Scott Monitor” included an article mentioning Corey entitled, “The Opera House.” The newspaper reported, “The fresco work in the remodeled opera house was completed last night and the painters left for their homes in Topeka. Carpenters were busy at work until late in the night fitting up opera chairs in the dress circle. Mr. W. C. Corey, of Chicago, who represents the firm of Sosman & Landis, the most extensive scenic firm in the United States, is busy getting up the finest set of scenes in the western country. When the house is completed it will be one of the neatest in the state. The gas company have just completed a table on the stage that gives the operator control of the gas in all parts of the house. The large looking glass light that hangs in the center of the house spreads its light in brilliant rays to almost every nook of the house. Mrs. Morse deserves much credit for the completeness of the lighting facilities of the house” (page 5).
The “Fort Scott Monitor” article was the last newspaper article that I have located for Corey prior to his passing two years later. Corey passed away in 1888 with very little fanfare or recognition of his stage contributions.
Here is what I have discovered bout this evasive master mechanic:
Charles William Corey was born in Long Island New York, in 1830. He was the son of Charles F. Corey (1810-1869) and Hannah S. Jackson. There is precious little out there about his early life, or how he was introduced to the theatre. Corey did marry by the age of twenty, soon heading west. On October 13, 1850, he married Cynthia “Anna” Leeds (1833-1899) in New London, Connecticut. At the time Anna was seventeen years old and the daughter of a hotel keeper. The 1850 Census lists that her father was running a hotel in New London, and the Leeds household was composed of parents Cary and Mary Leeds and siblings: Janetta (15 yrs.), Albert (11 yrs.), Adelaide (8 yrs.), Lodovick (5 yrs.), and Alonzo (2 yrs.).
After Charles and Anna married, they soon left Connecticut and headed west, celebrating the birth of three children: Mary H. Corey Beldon (1852-1927), Joseph Leslie Corey (1858-1913) and Addie (1860-?). The Coreys had moved to Arlington Heights, Wisconsin, by 1858; that is where their son was born. They moved to Illinois and were living in Chicago by the time their youngest daughter Addie was born. “Little Addie Corey” became an actress and toured with Lemuel L. Graham in Lord’s Dramatic Company as a child.
By 1862, Charles W. Corey was listed in the “Chicago City Directory,” working as a carpenter and living at 33 Prairie St. Soon after the start of the Civil War, Corey enlisted in the Union Army on August 5, 1862. By August 25, 1862, he mustered out as a private in Company K of the 89th Illinois Infantry. Corey was captured at Chickamauga, Georgia, and imprisoned on Sept. 19, 1863. Two years later he was paroled and mustered out in Nashville, Tennessee. Military records indicate Corey’s physical appearance as 5’-10” with brown hair, blue eyes and a sandy complexion. After returning to his family in Chicago, Corey resumed work as a carpenter. A decade later he was still working in this capacity, now living with his family at 491 S. Halsted St. By 1875 the Coreys were living at 623 S. Canal Street.
1880 Federal Census included Charles and Anna living at 88 S. Green Street with two of their three adult children: J. L. (22 yrs. old) and Addie (20 yrs. old). Interestingly, they lived on the same block with sign writers, mechanics, carpenters and other tradesmen. It was not until 1882 that Charles W. Corey was listed as a stage carpenter in the city directory. This does not mean that he started working as a stage carpenter in the 1880s, it simply indicates that some listings became more descriptive as formats changed. In 1882, the Coreys was living at 813 W. Madison. Over the course of the next three years, C. W. Corey was repeatedly mentioned in newspaper articles as a stage carpenter, stage architect and master mechanic.
On Dec. 4, 1888, Corey died at his residence on 520 W. Harrison St. (19th Ward) Chicago. He was buried at Rose Hill Cemetery, only 58 years old at the time of his death. Corey’s obituary was published in the “Chicago Tribune” on Dec. 5, 1888 (page 8). It simply stated:
“COREY – Dec. 4. Charles W. Corey. Service in Company K, Eighty-ninth Illinois Infantry; member of Gen. George A. Custer Post, No. 40 G.A.R. Funeral from late residence, No. 520 West Harrison St., at 11:30 a.m., Thursday, 6th inst., to Wells-st. Depot, thence by 1 p.m. train to Rosehille. Members of G. A. R. invited.”
After her husband’s passing, Anna Corey moved to Boone, Iowa, where she lived with her son and his family. Anna remained in Boone for the rest of her life and is buried near her son. Upon her passing in 1900, her obituary stated, “Mrs. Anna C. Corey, mother of J.L. Corey died at the home of her son, 1612 Marshall street, Monday afternoon at 4 o’clock. The deceased was 67 years of age has been an invalid for a number of years. She was born in New London Conn., and has resided in the state ten years. One son and two daughters survive. The funeral was held Wednesday afternoon at 2 o’clock from the late residence, Rev. L.B. Wickersham officiating and the remains interred in Linwood. Buried in Boone Park Cemetery in Boone, Iowa.”
To be continued…
