Jesse Green Furrier

By Erin Doane, senior curator

On May 4, 1943, the Gorton Coy introduced their new furrier to customers in Elmira through an advertisement in the Star-Gazette. Mr. Jesse Green had recently taken charge of their fur restyling and fur storage departments. Fur fashions were his specialty, with 25 years of experience, and he was ready to restyle customers’ older furs. As mentioned in the ad, restyling was part of the war-conservation program. Jesse Green was happy to furnish estimates without any cost or obligation to the customer.

Jesse Green, Gorton Coy ad, Star-Gazette, May 4, 1943

Jesse Green was born in New York City in 1900 into a family of furriers. His grandfather and father ran a fur manufacturing business and both Jesse and his brother learned the craft. Jesse married Shirley Ehrlich in 1928 and the couple had two sons, Howard and Myron. In 1943, the family moved to Elmira where Jesse took the job as furrier at the Gorton Coy. He stayed there for three years before he and Shirley opened a store of their own at 513 Park Place.

Jesse Green Furrier, 513 Park Place, Star-Gazette, July 30, 1950

Inside Jesse Green Furrier, 513 Park Place, Star-Gazette, August 13, 1950

Jesse Green Furrier made and sold furs and offered insured, certified cold storage of fur coats. In 1953, Jesse became a member of the Master Furriers Guild of America, Inc. By that time, it was reported that he had cared for and handled at least 150,000 fur coats during his 35 years in the fur business. He sold his wares not only in Elmira but to customers in 45 states as well as Tokyo and the Philippine Islands. In both 1956 and 1957 he won American Fur Fashion Awards at the annual Master Furriers’ Guild conventions. He was also elected to the Guild’s board of directors in 1958.

Coat made by Jesse Green from pelts trapped near Williamsport, Pennsylvania

In 1964, the Greens moved their business to 208 W. Water Street. The newly renovated store was decorated in a baby blue and off-white color scheme and featured wall to wall carpeting, floor to ceiling mirrors, and air conditioning. They added womenswear to the store and their son, Howard, joined the business. Howard had worked with his father before enlisting in the military in 1950. He was a member of the 465^th Signal Construction Company and served in Manila.

In 1968, Jesse Green Furrier moved to a new store just next door at 210 W. Water Street. The new space was four times the size of the other store. This time, the décor was done in powder blue and eggshell. There was a separate fur salon to the rear with off-white carpeting and a fully mirrored back wall. By this time, Howard Green had taken over as president of the company. His focus was on trying to get younger women interested in fur. They still sold fur coats but also had cloth coats, both trimmed with fur and untrimmed, as well as suede and leather coats. There was also a new young miss, or junior, section. In 1969, they started advertising fake furs for sale.

Howard Green at Jesse Green Furrier, 210 W. Water Street, Star-Gazette, November 24, 1976

In the late 1960s, the anti-fur moment was beginning to get traction. On July 26, 1970, the Star-Gazette reported on the “Fur Coat Furore” caused by a Women’s Wear Daily advertisement. The ad from the Friends of the Earth included a pledge to no longer purchase products made from wild or endangered animals signed by 100 “well-known personalities.” Other furriers in Elmira said that they didn’t expect the ad to affect their sales at all but Jesse Green had concerns. While the pledge was not to purchase rare, wild furs, he worried that it would still affect the sales of domesticated and specially-raised furs because the public would not understand the difference. “Through advertising, you have to make women want to purchase [a fur],” said Jesse. “They want to but they’re afraid to – ashamed to. A woman who can’t afford one, now has an excuse.”

Mink capelet made by Jesse Green Furrier, 1950s

While the anti-fur activists got some attention, by 1976 fur sales were increasing nationally and Elmira furriers and merchants were enjoying greater profits. New garments in contemporary styles made with longer fur and leather were increasingly popular with younger women. Prices were also increasing, but that didn’t slow the demand.

By the 1980s, however, the animal rights movement was much more active. Bob Barker led anti-fur protests in New York City in 1988. Ricki Lake was arrested after storming the Fifth Avenue offices of fashion designer Karl Lagerfeld with anti-fur protesters in 1994. Super models Claudia Schiffer, Cindy Crawford, Christy Turlington, Naomi Campbell, and Tyra Banks were part of PETA’s (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals) anti-fur campaigns in the mid-1990s.

The biggest protests took place in major cities – Macy’s was a particularly popular target for animal rights activists in New York City – but smaller cities and businesses were not forgotten. In 1987, 50 animal rights protesters confronted 30 people wearing furs at a photoshoot by the Clifford Fur Co. in Rochester, New York. Trans-Species Unlimited, an animal rights organization, held a protest at the Trapper and Dealers Convention in Hughesville, Pennsylvania (about 80 miles south of Elmira) in 1986. On the day after Thanksgiving in 1990, animal rights protesters were out in force around the country, including in Albany, Niagara Falls, Rochester, Syracuse, and Binghamton. In Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, a protester dressed as the grim reaper led 40 others in chants against the killing of animals for fur coats. While I couldn’t find any reports of protests in Elmira or other local shopping districts, a letter to the editor of the Star-Gazette on Mach 7, 1990 written by Jack Sincock, president of the Chemung County Federation of Sportsmen’s Clubs, Inc., mentioned that a billboard on Lake Road had been purchased by animal rights activists.

Marcher protesting the use of animals for furs on Central Park West in New York City, Star-Gazette, November 24, 1990

On July 19, 1990, the Star-Gazette reported on the end of Jesse Green Furrier after 44 years of business in Elmira. It’s unclear whether the anti-fur moment played any part in the business closing. As owner and president of the company, Howard Green declined to provide any details. He merely said, “I’ve had enough of the retail business.” His parents, Jesse and Shirley, had retired in the early 1970s and moved to Coral Springs, Florida. Shirley passed away in 1986 and Jesse died just three years later. The couple is interred side-by-side in the Franklin Street Cemetery in Elmira.

Jesse and Shirley Green, 1978, Star-Gazette, May 7, 1978

The Improved Order of Red Men

 by Susan Zehnder, Education Director

In August 1904, Michael J. O’Hara, in charge of records for the Improved Order of Red Men (IORM), left Elmira on a train for Utica where he planned to transfer and board another train destined for Buffalo.

Costumed IORM member 

The IORM was holding its annual state convention and delegates were gathering.  Elected in 1898, O’Hara had been a popular record keeper and he fully expected to be re-elected to the position. He wasn’t. He never made it to the convention.

A few days after not showing up in Buffalo, he surfaced in Connecticut at his brother’s house. He claimed he had met a fellow delegate on the train, someone he didn’t know. They chatted amiably and the stranger offered him a drink. Soon after taking a swig, he said, he passed out and never got to Buffalo. Because the record keeper held membership dues for hundreds of New York state IORM members, suspicions arose. Right away, local and national leaders arrived in Elmira to comb through his financial records. He was accused of various malicious activity. When things finally settled, O’Hara’s books were determined to be sound, and the hunt for the mysterious delegate ended. O’Hara returned to Elmira. 

Just what kind of organization inspired this strange event?

The Improved Order of Red Men was founded in Baltimore as a fraternal society in 1834. It claims to have ties to an earlier group called the Sons of Liberty who participated in the Boston Tea Party. These white men, dressed (they thought) like Indians and threw tea overboard into the Boston Harbor to protest British taxes. The IORM, while not open to indigenous members, used Indian-like names, rituals, and even regalia in their meetings, which they called Pow-wows.

Exclusive supplier to IORM

Their headquarters were called wigwams; state and national leaders were given the title of sachem, an appropriated indigenous title; local leaders and officers were called chiefs; and anyone not in the organization was a paleface. IORM Auxiliary women’s groups were called Daughters of Pocahontas. They were not looking to understand indigenous cultures, but took what they thought were native “activities” to further their group’s mission to support patriotism and American ideals. President Franklin D. Roosevelt was an honorary member.

Franklin D. Roosevelt in IORM headdress

While this cultural appropriation wasn’t unique to secret fraternal societies of the time, the IORM was one of the largest to do this. In 1921, its membership numbers was estimated to be over 500,000 nationwide, and it was the nation’s fourth largest benevolent society. According to the IORM website, there were groups located in 46 states and territories.

Elmira area IORM members and families, circa 1902s

Elmira's City Directory for 1903, listed 11 groups, called tribes. Some of the names they operated under were Ko-bus, Tomoka, Wetamore, Massasoit, Mimosa, Manhattan, Ogoyago. The groups held social balls, raised money for polio care, marched in parades, held boxing matches, and provided events for children. They also paid benefits to members down on their luck and marked deaths in memorial services. A splinter group of the national IORM broke off to form the Haymakers, these were men who advocated for more fun and mischief because they thought the IORM was getting too serious. Elmira had a group of them too.  One well-known member of the IORM was Matt Lockwood.

Accounting book with notice of M. Lockwood's death

Locally, the number of groups dwindled to four, then two, and finally none by the end of the 1950s. State groups, though, continued to gather and frequently used the Mark Twain Hotel in Elmira for annual state conventions. These multi-day events often included tours to Corning Glass or hosting speakers, like Dr. Erl Bates, a professor from Cornell University. Bates had established Cornell’s Indian Extension Program and a scholarship program for Haudenosaunee women. He spoke to the 1952 convention about the history of the Haudenosaunee or Iroquois nation. 

Nationally, membership continued to fall. Attempting to address this, the organization admitted non-white members in 1974. Today national membership hovers around 15,000. The national headquarters shifted from Baltimore, MD, to Waco, Texas. Today, there is a museum in Waco dedicated to the group. Its collection boasts a writing desk from Aaron Burr, a ring once belonging to Rudolph Valentino, and a blanket attributed to Geronimo. Today's members include five groups that still meet in New York State. They’re located in Johnstown, Lockport, Rochester, Vestal, and Watkins Glen.

So what became of Michael O’Hara?  He remained a member of the local IORM but never served in any leadership role again. After a few years, he left Elmira and moved to New York City, still a member of the IORM.

In 1931, Edward A. Davis, chief of the great wampum went missing after police started looking into his financial dealings. Davis was the national treasurer at the time. He left a farewell (suicide) note to his wife. His suitcase and hat were discovered on a boat, but no one remembered seeing him. Davis was never found. Guy Vinton of Rochester, stepped in and took over the duties of chief of the great wampum.

In 1938, O’Hara ran against Vinton for the position of great chief of records but ended up withdrawing his name. Vinton, unopposed, won.