Seckatary Hawkins in Cuba

When I think of how much I love to read, I think of Mom.  In a family of nine children, there wasn’t much money to go around for books during the Depression.  Mom, as the eldest daughter in her family, was called upon to watch her younger siblings while her parents milked the cows and worked their Wisconsin farm.  But what would Mom have much preferred doing instead of babysitting?  Reading!

So when she was informed of a writing contest that centered around her wishes for 1931 (with a book as a prize), she tried her best to describe what her hopes and dreams were – namely, to graduate from high school and college with honors.  Unfortunately, the Depression threw a wrench in everything.  Although she had missed the first year of high school to help on the farm, she was hopeful that she could start high school a year later and make up the work she had missed.  She planned to eventually go on to college because school was where she felt happiest.

High school, followed by college, never came true.  Although her last completed year of school was eighth grade, she continued to read whenever she could.  She loved mysteries and that may be why she was so motivated to submit an entry for the writing contest back in 1931.  The prize was to be a bound, 400-page mystery entitled Seckatary Hawkins in Cuba by Midwestern author Robert Schulkers, who wrote eleven Seckatary Hawkins books in the 1920s.

Schulkers, who worked for a newspaper in Ohio, created Seck, an endearing character who lived along the Ohio River with his parents.  He was ten or twelve years old.  Seck served as the secretary for his boys’ club, which included nine or ten other young boys.  Although Seck couldn’t spell well, he was very much the perceptive leader in his club and helped solve many mysteries his club encountered.

The club’s adventures seemed to mesmerize children all over the United States as the stories were serialized in newspapers and broadcast over the radio.   As a result of the popularity of these stories, Seckatary Hawkins children’s clubs sprang up around the country.  The club was named The Fair and Square Club, encouraging honesty, hard work, loyalty, and respect toward elders.  “A quitter never wins and a winner never quits.”

According to Newspapers.com, over 24,000 people in 1929 attended speeches offered by “Seckatary Hawkins.”  Various people from local newspapers were given costumes to pose as Seck whenever they spoke to groups of kids.  The kids must not have cared that the speakers looked a bit different from the character in the book series.

In my home state of Wisconsin, it was estimated that 900 people showed up in the small town of Chilton in January, 1930, to attend a Seck Hawkins meeting.  Many of these children and their parents must have come from the Milwaukee area, which had close to 200,000 club members.  The topic that evening was safety.

Besides talks, the clubs promoted reading and writing by posting weekly essay contests.  A contest in Long Beach, CA, had one simple rule.  Write a story, but the title must contain the word “baseball.”  The submission could be a poem, a story, or a letter about the sport.  The prize in this instance was a Seckatary Hawkins book.  In other contests, a ten-inch Seck statue would be awarded.

Because of very few books in Mom’s house as she grew up, she desperately wanted to win a book that she could read over and over again.  Her essay won even though she would never realize her dreams of high school and college.

In Mom’s honor, I decided to reread her well-worn copy this week.  She had given it to me to read when I was about ten years old.  It was written a hundred years ago in 1921.

The plot of Seckatary Hawkins in Cuba revolves around Link, one of Seck’s best friends.  He inherits a plantation from his Cuban mother after she dies.  Seck travels with Link to Cuba to claim the plantation, but some unsavory people try to prevent Link from taking ownership of it.  There’s even a hunt for lost treasure.  Link mysteriously disappears.

Here are Link and Seck as they approach the Havana harbor with Morro Castle in the background.  A Cuban lawyer and a doctor from Ohio serve as chaperones as they accompany the boys on their trip from Ohio to Cuba.

As I was reading Mom’s book this week, I was trying to imagine her reaction when she received it.  It was a pretty random book geared entirely toward boys.  But then I found out that in so many of The Fair and Square Clubs across the country, the leader (known as “the captain”) was a girl, not a boy.  The books seemed to appeal to both boys and girls of that era.

By 1934, Seck Hawkins had dropped out of popularity.  For some reason, newspapers canceled the publication of Seck stories and the radio broadcasts stopped as well.  Hardy Boys books and Nancy Drew books began publication in 1927 and 1930, respectively.  Perhaps as those children’s books were gaining traction, Seck was growing less entertaining.

On this Mother’s Day weekend, I have so much to thank my mother for.  She loved books.  She loved to write.  If distance learning had been available when she was growing up, she would have taken some classes online and perhaps have received a diploma that way.  In her 80+ years, her computer was an everyday, constant joy for her.

Here is a picture of Mom close to the age of her contest win.  (Helen, Joe, and John were three of her siblings.)  Mom is in green.

In Seck Hawkins’ words, “A mother is the best friend a fellow has.”  Ironically, this book was dedicated to mothers, as you can see below.  The dedication says, “To the mother of Seckatary Hawkins and to the mothers of all boys and girls who like to read his stories.”

Happy Mother’s Day to you or to the special ladies in your life as you celebrate this weekend!