SPECIAL POST: 1930s Key Case Belonging to Valuation Engineer Robert W. Stevens

1930s pebbled leather key case. It looks innocuous, but inside is a treasure trove of history.

1930s Key Case and The Story of Robert Wetzler Stevens

When The Vintage Purse Museum's curator found a fabulous mid-century ashtray in a booth at a Tucson flea market, she also picked up this well-worn pebbled leather key case. She was mesmerized by the beautiful engravings on the keys, but the 80-year-old veteran Navy SEAL manning the booth pointed out the ID tag that indicated that the case's previous owner was a disabled veteran. This led to our curator telling the former Navy SEAL that her husband was also a disabled veteran. They talked for a bit, and he generously gifted her the key case with her purchase of the ashtray.

Fancy old keys and Disabled American Veterans metal ID tag found inside the wallet, with the name and address of Robert W. Stevens.

Reverse view of the ID tag.

When our curator brought the key case back to The Vintage Purse Museum, she felt that this would be a wonderful addition to the collection. She decided to try to learn and record the story of Robert W. Stevens, the man whose name appears on the tin ID tag, and on a business card inside a clear compartment in the case. She's often researching personal histories for articles for our website, but was a little concerned that it'd be a difficult task to track down someone with a somewhat common name. To her surprise, the company that bore his and his partner's surnames in the 1930s is still in business.

Robert W. Stevens' circa 1940s business card, found inside the wallet.

Robert Wetzler Stevens was born in 1891 in Stanwood, Snohomish County, Washington. He lived in Seattle, and graduated from the University of Washington in 1912. Two years later, he earned an engineering degree from the University of California, Berkley. 

Mr. Stevens enlisted in the military in 1918 during WWI and was discharged in 1919. He served in the 142 Spruce Squadron, which was affiliated with the aviation division of the Signal Corps. According to the website of The Swansons: "The 142nd Spruce was formed in September 1918 at Vancouver Barracks. In the same month they were sent to Beaver Hill, Oregon. They took part in railroad construction in this area...The unit was transferred to Vancouver Barracks in November 1918 and were demobilized there in January 1919." 

While we couldn't find a record of his military service other than the card (below) from the Veterans Affairs Master Index, it seems probable that he received his Disabled American Veterans tag due to injuries sustained while working on the railroad. UPDATE: After we sent the link to this article to Mr. Bob Swanson, he kindly looked through his rosters and found that Mr. Stevens was a "compassman," which was essentially a surveyor, and his duty was likely to "establish the correct boundaries of a tract of timber."

Robert W. Stevens service record, screenshot from FamilySearch.org.

In 1919, Robert W. Stevens married Hazel Etelka Dunn Kay (1890-1991). They had a daughter, Jean (1925-1995). By 1930, they were living in Los Angeles, California, where, according to the US Census, Mr. Stevens was employed as an appraiser in the brokerage industry. 

Its full definition is quite complex, but a brief explanation of the valuation appraisal he engaged in was a type that specialized in determining the economic value of a business. Per a 1947 newspaper article about Mr. Stevens, among his duties as an appraisal engineer was that he "...makes a complete list of materials used to build a structure and then compiles a complete price bill." Again, the company did—and still does—much more than this.

According to the website of Marshall & Stevens, Earl P. Marshall (1889-1981) started his valuation appraisal business in 1932 in Los Angeles. Robert W. Stevens, who worked at the Los Angeles office of Marshall Valuation Services, joined the business as a partner in 1936, and it was renamed Marshall and Stevens. (Marshall & Stevens now has an ampersand in place of the original "and.") According to the company's website,"That same year, they became founding members of the American Society of Technical Appraisals (ASTA), alongside Stuart C. Tait and Samuel W. Gibson (Tait-Gibson)." 

The key case still has the paper brochure from leather goods' manufacturer Prince Gardner. It's in the spot where one would put a driver license.

1932 advertisement for a similar Prince Gardner key case.
18 Dec 1932, Sun St. Louis Post-Dispatch (St. Louis, Missouri) Newspapers.com

In 1939, Mr. Stevens and his family relocated to Chicago, Illinois, where he opened the Chicago branch of Marshall and Stevens. Then, in 1941, per the Marshall & Stevens website, "Stevens was named the first president of the ASTA when it was incorporated, and he remained in that position until 1943." 

According to his obituary, Robert W. Stevens and his wife Hazel had lived in Highland Park, Illinois for about a year when he passed away at age 57 in 1948. He and Hazel, who died in 1991, are interred at Civil Bend Pioneer Cemetery in Winston, Oregon. Mr. Stevens' parents and siblings are there as well.

We'll never know how Robert W. Stevens' 90-year-old leather key case made its way to a flea market in Tucson, Arizona, but we'd like to think it's now in good hands. We feel very fortunate to have in our collection an artifact that reflects Mr. Stevens' legacy as a businessman, engineer, and American veteran of The First World War.

This article c2024 by Wendy Dager/The Vintage Purse Museum. Resources used were Newspapers.com and MyHeritage.com, to which we have paid subscriptions. Other resources were Google, FamilySearch.org, Bob Swanson of The Swansons website, the Deerfield Public Library, Findagrave, and Marshall & Stevens. Please do not reprint any articles or photos from our website without requesting permission, vintagepursemuseum@gmail.com.