RICHARD MCPHERREN CABEEN (1887-1969)

Something different this week. No one told me I couldn't write about a stamp collector so I am writing about a stamp collector. He was also a coin columnist.

Richard McPherren Cabeen was born in Seaton, Illinois, on May 11, 1887, the son of Jashua Cabeen (1855-1914), a dry goods merchant, and Hattie Sophia McPherren Cabeen (1857-1940).

Cabeen began collecting stamps in 1898. He joined the Chicago Philatelic Society in 1911 and eventually became their oldest living member.

He graduated from the University of Illinois in 1909 with a B. S. degree in architecture. Then in July he took employment with the architectural firm of Holabird, Root and Burgee where he worked for more than fifty years.

Richard married Blema Eulaila Meagher (1887-1969) on October 28, 1910. (This is the first time I have written about someone named Blema Eulaila.) They had no children.

Cabeen wrote a column for The Collector's Journal and Weekly Philatelic Gossip beginning in 1913. Some of his articles appeared under the pen name of "Sandy." He was one of the most important writers on stamp collecting for his time.

Cabeen took a leave of absence from his job during the First World War from November 1917 to February 1919 to serve as chief of the engineering division with the Bureau of Aircraft Production.

 

Cabeen was a columnist and stamp editor for the Chicago Sunday Tribune from September 11, 1932, to his death in 1969. He wrote under the byline of Richard McP. Cabeen. The paper encouraged stamp dealers to run classified ads on the same page as the articles.

Cabeen had a column in Popular Mechanics briefly starting in 1937.

In the Friday, June 17, 1966, issue of The Chicago Tribune, it was announced that Cabeen's column, "The Coin Collector" would begin running on Sunday. The paper would devote a page each week to various hobbies. Cabeen's column in the June 19 issue was "Why Such a Fuss Over Clad Coins?"

He wrote a series of 31 monographs called The Chicago Tribune Series of Booklets on United States Stamps published between 1934 and 1939.

Richard McP. Cabeen joined the ANA in 1938 as member 6847. He wrote The Standard Handbook of Stamp Collecting, published in 1957. In 1960, he was honored by the American Philatelic Society with the Luft Award. It is their highest honor and equivalent to the ANA Farran Zerbe Award, He was added to the American Philatelic Society Hall of Fame in 1971.

In December of 1938, he was admitted as a member of the Chicago Coin Club. He frequently exhibited coins at the club meetings including rare gold coins. In 1938, Cabeen donated $5.000 to the club for any purpose they intended. The club created the Richard Cabeen Exhibit Award for the best exhibiting at their monthly meetings. The first award was presented to Cabeen at the January 1969 dinner.

In the February 1943 issue of The Numismatist, he announced that he was looking for donations of maps for the Army Map Service.

In 1951 he presented a paper at the ANA convention on "The Mint in the Tower." This was later published in The Numismatist.

In 1962, there was a series of home invasion robberies in Chicago. Richard and Blema were robbed by three masked men on March 4, 1962. While the couple slept in the basement, a robber climbed a utility pole to gain entrance through an upstairs window. The couple was bound with strips cut out of bedsheets while the robbers made several trips outside to carry off the loot. With the phone lines cut, Cabeen used his revolver to fire four shots into the floor, alerting neighbors. The estimated value of the loss was $50,000.

In April, acting on a tip, police staked out a property that was similar to previous robberies. Three suspects walked into the trap. Killed in the resulting shoot-out were Andrew Chervenak and Kenneth Daniels. Pierre Mager was wounded in the arm. Cabeen and his wife identified two as the robbers who broke in back in March. Several other victims of similar robberies also identified the men as the robbers.

The gang was identified as the Guido-Yonder gang, also described as the silk-stocking gang. Two more of the gang were killed by other members of the gang. Gang leaders Nick Guido and Frank Yonder were convicted of a different robbery and sentenced to 60-100 years in prison. Both were released in 1979 after serving only sixteen years of their sentence. In August 1967, Richard and his wife Blema bequeathed their townhouse to the Collectors Club of Chicago. The club made him an honorary life member in January 1968. The four-story red stone building has been renovated and remains in use by the club.

Cabeen died at home in Chicago on April 13, 1969, and is buried with Blema at Graceland Cemetery. The responsibility for the Chicago Tribune coin column was passed to Leonard W. Stark.

Following his death, the Collector's Club of Chicago published Chicago Postal History as a tribute. It is based on previous writings of Cabeen.

The Collector's Club of Chicago offers a virtual tour of the Cabeen house.

To take the virtual tour, see:
https://www.collectorsclubchicago.org/cabeen-house-virtual-tour/

To read the earlier E-Sylum article, see:
COIN COLUMNIST DANIEL WEBSTER (1932-2018) (https://www.coinbooks.org/v27/esylum_v27n37a19.html)

	NBS (coinbooks.org) Web