Ray Williamson, the subject of my article last week, mentioned that his mentor was Claude C.Birdsell. This week I set out to see what I could learn about him.

Claude C. Birdsell was born on February 27, 1879, in Heyworth, Illinois. He was the son ofWilliam Jesse Birdsell (1857-1930), a farmer, and Flora Buck Birdsell {1858-1919). The 1880Census lists him as their daughter. It must have been dark in the delivery room.

His parents took the family from Bloomington, Illinois, to a farm outside of Webster City, Iowa.Claude moved to Eagle Grove, Iowa, in March of 1902 and took a job with the Chicago andNorth Western Railroad as a fireman. He was promoted to engineer and retired from the railroadin October 1945.

He was married to Nellie Geraldine Falk (1891-1963) on December 30, 1937.

Birdsell was a member of the Masons for fifty years. He died on May 23, 1963, in Eagle Grove,Iowa, and is buried there at Rose Hill Cemetery.

Raymond Williamson wrote a letter to Q. David Bowers that was published in the Summer 1985issue of Rare Coin Review.

Sharp-eyed readers may note that the letter had the name spelled "Birdsall" and the rest of thisarticle has the name spelled "Birdsell." That difference cost me a couple of hours going back tolook for the original quote.

The name of Claude C. Birdsell, Claude Birdsell or C. C. Birdsell does not show up in theNewman Numismatic Portal or The Numismatist archive. The name of Claude C. Birdsallappears only once in the Rare Coin Review letter.

The Newman Numismatic Portal is an incredible resource for numismatic research. The lack ofreferences to Claude Birdsell shows that he is one of many coin collectors who do not becomeknown to the broader numismatic community. Unfortunately, this makes for a boring story forThe E-Sylum.