Laurel Cottage Genealogy
Genealogy Services, Old Photos, Postcards, Trade Cards, Etc.

Happy New Year To Chillon Carter

Posted on January 1st, 2020 by

Divided back postcard. Postmarked December 31, 1914 from Joplin, Missouri. Publisher unknown. Printed in Germany. Series or number 1154/1.

Price:  $8.00

Here’s another card, like the previous one we posted, that’s tinted (or colored, if either is the right term) and also so cute. On this one a little girl is surrounded by good luck/prosperity symbols – piggies (two), a four leaf clover, a horseshoe, and what looks like bags of money. (Well, that last is not so much “a sign of” but more prosperity itself, it seems.) And one interesting rendition of why pigs are good luck, specifically on New Year’s Day, comes from the Pennsylvania Dutch, and it’s because pigs root forward, and we want to go forward in the new year. See the link in the sources listed below for the online article.

This card is addressed to a gentleman with an unusual first name. It reads:   “Chillon Carter, R F D # 1 – Galena Kansas.”

And the sender wrote:   “Your xmas gifts rec’d ok. Many thanks. Have some for you. Will come over soon. Probably Sunday. I was in Columbus between trains one day last week at Carthage yesterday. Hope you had a nice time xmas, we were sorry that we could not come over there I had a severe cold & Johnnie thought the weather to cold to make the drive. am all ok, now. Mabel[?]    Rec’d New Year box all O.K. this a.m.”

From the 1920 census and Find A Grave, we find that Chillon E. Carter, born 1902 in Kansas, was the son of Chilon Carter and Sadie (Stanley) Carter.

Sources:  Stoneback, Diane. “Why eat pork and sauerkraut for New Year’s day?”January 1. 2018. 12 a.m. (accessed January 1, 2020).

Year: 1920; Census Place: Spring Valley, Cherokee, Kansas; Roll: T625_526; Page: 14A; Enumeration District: 40. (Ancestry.com).

Find A Grave, database and images (https://www.findagrave.com : accessed 01 January 2020), memorial page for Chillon E. Carter (28 Oct 1902–29 Mar 1939), Find A Grave Memorial no. 27017873, citing Oak Hill Cemetery, Galena, Cherokee County, Kansas, USA ; Maintained by JFI (contributor 47211966) .
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Categories: Animals, Children, Holidays, Horseshoes, New Year, People, Pigs, Postcards, Postcards Used, Snow, Unusual First Names

A Greek Happy New Year

Posted on January 1st, 2020 by

Divided back, unused postcard dated December 1933. Publisher:  Fotocelere, Torino. Printed in Italy.

Price:  $8.00

ΕΥΤΥΧΕΣ το ΝΕΟΝ ΕΤΟΣ or Happy New Year, literal translation from Greek found online as “Happy the New Year” which is nice, rather poetic.

Addressed to:   “Mrs. Frances Gunaris, Box 26B, Wellesley Mass. U. S. America”

The sender wrote:   “December 6 1933      Dear Aunt. I wish you all merry xmas and a happy New year. Since I received the illustrated book, for which I thank you very much, I have to hear from you. I desire to be informed about your [health] and to receive agreeable news. My compliments to Louise and Erthios[?]. we feel all well. Andrew.”

Frances appears on the 1930 Federal Census for Needham, born about 1883 in Massachusetts, parents born in Bavaria, married, with son Theodore, who was born about 1909 also in Mass., father born in Greece. Frances’ husband is not listed on this record.

As it turns out, we have another card from the Gunaris family, that we posted back in April 2018. See Chebeague Island, Maine 1923.

Source:  Year: 1930; Census Place: Needham, Norfolk, Massachusetts; Page: 18B; Enumeration District: 0069; FHL microfilm: 2340670. (Ancestry.com).

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Categories: Children, Holidays, New Year, People, Postcards, Postcards Unused With Writing

Carl Stockdale and Mary Dowds

Posted on December 31st, 2019 by

Old photo, circa 1900 – 1920s.

Price:  $7.00      Size:  About 3 and 3/4 x 2 and 1/2″

Here’s a great one for New Year’s Eve, a couple of partiers…..even though probably this was not taken in winter. Is that an open window? In any case, it’s Carl Stockdale and Mary Dowds seated on the floor and having a great laugh. We’ll have to research for the possible year according to Mary’s style of dress, for starters. But for now, just to get this one posted…..and Happy New Year!

It’s fun to pick out the details in old photos. Notice the photo within a photo on this one, top right, and the nail pattern in the sole of Carl’s shoe. (Another possible clue for the age of the photo?) And that’s a nice wallpaper pattern and then there’s the beautiful lace on the curtains.

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Categories: Lace and Crochet Work, Men, Old Photos, People, Photos With Names, Women

Pommery Champagne Ad 1915

Posted on December 31st, 2019 by

I love crows, so here’s a beauty, he’s opening a Pommery brand champagne bottle. This was cropped from the ad below that appeared in the winter 1915 edition of The Master Grocer.

Source:  Goldberg Bowen & Co.’s The Master Grocer. Winter, 1915. Vol. 45, number 2. (Google.com books).

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Categories: Birds, Crows, Trade Cards and Advertising

Borealis and Sleigh Ride

Posted on December 29th, 2019 by

Antique circular print. Artist and publisher unknown. Circa 1880s – 1900.

Price for circular print without background:  $5.00        Size:  About 3 and 3/4″ across.

This was just a circular cutout from somewhere, that someone had saved, back in the day. It had made its way to one of the paper fairs or maybe an antique store, I don’t remember. The top and bottom had gotten a little scrunched but you can’t notice it in the image. And in looking for a background to scan it on (always a fun search!) I noticed our wall calendar for this year which was all photos of the Aurora Borealis. So, I got kind of enamored of the idea of this couple, and their team and sleigh, sort of floating in space in a sky of magical Borealis colors and lights (What would be the translation into music? Surely something so beautiful!)

And note in the closeup below, the carved figurehead with draping wings of what is probably a peacock. Searching online we find that there were many stunningly ornate sleighs crafted in prior centuries, including those with figureheads. Click here to see some examples that others have posted.

Source:   Google.com search result for “ornate antique open air sleighs with figureheads.” Accessed 12/29/19.

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Categories: Animals, Horses, Men, People, Sleighs, Sleds and Toboggans, Snow, Women

Merry Christmas To Maude Bryan

Posted on December 25th, 2019 by

Divided back, embossed postcard. Postmarked December 18, 1912 from Mason City, Iowa. Printed in Germany.

Price:  $4.00

Merry May Thy Christmas Be

A small basket overflowing with holly….card addressed to  “Miss Maude Bryan, Waterville, Kans.”  Signed,  “Merry Xmas – Vera.”

Maude was born about 1893 in Kansas. She’s on the 1915 Kansas State Census with E. D. Bryan, who was born about 1861 in Wisconsin. She’s most likely the Jennie M. Bryan on the 1910 Federal Census taken in Waterville, KS, with parents Duane E. (E. D. on the 1915) and Mirza[?] Bryan.

Sources: Kansas State Historical Society; Topeka, Kansas; Roll: ks1915_144; Line: 4. (Ancestry.com).

Year: 1910; Census Place: Waterville, Marshall, Kansas; Roll: T624_447; Page: 8A; Enumeration District: 0080; FHL microfilm: 1374460. (Ancestry.com).

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Categories: Christmas, Holidays, Postcards

To Lena From Sophia B. Freeman

Posted on December 25th, 2019 by

Divided back, embossed, unused postcard. “Christmas” Series – Postcard No. 207. Printed in Germany. Circa early to mid-1910s.

Price:  $5.00

“To = Lena Davis.   From = Sophia B. Freeman. Handsworth, Sask.”

Re-visiting our friend, Lena…..it’s been a while, but here’s one from our Lena Davis Collection. The publisher name needs research, will get to that shortly, but the card showing Merry Christmas and poinsettias, extends this verse to us:

“Thine be all the joy and treasure,

Peace, enjoyment, love and pleasure.”

The sender wrote:

“Dear Friend, Will answer your kind letter after Xmas. Charles and the little boys are with me for Xmas so I am busily engaged in cooking the usual amount of cake & plum puddings. I wish you a very happy Xmas with lots of fun. Truly[?] yours, Mrs. J. W. Freeman.”

It looks like Sophia is found on the 1916 Canadian Census taken in Stoughton Village, Saskatchewan, which is about 25 miles southwest of Handsworth, the address on the card. Both she and her husband, John William Freeman, were born in England. Sophia was born about 1889. They have two daughters, Mary Sophia, age 2, and Esther Francis, 2 months old. Also in the household is Charles Henry Braithwaite, sister to Sophia, so Sophia’s maiden name is Braithwaite. And this Charles then, must be the one mentioned on the card.

Source:  Year: 1916; Census Place: Saskatchewan, Assiniboia, 17; Roll: T-21935; Page: 2; Family No: 15. (Ancestry.com).

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Categories: Christmas, Flowers, Holidays, Postcards, Postcards Unused With Writing, The Lena Davis Postcard Collection

Holiday Ice Skaters

Posted on December 25th, 2019 by

Christmas card, circa 1900s – 1910s. Publisher unknown. 

Price:  $7.00       Size:  About 3 and 1/2 x 3 and 5/8

Greeting! Funny they left off the “s.” A charming card, though, done in browns and gold with red and green accents, of two children ice skating. The card opens up to say,

“Just to wish you dear, a bright and Joyous Xmas”  and is signed,  “your Agnes.” 

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Categories: Children, Christmas, Hats, Holidays, People

A Jolly Christmas To All

Posted on December 25th, 2019 by

Divided back, embossed postcard. Postmarked December 1910 from New York.

Price:  $10.00

Hello, Santa! A lovely rendition of Santa Claus wishing all a Jolly Christmas. In the background some holly decorating a rectangular tableau of a small house in winter at sunset or sunrise (glass half empty or half full? 🙂  as in, if you’re a morning person and your glass is full it would be sunrise.)

Sent to:   “Miss Reeta Peet, Hallcot Center, N.Y.”

The sender wrote:   “Wishing you a Merry Christmas. Write soon. Ethel.”

Reeta Peet would have been about about ten years old when she received this postcard. The 1905 New York State Census shows Reeta L. Peet, age five, along with her family:  father Horace B. Peet (occupation blacksmith), mother Mary E., and older siblings, Maritta M., Edith M., Arthur W. and James E.

Source:  New York State Archives; Albany, New York; State Population Census Schedules, 1905; Election District: E.D. 01; City: Halcott; County: Greene; Page: 8. (Ancestry.com).

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Categories: Christmas, Holidays

Santa In An Airplane

Posted on December 24th, 2019 by

Old photo, white border. Circa 1920s to 1930s.

Price:  $4.00

We’re late getting to the Christmas posts this year…..Here’s the first, a subtle one, maybe taken in Southern California, due to the palm trees in the background. That is Santa in the monoplane with propeller and open cockpit, though you have to click to enlarge the photo to see him. Note the teddy bear attached just on the body of the aircraft, near the wing, and the draping tinsel. And maybe someone can tell us (or is it obvious?) Was this aircraft really used to fly or was it built for the parade? Probably the latter.

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Categories: Airplanes, Old Photos, Parades, People, Teddy Bears