L. F. Abbott Groceries and Provisions, Boston

Trade cards, set of 4. Louis F. Abbott, Groceries and Provisions, Boston, Massachusetts. Copyrighted 1885 by F. C. Bryon, New York. Series 313.

Price for the set:  $40.00           Size for each:  About 5 x 3 and 3/4″

“A Merry Christmas To You., L. F. Abbott, Groceries and Provisions, 181 Eliot St., Boston.”

We’re not finding any other trade cards online for grocer, L. F. Abbott in Boston, and that’s surprising, given the size of these cards, which are larger than most – leading us to think he was doing pretty well. And these are absolute beauties, each showing a scene within a sparkling snow-rimmed leaf. (Sorry you can’t see the sparkle.) Enlarge the images and get lost in them a little – note also the flowery embellishments in the holiday message.

L. F. was Louis Frederick Abbott, born October 2, 1852 in Ossipee, New Hampshire, the son of Henry G. Abbott and Phoebe Abbott, her maiden name unknown.

On October 5, 1881 in Cambridge, Mass, occupation grocer, he married Myra W. Sherman. She was age 27, born in Rockland, Maine, the daughter of Alden Thomas Sherman and Bethiah (Glover) Sherman. Myra died in 1892, and the following year Louis married Myra’s younger sister, Julia. The 1900 Federal Census shows five children: the oldest, Sarah and Lulu would have been Louis’ daughters with Myra; the younger, Bertha, Henry and Fred, his children with Julia. By the 1910 census, the family has increased with sons Warren and Robert.

The business address on the cards of 181 Eliot St. in Boston, shows up in city directories from 1886 through 1890. In 1886 we find the short ad, below:

The store in question may or may not have been the same one our trade cards were advertising; as from this and a couple of other ads, Louis was also in the real estate business. By the 1900 Federal Census taken in Boston, his occupation is listed as real estate, rather than grocer.

Some Years Later……A Helpful Owl

If you’ll indulge the pretentiousness below:  Regarding “Mr. and Mrs.” Jean Martin (in French I always must use the “et” for “and”, otherwise it sounds absurd.)

It’s unclear how long Louis owned the 181 Eliot Street address but we did find a funny article in The Boston Globe, March of 1910:  The residents at that time were M et Mme Jean Martin, who kept a barn owl in the basement. The good owl had eliminated the rat problem that had come about (let’s presume) after the butcher shop moved out, the property perhaps having stood vacant for a time. (The article went on to explain that the rats are gone, so the residents feed the owl with meat.) Here’s an excerpt:

Sources:  Town and City Clerks of Massachusetts. Massachusetts Vital and Town Records. Provo, UT: Holbrook Research Institute (Jay and Delene Holbrook). (Ancestry.com).

New England Historic Genealogical Society; Boston, Massachusetts; Massachusetts Vital Records, 1840???1911. (Ancestry.com).

Massachusetts Grand Lodge of Masons Membership Cards 1733–1990. New England Historic Genealogical Society, Boston, Massachusetts. (Ancestry.com).

Find a Grave, database and images (https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/176768573/louis-frederick-abbott: accessed 25 December 2023), memorial page for Louis Frederick Abbott (2 Oct 1862–13 Oct 1937), Find a Grave Memorial ID 176768573, citing Seaview Cemetery, Rockland, Knox County, Maine, USA; Maintained by Sally – Midcoast Maine (contributor 48138595).

Year: 1900; Census Place: Boston Ward 21, Suffolk, Massachusetts; Roll: 686; Page: 14; Enumeration District: 1479. (Ancestry.com).

Year: 1910; Census Place: Boston Ward 21, Suffolk, Massachusetts; Roll: T624_623; Page: 11a; Enumeration District: 1587; FHL microfilm: 1374636. (Ancestry.com).

Boston City Directory, 1890. Boston, MA, USA: Sampson, Murdock and Co., 1890.

Ancestry.com. U.S., City Directories, 1822-1995.

The Boston Globe, August 18, 1886. Wednesday, p. 7. (Newspapers.com).

“No Rats Where It Has Its Home.” The Boston Globe, March 5, 1910. Saturday, p. 10. (Newspapers.com).

Jolly Jumping Jack

Divided back postcard. Postmarked December [?] 1919 from Sacramento, California. Copyright 1915. Publisher:  P. F. Volland & Company, Chicago, Illinois. Series or number 807.

Price:  $2.00

One more for now from The Alice Ellison Collection; our card shows an illustration of a child’s toy drum and jumping jack – in this case a monkey in a clown outfit.

“Jump, jolly jumping Jack;

Beat, booming drum;

Tell my little friend that

I wish I could come

To say to him gladly:

‘May Christmas for you

Be cheery and merry and

Jolly all through.’ “

Addressed to:   “Henrietta Ellison, 1314 F. St., City.”

“City,” of course is Sacramento, CA.

The sender wrote:   “Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year from Miss Johnson.”

See Wikipedia’s entry for publisher P. F. Volland & Co. 

But what I really like about this card is the publisher’s Santa on the reverse (cleaned up in Photoshop). He with his handlebar mustache, holding the little candlelit tree…and that pointed beard, or is his beard tucked into his coat? (Your choice 🙂 )

Sources:  P. F. Volland Co. n.d. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/P._F._Volland_Company (accessed December 24, 2023).

Jumping Jack. n.d. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jumping_jack#:~:text=%22Black%20Jack%22%20Per shing%2C%20who,when%20the%20strings%20are%20tugged. (accessed December 24, 2023).

Poinsettia Christmas Wishes

Divided back postcard. Postmarked December 17, 1923. Publisher unknown. Series 1013 B. Made in U.S.A.

Price:  $2.00

Christmas Wishes

“My wishes for your

Christmas hours

Are just as bright as

these gay flowers.”

Yet another card from The Alice Ellison Collection. Poinsettias in the foreground and behind, we looking out on some evergreens and a winter scene. The publisher on this one is unknown. Maddeningly, I’m without access to the best postcard i.d. reference – Walter E. Corson’s Publisher’s Trademarks Identified. (My only copy got water damage and mold – it’s a long story – and in a fit of disgust I tossed it out along with a bunch of other stuff. Definitely, the letting go of “things” is a heavenly feeling of freedom but I probably should have made an exception on that one.) One presumes that the publisher name starts with “S” since that letter appears in the oval underneath the lovely back header, rather fancy with its scroll-y curvy lines.

Addressed to:   “Mr. & Mrs. J. M. Ellison, Sacramento, Calif, 604 N. St.”

The sender wrote:   “Many good wishes to all The family as ever your sister Annie.”

A Christmas Wish From Wallace Stoebe

Divided back postcard. Postmarked December 20, 1916 from Alta Loma, California. Publisher:  F. A. Owen Company, Dansville, New York. Series or number 444D.

Price:  $5.00                                 

Here’s another Christmas card from The Alice Ellison Collection. This collection is from a good friend’s husband’s family, so we won’t trace Alice but in this case we’ll put up a little info on the sender, Wallace, who sent this winter countryside scene with the following sentiments:

My Christmas Wish

“May the Good Luck Fairy

Knock blithely on your door

And into your household

Countless blessings pour.”

Addressed to:   “Miss Henrietta Ellison, 1415 G. St., Sacramento, California.”

The sender wrote:   “Dear Henry, I wish you a Merry Xmas Happy New Year. Wallace Stoebe.”

Wallace Theodore Stoebe was born February 10, 1908 in Humboldt, Iowa, the son of Charles A. Stoebe and Emily Laura (Fry) Stoebe. So, he would have been eight years old when he made sure to remember his friend, “Henry” in Sacramento.

Sources:  National Archives at St. Louis; St. Louis, Missouri; Wwii Draft Registration Cards For California, 10/16/1940-03/31/1947; Record Group: Records of the Selective Service System, 147; Box: 1743. (Ancestry.com).

Find a Grave, database and images (https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/136389147/emily-laura-stoebe: accessed 23 December 2023), memorial page for Emily Laura Fry Stoebe (9 Mar 1879–17 May 1930), Find a Grave Memorial ID 136389147, citing Bellevue Memorial Park, Ontario, San Bernardino County, California, USA; Maintained by Chloé (contributor 47159257).

Merry Christmas From Lentie

Divided back postcard. Postmarked December 22, 1923 from Fresno, California. Series or number 30, publisher unknown.

Price:  $4.00

Another from The Alice Ellison Collection.

A Merry Christmas…..

A very nice scene on this one:  Partially framed with snow covered holly, a mother and son walk back from church. (We’ll take liberties with interpreting.) But there’s the church in the background, and the artist has conveyed, on this very small scale, a moment in time between mother and son.

Addressed to:   “Mrs. J. M. Ellison, Sacramento, Calif, 604 N. St.”

The sender wrote:   “Fresno – Sat.    Dear Aunt:-  Loyd is better today & sitting up. Oh we sure have had a time with him, as he certainly has been a sick child. He looks so bad but I feel now that the worst is all over. Cordie gets no vacation. Lots of love Lentie.”

We’ll trust that Loyd made a full recovery and was soon out playing in the Fresno sunshine!

Merry Xmas From the Harms Family

Divided back, embossed postcard. Postmarked December 23, 1921 from Sacramento, California. Publisher unknown. Series C-368.

Price:  $1.00

Greetings for Christmas

“I wish you a bright Christmas:

May gladness, like a sail,

Carry your ship through happy seas,

And joy and hope prevail.”

Addressed to:   “Mrs Ellison, 1314 F. St, Sacramento, Calif.”

The sender wrote:   “We wish you a very Merry Xmas and Happy New Year. The Harms family.”

A one hundred and two year-old card this time, almost to the day, and it’s another from The Alice Ellison Collection. Nice calming sailboat scene, draped with holly and a peach-colored ribbon. Nice sentiments in the verse, too. (Ditto from Laurel Cottage to you all.)

Merry Xmas From Frank Bennetts

Divided back, embossed postcard. Postmarked December 18, 1917 from Sacramento, California. Publisher unknown.

Price:  $1.00

Friendly Greetings…….To you my friend, All joy at this happy season.

Addressed to:   “Miss Ella Ellison, 1314 – F St., Sacramento, Cal.”

Signed:   “Merry Xmas. Frank Bennetts.

Christmas season is upon us again! Time has done its usual trick – lots of time, lots of time, then wham, you’re running behind. We have a number of Christmas postcards that belong to The Alice Ellison Collection. None of these Ellison cards that will be put up this year are particularly spectacular, many are beat up, but up they will go anyway, and we’ll see if we come across anything interesting in them. Personally, I will always find something….It’s a hundred and six year-old item….Enlarging the scene and getting lost in it….That bell with the holly laying in the snow – ha, somebody dropped it, I guess. And, if anyone is looking for anything from Frank Bennetts (likely of Sacramento) well, here is something – not much but it does tell us he was friends with the Ellisons, and if you’re searching it’s always nice to get another small piece of the puzzle.

And in enlarging the card to, indeed, get lost in the scene, we see an odd combo for that church – with its castle-like tower topped with the onion-like dome, and an onion dome in the back, too. So……a Russian emigrant was the artist for this one? Yeah, we think this crazy stuff. 😉

A Happy Christmas To Miss Mattie Smith, Norton, KS

Divided Back, embossed postcard. Unused with writing. Publisher unknown. Circa 1907 – 1909.

Price:  $3.00

Obviously, this one’s a little beat up, but I think I have other cards for Mattie, so I want to make sure they all get included.

The sender wrote:   “Dear Mattie: –   I rec’d  your Christmas remembrance which I was very glad to get. I hope you have had a Merry Christmas and I wish you a happy and prosperous New Year. Nellie K.”

Addressed to:   “Miss Mattie Smith, Norton, Kansas.”

This might be the Mattie Ristora Smith that had married Theodore Denney Romans in 1910. And, the sender possibility is Nellie King. They were both in Norton, Kansas in that time-period. We’ll have to look up the other possible cards we have for Mattie, and do some more research.

To Mr. and Mrs. Les Sparks, Lansing, KS

Divided Back, embossed postcard. Made in U.S.A. Series 161. Postmarked from Tonganoxie, Kansas, December 23rd. Year missing. Circa 1925 – 1936.

Price:  $7.00

A cute design for this card, with its bowl of holly, quite adorable bow and dainty stars. (Seems unusual that the artist used a brown “pen” to draw with  – but that’s part of the charm of old postcards.) The prior post was from the same unknown publisher and dated 1927, so we started with an estimate of 1920s and went from there. The senders, Babe, Gladys and their boys, lived about 17 miles southwest of Lansing, Kansas.

The addressees are Kansas natives, James Leslie (or Lesley) Sparks, born about 1901, and wife, Mary, born about 1902. They were married August 8, 1923. Mary’s maiden name was Throckmartin, middle name Ver (apparently a family surname).

James appears as Leslie Sparks on the 1920 Federal Census, and as J. L. Sparks in city directories found online. Their home was in “Tonga City” and he worked at the Kansas State Penitentiary in Lansing when this card was sent, hence the added, “c/o Warden K. P.”

The 1925 State Census shows James L.’s occupation as written below. (Wow, tricky.) But this is standing for he “mans a service station”.

On the 1930 Federal Census, James L. is listed as unemployed. The record refers us to line number 3 on the Unemployment Schedule, however that information appears to have been lost. It’s possible that he may have been employed at the penitentiary and temporarily laid off, or he may not have not started working there until later in 1930 or as late as 1934, per that city directory.

The town, Tonganoxie was named after a Delaware Indian Chief.

Sources:  “Married Wednesday Evening.” The Columbus Weekly Advocate. August 11, 1923, Saturday, p. 2. (Newspapers.com).

Registration State: Kansas; Registration County: Jefferson County. Ancestry.com. U.S., World War I Draft Registration Cards, 1917-1918.

Year: 1920; Census Place: Union, Jefferson, Kansas; Roll: T625_535; Page: 9A; Enumeration District: 84. (Ancestry.com).

Kansas State Historical Society; Topeka, Kansas; 1925 Kansas Territory Census; Roll: KS1925_78; Line: 29. (Ancestry.com).

Year: 1930; Census Place: Tonganoxie, Leavenworth, Kansas; Page: 1A; Enumeration District: 0033; FHL microfilm: 2340443. (Ancestry.com).

“FAQs about the 1930 Census.” (archives.gov). Accessed December 25, 2022.

R. L. Polk & Co.’s Leavenworth (and county) City Directory, 1928. p. 439. Ancestry.com. U.S., City Directories, 1822-1995.

R. L. Polk & Co.’s Leavenworth (and county) City Directory, 1934. p. 388. Ancestry.com. U.S., City Directories, 1822-1995.

R. L. Polk & Co.’s Leavenworth (and county) City Directory, 1936. p. 407. Ancestry.com. U.S., City Directories, 1822-1995.

Linenberger, Shawn. June 9, 2016. “Chief Tonganoxie:  The man who shaped us.” tonganoxiemirror.com. (accessed December 25, 2022).

A Happy Yuletide to Mr. and Mrs. J. W. Bowyer

Divided Back, embossed unused postcard. Made in the U.S.A. Series W-72.

Price:  $7.00

A Happy Yuletide

“Merry Christmas to you and yours

Kindest thoughts from me and mine

May nothing happen that obscures

Your fullest pleasure rich and fine!”

The senders wrote:   “Dec 17 1927. Dear Friends we are all well. A Merry Christmas and a happy new year. Mr. & Mrs. A. J. Marine”

Addressed to:   “Mr. and Mrs. J. W. Bowyer, Kingman, Kan.”

From the 1915 State Census, J. W., his wife Hattie, and their daughter, Anna are in White Township, Kingman, Kansas.

On the 1930 Federal Census, this is James W. Bowyer, born about 1860 and wife, Hattie J. Bowyer, born about 1868, living in Kingman City, Kingman, Kansas. Both born in Iowa. Per Find A Grave for the couple, James’ middle name is Warren and Hattie’s maiden name is Fowler.

And A. J. and Florence Marine are listed in the city directory for 1920, farming at their residence of 909 Santa Fe Trail, in Dodge City, Kansas. (Pretty surprising to be able to read the writing well enough and find the Marine family right off the bat in online records.)

The publisher is unknown (as is often the case) but it’s nice to have a dated card for future reference, if anyone’s looking for this postcard back. (I like the hand holding the torch.)

Sources:  Kansas State Historical Society; Topeka, Kansas; Roll: ks1915_116; Line: 7. (Ancestry.com).

Year: 1930; Census Place: Kingman, Kingman, Kansas; Page: 23B; Enumeration District: 0016; FHL microfilm: 2340440. (Ancestry.com).

Find a Grave, database and images (https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/91867759/hattie-josephine-bowyer: accessed 24 December 2022), memorial page for Hattie Josephine Fowler Bowyer (27 Mar 1868–17 Oct 1954), Find a Grave Memorial ID 91867759, citing Walnut Hill Cemetery, Kingman, Kingman County, Kansas, USA; Maintained by Betty Rose M. (contributor 47456505).

Etrick’s Directory of Ford County,1920. Pg. 80. Ancestry.com. U.S., City Directories, 1822-1995.