Alfred J. Brown Seed Company, Grand Rapids, Michigan

Trade Card for the Arthur J. Brown Seed Company, circa 1905.

Price:  $8.00         Size:  3 and 1/2 x 5″

Spring has already sprung and yesterday was a beautiful day with half the neighborhood out doing gardening. So, here’s a trade card with nasturtiums and morning glories from the Alfred J. Brown Seed Company out of Grand Rapids, MI.

Choice Flower Seeds

“The Success of the Flower Garden depends principally upon the quality of seeds planted. We sell the Best and only the Best that grows. Alfred J. Brown Seed Co. New location Corner Ottawa and Lewis Streets. Grand Rapids, Mich.”

The ad below, appearing in March 1925, in The Daily Times (New Philadelphia, OH) indicates that the Alfred J. Brown Seed Company was established in 1891. Evidently, the company was quite successful since the most recent city directory found for them appears in 1946, address 37-45 Campau Ave. But our card above is from around 1905, since this is the first year they show up at the then new location, the southeast corner of Ottawa and Louis. The year prior they were doing business from 24-26 N. Division and 20-22 N. Ottawa.

From the 1900 Federal Census and Find A Grave, Alfred J. Brown was born December 1860 in England. He was married to Sarah “Sally” Thrasher, and they had two sons, Thomas and Robert.

Sources:  The Daily Times (New Philadelphia, OH) March 20, 1925. Friday, p. 5. (Newspapers.com).

R. L. Polk & Co.’s Grand Rapids Directory 1888, p. 202. (Newspapers.com).

R. L. Polk & Co.’s Grand Rapids Directory 1904, p. 243. (Newspapers.com).

R. L. Polk & Co.’s Grand Rapids Directory 1905, p. 233. (Newspapers.com).

Grand Rapids Directory Company Polks Grand Rapids (Kent County, Mich.) City Directory 1946, Vol. LXVIII, p. 138. (Newspapers.com).

Year: 1900; Census Place: Grand Rapids Ward 10, Kent, Michigan; Page: 22; Enumeration District: 0082; FHL microfilm: 1240723. (Ancestry.com).

Find A Grave. Find A Grave. http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi. (accessed April 19, 2020).

A Happy Easter To Irving Felix

Divided back, unused postcard. Circa 1914 – 1919. Publisher unknown. Easter series number 36, design 103.

Price:  $10.00

“A Happy Easter – Here’s a wish from a friend

And a greeting true

Just a remembrance, – from me to –

You.”

There are layers to everything, the history of an object, for instance – who made it and how it ended up in where it did, and we’ve remarked on this thought in prior posts, but this card has a special poignancy. And it’s a strange feeling to hold a postcard in your hands that was sent over a century ago and know the fate of the little boy it had been given to. And if our perception of time is normally felt as linear, this is one of those instances that stands out as something different, as if you could walk into the next room and meet the Felix family over Easter dinner. For it was a gut-wrenching discovery to find that Irving Arthur Felix was one of the men serving on USS Houston (CA-30) the heavy cruiser that went down during the Battle of Sunda Strait, off the northern coast of Java during WWII, along with her ally, Australian light cruiser, HMAS Perth (D-29).This after a valiant and greatly outnumbered Allied fight against the Imperial Japanese Navy forces in the vicinity. The numbers vary slightly in different accounts, but of Houston’s crew of 1,068, the survivors numbered 368, surviving only to be taken prisoner and interred in various POW camps. Seventy-nine of the prisoners died, of which Irving Felix was one. According to articles in Iowa newspapers, his family (wife, parents and brother and sister) found out around March 1942 that he was reported missing in action, and learned of his death sometime before July 15th ’43. He died April 26, 1943 at age 29 and was buried in Batavia, (now Jakarta) Java with full military honors. His grave site was later moved (or added, not sure if the original still exists) to Riverside Cemetery, Charles City, Iowa.

The postcard:

Addressed to:   “Mr. Irving Felix, Floyd Iowa.”

The sender wrote:  “Dear Irving: – Here is a card for you even if you can not read it. Inez you can read it. how is that song he sings with the rooster on his arm.    Aunt Tena[?]”

 1920 census info….

Irving Felix was found on the 1920 Federal Census for Rudd Township, Floyd County, Iowa, age 6, and we’re not sure at what age he learned to read, but Inez is his older sister who, like their aunt had suggested, could have read the card to him. From the 1920:  Parents Clarence A. Felix (age 33) and Ida Felix (age 36) and children Inez (age 11) Ivan (age 8) and Irving (age 6). All are born on Iowa, and both the parents are of German heritage. Clarence’s occupation is farmer.

In closing….

To the boy who sang a song about a rooster, and to paraphrase the verse on this card,  “Here’s a wish from friends true, and a heartfelt thank you, from us to you.”  (In remembrance of all lives lost during wartime and a prayer for peace and unity of all on our planet.)

Sources:  USS Houston (CA-30). n.d. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Houston_(CA-30) (accessed April 12, 2020).

HMAS Perth (D-49) n.d. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMAS_Perth_(D29) (accessed April 14, 2020).

Battle of Sunda Strait. n.d. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Sunda_Strait. (accessed April 12, 2020).

Year: 1920; Census Place: Rudd, Floyd, Iowa; Roll: T625_490; Page: 10B; Enumeration District: 120. (Ancestry.com).

“St. Ansgar Man Is Missing After Java Sea Battle With Asiatic Fleet; Irving Felix of Rudd, Also Reported Lost.” The Courier (Waterloo, Iowa). March 17, 1942. Tuesday, p. 7. (Newspapers.com).

“Sailor Dies in Japanese Camp.” Globe-Gazette (Mason City, Iowa). July 15, 1943. Thursday, p. 6. (Newspapers.com).

Find a Grave, database and images (https://www.findagrave.com : accessed 14 April 2020), memorial page for Irving Arthur Felix (15 Jan 1914–28 Apr 1948), Find a Grave Memorial no. 32213511, citing Riverside Cemetery, Charles City, Floyd County, Iowa, USA ; Maintained by Kathy Gerkins (contributor 39861343) .

Wishing You Easter Grace

Divided back, embossed postcard. Postmarked March 22, 1910 from Redwood City, California. Publisher:  International Art Publishing Co. Printed in Germany. Series 1140.

Price:  $4.00

Hmmm, I had thought I had posted all the cards in The Ethel Main Collection, and glad to find out not, in a way. Though that’s proof that some re-organizing needs to be done. (Mentally adding this thought to that long to-do list that’s floating somewhere out there in the ether. 😉 All things in good time, though.) And here’s a beautiful angel for Easter….. she’s here to comfort us, if needed, and maybe remind us of all the good things (no matter our beliefs) that exist that can’t always be seen. I think she has a serene look (then again she is an angel, so that’s a given, probably 🙂 ) Love those wings, too.

Addressed to:   “Miss Ethel Main, 299 Sunol St, San Jose Cal”

The sender wrote:   “Expect me down to see you Sat. night  EM”

Easter Greetings From Maebelle McFall

Set of two, divided back postcards. Unused, with writing, dated 1925. Publisher:  Wolf & Co., Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Series 461.

Price for the pair:  $10.00

Bunny checking his look in the mirror….There don’t seem to be too many Easter-bunny-looking-in-mirror cards that had been dreamed up and printed, as we discovered after Googling for images. And we’re seeing this one, on another site, attributed to artist Ellen Clapsaddle. So that’s a possibility for both of these cards, though they are both unsigned by the artist, so it’s hard to say, for sure. Clapsaddle was a well-known illustrator for publisher Wolf & Co., also called Wolf Co. or referred to as the Wolf brothers. But both of these cards were sent by Miss Maebelle McFall to her cousins Lowell and “Jr.” and are part of The Alice Ellison Collection on this website.

“Jr” and Lowell are George Louis Mugridge and Lowell J. Mugridge, born 1923 and 1924 respectively. Maebelle McFall, born in Colorado in 1912, is the daughter of Jennie May Ellison and Ernest V. Pearsall McFall (biological name Pearsall, stepfather’s name McFall). The boys are her cousins on her mother’s side.

“Dear Little Cousin Jr. I hope the bunnies stope in to see you and bring lots of eggs. I know you are an afful cute boy and I would like to see you. Your Loving Cousin Maebelle McFall   1925  (Lots of xxx and ooo)”

Baskets of eggs….and a bun that seems to minding the store…

“Lowell, I hope the bunnies brings lots of Easter eggs to you. I hope your big enough to walk so you can hunt your Easter eggs. Lot of Love from your cousin Maebelle McFall   1925   Plenty of ooo and xxx for Lowell” 

Easter Greetings To Betty Dow

Divided back, embossed postcard. Postmarked April 15, 1911 from Oakland, California. Number or series 626.

Price:  $10.00

Heehee, what an expression on this guy! Easter bun on his way (with a handkerchief full of painted eggs and artist’s palette over his shoulder) to your house in 2020 and that of Betty Dow back in 1911.

Betty’s address was found in city directories under Wallace H. Dow, 82 Mesa Ave, Piedmont, CA. The 1910 Federal Census for Piedmont shows Wallace as head of household and vice president of the Dow Pump Co., wife Helen, children Elizabeth age 7, Wallace A., age 5, all native to California, and their Portuguese maid Marama de Azavedo, age 20. So, this postcard, signed from Lloyd and Herbert, was sent to Betty when she was about 7 years old. Betty went on to marry Frederick Cooper Green in 1924 in Alameda, CA. Their marriage certificate show’s Betty’s mother’s maiden name was Crocker.

Sources:  Polk-Husted Directory Co.’s Husted Oakland, Berkeley and Alameda Directory 1910, p. 318. Ancestry.com. U.S. City Directories, 1822-1995.

Year: 1910; Census Place: Oakland, Alameda, California; Roll: T624_72; Page: 6B; Enumeration District: 0151; FHL microfilm: 1374085. (Ancestry.com).

Ancestry.com. California, Marriage Records from Select Counties, 1850-1941.