Back — ] Mayme. ] Ans. soon as conv. My ring is real nice. [main message:] Rec’d your postal Sat. night & was glad to hear from you. How is this for warm weather? I am almost melted. I was up to Wever Sat. & Sun day night. Saw Annie & Fay [?] there too. Most everybody around here is busy threshing but we. We didn’t have any threshing to do & I’m glad of it. But wait til next yr. Oh, my.
Postcard Information
Postmark: Wever, Iowa, JUL 29 1909
Sent To: Carthage IL
Era: Golden Age (1907–1915)
Publisher: Julius Bien & Company / Keystone Post Cards, New York, N.Y.
Back — "Hello" Pearl, Rec’d your postal, all O.K. & am "answering" "soon or sooner" as you can see. Mamie & Alda came up yesterday afternoon. Alda & I went to Harve & Mamie stayed with Verge. We stopped a-while & visited with Anne You sure can bet I cer-tainly had a fine time the 4th. I went to Burlington the next evening & to [illegible] [illegible] write soon. with love and violet. for me.
Second Street in Fort Madison, looking west past the brick storefronts, shows the commercial center of a city that was in the middle of its industrial prime. The postcard was sent from Wever, Iowa — a small community about twenty miles upriver — and signed “H.R.S.” on the front and “R.H.” on the back. The initials H.R.S. suggest Harvey R. Sights, and if so, this card — sent in June 1908, about two years before Harvey and Pearl’s wedding — is one of several in the collection that track Harvey’s movements around the Lee County area while working on the railroad.
Back — ] "Better late than never" but I would have answered sooner if I’d had any cards. I haven’t as pretty a card to send as the one I rec’d from you, for that violet postal was certainly pretty. I liked it fine. Don’t you think all had a fairly good time yesterday afternoon, at least what we done kept us pretty busy. How is the Children’s Day exercises. I’ve got a job today I don’t like very well – helping Mamma pick up cherries. Ans. soon as ever. – Violet.
Postcard Information
Postmark: Wever, Iowa, JUN 8 1908
Sent To: Carthage IL
Era: Undivided Back (Pre-1907)
Publisher: Axt Drug Co., Fort Madison, Iowa
Stamp: 1¢
Distance Traveled: ~25 miles
Notes: Hand-drawn dividing line on back, message written on front margin
About This Card
Pine Street in Fort Madison, looking south from this vantage, shows the kind of small-city commercial vitality that characterized river towns along the upper Mississippi in the early twentieth century. Fort Madison had grown up around an early American fort — the original Fort Madison, the first U.S. military post in what would become Iowa, was destroyed and abandoned in 1813 after repeated Sauk attacks during the War of 1812. The town that took its name later that century had no direct connection to the military installation; it simply kept the name. Five years after Violet sent this card, Walter Sheaffer would open his pen factory nearby, and Pine Street’s commercial character would begin to shift.
Back — Hello Pearle Recd [?] your card a while Back and was glad to hear from you. there is a box supper and Ice cream social in Wever to night But I am not a going But would like to. as ever your friend Caroline
Back — Hello Pearle I am watching for the rest of that set of cards and I hope you will not keep me waiting very long. When are you coming over here in this country to see me. anser soon yours Ray. W.
