Great news! I was successful in compelling my best friend Clara to visit Michigan for a refreshing reprieve from the Atlanta, Georgia heat. Theoretically. And because Miss Clara is just as much of a nerd as I am, you best believe we are spending her vacation traipsing through cemeteries, looking for rocks on the beach, and visiting the Oceana County Historical & Genealogical Society. This past Wednesday, while at the Chadwick-Munger House, we flipped through the oft-visited collection of postcards to find an example to transcribe for you all this week.
She chose an example from Hart, since 1) we were in Hart and 2) it’s where I grew up and she might as well pick the town she’s heard the most about. She was immediately drawn to the example that day because of the message, front and center and in your face. The photo side of the postcard is one-third an actual photo - a little snapshot of a wooded trail leading to a pond - with the remaining two-thirds dedicated to a caption reading “I Like the Town of - HART - Think I’ll Buy it For You.” The word “Hart” is even squished neatly in the center of a pennant flag.
What I personally love about this postcard is the customizability. I imagine that, for the company producing this postcard - Auburn Post Manufacturing Company of Auburn, Indiana - this was a well-used template. “I Like the Town of ____ Think I’ll Buy it For You,” and you could stick whatever town you wanted in that pennant space. “Hart,” a four-letter word, fits quite neatly. I don’t think we could say the same about Clara’s hometown “Hammondsport.” And then, for the remaining blank space on the rightmost side of the card - a little vignette of the town in question! Or really, just any generic deciduous forest would do for much of the upper Midwest.
And now for the main event, our transcribed message. Postmarked in Hart, Michigan, on December 30, 1912 at 7:30 p.m., it reads:
“Dear Edna - If nothing serious happens I go to Pentwater Wed. on the forenoon train.
- Lucile”
Sent to Edna Westbrook of Pentwater, Michigan
Short and sweet and to the point. If I’m being honest, Clara is on vacation brain.
But, as always here at The 1306, we will do our best to track down the sender and/or recipient of the message. Edna Westbrook was born on February 2, 1897 to Calvin and Edith Westbrook. Calvin served several decades as a road commissioner for Mason County, and he and Edith both worked on the farm of Judge Fred Russel before settling on their own farm in Weare Township north of Buck’s Corners.
Edna married J. Harold Birdsall on Sept. 1 of either 1916 or 1918 (his obituary reads 1916, but the Oceana County History Volume 1 says 1918). Upon his return from fighting in WWI, the couple settled on their own farm in Weare Township and had two children: Phyllis Marie and James Harold. Edna was a school teacher in Weare for many years and was noted as being an active community member. She died in 1956 at the age of 59.
But in 1912, Edna was 15 on her family’s farm in Pentwater, and if nothing serious happened, her pal Lucile came in on the train for a visit.
