Good for What Ails You - Part 2

Another metamorphic trade card (approx. 1880) for your amusement:

Oh, the poor man! But just flip back the bottom of the card and he's cured - and dancing!

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I also find it interesting that this card was printed by Donaldson Brothers in Five Points, New York. There is no longer a Five Points, New York. It was such a terrible crime-ridden slum in new York City that it was razed in 1885-95. Five Points had the highest murder rate in New York and in the world. It was swampy and full of crowded tenement housing, insects, and vermin. One tenement building with 1,000 residents was reputed to have an average of one murder a night for 15 years until it was torn down in 1852. The entire area was dominated by rival gangs, including the Bowery Boys. This was also the location of the infamous Tombs prison. Charles Dickens described the area in his 1842 work, American Notes.  Oh, I couldn't help myself; I've gone off on a tangent.  Anyway, I'm not sure why Donaldson Bros. decided to locate there (cheap labor?) but they were a major printer of postcards and trade cards.

Streetcar Sunday - Milwaukee, WI

Not much traffic other than the streetcars in this early photo of Milwaukee, Wisconsin.  Milwaukee had electric streetcars starting in 1890. They operated until 1958. Milwaukee also had interurbans that connected the city with Kenosha, East Troy/Burlington, Watertown, and Sheboygan. The interurban trains had all been replaced with buses by 1947.

This card dates from about 1907. If you're specifically interested in streetcars of Wisconsin, you should check out the Transport Co. Web Station website.

Ezra Meeker and the Oregon Trail

Everything is backwards here. Normally, I start with a postcard and then set out to find the story. In this case I found out about Ezra Meeker and then sought out a postcard.  I visited the Washington State History Museum in Tacoma, where they have Ezra Meeker's wagon on display - the very one you see below. The museum used to have the actual stuffed oxen attached to the wagon too, but I didn't see them when I was there. Just as well.

Ezra is the guy who's standing next to the wagon with the ragged clothing and the white beard. After seeing his covered wagon and learning about him, I became fascinated with the history and decided I had to find an Ezra Meeker postcard. Ezra Meeker originally followed the Oregon Trail out to the Pacific Northwest from Indiana with his wife in 1852. He settled in Puyallup, Washington and grew hops. He also tried his hand at a number of other things, including prospecting for gold and trying to dehydrate fruits and vegetables.

Above all though, Ezra Meeker was concerned that the Oregon Trail, the route traveled by over 400,000 emigrants on foot, on horseback, and in wagons, would disappear and be forgotten. The trip along the 2,000-mile wagon trail took four to six months. It was not an easy journey. Thousands died from disease, Indian attacks, freezing to death, drowning, and even scurvy on their way to settle the West, but the phenomenon of western settlement fed by the Oregon Trail was momentous for North America.  By 1869, the transcontinental railroad had been completed, so there was a viable alternative, but there was also a threat that the Oregon Trail and its importance in the settling of the West would be forgotten.

Meeker made it his personal mission to ensure that the Oregon Trail would not be forgotten. In 1906, at the age of 76, Ezra Meeker loaded up his oxcart and headed East (backwards) on the Oregon Trail in an effort to raise awareness. He gave speeches along the way and sold postcards and souvenirs to cover his expenses. He also erected markers along the trail.

Meeker decided to travel all the way to Washington, D.C. where he met with President Theodore Roosevelt, who was supportive of Meeker's crusade. Along the way, Meeker also drove his covered wagon down 5th Avenue in New York City. (While he was looking for a place to camp, his driver was arrested for driving cattle on a New York City street.) Meeker made the trip again by ox cart in 1910 and made additional trips by car and plane. His later dream was to erect beacons along the Oregon Trail, so that even airplanes would be able to see the route clearly.

Meeker was obviously eccentric, and many considered him a "corn doctor" for selling trinkets and charging admission to see the inside of his wagon, but I admire his relentless dedication to the cause. I am convinced that he used himself to promote the cause rather than the other way around.  Although Meeker's grand dreams for memorializing the Oregon Trail were not as successful as he had hoped, we still have him to thank that the trail is remembered so well today. At the time of his death in 1928, the 98-year-old Meeker was still promoting the Oregon Trail and was in the process of planning another trip by automobile, supported by Henry Ford.

If you like to travel through history with pictures, you won't want to miss Sepia Saturday.