Streetcar Sunday - Denver, Colorado

Denver  had horse-drawn streetcars in 1871. It was also one of the few cities that tried cable cars before converting to electric streetcars. Five cable car lines were built in 1888 and 1889, but since there were no major grades in Denver, they were soon replaced with the more efficient electric-powered streetcars.

 The College of Architecture and Planning at the University of Colorado has put together a nice website with information on Denver's streetcar history and new streetcar developments, so rather than repeat the information, I would refer you to their site.

Here are the backs of the cards in the same order.

The message to Mrs. M. Handrick of Binghamton reads:

Dear Mother: Your welcome letter just rec'd - Mine giving all information must have reached you ere this. Wrote soon as I found out. The Elks are here, going to parade now. Snow on streets here for the event brought from mts. - Love Bess 

July 15

Hazel Vera Holbrook Remembered

I don't usually re-post cards, but I'm doing it this time, because I have new information and because this simple card was the most heartbreaking one I have ever encountered.

For a long time, this card was one of the most amusing ones I had ever encountered because of the message:

Dear Brother -  Wishing you a Happy Birthday and many more to come. Your sister (Hazel Vera)

(Wish I could see you just one minute. Maybe I wouldn't blister you.)

On a lark, I decided to search the name of Rexford E. Holbrook. I don't do this very often, because before you know it you're researching other people's genealogy and there's no end.  Interestingly enough, I found Hazel Vera before I found Rexford. Hazel was born in June, 1901, so she was 14 when she sent this card to her 7 year-old brother who was visiting a relative in a nearby town.  But what's so very tragic is that Hazel Vera died on September 28, 1915, only a month after writing this.

Rexford lived longer. I don't know when he died, but he did get married. He and Hazel are both buried in the North Volney Cemetery in Oswego County, New York. Here's the information posted on rootsweb:

HOLBROOK, HAZEL V.   lot 34
1901   1915
Born:  June 3, 1901  Palermo, NY
Died:  September 28, 1915
Father:  Ephraim L. Holbrook
Mother:  Bertha Curtis
(Vital Records Fulton)

The mystery was solved when Chris Overstreet responded with this information:

I found that Hazel had just taken the Regents (New York's high school entrance exam) about a week before this postcard; then I found this:

Oswego Daily Times, Monday Evening, October 4, 1915

Hazel, 14 years old daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Ephraim Holbrook, died (last) Tuesday at two p.m. at Lee Memorial Hospital, Fulton, where she was operated upon the night previous for appendicitis. She had been ill about a week. A consultation of doctors was held Monday and she was taken to the hospital and operated upon. Besides her parents, she leaves a sister, Mrs. Herman Hollenbeck of Clifford, and a little brother Rexford.

Hazel was a member of the North Volney Sunday school and was baptised at the church here by Rev. Mr. Williams a year and one day previous to her death. She was also an attendant of the North Volney school.

The funeral services were held at the family home in Palermo Friday, October 1, at 2 p.m., Rev. Mr. Williams of Mt. Pleasant officiating. Burial was made in North Volney cemetery. Much sympathy is felt and expressed especially for Mrs. Holbrook who has lost her mother, her sister, and now this daughter, all in about six months.

For more old photos and memories be sure to check in with Sepia Saturday.

Night of the Southern Belles

Here's some inspiration for you budding movie makers looking for your big break.  It's just too bad there aren't many drive-in movie theaters anymore, because this would have been perfect.

You can make up your own plot, but here's what I'm thinking:
Following the deaths of their Confederate-soldier husbands and fiancees in the Civil War, these grieving southern belles haunt the swampland looking for revenge. No Yankee man is safe from them. The lovely ladies emerge silently out of the swamp, with their organza gowns and petticoats miraculously dry and unsoiled.  The ladies display the greatest poise as they beckon to the Yankee men, who are not accustomed to such things and are ill equipped to resist their beauty, grace, and southern charm. The lady may offer a mint julep, ask for assistance finding her lost parasol, or simply suggest a quiet stroll along the banks. Before the hapless northerner knows what has happened, he is being led into the swamp never to be seen alive again. It's terrible isn't it! A horror movie extraordinaire.

I'm not sure how the movie ends though. What do you think?