Dear Brother Walter...

One of the most popular posts on this blog, for reasons totally unknown to me, is another card sent to Walter Till.  I'm perplexed by its popularity, because I just don't understand it.

Anyway, on to brother Walter.  The birthday card that is viewed so often for unknown reasons, is from 1916. This one is from 1919.

It's a lovely card, but it wouldn't be my first choice for a 9-year-old boy.  The message on the back of the card reads:

5/2/19

Dear Brother Walter

I came near forgetting when your birthday was but dident. here is just a card hoping you have a happy one suppose you will be 9 years old Sun. you want to see how good a boy you can be from now on let Jesus help you

Love from Sister Laura

It started to seem more likely to me, after looking at previous cards, that "brother" was meant in a religious sense, but then I found that Walter actually did have an older sister named Laura. In fact, he had 10 siblings. The 1920 Census shows Walter, the youngest at age 9, living with his siblings, George (11), Edna (13), and Jennie (15) and their mother Julia E. Till. There is no indication of a father in the household, because the father died a few months after Walter's 9th birthday. Walter also had a younger brother who only lived to the age of four.

I looked for more information on Ancestry.com and was surprised to find photos of Walter and his siblings. There's our little Walter on the right.

And there's Jennie on the left. Here's a postcard addressed to Jennie.

The message on the back reads:

Dear Jennie: -

Come up and see the School house fore your self. my room is where the X is. I wish you a happy easter. your friend Bertha.

Train Disaster at Wellington

This doesn't look like a train disaster card, does it? It's a perfect example of a relatively plain card with a very poignant message. It hardly matters what's on the front. I was looking for cards to post for St. Patrick's Day when I came upon this one. The news is not very cheerful, so I thought I'd post it on a day other than the holiday.

Grace sent this card from Seattle to Miss Sara Clark in Dexter, New York on March 10, 1910.
The message reads:

Dear friend, - You had all better come west here to live. Although we have had a very bad winter. Suppose you have read of that awful avalanche on the Great Northern. It seems terrible here, for we are so close. They are bringing many of the bodies here. Love to all,

Grace.

It reminded me of the tragic Washington avalanche this last weekend that killed three skiers at Stevens Pass. The 1910 avalanche was also near Stevens Pass, but was much more severe and much deadlier. It swept away two Northern Pacific trains and claimed the lives of 96 victims. You can read more about the disaster at HistoryLink. You may also want to look at the Wellington Avalanche website.

Afterwards, the small railroad town of Wellington changed its name to Tye (after the Tye river) because of the negative association with the disaster. Tye became a ghost town after the second Cascade tunnel was opened in 1929.

Here's a photo of the aftermath of the avalanche, with blanket-wrapped bodies being prepared for transport. The photo is courtesy of Paul Dorpat, a historian who writes for the Seattle Times Sunday Magazine and has a superb website.

Source

Tram Tuesday - Honolulu, Hawaii

Although we don't know the exact date of the postcard, the publisher (Wall, Nichols & Co.) stopped production in 1912, so I suspect the card is from sometime between 1907 and 1912.

The signs on top of the car show Fort Street and Punahou on the front and Kalihi and Waikiki on the back. The initials on the front of the car stand for Hawaii Rapid Transit & Land Company, a company founded in 1898, which developed electric streetcar service in Honolulu. The streetcars ran at 10-minute intervals and helped to popularize Waikiki.

This was not the first streetcar service though. Hawaiian Tramways Limited had previously provided mule-drawn streetcars, starting in the 1880s. By 1942, the streetcar system had been completely replaced by buses.

Most cities the size of Honolulu currently have some sort of streetcar or light rail system. Honolulu doesn't, but it has plans for an elevated transit line, a proposal that has been fiercely debated for years. Honolulu just received approval from the Federal Transit Administration to commence construction, but opponents are suing to stop the project.

Here's the back of the card.