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| February 15, 1900 Postal Card from H. Reeves to Prof Robinson Carthage, South Dakota (USPS Postal Card UX12) |
This blog post presented by Mary Katherine May
of QualityMusicandBooks.comCarthage, Miner County, South Dakota in 1900 was a town with future and promise.
The Postal Card here, UX12, a one-cent prepaid card with Thomas Jefferson and laurel leaf border imprint, has an unreadable year on the cancellation, but can be dated with the message which included the date, February 15, 1900.
Addressed to one Prof(essor) Robinson, city, from one H. Reeves, it is interesting to conjecture what might have prompted such a message.
I am not above (the use) of cold water.
Dear Sir.
A little bird told me I was to be dunked tomorrow night by yourself, my mother and Mrs. M. I will let you (know?) I am a seeker of revenge and there are others wth me.
H. Reeves.
At first I thought the dunking might be a prank, but that didn't really make sense. Why would three adults dunk anyone in February with its cold, winter weather? My next thought was that perhaps H. Reeves just may have spent the cold months snug and warm in his long underwear, and was much in need of a cleansing to "clear the air." Who knows?
I think this says "I am not a lover of cold water" instead of "above" - I am fascinated with the idea of what is going on here! (I found this because I had family from this area.)
ReplyDeleteI looked in the 1900 census and it is likely this was Harrison Reeves, who was only 8 years old at the time! This precocious boy later went to France as a newspaper reporter, and by the mid-1920s, he was living in France again, "selling oil in all European countries from Mexico", according to his passport application.
I only found an Edwin Robinson in Carthage in 1900 - he was a farm laborer and boarded with the family he worked for so that's unlikely to be that one, but maybe the "Prof" was tongue in cheek.
I wish I could ask my grandfather, who probably knew Harry growing up in Miner County!
Maybe a baptism was in store for little Harry.
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