Note the apostrophe in Hallowe'en, which in earlier years indicated it was the eve of All Hallow's Day (also known as All Saints Day).
My husband's WOOD family used penny postcards like to stay in touch throughout the year, on every conceivable occasion (including Lincoln's birthday and Independence Day).
May you have all treats, no tricks, on Halloween!
The greeting asked whether the boy was practicing his violin or had decided to stop taking lessons. (Spoiler alert: he quit!)
In the early 1900s, hubby's Wood family throughout the Midwest stayed in touch via this type of penny postcard, colorful and convenient, not to mention affordable. Thankfully, 110 years later, the colors remain bright and the handwritten message is still legible today.
For more about the history of the postcard, and the craze for penny postal greetings, see this page.
By this point in her life, Nellie had experienced many losses. Her first child (Nellie Lucy Blossom Lewis) sadly lived only two months, passing away in December of 1895. Earlier in that same year, her older brother Alfred Olando Wood died (1855-1895) and her younger brother Charles Augustus Wood died (1862-1895). Just two years later, she lost her husband, Walter Alfred Lewis Sr. (1860-1897).
Nellie remarried in 1907, to Samuel Arthur Kirby (1860-1939), and they soon moved to Chicago. Not too long afterward, she began sending holiday and birthday postcards to her Wood nephew in Cleveland, often signing "Aunt Nellie & Uncle Art."
Unfortunately, Nellie's son Walter A. Lewis Jr. died in 1915, just shy of his 27th birthday. We have no postcards from Nellie after that date--either the cards didn't survive, or Nellie didn't send more. But her nephew treasured the cards from this favorite aunt, and the cards remain in the family to this day, shared among descendants.
Halloween is one of the many holidays when the Wood family sent greeting post cards to young relatives during the early 1900s.
These two colorful cards were sent to my hubby's uncle, Wallis W. Wood, in Cleveland, Ohio. The lad was in grammar school at the time and likely couldn't read the greetings handwritten in cursive.
The senders were his paternal aunt Nellie (Rachel Ellen) Wood Kirby and uncle Art Kirby, who lived in Toledo, Ohio. Nellie was the attentive older sister of Wallis's father, James Edgar Wood.
The handwritten greetings on these cards were usually brief and affectionate.
