On
Sepia Saturday, I'm posting this colorful 1905 holiday postcard, another in the series sent to my husband's uncle (Wallis Walter
Wood, 1905-1957) in Cleveland, Ohio, during the early 1900s. This card isn't just beautiful, it's
informative and
mysterious.
Informative because it provides yet another address for my hubby's grandparents, James Edgar Wood (1871-1939) and Mary
Slatter Wood (1869-1925). I believe 7203 Duluth Street in Cleveland was the site of a
home built by James, one of many he constructed "on spec" and then sold, moving on to build another house nearby.
Mysterious because the front has the greeting
From "Grandma" and yet Wallis had no living grandparents at that point. So who was Grandma?
One clue: This pretty postcard was dropped into a mailbox early on the morning of Christmas Eve, as the postmark shows. None of Wallis's aunts (by blood or marriage) lived in the area, so they couldn't have sent this.
Another clue: Wallis's name is spelled correctly. That means his Aunt Rachel "Nellie" Wood Kirby (1864-1954) didn't send it. She
never spelled his name correctly, in a decade or more of
mailing him cards for every holiday, and this isn't her handwriting.
So my guess is this Sepia Saturday postcard was from an old family friend living nearby, or a close friend from church, or a more distant (older) relative who doted on toddler Wallis.
