When I found this card at the Flea Market, I was sure I had found a link to our own Wilhelmine Estabrook on Gather. Alas, the names are not spelled the same.
(All Gather readers should be familiar with the charming stories and memoirs of this writer.)
The card, printed in Bavaria, bears a verse by Henry Van Dyke - a popular essayist and writer of short stories, who was also an academic (Princeton) and a government minister (Ambassador for President Wilson).
I enjoy the antique Gothic lettering of the poem more than I do the pedestrian sentiment.
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Edgar and Clara Easterbrook lived in Arcadia, Nebraska, where they operated a farm.
Edgar was 59 years old in 1909, while Clara was 54.
The research of the genealogist, Kate C., shows that Edgar and Clara were still alive in 1920, when they were 70 and 65 years old.
They do not appear on the 1930 census; we presume that they died during the 'twenties.
Arcadia is a small community about 70 miles (driving) northwest of Grand Island, and about 220 miles (driving) west of Omaha, Nebraska.
The card was mailed from Loup City, which is about 18 miles (driving) southeast of Arcadia.
The sender, Ella W., cannot be identified.
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Postmark
Loup City, NEB
Dec 23, 1909
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Address
Mrs. E.A. Easterbrook
Arcadia
Nebr.
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Here is the research of the Amzing Kate C.
Here is what I found on the Easterbrook family. ~k ----------------
Easterbrook
1910 Census, Arcadia, Valley, NE
Edgar A Easterbrook 60, farmer
Clara I Easterbrook 55
Arthur H Easterbrook 21, farm laborer, home farm
Ernest A Easterbrook 18
WWI draft registration: Ernest Allison Easterbrook b. 30 DEC 1891. Medium height, slender build, gray eyes, dark brown hair. It says he has a wife and child, but doesn't name them.
1920
I found Edgar,70, and Clara, 64, but not Ernest and Helen. I scanned all 23 pages of Arcadia's census in 1920, with no luck. One page was really light and hard to read though. They may have been there.
1930 Census, Arcadia, Valley, NE
Ernest A Easterbrook 38, b. NE, com'l eggs, poultry
Helen G Easterbrook 36, b. IA, com'l eggs, poultry
Married 16 years, no children living with them
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Comments: 7
Thanks, Ron - on behalf of the Amazing Kate who did the investigation.
I think the name "Earnest Allison Easterbrook" has a splendid sound.
So sad that the Easterbrooks seem to have died after 1920.
The gothic lettering is dramatic.
This is a lovely Christmas card, Peter, the old lettering is beautiful.
It sounds as though the Easterbrooks lived in a very rural place. I often think that it might have been lonely for them.