Friday, January 6, 2012

Milo and Maude

Maude sent this card to Milo, with an information-rich message about rubbers, cuffs, and watches. I like messages like this that transcend the usual "I am well. Hope you are well too. Please write soon." Thank you, Maude!

Here's the front of the card - very bucolic.

Here's the back of the card, which is really more interesting.


Maude Pope sent this card to Milo L. Mack in 1909.  I love messages like this, and I think I would have liked Maude if I had met her:

Dear friend Milo - I will send you a card did you catch the car last night you forgot your rubbers- did you tell your mother I wouldn't let you come home. Well Milo - I took your cuff buttons down, and they said they couldn't exchange them now but they would have changed them if I had brought them in before Xmas: so I had them marked. I was awful sorry I couldn't change them and get a watch fob, but I couldn't so you can save them to look at anyway. I had a letter from Charlie and he wants me to come up but I am not going so will say Good Night from your true friend Maude
I have just wound my watch

So, who were Maude and Milo? I thought of posting this card about a year ago and couldn't find anything, so I left it alone. I read it again this week and thought I'd check one more time. If it hadn't been for an obituary, I would have been in the same place as last year. The obituary I found was for Elizabeth J. Seeloff Eaton, born May 5, 1918. Sadly, she died just last week, on December 28, 2011. She was the daughter of Milo Lee Mack and Maude Pope Mack. Although I was sad to hear about Elizabeth's death, I was somehow elated to hear that Maude and Milo married and had children. True friend, indeed! The card was sent in 1909, so sometime between then and about 1914 they got married. They had a son named Milo Jr. in 1915 and the daughter, Elizabeth, in 1918.

The 1920 Census shows John employed as a shoe packer in a shoe factory. That also brings a smile to my face. The address on the card was Lestershire, New York, a village that no longer exists, since it was renamed Johnson City in 1916. Johnson City (near Binghamton, New York) was the home of the Endicott Johnson Shoe Factory, reported by many to be a great place to work. Not only that, but Milo worked there at the same time as my mother-in-law's parents. They may well have known each other.
Check out this earlier post on the Endicott Johnson Shoe Factory.

15 comments:

  1. Yes, that reads much like some posts on Facebook today! Very interesting...and it's so amazing how it all turned around and entered your life as well...it would be really something if they did know each other...isn't it great to link some of these people to their lives, but then even to find a link to you or your family! What a small world we live in really!

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  2. How interesting, Lestershire is probably named after Leicestershire (pronounced the same as - I would say - Lestershire) in England, and Leicester in England has a long history of shoe manufacturing.
    Here's a couple of links:
    http://www.lihs.org.uk/equityshoesfilm.html
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_United_Shoe_Machinery

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  3. Very interesting. And is that a lilac tree on the card????

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  4. I keep a postcard in my office of everywhere I've been but I cannot remember the last time I sent a post card. Seems like they've been relegated to souveniers...

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  5. "I have just wound my watch"....I'll alert the media!

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  6. Your research skills are utterly awesome. O.o

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  7. "I have just wound my watch" sounds like a metaphor to me.

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  8. Wonderful. Pity Elizabeth Eaton died last week, she would likely been touched by this postcard.

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  9. The "usual" messages tend to sound like they were all copied from instructions on what to write on the back of a postcard.

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  10. Thank you for this post - a wonderful to think that there may be a connection toyour family. Good for you Milo and Maude.

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  11. Hallo Christine,
    das Haus auf der Karte ist mir schon mal im Traum erschienen, immer dann wenn ích mir mein Traumhäuschen zurechtdenke. Der Fliederbaum ist fester Bestandteil ;0)

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  12. Oh my, how wonderful! I just love tracking down the history and the mysteries. A beautiful card, too. What synchronicity! Life is so suprising.

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  13. I like that she mentioned Charlie's letter and not wanting to "come up." Maybe another suitor? She could be letting Milo know there are other fish in the sea.
    Great sleuthing.

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  14. excellent research, and yes the word synchronicity came to my mind as well, in relation to that shoe factory connection...

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