This is a photo of my great-great-grandmother Emily (Bryan) Reid Bisel and her six daughters. My great-grandmother Pearl (Reid) Brewster is seated at the far left.
Emily (Bryan) Reid and her daughters. Front: Pearl, Emily, Laura. Back: Zorphia, Minnie, Edith, Gladys.
The original photo belonged to my great-aunt Dorothy (Brewster) Weaver, sister of my grandmother Gertrude (Brewster) Miller. Both were daughters of Pearl (Reid) Brewster. I visited Dorothy in 1999 and she allowed me to copy the photo.
My great-grandmother Pearl was the oldest of the six daughters of my great-great-grandparents, Emily (1856-1940) and William (1855-1905) Reid. The Reid women in the above photo, left to right, front row: Pearl, Emily, Laura; back row: Zorphia, Minnie, Edith and Gladys.
The Reid daughters with their married names: Pearl Selina Brewster (1880-1962), Laura Dell Metzner (1882-1921), Minnie Mae Brockway (1884-?), Zorphia Ellen Lawrence (1887-1975), Edith Louisa VanSkyock (1892-1968) and Gladys Ester Lare (1899-1994). Laura died in 1921, so the photo was taken before that year.
1913 postcard from Laura Metzner, Fort Recovery, Ohio, to her sister Pearl Brewster, Geneva, Indiana. In photo: Emily (Bryan) Reid, 3 granddaughters, daughter Laura (Reid) Metzner.
Above is a postcard, postmarked Fort Recovery, Ohio, 21 July 1913 and addressed to Mrs. Phill Brewster, Geneva, Ind. I believe this is a photo of Emily (Bryan) Reid, her daughter Laura (Reid) Metzner and Laura’s three daughters Vadia L, Hazel and Clara L. Laura’s girls would have been about 12, 7 and 5 respectively, and those ages look to be about right for the girls in the photo. What a lovely old two-story home in Fort Recovery.
Laura and her husband Arthur A. lived in Fort Recovery sometime between 1910 and 1916, and possibly longer. According to the 1916 Mercer County Directory, A.A. Metzner, wife Laura and 3 children lived at Wayne & Caldwell Streets in Fort Recovery. Arthur was a traveling salesman. [1] That was probably the location of the above house. Emily lived in Portland and she may have been visiting Laura the day the postcard photo was taken.
The 1916 directory provided some good additional information to accompany the postcard, so remember to include city and county directories on your list of items to check.
1913 Postcard sent to Pearl Brewster from her sister Laura Metzner.
The back of the postcard, transcribed as it was written:
July 20
Ft. Recovery
Dear sister and all How are you all we are all pretty well When are you coming out you can look for us some Satterday i gess they are all well at Portland i want to go home this week if I can
What do you think of this card
Laura
Rite some
[1] The Farm Journal Illustrated Directory of Mercer County, Ohio, 1916, 1921 (Philadelphia: Wilmer Atkinson Company, 1916), 113.
1 comment
Waldo
March 11, 2013 at 12:37 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
How about that stamp? Postage has gone up a tad! A penney or two could take a card anywhere. Then again, even with the high cost of postage these days, no price would ever save the Post Office with the ease, cost and speed of email, and other modern methods of keeping in touch. What would it have meant to those families to have a phone? Think about how our ancestors left their native countries and families, virtually never to have real contact with them again. No quick note, call or skype to just keep up with the illnesses, safe arrival, or happy celebrations of daily life. It was a very different world. Even reading this simple card it is clear that just have enough education to write a note was a special advantage, let alone someone on the other end able to read it.