To: Mrs. HM. Maurey From: Roy 1908
Drive safe and in good condition
Roy
In 1908, Teddy Roosevelt was president, the Converse Rubber Shoe Company is formed, and Thomas Selfridge is the first person to pass away from an airplane crash. For those who follow my blog, you’ll know that 1908 is one of my favorite years to collect from. You’ll also know I love the Progressive Era and all the changes that were taking place at the start of the 20th Century. I think it was my late 90’s obsession with the musical Ragtime.
Although this card doesn’t give us too much, a simple “drive safe and in good condition,” implicitly it says a lot about the changing laws and norms that surrounded postcards. In 1907, it became legal to place a message on the back of postcards. This is known as the “divided back” period. Prior to 1907, postcards had to be addressed on the back, and any message was squished onto the front. This often caused problems, as the front of the postcard could smear, or there was very little room to write anything.
What’s unique about this card is that it looks like it’s from the “undivided back period” (historians aren’t great at making fancy names for eras). During this period, the address would take up the entirety of the back of the card, and any message had to be squished in to what little blank space was on the front. In fact, if you look at this particular card, you can see that there’s a tiny bit of space on the left. Certainly not enough to write more than a passing phrase.
However, our friend Roy divided his own back. It was legal, after all, to write the message on the back of the card along with the address, so Roy went ahead and took advantage of that fact. Maybe he had an old postcard lying around, or a set of them. Or perhaps stores still sold the undivided back sets. Whatever the case, Roy drew a stark line down the card and wrote his message.
Except he didn’t really say much. “Drive safe and in good condition” would have easily fit on the front of the card, and there were no laws saying you couldn’t write on the front after 1907. It seems to me that the collective habit of writing out a short note on a postcard took longer to fade from the zeitgeist. Roy divided his back, but kept the message clipped. He said all he needed to say.
As for the Maurey’s…I’m not 100% sure I found them. Honestly, I’m only about 70% sure I have the right family, but I’ll explain what I found and let you make your best guess.
As you know, it’s incredibly difficult to find anyone with just initials. If you add to the fact that this card is written to a woman…now you have her obscured by both her husband’s name AND his initials. Which can be doubly frustrating. Nonetheless, I searched up the name and plugged in a few dates.
The first promising hit was a Roy Maurey. Thinking maybe this is the writer, I decided to check out Roy’s family tree. Turns out, he had a father named…drumroll please…Henry M. Maurey. That takes care of the HM. But these are all men’s names. Who is the woman behind them? Henry was married to Emma Fritz. Could she be our HM Maurey? I think it’s possible. Let me break the family down.
Henry M. Maurey was born on May 7, 1856 in Lebanon Pennsylvania. Unfortunately, the record doesn’t show when he married Emma Fritz, but the two of them had three children together. Henry died the day before his birthday, May 6 of 1932 at the age of 76. And, I can’t stress this enough, he would have been roughly 4 years old at the beginning of the American Civil War. His wife, Emma, was born in November of 1859. Unfortunately, I don’t have a death date for her, and I couldn’t find grave information for either of them.
Their son, Roy, was born on December 26 of 1888. At some point, he married Florence Edna Wilbur (can’t find out when). I have to imagine that the card, then was sent to his mother, Mrs. HM Maurey, because they were coming out to visit. Roy would have been 20 by this time and perhaps working in Maryland. Though, and this is the kicker, I can’t place him there in the records.
Here’s where the story takes a bit of a sad turn. Roy died on March 6, 1913 at the age of 25. He had one son with Florence. Roy Jr. was born 7 months later, on October 6, 1913. Which, is honestly tragic. Even worse, Florence passed away on October 13, 1916, when Roy Jr. was only 3 years old. By the census of 1920, Roy Jr. was living with our very own Henry M Maurey in Sunbury, PA. He lived a long life, passing away at the age of 80 in Illinois.
Because of this postcard, I was able to attach a variety of documents to his family tree, and I found his gravesite. Perhaps…perhaps these are not the original people involved in our postcard. But, I have to believe that the story was asking to be told and that led me to this family.
I hope you enjoyed reading this twisted tale. What do you think? Did I find the right people?
Front of Postcard, Interior of Cathedral, Baltimore, MD
Hipstory 