“San Diego, Cal. 5/25/11. Bill, does this look like my bird? Not as good of course. Suppose your school has let out by now. You are too thick to learn anything anyway. Chet.”
Card addressed to: Mr. Richard Edge. Healdsburg, Cal. RR #3.”
Beautiful postcard showing print of an unknown artist’s painting (or colored drawing?) of a meadowlark. This is probably one from a series of bird postcards.
Due to the teasing nature of Chet’s note to Bill, it would seem that Chet was possibly the older brother, and this was, indeed, confirmed by census records. (Why Richard is called Bill is unclear, it must have been either a nickname or perhaps William was Richard’s middle name.) Anyway, per the census records, Chester was born in Nebraska, about 1890, and Richard born in Oregon, about 1904. There was an older brother, Elton born Nebraska, about 1887. The parents of these three boys are George and Louise Edge. So, Chet was about twenty when he sent this postcard to his little brother Richard, who was about seven at the time. We wondered if Chet was in art school, due to the remark he makes in his note, but discovered that Chet enlisted in the U. S. Navy as a young man, and by 1930 he was retired (occupation listed as Retired Naval Officer on the 1930 census.) The 1910 census shows him (Yeoman, 3rd Class) on board U.S.S. Perry, along with 76 other men. (Location of the ship is not listed, with only the district given on the census as 0086, but we’ll skip the research on this, at this time.)
In searching for more info on U.S.S. Perry (D-11) we find that Perry was a Bainbridge Class Destroyer (one of the first Torpedo Boat Destroyers built by the U.S. Navy), laid down (the initial step in construction of the ship) April 19, 1899 by Union Iron Works, San Francisco; launched October 27, 1900; and commissioned September 4, 1902. She was based at Mare Island (near San Francisco) before the U.S. entered WWI; her operations took her off the coasts of Alaska, Mexico and Hawaii. She was one of the ships sent in aid of the aftermath of the San Francisco earthquake of April 18, 1906, fighting fires, providing medical aid, and patrolling in areas threatened by looters. She was present at the Fourth Battle of Topolobampo, the final naval action of the Topolobampo naval campaign of the Mexican Revolution. WWI service included guarding the Panama Canal and patrolling the Florida Keys. She was decommissioned on July 2, 1919, and sold for scrap on January 5, 1920. Though we don’t know how long the sender of this postcard served on Perry, (without extensive research, which we will not pursue here) it is nonetheless interesting to note the connection, and imagine him doing sketches in his leisure time, as (unless he was only joking) it sounds like he was a very good artist.
Divided Back, used postcard. Postmarked San Diego, California, May 25, 1911. Publisher unknown. No. 947[?] Likely one from a series of “bird” postcards.
Price: $10.00
Sources: Year: 1900; Census Place: West Albany, Linn, Oregon; Roll: 1349; Page: 1A; Enumeration District: 0037; FHL microfilm: 1241348. 1910; Census Place: USS Perry, US Navy, Military and Naval Forces; Roll: T624_1784; Page: 1A; Enumeration District: 0086; FHL microfilm: 1375797. 1920; Census Place: Mendocino, Sonoma, California; Roll: T625_150; Page: 1A; Enumeration District: 166; Image: 961. 1930; Census Place: Healdsburg, Sonoma, California; Roll: 222; Page: 4A; Enumeration District: 0023; Image: 142.0; FHL microfilm: 2339957. (Ancestry.com)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Perry_%28DD-11%29
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Keel