Divided back, used postcard. Postmarked December 23, 1919 from Afton, New York. Publisher:  L.F. Pease, 258 Laurel St., Buffalo, New York, List no. 352.

Availability Status:  SOLD

“At morning, at night, or

at noon,

Wherever I may roam,

No matter how fair

is the country,

I am thinking often

of home. – L.T.H.”

A 1919 postcard showing the above beautiful verse by L.T.H. to the left of a wonderful colored drawing or painting of a rustic campfire, showing stew (we imagine) cooking in an iron pot over the open flame, and a white canvas tent nestled up to a tall evergreen. The artwork is really nice – note the contrast of the greens and browns and grays with the bright gold and orange of the fire, and the pale blue above the fire to show the rising steam. We’ll have to be on the lookout now for more postcards showing artists renderings of camp scenes, as although there are quite a number of old camping photos and Real Photo Postcards, there doesn’t seem to be many like this in the way of artwork.

This short poem is not showing up online, so we don’t know who LTH was, maybe someone who worked for the publisher, who was L.F. Pease, of Buffalo, New York. The publisher logo is a nice one, and once some organization can be done for logos, there were will be a category for them. The sender’s message is, thank goodness, a little out of the ordinary. They wrote:

“H. Harris[?]  Dec. 23, ’19. Dear Sister. Have read  ‘Christmas Eve on Beacon Hill’  and enjoyed it much but dout if any one else here can share it with me, not even[?] to the wall[?] each of us has  ‘it up down in the cellar.'[?] I gave Sylvia P. a box of stationary today. She is 8. I do not know what to get her cousin…?… for xmas.”  On the side of the note is written  “Thanks.”

The card is addressed to:  “Mrs. E. H. Beebe, R.F.D., Coudersport, PA.”

Mrs. E. H. Beebe is Estella Beebe on the 1920 Federal Census taken in Coudersport. She is 45 years old, born about 1875 in Pennsylvania. Her husband is Victor L. Beebe, born about 1873, Pennsylvania. Their children on this census are Sylvia, Clifford, and Rachel. Also living with the family is Edith Treat or Trent, a boarder, and Victor’s brother, Henry H. Beebe. The brothers are both carpenters, and Sylvia Beebe and Edith Trent/Treat or both working at a silk mill.

According to Ancestry.com family trees, Estella’s last name was Andrews before marriage, and siblings show a Henry Andrews, born in New York, about 1872. Perhaps his middle name was Harris? (per the writing at the top of the postcard) or perhaps the card is from one of Estella’s sisters who married?

Last but not least, Christmas Eve on Beacon Hill  was written by Richard Bowland Kimball, and is described in a 1920 edition Publisher’s Weekly as, “Christmas Eve on Beacon Hill by Richard B. Kimball. Decorations by Maurice E. Day. A charming story of how the old-time custom of candle-lighting and Christmas singing is enacted on Beacon Hill.”  This Christmas offering is actually a booklet rather than book, and can be found for sale online.

Sources:  Year: 1920; Census Place: Coudersport, Potter, Pennsylvania; Roll: T625_1648; Page: 13A; Enumeration District: 113; Image: 733 (Ancestry.com)

The Publisher’s Weekly Vol. 98, Part 2. R.R. Bowker Co., New York, November 6, 1920. p. 152. Web accessed November 8, 2014. (Google eBooks)