Here’s a great postcard with the lovely play-on-words: “For thee I pine, For thee I bal-sam.”
On the front of the card the sender wrote: “But more so for the old white horse, Em.” (Awww!) The card is addressed to: “Miss Harriet Hopkins, Salinas, California” and postmarked from Watsonville, California, on October 28, 1908.
Harriet Hopkins is possibly the Harriet that shows up in Watsonville on the Federal Census, as born West Virginia, about 1895; with parents Harry B., born Iowa about 1865 and Jane Hopkins, born England about 1875; and siblings Catherine, twin of Harriet; John, born West Virginia about 1898; and Mary, born California, about 1900. Nothing is showing in Salinas for either the 1900 or 1910. There may be a voter registration or city directory out there for 1908 but neither are showing online at this time. According to this census Harry was a farmer, but the family seems to have moved around a little. The 1900 shows they were in King City; Harry does not show up on this census, and Mary the youngest is four months old. Jane and the children are living with Samuel Hopkins (Harry’s dad), born Pennsylvania July 1825.
The West Virginia birth index shows Harriet and Catherine’s date of birth as March 15, 1895, born Winona, Fayette County, WV, and parent’s names H. F. Hopkins and Jane Ann Allport. (The middle initial is incorrect for the dad on this record.) Find A Grave shows quite a bit more about Harriet (married three times, and children) and other family info, and we could get very detailed here, but won’t due to having so many other great images to research and post. Bu what I like most about this beautiful card is the note on the front regarding the white horse, and the image it conjures up, of two friends, one has moved away, they have shared memories of a neighbor’s (or perhaps even the Hopkin’s) horse. (Your web author is crazy about animals in general, definitely about horses, but there is just something magical about a white horse. Memories of the white horse in Morgan Hill re first trip to California…of several white horses in Ireland…) In keeping with the spirit of the sender’s note, here’s a photo from the author’s collection.
Beautiful horse – Ireland, summer of 1999:
Divided back, embossed, used postcard. Postmarked October 28, 1908 from Watsonville, California. Publisher: Newman Post Card Co., Los Angeles, California. Made in Germany. Series 4182.
Price: $10.00
Sources: Year: 1900; Census Place: King, Monterey, California; Roll: 94; Page: 4B; Enumeration District: 0007; FHL microfilm: 1240094. (Ancestry.com)
Year: 1910; Census Place: Watsonville, Santa Cruz, California; Roll: T624_107; Page: 2A; Enumeration District: 0133; FHL microfilm: 1374120. (Ancestry.com)
Ancestry.com. West Virginia, Births Index, 1853-1969 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2011.
Find A Grave Memorial# 114666693. Web accessed November 7, 2014. (Findagrave.com)