Mrs. Charles H. Wakeman lived in Lestershire, a village of Broome County in south-central New York State – that no longer exists.
In 1916, Lestershire was incorporated into “Johnson City”, named for one of the founders of the Endicott Johnson Company.
Until World War II, this was a center of shoe manufacturing.
In October of 1912, Mrs. Wakeman received a postcard from her sister, Mae.
Mae mailed the postcard from Talladega, a city in east-central Alabama – about 50 miles east of Birmingham.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Talladega,_Alabama
The face of the postcard is an uncolored photograph of Talladega College.
The photograph was made by S. H Henderson, and might be several years older than the postmark.
The postcard was published by the English firm of Raphael Tuck & Sons, and was printed in Berlin.
This place has a remarkable history.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Talladega_College
The building in the photograph was erected in 1857 as the home of the Coosa Valley Baptist Academy.
The building was erected with slave labor, including that of a carpenter (William Savery) and laborers (Thomas Tarrant and Ambrose Headen).
In 1866, at a convention of the Freedman’s Bureau in Mobile, Alabama, Savory and Tarrant made a commitment to creating educational opportunities for their fellow freedmen.
Coincidentally, the collapse of the exploitive planter economy during the Civil War left the Coosa Baptist property facing bankruptcy.
Savory and Tarrant appealed for help to General Wager Swayne who commanded the Freedman’s Bureau in Mobile.
Swayne secured the support of the Freedman’s Bureau and a grant from the American Missionary Society to buy the building from bankruptcy.
The Wiki essay notes wryly:
“It is remarkable that a building constructed before the American Civil War, constructed with slave labor, for the benefit of white students became the home of the state’s first college dedicated to serving the educational needs of blacks.”
(The campus has since expanded and now serves more than 1300 students. It remains affiliated with the United Church of Christ.)
On the reverse, Mae shares additional information about the building in the photograph.
She reports, “We are well and enjoying ourselves very much.”
Mae finds that “the climate is ideal”.
(Mae is visiting in October – summers in Alabama share the characteristics of other humid, sub-tropical places.)
Mrs. Wakeman seems to have treasured the postcard from Mae.
One hopes that Mae returned safely to her home and shared more travel adventures with her sister.
