Mr. Delos Brown lived in Prophetstown, a small city in Whiteside County of northwest Illinois.
Once a cluster of indigenous villages, the city was named for a Winnebago seer who was taken captive in the Black Hawk war of 1832.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prophetstown,_Illinois
In January of 1915, Delos received a postcard from G. B. – who may be his brother.
The postcard was mailed from Valparaiso, a city and the county seat of Porter County in northwest Indiana.
Located on an indigenous trail from Rock Island to Detroit, the city was first settled by Europeans in the 1830’s.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Valparaiso,_Indiana
Valparaiso University was first established by the Methodist Church as a Normal school in 1859 – one of the first co-educational schools in the nation.
The history of the school is unusually turbulent, having been closed, re-opened, renamed, re-chartered and reorganized multiple times..
Valparaiso University faced bankruptcy after World War I and became a Lutheran institution in 1925.
Through the early 20th century, Valparaiso was “the poor man’s Harvard” – offering a solid education for many students who were the first of their family to attend college.
Today it maintains affiliate programs in European schools and fosters a vibrant culture for the arts on campus.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Valparaiso_University
Valparaiso is about 176 miles east of Prophetstown.
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The face of the postcard is a photograph of a group of young men (and at least one woman) crossing a wooden bridge.
The scene is entitled, “Student’s Bridge, Valparaiso University”.
The bridge arches over railroad tracks that continue to be used near the campus.
Although the figures are receding from us, the men appear to be wearing white shirts and hats.
About a dozen years ago, I attended a conference on the campus of Valparaiso University and found it to be a charming and welcoming place.
Heeding the advice of a local colleague, I visited the campus Chapel of the Resurrection to admire the magnificent space – a circular chancel, nine-pointed roof of the apse, and the enormous (95 feet in height) stained glass windows.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chapel_of_the_Resurrection_(Valparaiso,_Indiana)
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On the reverse, the sender asks, “Well D. B. what are you doing this days (sic) to keep busy…”
In Valparaiso, “it rained here Sat. all day”.
G. B. reports, “I worked like a good fellow working Problems and writing Grammar.”
For G. B., “I haft (sic) to work some to keep up – believe me”.
From this small sample of his writing, we may well believe that G. B. needed the extra study.
Delos saved the postcard in very good condition throughout his life.
One hopes that the efforts of G. B. achieved success and that he maintained regular correspondence with Delos.
