Miss Elizabeth Braley lived in Putney, a town on a high plain on the west side of the Connecticut River in Windham County of southeast Vermont.
The area was secured for European settlement by Colonel Josiah Willard under a grant of the Colonial Governor in 1753.
The community was not established, however, until the end of the French and Indian War.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Putney,_Vermont
In February of 1912, Elizabeth received a postcard from E. L. Hotchkiss.
The postcard was mailed from Haverhill, a city on the Merrimack River in Essex County of northeast Massachusetts.
Haverhill lies at the border of New Hampshire, about 35 miles north of Boston and about 17 miles from the Atlantic coast.
In the early 20th century, Haverhill was a center of industry – shoes, textiles, leather goods, and ship-building supplies.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Haverhill,_Massachusetts
Putney, VT is about 118 miles northwest of Haverhill.
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The face of the postcard is a photograph of “North Church, Haverhill, Mass.”
Like most early New England communities, the Congregational Church was central to the social and political organization of Haverhill.
North Church was formed from the growing membership of Centre Church in 1859.
The building in the photograph was once graced with memorial windows by Tiffany and by LaFarge.
https://congregationallibrary.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/HaverhillMAFirst-5027.pdf
After numerous mergers and reunions with other congregations (and the absorption of many Congregational parishes into the United Church of Christ), the North Church congregation formally dissolved in 2010.
The former North Church was sold in that year, and sadly demolished in 2017.
The postcard was published by “E. Swasey, Importers” of Portland, Maine.
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On the reverse, Ms. Hotchkiss greets, “Dear Elizabeth”.
The message begins “in reply to your inquiry…”, suggesting that Elizabeth had written recently to Ms. Hotchkiss.
Ms Hotchkiss reports, “I have not been teaching this year until two weeks ago”.
Now, Ms Hotchkiss is “teaching a second grade in South Groveland, Mass., about three miles from Haverhill.”
Miss Hotchkiss has been unwell for some time; she notes, “I am better than I was during the summer and fall, but she hasn’t “felt as well since I left home…”
Nevertheless, Miss Hotchkiss tells Elizabeth, “I hope to be able to stay.”
One hopes that Miss Hotchkiss enjoyed a return to health, that her second-grade students thrived, and that she exchanged many more postcards with Elizabeth.
(We know that Elizabeth wrote back to Miss Hotchkiss as she carefully annotated her correspondence to document, “Ans. by letter, March 3, 1912”.
