Mrs. Mary Franks lived in Baltic, a village on the Sugar Creek that touches three counties in a rural area of central Ohio.
Baltic is now home to a substantial Amish community.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baltic,_Ohio
In December of 1918, Mary received a Christmas postcard from Mrs. Lena Kappel.
Lena mailed the postcard from Cleveland, the prosperous city of industry and culture on Lake Erie in northeast Ohio.
The face of the postcard is dominated by a colorful green wreath enclosing a medallion drawing of a blazing hearth.
A spare drawing of a rural homestead stretches across the face.
Below the scene, a printed greeting invokes, “A Peaceful Christmas be Thine”.
The image is copyrighted, but I cannot distinguish the tiny printed letters.
We have seen other postcards from the years after the First World War that also proclaim a message of peace.
On the reverse, Lena inscribes, “Wishing you a merry Christmas & a happy New Year”.
Mary preserved the Christmas greeting throughout her life.
One hopes that she and Mrs. Kappel enjoyed a blessed holiday and maintained a friendly correspondence for many years.
GENEALOGICAL NOTE
There are many persons named “Mary Franks” in genealogical records for central Ohio in the early 20th century.
This person best matches the data on the postcard.
I would be certain of the identification if I could find a specific record linking this “Mrs. May Franks” to Baltic. Ohio.
In January of 1896, Mary Frances McGrady was born in Coshocton County, Ohio.
(This is one of the counties that includes a portion of Baltic, OH.)
She was the daughter of Andrew A. McGrady (1869-1920) and Grace Viola Mullet (1876-1921).
Mary Frances was the oldest of 8 children, three girls and five boys.
There are several mysterious, possibly tragic, aspects to this family – father died in 1920 at age 51, and two sons died in 1921 at ages 20 and 23.
Mother also died in 1921 at age 45.
Yet another brother died in 1926 at age 27, and a fourth brother disappears from records around 1930.
(The fifth brother lived until 1986, when he was 69.)
Mary Frances married Ralph Mainard Franks (1891-1969) in 1911, when she was 15 years old.
The documented residences of Mary Frances all lie within a 20-mile radius of Baltic.
Mary and Ralph had four children from 1912-1921, two sons and two daughters.
Mary Frances may have died in childbirth, as she died in 1921 -the year her last child was born and when she was 25 years old.
(One of the daughters survived the family’s tragic history and lived from 1914 until 2016.)
Mrs. Kappel
On December 19, 1875, Magdalena Kesper was born in the German principality of Prussia.
Magdalena was the daughter of John Yost Kesper (1850-deceased) and Magdalena Zargus (1850-deceased).
The daughter, Magdalena, had one brother who may have died in childhood as there are no adult records of him (he may not have immigrated to the US.)
Magdalena may have immigrated to the US by herself or with other relatives as there are no immigration records for her parents.
By 1900, Magdalena Kesper appears on the US census in Cleveland, where she lived (or in nearby Lakewood) throughout her life.
In June of 1900, Magdalena Kesper married Orthoford John Kappel (1874-1924).
Between 1904 and 1910, the couple had a daughter and two sons.
Lena died in Cuyahoga County, Ohio in 1940.
She was survived by a son and a daughter and was a grandmother.
We do not know how Lena Kappel was acquainted with Mary Frances Franks.
