Boys at Play – Millstadt, Illinois (1908)

Young Edmund Harnish was living in the big city of St. Louis when he received a postcard from his Aunt Katie (“Tanta Katie”).

Aunt Katie wrote from Millstadt, a village in southwest Illinois, across the Mississippi from St. Louis.

Millstadt was originally named “Middlestadt”, but the state of Illinois mistakenly designated the town by the shorter name.

(The town, like many others, had several mills – the mill owners liked the new name.)

The village is known for the large number of residents who are of German descent.

The German influence is found in the numerous postcards exchanges between members of Edmund’s family.

I have other postcards sent to young Edmund by his grandmother, and theses cards are addressed to “Edmund Harnisch”.

Many family names in America have variant, often anglicized, spellings of the recorded names of the original settlers.

For this family, one can see the Harnish/Harnisch usage at the same time.

This beautiful postcard bears original art portraying boys playing a game (one boy appears to be shooting a marble).

I have not yet found the postcard artist, but I admire the work which is well-executed.

The face of the card is lettered with, “Greeting from Millstadt, Ill” which is hard read where it overlies the painting.

It seems that Master Edmund enjoyed the postcard as a large number of his collection has survived for more than a century.