Mr. Charles Ritchie was living in Watertown, a city in Codington County of northeast South Dakota.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Watertown,_South_Dakota
In January of 1909, Charles received a postcard from Rosa Belle Cowles.
Rosa wrote from Hartford, the capital city of Connecticut and one of the oldest cities in the US (founded in 1635).
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hartford,_Connecticut
We don’t know if Rosa and Charles had some prior acquaintance or if they were members of a postcard exchange club.
The face of Rosa’s postcard is a photograph of a monument to the memory of Israel Putnam.
I don’t know if schoolchildren still read about the exploits of thee daring feats of Revolutionary War heroes – but I remember reading about a child’s biography of Israel Putnam in Elementary School.
For those who do not have a similar memory, Putnam was the younger son of a wealthy Massachusetts family who moved to Connecticut to establish himself.
From an early age, he was known for his courage – creeping into a cavern to kill a marauding wolf, pouring water on a barracks fire that threatened the ammunition stores, living with Mohawk tribes after capture in the French and Indian War, and especially for his assault on Bunker Hill at the start of the American Revolution.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Israel_Putnam
This statue was commissioned by Joseph B. Allyn, a judge in Hartford, and created by the sculptor, John Quincy Adams Ward, in 1874.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Quincy_Adams_Ward
The statue was erected in Bushnell Park near the state capitol building.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Statue_of_Israel_Putnam
The postcard was published by the Chapin News Company of Hartford, and was printed in Germany (Dresden or Leipzig).
On the reverse, Rosa does not inscribe a message, but shares only her name and address – leading credence to the likelihood that she and Charles were linked by a zeal to collect postcards.
Charles seems to have been pleased by the historical monument, as the postcard was preserved in good condition throughout his life -even with a large errant postage cancellation mark across the face (which was removed digitally).
One hopes that Rosa and Charles exchanged many more postcards in the coming years.
