We met Mabel Burchill in an earlier postcard story.
In 1911, Mabel received a postcard photograph from a young man with a brace on his wrist.
That young man wrote from Brooklyn, NY to Miss Burchill in Port Carbon, PA.
We know from the Genealogical Note (below) that Mabel lived her entire life in Port Carbon, now a small borough in Schuylkill County of east-central Pennsylvania.
Once a lock on the Schuylkill Canal, Port Carbon had shipped coal to Philadelphia throughout the mid- 19th century.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Port_Carbon,_Pennsylvania
In February of 1907, Mabel received a comic postcard from William J. H.
William mailed the postcard from Grand Forks, the city on the Red River in east-central North Dakota – on the border of Minnesota.
First established as an agricultural center in the Red River Valley, Grand Forks is now a center of scientific research, food processing, and education.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grand_Forks,_North_Dakota
The face of the postcard is a drawing of a young women washing clothes in a tub.
The girl wears a long white apron over her blouse and long skirt.
On her feet, the young woman wears sandals or slippers.
Steam arises form one of tubs, as the woman rubs the garments on the washboard.
A cat watches the action intently.
Above the scene, steam drifts through the printed title – “Don’t Fret- it will all come out in the wash.”
The postcard design was copyright in 1900 by H.H. Tammen of Denver.
In the margin at the bottom of the face the sender inscribes a brief message:
“This is where I would like to see you”.
While this may sound condescending and entitled to modern ears, I think that this is actually a hope for a future in which the correspondents are married.
We know that Mabel did not marry until 1920, when she was 32.
Before that time, it is likely that Mabel participated in postcard exchange clubs or that she responded to lists of available correspondents that were a feature of many magazines.
She preserved this humorous postcard (and the photograph of the Brooklyn lad) throughout her life.
GENEALOGICAL NOTE
Mabel Ann Burchill was born in January of 1888; her parents were William Charles Burchill (1846- deceased) and Georgina Foxall (1845-deceased).
Both of Mabel’s parents were English; they were married in 1873 at St. Thomas Church in Dudley (Worcestershire).
I cannot find immigration records for the parents.
Mabel was the youngest of four sisters, although two sisters (Emily and Agnes) died of undocumented causes in 1901 – then they were 16 and 19 years old.
Mabel lived in Port Carbon throughout her life.
In September of 1920, when she was 32, Mabel married Howard Elmer Wintersteen (1890-1967),
Mabel and Howard, had no children
Mabel died in December of 1953, age 65, and was buried in Schuylkill County, PA.
