n December of 1908, Dudley sent a postcard to his friend, Miss Grace Zepp.

The postcard was addressed to Westminster, Maryland, but stamped as “Received” a month later in Ellicott City, Maryland.

It is not clear (there is no notation by a postmaster) that the postcard was forwarded, but Grace may have moved or traveled to Ellicott City.

The postcard was mailed from Clarksville, a rich area of Howard County southwest of Baltimore and north of Washington, DC.

The face of the postcard bears several images related to Francis Scott Key, the witness to the 1812 bombardment of Fort McHenry in Baltimore and the author of “The Star-Spangled Banner”.

Included in the montage is a picture of the Key home in Washington DC, and the towering monument over his grave in Frederick, Maryland.

Key, of Frederick, Maryland, was a distinguished lawyer.

After building a home in Georgetown, Key presented many important cases before the Supreme Court.

Although widely-hailed as an eloquent patriot, Key’s career became increasingly unpopular.

Even in his lifetime, Key’s ardent defense of slavery and Southern “property rights” was controversial.

Today, some of the memorials erected to him have been replaced.

The postcard to Grace seems to concern Dudley’s health.

Dudley writes, “I have been sick every (day) since I came down”.

Dudley was in bed all day “last Monday”, but is getting better.

Referenced to Grace Zepp can be found on-line.

Grace was born in Maryland in 1898, so she was a girl of ten when she received the postcard.

Grace Zepp married George Augustus Jaeger (1887-1975).

Her husband out-lived her, as Grace Zepp Jaeger died in Maryland in 1967.