Mr. Benjamin Peters lived in Lancaster, the beautiful and historic city in southeast Pennsylvania.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lancaster,_Pennsylvania
Benjamin lived at 708 Beaver Street, a small and tidy townhouse built in 1880.
This home in southern Lancaster, near a small park and Greenwood Cemetery, is still in use as a single-family home.
https://www.redfin.com/PA/Lancaster/708-Beaver-St-17603/home/130677651
In March of 1917, Mr. Peters received a postcard from Ed.
Ed mailed the greeting from Chicago.
The face of the postcard is a photograph of a sailboat in Jackson Park Harbor.
Jackson Park, with a basin connecting to Lake Michigan, was developed on Chicago’s South Side in 1871.
The site of more than 550 acres was shaped and landscaped by Frederick Law Olmstead and Calvert Vaux. The area was significantly remodeled in 1893 to serve as the site of the Columbia Exposition.
Today, the Barack Obama Presidential Center is being erected there.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jackson_Park_(Chicago)
On the reverse, Ed begins his message with a breezy, “Hello Bennie”.
Ed asks, “How are you”, and requests that Bennie “drop me a line sometime”.
“I’m getting lonesome for the fellows out here”, Ed explains.
“This summer, Ed declares, “don’t be surprised to see me in Lancaster”.
The message concludes with Ed’s “regards to Mrs. Peters” and his expression of hope that “this card finds you all well”.
We don’t know the circumstances of Ed’s relocation to Chicago, and we do not know anything about his circle of friends there.
It may be that Ed pursued some adventure at the same time the gang of fellows was settling down in marriages.
One hopes that Benjamin responded with some news from Lancaster, that Ed enjoyed a reunion in the summer, and that the friends maintained a correspondence for many years.
Genealogical Note:
Benjamin Harrison Peters was born in 1892, the son of Benjamin Peters and Elizabeth McGuigan.
Benjamin Jr. was born in Lampeter Township (Lancaster County), the ninth (and last) child of his parents.
Bennie had five older brothers and three older sisters.
Beginning with the US census of 1910, Benjamin was a resident of Lancaster City.
Anna Heimer (born in Lancaster, 1893) married Benjamin sometime after 1910 – but I could not find a record of the marriage.
The couple had two sons.
Anna disappears after the US Census of 1950, but I cannot find a date of her death.
Benjamin registered for the draft in 1917.
He operated a gas station.
Benjamin died in Lancaster in 1953, aged 61 years.
