Mrs. W. L. Starkey lived in Kansas City, Missouri.

In December of 1921, Mrs. Starkey received a Christmas postcard from Libbie Dockstader in Harris, Kansas.

Harris is a small, unincorporated community in eastern Kansas.

The community was founded in 1886 around a stop on the Missouri pacific Railroad.

The Post Office was closed in 1971.

The face of the postcard features an illustration of a snow-covered cottage beneath a towering, bare tree.

The top of the drawing is overlaid with a legend: “May the joy of this Christmas Day be everlasting”.

The initials, W.D.W., are visible beneath the inscription, but I do not know if they relate to the artist or the author.

In the upper margin, Libbie Dockstader has written, “Happy New Year”.

The postcard was published by the International Art Publishing Co. of New York and Berlin.

As most international postcard companies were dissolved during World War I, it is possible that this postcard was printed sometime circa 1914.

(The “look” of the postcard illustration, however, looks very post-war.)

On the reverse, Libbie thanks Mrs. Starkey for her card, and expresses her pleasure that Mrs. Starkey is improving in health.

Libbie reports that she is “feeling much better”, but that her young daughter keeps her very busy.

Libbie acknowledges that Mrs. Starkey must be aware of the “sweetness” of little girls, as she has a granddaughter.

One hopes that Libbie and her daughter, and Mrs. Starkey and her family, enjoyed good health and that they celebrated a joyous Christmas.

NOTE:

A “Libby Dockstader”, married to Ivan Dockstader, is shown on the 1940 federal census records in Kansas. 

Libby was born in 1889, in Iowa.

She had a daughter, Lottie.