Anna T. Campbell lived in Fairfield, a picturesque town of rolling hills and maple forests in Franklin County of northwest Vermont.
The hillsides are well-suited for growing hay and corn, and for pasturing dairy cows.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fairfield,_Vermont
(Alert readers may note that the address, as written by Frances, is not clearly “Fairfield”.
I have confirmed that there were no post offices in Vermont with names ending in “field” – except that of “Fairfield”.)
In June of 1910, Anna received a postcard from her niece, Frances Cullen.
Frances mailed the postcard from the Charlestown Station in Boston.
Charlestown is a neighborhood, north of central Boston – it is mostly residential and has had a significant Irish population since the mid-19th century.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charlestown,_Boston
The face of the postcard is an uncolored photograph of the Church of St. Francis de Sales in Charlestown, Massachusetts.
The photograph shows the stone church standing between the Convent and the Parish House.
The towering church of St. Francis de Sales (atop historic Bunker Hill) was an epicenter of early conflicts between Protestant Yankees and the growing Irish-Catholic neighborhood.
The postcard photograph was published by J. V. Hartman & Co, of Boston.
On the reverse, Frances shares the important news – “I am going to make my First Communion on Sunday morning in this church.”
One’s First Communion was an event with great significance, both spiritually and socially.
The celebration marked a “coming of age” in the Church and in the community.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First_Communion
Frances, like all good Catholic youth, was aware of the gravity of the occasion; she asks her Aunt Anna, “Pray for me”.
One hopes that Frances found joy in her First Communion and that she and her Aunt Anna remained correspondents for many years.
