Miss Pearl Slonecker lived in Kutztown, a borough of Berks County in east-central Pennsylvania.
Most of this area was settled by German immigrants in the 18th century, and Kutztown now boasts a celebrated annual Folk Festival.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kutztown,_Pennsylvania
In November of 1917, Pearl received a Thanksgiving postcard from nearby friends.
The signature scrawled on the reverse looks like “Mr. and Mrs. M.”
The postcard was mailed from Kutztown, so the senders may be neighbors of Pearl.
On the face, the postcard shows a very spare drawing of a very young baker – the child appears to be trimming the extra dough from the crust of the pie she is making.
There is a publisher’s mark, but I have not yet attempted to compare this indistinct logo with the encyclopedic lists and diagrams of the marks of postcard publishers that are catalogued on websites..
Beneath the drawing is the printed announcement, “Thanksgiving Greetings”.
On the reverse, Mr. and Mrs. M. add the humorous note, “Hurry up and make the pie”.
The postcard bears the red, 2-cent stamp that was required as a tax during the years of World War I.
Miss Slonecker preserved the postcard in good condition throughout her life.
One hopes that she, her family, and all her friends and correspondents enjoyed a wonderful Thanksgiving.
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GENEALOGICAL NOTE
In July of 1911, Pearl Erma Slonecker was born in Kutztown.
Pearl was the daughter of Edward D. Slonecker (1879-1951) and Cora Ann Schlegal (1881-1913).
(We see that Pearl lost her mother when she was two years old.)
Pearl had one sibling, an older sister, Florence.
Pearl would have been 6 years old when she received the postcard.
Sometime around 1929 (when she was 18), Pearl was married to Harry Kline Rentschler (1908-1975.
The couple had two sons, but seem to have parted soon thereafter.
In 1935, Harry was in Wisconsin – although Harry later moved back to Lancaster County, PA and married again.)
In November of 1950, Pearl married Earl Henry Eschbach (1899-1972) in Emmaus, PA (Lehigh County).
The couple had no children, and Pearl worked for some years as a telephone operator.
Pearl died in Allentown, PA in January of 1989; she is buried in the Fairview Cemetery in Kutztown.
