Miss Ruth Rogers lived in Barnesville, a village in Belmont County of southeast Ohio.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barnesville,_Ohio
In September of 1908, Ruth received a postcard from her friend, Lucy B.
Lucy mailed the greeting from Cumberland, the historic city on the Potomac River in Allegheny County of western Maryland.
Thousands of pioneers streamed through this city as they followed the “Cumberland Gap” to settle beyond the Appalachian Mountains.
The Chesapeake & Ohio Canal brought industry and commerce to the area in the early 19th century.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cumberland,_Maryland
The face of the postcard is a photograph of a large stony promontory called. “Dan’s Rock”.
This is the peak of “Dan’s Mountain” – the highest point in the mountains of Allegheny County.
Today, there is a spectacular scenic overview from Dan’s Mountain, and numerous hiking trails to the summit.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dans_Mountain
In the Wiki, we learn:
“Dans Mountain is named for Daniel Cresap, the son of Thomas Cresap and one of the first settlers in Allegany County. Cresap was known for being adventurous, often hunting with a Delaware Indian named Nemacolin…”
(One advantage of being an early settler in a remote region is that one’s name is often attached to the first mill or ford, to early communities, or to natural features of the landscape.)
On the reverse, Lucy reports that she is “in Cumberland getting my things ready for school”.
Lucy is headed to “Fort Loudoun in Winchester, Virginia.”
The original Fort Loudoun was one of a series of stockades erected through the Appalachian “frontier” during the French and Indian War.
A young George Washington was the regimental commander of a British force who oversaw the construction of at Fort Loudoun.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fort_Loudoun_(Virginia)
The fort was decommissioned by 1765, and the property reverted to the Patton family which had owned the site.
A handsome manor house was later erected on the site by Adam Kurtz, and (still later) this building housed a seminary for girls from 1905-1925.
This picture is from the Wiki site cited above:
This seminary in Winchester is the place where Lucy planned to continue her education.
https://www.hmdb.org/m.asp?m=89907
Today, the manor house, a National Historic Site, is preserved by an historical foundation.
To confirm the fact that there had been a school at Fort Loudoun, I waded through a trove of fascinating historical detail concerning the history of this part of Virginia.
I try not to encumber the postcard stories with too much detail, but I encourage interested readers to look at the history of the Virginia frontier.
One hopes that Ruth was pleased by the postcard photograph, that Lucy completed her packing and enjoyed a successful year at seminary, and that the correspondents remained friends for many years.
