Sickness and Sale

Mrs. Fenstermaker Hears Bad News from Her Son -1911

(This collection has several postcards from the Fenstermaker family.)

This postcard is from Clate, a son of Mrs. Fenstermaker.

The card celebrates his mother’s birthday, but contains sobering news.

Clate’s wife, Jennie, is sick and he has had to sell his horse, Lewie.

(In a postcard one year later from Clate’s sister, Belle, we learn of Belle’s gladness that “Clate is doing so well”.

We may hope that clate’s difficulties were short-lived.

Kate Clabough, the remarkable genealogist who found census records related to the Fenstermaker family.

Mrs. Fenstermaker, nee Maggie Klingensmith, married Lewis Fenstermaker and the couple had 13 children.

(I trust that Clate did not name his horse after his father.)

Maggie was 60 years old when she received the bad news from Clate; 61 when she received the lovely card from Belle.

Two of the Fenstermaker children, including Belle, died in Ohio in the 1970’s.

The text of the letter:
Dear Mother,
How are you all?
Jennie is sick and I sold Lewie my horse,
so we won’t be over for a while.
Tell Art when he comes only to bring my rifle over
And come over when you can.
Your loving son,
Clate

Mrs Fenstermaker lived in Newton Falls, Ohio, a small city in the northeast corner of the state.

The postmark on this card puzzled me, but a search of old post office locations solved the mystery.

Clate mailed the postcard from, “Phalanx Station”, a small town about five miles from Newton Falls.