Mrs. Eva E. Bartlett lived in Painesville, a city and county seat of Lake County on the Grand River- northeast of Cleveland in northeast Ohio.
The area around Painesville was first farmed by settlers from Connecticut who established a community in 1800.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Painesville,_Ohio
Sometime around 1910, Mrs. Bartlett received a postcard from her daughter, M. B. K.
There is no postage or postmark on the postcard – it looks as though a stamp may have been torn off.
Thus, it is not clear where the daughter lived -presumably, close to her mother.
The face of the postcard is a drawing of a white rose.
There is no artist’s mark, nor publisher’s insignia – the image was printed in Europe.
The postcard was in celebration of Mrs. Bartlett’s birthday.
Daughter begins her message with the matter-of-fact, “Today is the day you get older.”
Eva is promised that “you will get something in my Larkin order”, suggesting that her daughter is ordering some items that include a gift.
The Larkin Company of Buffalo, NY was an extensive mail order company that offered an enormous assortment of household goods.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Larkin_Company
(The Larkin Company was an early example of product “clubs” that also sold merchandise through a network of sellers.
The company reached its zenith about 1920, but did not survive the social transitions of the 1920’s and of the Great Depression.
A disastrous late entry into building department stores is sometimes cited as a business school illustration of gross misjudgment of market conditions.)
https://www.thehenryford.org/explore/blog/the-larkin-idea
It seems that Eva’s daughter orders often from Larkin, as she reports, “I get my premium this time, too – a big lamp.”
In other news, Eva’s daughter shares that she “canned six quarts of pine apple this week”.
One can believe the daughter when she says, “It is hard work.”
I am unfamiliar with the practice of home-canning of pineapples, but numerous on-line articles describe the practice as occurring since the 19th century.
https://nchfp.uga.edu/how/can/canning-fruits-and-fruit-products/pineapple
MLK identifies her product as the “pine apple” – suggesting an apple.
There is the Pitmaston Pineapple, which is a small, yellow apple with the flavor of pineapple.
https://www.albemarleciderworks.com/orchard/apple/pitmaston-pineapple
One hopes that Mrs. Bartlett was pleased by the postcard, that she enjoyed a wonderful birthday, that the Larkin order arrived on time for MBK, and that Eva and her daughter shared some canned pineapple.
GENEALOGICAL NOTE
On June 17,1866, Eva E. Balch was born in Lake County, Ohio.
She was the daughter of Spencer Eli Balch (1836-1891) and Henrietta S. Arnold (1841-1875).
Eva had a brother, Selah, who died at four years of age in 1864 -two years before Eva was born.
In November of 1897, when she was 31, Eva married Ora Ansel Bartlett (1864-1930)
Ora had been married previously to Mary E. Fredebaugh (1865-1888).
Ora and Mary had two daughters, one who died in infancy and May Bartlett, born in 1888.
Mary may have died in childbirth, as her daughter was born in the year she died.
Eva Bulch Bartlett then became the step-mother to May upon Ora’s remarriage in 1897.
In September of 1906, May Bartlett married Norman Carlos Kellogg (1884-1956).
The couple resided in Lake County, not far from Painesville.
This is M.B.K. who wrote this birthday postcard to her step-mother.
Tragically, May (M.B.K.) died not long after this postcard was mailed.
May Bartlett Kellogg died in December of 1909 at the age of 21 (she had married at 18).
Eva Bartlett, whose birthday was celebrated by this postcard, outlived her husband and her step-daughter.
Eva died in Lake County, Ohio in 1941.
