A hundred years ago this week

This postcard is way out of the order of documents I have been posting to the blog, but I happened on it and I thought it was fun to get back to 100 years ago (as opposed to 101 or 102 years ago).  The senders are two of Jennie's most beloved nephews.  Dixon and Donald had another brother whom I knew as "Uncle Vic" and who was in my mother's wedding.  I think Dixon, who actually grew up to be a pastor--ironic in light of the subject of the painting in the post card!--officiated at my parents' wedding.  I think their mother had to help them complete the message.

I don't know how large the photos will be.  Just in case they aren't reproduced large enough in this blog:  The title of the picture is "Their Hopes," and the boy looks toward an image of a swashbuckling pirate while the mother dreams of her son in the pulpit.   And the date is April 10th, 1914.  (Actually, I was able to go to the blog and click on the photo to get a full-size reproduction.  Hope that works for you, too!)

August 8, 1912-- Jim writes to his boss

This letter is so faded that I can't get it to reproduce well.  Here is what is says:

                             Montreal,    August 8th  1912





James Stewart & Company
   30 Church Street,
      New York City.

Dear Mr. Rowan,
               Your letter of the 6th with regard to my
going for a vacation came to hand last night.  I regret 
very much to have to advise you that my Doctor says I must
go to the country for at least six weeks.  I have had a 
cough all Summer, in fact ever since I was sick last Winter, 
and he says that the only way to get rid of it after having 
had it for so long is to have a rest and complete change.
As you know the Summer is fast going and I would like,
if possible to get away by the 17th

       I have not made any arrangement about where I will 
go and will not do so until I hear when you can relieve 
me.

                                    Yours very truly,


Remarkably, the reply came quickly.  I think the mails must have been better in those days.  Again, perhaps this is a very United-States-perspective thing to say, but I can't imagine a company giving somebody six weeks off to deal with a cough.    Jim's medical situation gets progressively worse as the months and years pass--with times when he seems to do very well in between.  

 

Jim to Jennie, July 12, 1912

As I flattened this letter to scan it, I noticed how tough the paper was. The watermark says "Edinburgh Linen."  102 years later it is still flexible and not at all crumbly.   It looks like Jim typed during his work, perhaps (at 8:30 am) just before his work day formally began.
     

A Long Romantic Dash------Posted July 10, 1912

My dear Jennie,

I did not write you last night as I did not get any letter from you yesterday.  However, it was in this morning's mail.
  I have not been home any night this week before eight and have only been able to get a few minutes for lunch, but that does not matter much test days as it is too hot to eat.  If YOU were in town, however I would have insisted on getting off at a decent hour at least one night, but there will surely be a let up after this week.
  Referring to the subject of cute girls.  I am not at all pleased at you for inserting that word "but".  It does not seem fair to either me or you to finish up the way you did.  It looks as though you wanted me to think as I do, but that it was not quite possible.  Remember "little girl" I am not angry with you, but just hated to see that word "but" at the end of your paragraph.
   I want to know who "Dex" is, that he should require your support mor than I, who is laboring here under a sweltering sun with no one but you to think of me, yet you would dare to talk of hurrying off to any one.
   I not what you say about "the three of them" being back Saturday, but I personally would much rather only "one of them" was returning that day.  We must try and at least have a few minutes-----
   We got a crate of eggs from Bainsville at the beginning of the week & they are delicious--much better than the ones you get at Val Morin.
  Paint common made a record today selling as high as 55.  Do you think I should let ours go?  Dome Ex is not at 19 to 20.
   What you say about staying in at night has been faithfully carried out by me with the exception of that Saturday evening and I did not do one thing at the Park but walk round once & listen to the band.
   I do not know just how I am feeling, sometimes marvelously well & other times not quite so well, but never very bad.
   Will have to stop now as it is my intention to drop Flora a note.
   Hoping you are enjoying yourself and going to come home in the best of health and spirits.

                                From YOUR "honey",
                                                         Jim

Posted July 9

So it appears that Jennie's mother didn't stay very long in Val Morin; and it seems that Jim wasn't able to join them from Montreal.  Everybody is looking forward to being back together again.  And Jim is assuring Jennie that the stenographer he's hired (at $12.50 per week!) is "not the least bit attractive or pretty".  

It's amazing to see that they could afford a two week holiday.  I think Wayne and I have had exactly one vacation together in our entire marriage of 37+ years that was longer than a week, when we traveled in 1986 to England to visit our friends Mark and Sue.

We wonder how Jim felt when he was "not feeling well."  Exhausted?  Short of breath?

Photos of Jim, Jennie, and Flora

Here are some photos of the three writers of letters.  The one of Jennie is from 1908, so about 4 years earlier than these current letters.  I don't see dates for either the one of Flora or the formal portrait of Jim.

This is Flora McEwen.

  

This is Jennie, 1908.

This is Jim.

July 7 (posted July 8), 1912

Jim apparently was not able to get to Val Morin for the weekend; he had to work late on Saturday.  People put in long hours, more like the hours that I presently watch my friends in IT, law, or medicine, putting in than like the hours my father kept when he was an engineer.   Apparently, he gave the ticket that Jennie had sent him to her mother so that she could also have a little holiday.

   

 

   

 

Sorry about the margins here.  Blogger seems to have a limit to the number of .jpg's that they will allow me to drop in to a single post, and that is how my printer's scanner treats the letters that I scan.

I think Dome Ex is a stock that Jim or Jennie (or both?) invested in.

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July 4, 1912--Jim writes from the office

Meanwhile, Jim writes another letter from work, fairly late into the evening. (I guess work-life balance was as big an issue in his day as in ours!)  He types on office stationery, and pins the two pages together with a straight pin--or maybe Jennie did that later.    It's very hard to get this paper to lie flat after a century folded in its envelope.  But I think most of it is nevertheless legible.