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Wish you were here!
(Postcards from Dalton City )

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(Click on the front or back of a card to see a full-size image.)

Title Front Back Transcription/Comments
Chrstian Church Undated and unused
Main Street Postmark:
Casner IL
July 30 19xx (last two digits smeared)


To:
H O Darling
Granhoe (Granholm?)
R. 1. Okla


Inscription:
Dalton City Ill Windmill

July 23

Why dont you wite (sic) I haven't back a letter since I have been here Orrie is dying Jessie & Hasker have been there all day. may stay all night I am afraid to stay here alone. I put up 4 gololns (sic) of B-Berries this morning. they are going to be through sometime next week. I want to come home right after that. Ray Hughes & family are coming out there (here?) next Tuesday. if I ever get home it will (be) one long time before I leave again. I have been ...ing (obscured by postmark) so much I am tired of it


Hosea O. and Anna Peterson Darling lived in Bluegrass Township, Beaver County OK in 1910, though in previous censuses back to 1880, they had lived in Macon County. Son Charles (15) was born in Illnois.

Orrie has not yet been identified, but the name was probably 'Orin', a family name on the Darling side: Hosea's father was named Orin, it was Charles' middle name, and it may have been Hosea's as well.

Hasker Herbert Hooper (1876 IL) and Jessie Rosetta Darling (1878 IL) Hooper lived in Blue Mound Township, Macon Co, in 1900. They have not been found in the 1910 census, but Hasker's WWI draft card shows that by some earlier date, he and Jessie had moved to Casner, whence this card was mailed.

Jessie was the daughter of Hosea and Anna.

A Ray Hughes (b. 1895) lived in Mt. Zion Township, Macon County in 1900 with parents John and Louise and brothers Charles and William. Though it is not certain that this is the person mentioned, there were no others of that name in Macon or Moultrie in 1900, and none in either in 1910.

Because there is no signature, the author is unidentified. However, the comment 'I am afraid to stay here alone' suggests that the writer may not have been an adult. Furthermore, because the writer referred to the Hughes family as 'son and family' rather than as 'head of household and family' it is possible that the writer was a friend of Ray's. This would support the possibility that the card was written by Charles Darling, who was the same age as Ray, and who may have been sent from Oklahoma to help his sister and brother-in-law during Orrie's health crisis.
Presbyterian Church and School Undated and unused
Public School Postmark:
Dalton City Ill
Nov 23 1907 4PM


To:
Miss Katie Baker
Streator
Route 7 Ill
c/o Chas Baker


Message:
Dalton City Nov 2nd

Dear Katie,
we arrived home yesterday & all were fairly well.
Aunt Maggie


Katie was the daughter of Charles and Mary Wehmhoff Baker.

'Aunt Maggie' was Margaret Wehmhoff Uppendahl, Mary Baker's sister, who lived in Dora Township, Moultrie County with husband Henry Uppendahl. Mary and Margaret were the daughters of Henry H. Wehmhoff and Eva Catherine Wetzel.
United Brethren Parsonage Postmark:
Dalton City ILL.
Dec 9 1912
8 AM


Addressed to:
Mr Coy Anderson
949 N College St
Decatur Ill


Message:
Dear Friend: This is a picture of the U B parsonage at Dalton City. Tell Mrs Caudill that I won't be back to school till 1913. I am working a little once in a while. If it is not asking to (sic) much, I would like for her to hold the room for me.
(upside down)
I have grocery set worked out (out of the envelope)
Write to your bed fighter once in awhile (sic). Earl L.


Mrs. 'Caudill' was probably Effie Caudle, wife of Elmer. The Caudles lived on North College street, apparently near the Andersons.

Neither Coy nor Earl have been positively identified, though Earl may have been Earl S. Lee, the only 'Earl L.' near North College Street in the 1910 census.

My take, though it's not certain, is that Earl may have been ill and had taken significant time to recuperate, possibly with unknown relatives in the country.
Christian Church Addressed, but not postally used.

Addressed to:
Mr H.D. Esselman
514 Warner Ave
Peoria Ills


Message:
Mishop Ill. Oct 26 1912
Mr. EsselmanI wish you many more Happy Birthdays

Your Friend

Amelia Wehmhoff.

Herman Esselman was born in Oct 1847 in Germany and his wife, Mary (Husmann, her name from a previous marriage)was also born there. They were married on 8 Apr 1886 in Mason Co., Illinois. Though by 1912 they lived in Peoria, they must have known Amelia's parents, Henry H. and Eva Catherine Wetzel Wehmhoff, who also lived in Mason County. Amelia probably bought this card during a visit to the Dalton City area, as she lived Mason County with her parents until after her marriage to Charles Henry Gumbel in 1919.