“West End, Lovettsville” 1915 Postcard Found By Dick Hickman (2016)

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This “West End, Lovettsville” postcard, with a 1915 postmark, was found in a Harrisonburg, Va. antique shop by Dick Hickman, who grew up in the house on the right, and whose mother, Sue Wire Hickman (1911-2000) was born in that house. Mr. Hickman purchased the postcard and has generously donated it to the Lovettsville Museum.

In 1915, the unknown photographer was standing approximately in the middle of the street in front of today’s 7-11 convenience store, facing east, long before the BB&T bank building and the former post office were constructed.

The postcard shows on the right: the Hickman house, the St. James parsonage, and the St. James church with its steeple.  On the left is the “Souder farmhouse,” now an apartment building.

The postcard, with a one cent stamp postmarked Lovettsville on May 12, 1915, is addressed to Mrs. Vallie Compher, 512 W. South Street, Frederick City, Maryland, and reads, “Dear Cousin, Received your card. Was glad to hear from you.  We look for you and Claud[e] up before you move.  I hope Mr. Compher likes his new home.  By this time we are going to look for you all over to Decoration.*  Your cousin, Elizabeth.”

Thank you, Dick Hickman!

 

Ancestry.com and Find-A-Grave show Claude Trapnell Compher and his wife, Vallie Virginia Virtz Compher, in Frederick, MD.

http://person.ancestry.com/tree/18795110/person/20410701031/facts

http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=60287649

http://person.ancestry.com/tree/18795110/person/20410708175/facts

http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=26057657

 

*Elizabeth was likely referring to Decoration Day, the original name of Memorial Day.

See also Lovettsville Memorial Day Ceremony Keynote Address: “The Origins of Decoration Day” by Edward Spannaus (2013)