October 19, 2001 Picture Postcards from the Past

In the early 1900s, when most roads were bad and there were few cars or phones, postcards were a very popular form of communication.  They were so important that a wide variety were created to meet every need.  One of the most interesting types of cards had a photo of a community street scene or group of people, such as the lumberjacks at the logging camps, taken by an itinerant photographer and sold to interested parties.

Collecting picture postcards in the early part of the 1900s became a hobby like sports cards are today and many people collected hundreds of them and put them in special album's for safekeeping.  I recently had the pleasure of seeing several such albums that were in the possession of Pat Wilkinson a remarkable woman who has helped me on numerous occasions with information on various topics. Pat passed away on Sept. 24 2001. 
 

Thanksgiving picture postcard October 1911

The albums were those of Florence (Darling) Moore the daughter of Tom Darling who managed the J. R. Booth lumber depot at Wasi Falls on Lake Nipissing.  Florence was a conscientious photographer and collector of postcards. Pat Wilkinson was the daughter of Adam (Amo) Darling. Amo was Tom Darling's son, and a brother of Florence.  Amo was a sawyer for the Gordon Lumber Co. in Sturgeon Falls where he married Mabel Judd whose father was a J. R. Booth forman. Community Voices columnist Dave Stewert, ,  wrote in one of his columns about how he rode in a sleigh with Jack Darling and Jack’s dad Amo to Sturgeon Falls. Amo had a few drinks not available in dry Cache Bay and almost froze in the long wait and the ride home.  Pat had many stories of her the Darling family many of which I have on tape for future use.

A few of the postcards are shown here. There were eight postcards of Powassan in the collection, including Powassan’s Grand Trunk train station (see photo), which I showed to Powassan archivist Gladys Piper.  Gladys asked if they might be donated to the Powassan Historical Society and Pat readily agreed. 
 

The Grand Trunk station at Powassan in the early 1900s

Gladys, also an avid genealogist, was helping research the history of the Meechan family, formerly of Powassan, when I visited her. She spoke of a CPR train wreck that Mrs. Elizabeth Meechan had been involved in in 1910.  The wreck took place at the bridge over the Spanish River and 63 people were killed.  Mrs. Meechan survived. By coincidence, there was a postcard of the train wreck in one of the albums and Pat gave it to Gladys who gave it to the family who were very pleased (see photo).  Another discovery was a post card view of Elk Lake showing the Porter General Store there that was owned by the same family that owned the Porter Store in Powassan (now Ray's Fun Room). These are examples of how postcards have a connection with the past.
 

Spanish River CPR train wreck January 21st 1910 - 63 people killed.

The Florence Darling collection has cards for every holiday (see Thanksgiving card), every event in anyone's life, humorous ones, and highly decorative ones of flowers animals and birds.  Some were odd sizes and some had feathers added or raised lettering.  There was a card for almost every first name available (see “Florence” card).
 

Personal postcard to teenager Florence Darling.

In the front of one of the Darling albums there was a newspaper clipping on postcards from the North Bay Nugget reporting on a talk at the Canadian Club by a couple who had collected hundreds of postcards.  They talked at some length about the messages, stamps, post marks, etc. that are an important part of the collector's interest.  (The article was written by Rosalie Little the editor of Community Voices from its inception until she retired recently.  Rosalie was an excellent reporter, editor and a pleasure work with.  She will missed.)

Pat Wilkinson indicated that she would be giving the albums to a museum. Hopefully this will happened so others can share the fascinating material here. 

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