I came across another old postcard, this one showing a large lake scene with a rowboat. The description says: “Summer in Alabama.” Believing that I was about to read someone’s short note about visiting the ‘Land of Cotton,’ I was in for a rude surprise.
Postmarked in Phillipsburg, Kansas, in 1906, and sent to Miss Bess Bogart in Kirwin, Kansas, the card shows some wear. Looking both towns up, they’re only 15 miles apart. Located in Phillips County and very close to the Nebraska border, neither location had a substantial population, with 139 citizens recorded as living in Kirwin according to the 2020 census.
A somewhat faded postcard photo doesn’t look anything like the Alabama I remember. Carefully looking things over, I saw that the card was printed in Germany. I’d assume that whoever had them made—sent along an actual Alabama lake photograph to copy from.
The problem is, no naturally formed lakes of substantial size existed in Alabama of substantial size in 1906. The Tennessee Valley Authority didn’t come along until the 1930s, with Lake Guntersville being the largest lake built in Alabama because of it. Guntersville Dam, holding back the waters of the Tennessee River, wasn’t constructed until 1939.
Wheeler Lake is the second largest lake, with Wheeler Dam built between 1933 and 1936. It seems reasonable that the card maker used poetic license to come up with their Alabama summer scene.
The sender of the card used their initials to identify themself as postcard writers often do. This makes it hard to figure out just who they are without substantial detective work. So far, that’s been elusive, but it certainly appears to be a family member. I normally start my letters to close friends with, “YO.”
The following short letter was transcribed without correction:
10/5
Dear Bess –
I am so busy.
I can’t write till tonight, so will send a card on the P.M. mail. Saw father at dinner. Wish you were here also. Will see you Sunday.
As ever,
Y.O.”
Miss Bess Floy Bogart was born in 1890 and was just 17 when she received this mail. Records show that she had three other sisters and a brother. Her gravestone shows her born in 1889, but several years of census reports have it 1890.
Bess married Harry Theodore Thurber on June 18, 1913. Not long after the couple moved to Porterville, California, where Harry was a jewelry maker for a short time. They weren’t in the Golden State very long before coming back to Lawrence and then Douglas, Kansas. The Thurbers were deeded property in Cheyenne County, Kansas, most likely an inheritance, yet eventually sold out, relocating once again, to Goodland.
By now, they had an adopted son, William W. Thurber. In 1926, Harry had a sudden heart attack and died, leaving Bess to raise their son. Census records show she paid $10 a month for rent while making a pittance as a bookkeeper.
In 1930, she moved to Wyandotte, Kansas, with her son. Somewhere along the way, she met William McMullen in Boise, Idaho, and married him on May 29, 1939. The couple and child moved back to Goodland, where census records show Mr. McMullen made $30 while working as a gas station attendant for 4 weeks. At the time of the 1940 census, he was unemployed.
Things got better for the Thurbers, as the 1950 census had them living in Ness County, Kansas, where William was a high school teacher. He made $4,825.00 that year. The couple’s son, William Ward Thurber, was no longer living at home.
William McMullen died on December 9, 1958, once again leaving Bess a widow. Before his death, he was a superintendent of schools for the following Kansas communities: Smith County, Bucklin, Hunter, and Kensington. After that, he became superintendent of schools in Waverly, Colorado. He was buried next to his first wife, Anna K. McMullen, who died in 1936.
Eighteen years later, Bessie Flay Bogart-Thurber-McMullen passed away in 1976, in Kirwin, Kansas, at the age of 86. Bess held on to that ‘Summer in Alabama’ postcard throughout most of her life. Hopefully, she eventually got to spend a summer there!
I like to write junk... 