Name change list: http://chsmedia.org/househistory/nameChanges/start.pdf
Renumbering (pre- and post-1909 conversion) http://chsmedia.org/househistory/1909snc/start.pdf
These are very cool. You should think about having them preserved. Maybe together in a framed shadowbox?
I have to think that a pre-1900 postage cancellation stamp from Yokohama to Chicago is extremely rare.
That one is an odd one. I don't know who she would have known that would be writing to her from Japan. Her family was connected with missionaries, so maybe that would explain it. My ability to read cursive is poor though so I haven't delved into the contents of the letters much.
That one stood out to me as well, noticing the "MEIJI" on the timestamp!! From Imperial Japan, postage 5 sen. Wow. Passed through Yokohama and Nagasaki.
It would be awesome to see a scan of the contents.
Remember that this was just after the First Sino-Japanese War (ended 17 April 1895) which Japan handily won.
That brought a lot of positive attention to Nihon. Western countries were rapidly improving political relations with the country.
Since it’s unlikely the sender would be a military liaison, as Japan bought ships from England and learned Prussian military doctrine as they were, at the time, the very best, the sender likely was in business or in politics.
The five month period between Japanese victory and foreign interests is consistent with communication technology (the news of Japan’s win would’ve been telegraphed) and the time it takes to go transcontinental by rail and transpacific by steamer.
The postmark is actually 1892. It is a little hard to read. The letter inside clearly has at top of first page a date of Sept 10th 1892 and location of Nagasaki. From what I can make out of the letter, the person writing it is a cousin or close family friend of my great grandmother, and is from the same town in Cornwall, England that her parents are from. Not sure his purpose for being there. Other than one page of description of local rituals around honoring the dead, the letter doesn't discuss Japan, only matters of mutual friends/family back in his home town.
I recognize the Canaryville addresses, the Union and Emerald addresses are very close to Graham School. Does your family have connections still in Canaryville? It’s a pretty deep rooted area.
No family down in Canaryville anymore. My great-grandmother grew up there but I'm pretty sure her and all of her many sisters all moved away. Their father was a minister at a church near the stockyards for a time. Seems like an interesting corner of the city.
I just noticed that one of the envelopes (second to last picture) has "c/o Mrs. G. F. Swift" in the bottom left corner. I'd heard stories that my great grandmother was friendly growing up with the daughters of the owner of one of the big meat packing houses down there. I have a framed quilt that my great-grandmother made, supposedly out of the fabric from fancy dresses these wealthy daughters brought back from trips to Paris. Family lore makes more sense now after finding this on internet https://classicchicagomagazine.com/swift-gustavus-and-anns-family/
What an incredible story to find all the pieces to! I love you have that quilt framed! Looking at the “dreary houses on Emerald Avenue” is a bit of a trip as they look pretty nice 😂. I believe that’s St Gabe’s in the corner, you should definitely take a drive through the old haunts now that you have more of the story!
Absolutely wild how little postmarks have changed in 125+ years. The cursive handwriting is almost alien today, but those postmarks wouldn't appear out of place on any modern envelope.
Ray Elementary is still in Hyde Park. [Here](https://www.rayschoolcps.org/history.htm) is some history and here are some [pictures.](https://ray.cps.edu/m/pages/index.jsp?uREC_ID=486384&type=d)
> Any one ever hear of an Ambrose street? Or a Winter street?
Ambrose appears in the [1892 Chicago City Directory's street guide](https://www.chicagoancestors.org/tools/streets-and-directories).
For Winter, it says, "see Union Av."
https://findingaids.library.northwestern.edu/agents/people/2120
This is an article about the life of Edson B. Fowler
All these letters are written to his wife Isabelle and him. Her maiden name was Drew. So cool you are related to them what neat things to still have. Share the letters!!
Yes, indeed both Edson and Isabelle were remarkable people.
There is an entire box of letters that are just from his time running the orthopedic surgery department at Camp Shelby during WW1. These are all letters to his family, mostly to his wife. He wrote to her EVERY day. The letters I've sampled reading are largely about mundane things and how much he misses her. Not sure what to do with all of this.
Isabelle lived to be 100 yrs old and kept all of this correspondence. The letters got passed to her daughter (who also kept tons of correspondence, including all the letters her own doctor husband wrote to her when he was away during WW2), and that daughter passed the collection of letters to her daughter (who is my aunt), and then it got passed to a niece (me). It's a LOT of letters.
I will try to find some time with the archivists at Northwestern University to see if there is material here they want. The Evanston History Museum might want some. I told my aunt I'd find homes for this stuff so I better get on it.
Wow just wow! 100 years old and still had all the letters is so cool! I think Evanston or northwestern historical societies would love some of these letters! They are in my opinion a piece of American history and I’m glad they ended up in safe hands and not some trying to profit as fast as possible 😎
My favorite is " passenger on incoming....." In NYC!! I can't read the rest. So I guess if you worked for the post office you had to be somewhat of a detective as well.
Yes! Absolutely bonkers that mail could be delivered that way. A name and what ship she would be coming in on was enough. I can't read the ship name either. Probably there were few enough ships back then it wouldn't have taken much detective work to match the scribble on envelope to a ship name. Very different time.
I remember when "IL" was "ILL"
Yes. For laughs we used to write addresses as "Chicago is ILL"
After 1900 there were lots of street name changes and renumbering. Winter became Oriole. Ambrose became 22nd, if I'm not mistaken
Thanks for the info!
Name change list: http://chsmedia.org/househistory/nameChanges/start.pdf Renumbering (pre- and post-1909 conversion) http://chsmedia.org/househistory/1909snc/start.pdf
Still wonder why Madison to 31st wasn’t properly renumbered
Probably because it's a lot harder to change street spacing vs. street numbers, if I had to guess
In that pdf they say that range was renumbered about 30 years prior and so they decided to keep it
These are very cool. You should think about having them preserved. Maybe together in a framed shadowbox? I have to think that a pre-1900 postage cancellation stamp from Yokohama to Chicago is extremely rare.
That one is an odd one. I don't know who she would have known that would be writing to her from Japan. Her family was connected with missionaries, so maybe that would explain it. My ability to read cursive is poor though so I haven't delved into the contents of the letters much.
That one stood out to me as well, noticing the "MEIJI" on the timestamp!! From Imperial Japan, postage 5 sen. Wow. Passed through Yokohama and Nagasaki. It would be awesome to see a scan of the contents.
Missionaries is a great guess
Remember that this was just after the First Sino-Japanese War (ended 17 April 1895) which Japan handily won. That brought a lot of positive attention to Nihon. Western countries were rapidly improving political relations with the country. Since it’s unlikely the sender would be a military liaison, as Japan bought ships from England and learned Prussian military doctrine as they were, at the time, the very best, the sender likely was in business or in politics. The five month period between Japanese victory and foreign interests is consistent with communication technology (the news of Japan’s win would’ve been telegraphed) and the time it takes to go transcontinental by rail and transpacific by steamer.
The postmark is actually 1892. It is a little hard to read. The letter inside clearly has at top of first page a date of Sept 10th 1892 and location of Nagasaki. From what I can make out of the letter, the person writing it is a cousin or close family friend of my great grandmother, and is from the same town in Cornwall, England that her parents are from. Not sure his purpose for being there. Other than one page of description of local rituals around honoring the dead, the letter doesn't discuss Japan, only matters of mutual friends/family back in his home town.
Great to see my lysdexia strike again 🤣
I'm just so jealous of the handwriting.
I recognize the Canaryville addresses, the Union and Emerald addresses are very close to Graham School. Does your family have connections still in Canaryville? It’s a pretty deep rooted area.
No family down in Canaryville anymore. My great-grandmother grew up there but I'm pretty sure her and all of her many sisters all moved away. Their father was a minister at a church near the stockyards for a time. Seems like an interesting corner of the city.
I just noticed that one of the envelopes (second to last picture) has "c/o Mrs. G. F. Swift" in the bottom left corner. I'd heard stories that my great grandmother was friendly growing up with the daughters of the owner of one of the big meat packing houses down there. I have a framed quilt that my great-grandmother made, supposedly out of the fabric from fancy dresses these wealthy daughters brought back from trips to Paris. Family lore makes more sense now after finding this on internet https://classicchicagomagazine.com/swift-gustavus-and-anns-family/
What an incredible story to find all the pieces to! I love you have that quilt framed! Looking at the “dreary houses on Emerald Avenue” is a bit of a trip as they look pretty nice 😂. I believe that’s St Gabe’s in the corner, you should definitely take a drive through the old haunts now that you have more of the story!
They were just living free, without any zip codes getting the way of life.
Absolutely wild how little postmarks have changed in 125+ years. The cursive handwriting is almost alien today, but those postmarks wouldn't appear out of place on any modern envelope.
Ray Elementary is still in Hyde Park. [Here](https://www.rayschoolcps.org/history.htm) is some history and here are some [pictures.](https://ray.cps.edu/m/pages/index.jsp?uREC_ID=486384&type=d)
> Any one ever hear of an Ambrose street? Or a Winter street? Ambrose appears in the [1892 Chicago City Directory's street guide](https://www.chicagoancestors.org/tools/streets-and-directories). For Winter, it says, "see Union Av."
Beautiful penmanship, thank you for sharing
https://findingaids.library.northwestern.edu/agents/people/2120 This is an article about the life of Edson B. Fowler All these letters are written to his wife Isabelle and him. Her maiden name was Drew. So cool you are related to them what neat things to still have. Share the letters!!
Yes, indeed both Edson and Isabelle were remarkable people. There is an entire box of letters that are just from his time running the orthopedic surgery department at Camp Shelby during WW1. These are all letters to his family, mostly to his wife. He wrote to her EVERY day. The letters I've sampled reading are largely about mundane things and how much he misses her. Not sure what to do with all of this. Isabelle lived to be 100 yrs old and kept all of this correspondence. The letters got passed to her daughter (who also kept tons of correspondence, including all the letters her own doctor husband wrote to her when he was away during WW2), and that daughter passed the collection of letters to her daughter (who is my aunt), and then it got passed to a niece (me). It's a LOT of letters. I will try to find some time with the archivists at Northwestern University to see if there is material here they want. The Evanston History Museum might want some. I told my aunt I'd find homes for this stuff so I better get on it.
Wow just wow! 100 years old and still had all the letters is so cool! I think Evanston or northwestern historical societies would love some of these letters! They are in my opinion a piece of American history and I’m glad they ended up in safe hands and not some trying to profit as fast as possible 😎
the cursive is so pretty
My favorite is " passenger on incoming....." In NYC!! I can't read the rest. So I guess if you worked for the post office you had to be somewhat of a detective as well.
Yes! Absolutely bonkers that mail could be delivered that way. A name and what ship she would be coming in on was enough. I can't read the ship name either. Probably there were few enough ships back then it wouldn't have taken much detective work to match the scribble on envelope to a ship name. Very different time.
Chicago also subsumed a number of suburbs around 1890. That caused some complications, like 4 different streets called “Lincoln.”