{"id":8460,"date":"2020-05-06T10:12:25","date_gmt":"2020-05-06T16:12:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/casbon.one-name.blog\/wp\/?p=8460"},"modified":"2020-05-06T10:12:25","modified_gmt":"2020-05-06T16:12:25","slug":"four-men-a-postcard","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/casbon.one-name.blog\/wp\/four-men-a-postcard\/","title":{"rendered":"Four Men\u2014a Postcard"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Do you like postcards? I must admit that I haven\u2019t sent one in decades\u2014even before the days of email and social media. And I can\u2019t recall the last time I received one, either.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here\u2019s a postcard that was never mailed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/a><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/a>
\u201cFrom right to left: Uncle Lawrence, Mr Williams, Father, Uncle Charley\u201d; courtesy of Claudia Vokoun (Click on images to enlarge)<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Who are the men in the photo? Fortunately for us, instead of being mailed, the postcard was labeled with the names and identities of the subjects. Surnames aren\u2019t given, but there is enough information to know who all the individuals are except for \u201cMr. Williams.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cUncle Lawrence\u201d and \u201cUncle Charley\u201d are Lawrence Leslie (1865\u20131950) and Charles Parkfield (1872\u20131949) Casbon. This tells us that the postcard was labeled by a nephew or niece of the two men. Therefore, \u201cFather\u201d must be one of their brothers. That narrows him down to either Thomas Sylvester (1870\u20131955) or George Washington
(1874\u20131944) Casbon. I\u2019m familiar enough with the appearance of both men that I can identify him as Thomas Sylvester. Besides that, we can see that the photo was taken in Michigan City, La Porte County Indiana, just across the border from Porter County. This makes it less likely for George to be the subject of the photo, since he lived in Iowa.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mr. Williams is obviously a friend of the brothers and known to the person who labeled the card, but beyond that I have no idea about his identity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I really like the photograph. The men appear relaxed and informal. Thomas is the only one who seems to be smiling. The others appear a bit bored or disinterested. The background seems to show a sports field or possibly a racetrack. The men must have gone to Michigan City for an outing or special event. They might have stepped into the studio or perhaps there was an outdoor photo booth or tent. The relaxed postures and informality of their clothing makes me think it was a spur of the moment decision.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The person who labeled the postcard would have to be one of Thomas\u2019s three children: Mable Ruth (1893\u20131989), Sylvester Hugh (1895\u20131922), or George Perry (1897\u20131976) Casbon. My guess would be that it was Mable, but there is no way to know for sure.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When was the photo taken? I can only venture a broad guess, based on the apparent ages of the men and on some features of the postcard. Compare the postcard to this photo taken in about 1905.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Sylvester Casbon and his descendants, Valparaiso, Indiana, about 1905; author\u2019s collection <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Clearly, the men in the postcard are several years older.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here are comparison photos of Lawrence and Charles, taken about 1920 and 1915, respectively.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Left: Lawrence Leslie Casbon, from a family portrait, author’s collection; Right: Charles Parkfield Casbon, from a family portrait, courtesy of Ilaine Church<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

\u00a0I don\u2019t have a comparison photo of Thomas. However, to my eye, the men in the postcard look roughly the same age as these two comparison photos. Based on this, I would guess that the photo was taken sometime between the late 1910s and the 1920s.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There are some additional clues about the date based on the appearance of the postcard. The website OldPostcards.com<\/em> describes features that can help to identify the ages of postcards. The first feature is the fact that the back of the postcard is divided into two sections, one for the message and one for the address. According to OldPostcards.com<\/em>, divided backs did not come into use until March 1, 1907.[1]<\/sup><\/a> The second is the fact that there is a white border around the photograph. White borders came into use about 1915.[2]<\/sup><\/a> The plain paper that this postcard is printed on was replaced by linen-like paper beginning in 1930.[3]<\/sup><\/a> These features support a date between 1915 and 1930.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The clothing worn by the men also supports a date from the late teens to the early 1920s.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I\u2019ve tried to find out more information about The Peak Studios in Michigan City, but couldn’t find anything.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This is literally a \u201csnapshot in time.\u201d It captures a moment, an era, and a brief glimpse into the lives of the three Casbon brothers and their friend Mr. Williams.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Do you have any favorite postcards?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\n\n\n

[1]<\/a> \u201cIdentifying the Age of Postcards,\u201d OldPostcards.com (https:\/\/www.oldpostcards.com\/Oldpostcards-History-of-Postcards-Page.html<\/a> : accessed 4 May 2020).
[2]<\/a> \u201cIdentifying the Age of Postcards.\u201d
[3]<\/a> \u201cIdentifying the Age of Postcards.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Do you like postcards? I must admit that I haven\u2019t sent one in decades\u2014even before the days of email and social media. And I can\u2019t recall the last time I received one, either. Here\u2019s a postcard that was never mailed. Who are the men in the photo? Fortunately for us, instead of being mailed, the… Continue reading Four Men\u2014a Postcard<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[111,251,392,704,482,703,631,642],"class_list":["post-8460","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-genealogy","tag-charles-parkfield","tag-george","tag-lawrence","tag-mable-ruth","tag-michigan-city","tag-postcard","tag-sylvester","tag-thomas-sylvester"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pbXrZc-2cs","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/casbon.one-name.blog\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8460","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/casbon.one-name.blog\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/casbon.one-name.blog\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/casbon.one-name.blog\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/casbon.one-name.blog\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8460"}],"version-history":[{"count":25,"href":"https:\/\/casbon.one-name.blog\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8460\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8609,"href":"https:\/\/casbon.one-name.blog\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8460\/revisions\/8609"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/casbon.one-name.blog\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8460"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/casbon.one-name.blog\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8460"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/casbon.one-name.blog\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8460"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}