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The card was mailed on July 12, 1914, which makes it the latest postmark in the Red Back series. It was addressed to the Cady Hotel, 212 Sixth St., Council Bluffs, Iowa, and the message reads, "I suppose you thot I was wrecked or had forgotten you but neither is the case. I have been busy every day and is hot enough here to melt a wooden man. I suppose you have the same bunch with some more. Give everyone my best regards. Can you guess who lives here. E. C. Sha." The mystery of who "E. C. Sha." might be was cleared up by another card I bought at the same time I bought this one -- a copy of the C. U. Williams "Blue Sky" Photoette view of the high school. That card is addressed a bit more personally, to Miss Daisy Cady, 620 7th[?] Ave., Council Bluffs, Iowa. It was postmarked on Dec. 20, perhaps, but the stamp has been ripped off so the year is missing. The message reads, "Sat. P.M. Arrived O.K. am enjoying things thus far. Not much change in weather here from what I left. Hope you will enjoy Xmas as much as I hope to. E. C. Shanks." Shanks is a venerable name in the annals of Washington County, and the Stevens History identifies one Ellis Shanks, a son of Manson and Vanda Shanks and the grandson of Erasmus and Joanna Shanks. Ellis graduated from Salem High School in 1911 -- a date that would fit with a date of 1914 for this card. The History notes that he taught manual training in Peoria, Illinois, and later in Bozeman, Montana. If Ellis Shanks was "E. C. Sha." he did not marry Miss Daisy Cady, but Miss Geneva Thomas of Washington County. It is impossible to the sequence of the cards to Miss Cady, and the reason for Shanks' residence at the Cady Hotel -- and the nature of his relationship with Miss Cady -- are lost to history, hinted at only in a few lines of ink on two postcards. (10/24/07) |