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The elementary school was the pride of the town when it was built (see the 1906 Grade School card, but it had apparently fallen out of the public eye by the 1920s. This is apparently the last time it appeared on a postcard. The card was postmarked on Jan. 15, 1935, to Mrs. Otto P. Frick, 3660 Washington Blvd.,Indianapolis, Ind. The message on the back is an interesting one. It notes across the top, "They ran out of views of Courthouse," and continues, "Dear Family, Arrived safely at 12:00. Hope you get this before I see you. Having swell time. Hope they won't need me before Friday. Zerelda" The stamp has been roughly removed, and its place some family geneologist has written, "Mother Grade School." It is a measure of how powerful the Internet has become that a quick Internet search for Zerelda Frick actually turns up considerable biographical detail. Brides.com points to a GED file. e-yearbook.com has an entry. The geneological data says that Zerelda was born June 14, 1911, in Salem, to Otto Peter Frick (born ) and his wife Harriet Estella Elliott. Zerelda had a sister, Elise, born in 1913, and a brother, Otto Peter Jr., born in 1915, both also in Salem. The unusual surname "Zerelda" may have been her great-grandmother's -- the GED file mentions a Zerelda Sill, who was born in New Albany, Ind., in 1843, and died in Salem in 1923. The e-yearbook site reveals that Zerelda graduated in 1933 from Indiana University, and Brides.com says that she married Raymond Fuller Elliott in Indianapolis on October 14, 1939. The GED fil also notes that she died in September 1945. She would have been only 32. Or did she die? Google also produces another Zerelda Frick: The Rochester, Ind., library's Web site lists an obituary for Winston H. Barr, born Sept. 23, 1908, and died June 25, 1992. The text notes, "His first marriage was to Mavis WILHELM, who died in 1976. On Feb. 17, 1979 he married Zerelda FRICK, who survives. . . . Surviving with his wife are three sons, Alan [BARR], China; Wayne E. [BARR], Lauderdale Lakes, Fla., and Larry L. [BARR], Miami, Fla.; seven grandchildren; two step-daughters, Mrs. Edgar SCHALLIOL, Rochester, and Mrs. John SHIFFER, Indianapolis two sisters, Dorothy L. SHAVER, Bloomington, Ill., and Mary A MORTON, Naples, Fla., and a brother, Robert H. HARR, Logansport." If it were the same Zerelda Frick, Mr. Barr would have been 70 when they married, three years older than his new wife. And while the obituary identifies her as Frick, not Elliott, it lists two step-daughters, both married, without telling us their maiden name. Perhaps Mrs. Schalliol or Mrs. Shiffer is the family geneologist.
Another interesting supposition drawn from the message: "They ran out of views of Courthouse," it says. Who ran out of views of the Courthouse? If Zerelda had been buying postcards at Robertson's Drug Store (Jan. 15 was a Tuesday, by the way), she should have been able to buy either the 1931 Curt Teich view or the "no publisher" reprint. If she went to McClintock's Drugs she might have found the Charles McClintock version of the view. So who was selling the Bregstone cards? It might have been Neal's Confectionery. The Bregstone version of the Courthouse view was available |