Duffield/Sisson Postcards No. 34

Next in the series of postcards from 1908-1914 is No. 34, sent from Aurora, Illinois. 

These postcards were discovered last year in the Sierra Madre, California home of Warren Brown after his death. They were saved by his maternal grandparents, Edith Amy Duffield (1864-1926) and Charles Herman Sisson (1868-1927), and passed down to Warren, my husband’s cousin. Charles and Edith were married in Ottawa, Illinois in 1895 and remained there until the early 1920s when they moved west to Los Angeles, California. 

Public Library, Aurora, Ill.

The Aurora Library was built in 1904, funded by Andrew Carnegie. The library still stands in the same spot today, but if anything remains of the original building, it appears to have been substantially renovated. Aurora is about an hour from Ottawa, roughly northeast, and lies on the Fox River. The message on the back of the postcard makes it clear that this was just a stop on a trip.

Potmarked 24 August 1910 in Aurora, Ill.

Addressed to:

Mrs Chas Sisson

Ottawa

Ill

Marcy St

Message:

Dear Edith,

We have to wait 

an hour in this

town Hope you

are all well

Mae

Marie Louise "Mae" Duffield, born in 1862, was the first daughter born to William Duffield and Henriette Louise (DeSusClades) Duffield. She followed brother Albert who was two years older. Then came three more girls - Edith in 1864, Vic in 1866, and Eva in 1880. When their mother died in 1887, Mae became the woman of the house. I'm also an "eldest daughter" and can assume that Mae, like me, may have bossed her younger siblings a bit. I saw my own first daughter do the same with her younger siblings. I think it must be an unspoken rule or something! In this family, it doesn't seem to have caused any ill-feelings between the girls.

This is the first postcard from Mae to her younger sister Edith. The tone isn't bossy at all, just matter-of-fact, another possible clue to Mae's personality. Several postcards from Mae are in this collection; additional clues to the sister's relationship may be gleaned from them.

Mae married Herbert Bragg in 1892. In the 1900 census, her youngest sister Eva is living in the household. Absent, though, are children. The couple doesn't appear to have ever had a child. Sometime between 1910 and 1920, Mae and Herbert moved to Long Beach, California. Edith and Charles followed soon after with their family.