Duffield/Sisson Postcards No. 40

Postcard number 40 features the Hammond Public Library. Hammond, Lake County, Indiana was the new home of the George and Carrie Stiles family. George Stiles was born in 1866 in Massachusetts and moved with his family as a child to LaSalle County, Illinois. There he married Carrie M. Aussem in 1891 and they began their family. Son Milan Arthur Stiles was born in 1894 followed by Teddy Aussem William Stiles in 1897. In 1910 the family moved to Hammond and remained there for several years, welcoming son George Jr. in 1913, before finally settling in Chicago by about 1917.

Public Library, Hammond, Ind.

Postmarked September 29, 1910 Hammond, Indiana

Addressed to:

Mrs Chas. Sission

408 Marcy St

Ottawa

Ill.,

Aunty,

I am feeling

well. How are

you getting 

a long. Like

the place well

Ted.

47 Doty St

Hammond, Ind

This card is from a collection of postcards dated between 1908 and 1914 that was found in the Sierra Madre, California home of Warren Brown after his death in 2015. Warren’s mother, Edythe Grace (Sisson) Brown (1897-1978), was the daughter of Edith Amy Duffield (1864-1926) and Charles Herman Sisson (1868-1927). Charles and Edith were married in Ottawa, Illinois in 1895. They remained there until the early 1920s when they moved west to Los Angeles, California. Their collection of memorabilia was passed down to Warren, my husband’s cousin, and is now in my possession.

In an earlier post titled Edith's Marcy Street Neighbors, I wrote about the Stiles family and their move to Hammond, Indiana. Ted was close in age to the daughters of Charles and Edith (Duffield) Sisson and considered Edith an Aunt, though there was not a familial relationship. I'm not sure of the nature of Teddy's illness, but it seems to be the primary reason for the move to Hammond. There were many postcards from Stiles family members and several of their photographs in Edith's collection. 

Teddy survived his illness and went on to marry and have a family of his own. In 1922 he and Grace Bailey were wed in Cook County, Illinois. A daughter, Alice, arrived in 1925, followed by a son, Bruce, in 1927.