If this postcard looks familiar, you are not mistaken. I featured a postcard just like it last week and another one several years ago.
1908 Willshire Public School photo postcard to Charles Birkhold.
This was a very popular photo postcard in the Willshire area in the early 1900s. Willshire’s impressive public school was completed in 1901 and the community was proud of the building. There were many postcards of the new school circulating in the area at that time.
Yes, another Willshire Public School photo postcard, but with a different sender and recipient.
1908 Willshire Public School postcard to Charles Birkhold.
Postmarked Willshire, Ohio, 1 p.m. May 23 [?] 1908.
To Mr. Charles Birkhold
Columbus, Ohio
c/o Capital University
Message: I arrived home all O.K. Found the folks getting along fine. It has been pretty hot, especially working. I hope to get through planting corn sometime next week. It is as awful dry the ground works hard. With regards, B. B.
After doing a little detective work, I believe this postcard was sent to Charles Emmett Birkhold, written and sent to him by his younger sister Barbara Birkhold. Charles Emmett Birkhold (1881-1920) was born in Payne, Paulding County, Ohio, and became a Lutheran minister. According to Charles’ obituary he taught school for two years before attending Capital University in 1901. Charles graduated from Capital University in June 1906 and entered the seminary that fall, likely Trinity Seminary, which is adjacent to the Capital University campus. Charles Birkhold became an ordained minister in 1909.
This all fits perfectly with the date on the postcard.
Rev. Charles Birkhold married Onata Snellenberger in 1909 and they had 3 children. He was a Lutheran minister in Danville, Knox County, Ohio, between 1915-1920 and died near there from peritonitis in November 1920. He was 38 years old and is buried in Lehman Cemetery, Paulding County. [1]
Charles Emmett Birkhold and his sister Barbara Birkhold (1886-1980) were the children of Charles D. and Margaret (Shrader) Birkhold, who lived in Benton, Paulding County, Ohio. [2] His sister Barbara Birkhold married Dennis Ankney.
To be perfectly honest, I do not have this postcard in my possession. I purchased it a few weeks ago but it has not arrived. My expectations of receiving it diminish every day that goes by. It has apparently been lost in the mail and I probably will never get it. However, I did get these two screenshots of the postcard when I purchased it. Who knows, maybe the physical postcard will show up in my mailbox one day. At least I have these images.
[1] Rev. Charles E. Birkhold, Find a Grave memorial no. 55520537, Lehman Cemetery, Payne, Paulding County, Ohio. [obituary included in memorial]
[2] 1900 U.S. Census, Benton, Paulding, Ohio, ED 39, p.4, dwelling 78, family 82, Chas D Birkhold; digital image by subscription, Ancestry.com (https://www.ancestry.com/search/collections/7602/ : viewed 30 Sep 2021).
2 comments
Karen, your presentation last Saturday at the Willshire School Alumni banquet was enjoyed so much by all of the Willshire grads. The fact that several of your relatives were in attendance made it even more special. (Two aunts that were the oldest alums present, 75 year class of 1946) and an uncle who graduated 70 years ago.
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Thank you, Sondra. It was fun and it was great to see so many Willshire alumni. And it was special that my aunts and uncle were there, too, even if I did pick on Uncle Kenny. 🙂