HISTORY KNOX is a weekly column by Knox Pages historian Mark Sebastian Jordan that is published each Saturday morning throughout the year. Mark is a published author and longtime Knox County resident who also dabbles in a wide array of the creative arts.
FREDERICKTOWN — It’s all in the name.
Searching historical records for someone named “John Smith” is nearly impossible, unless you have further information. And searching for someone when you only have their first name is just about hopeless. That is, unless the person in question has an unusual name.
I recently procured a vintage postcard that was sent from Fredericktown in 1909. It was sent to a Lotta Evans in Eldridge, Illinois, who was apparently a friend of the postcard writer.
But the card is only signed with the writer’s first name. Normally, that would make it hard to find out any further information, but in this case, the name is “Leffie,” one which I can’t say I’ve ever encountered before.
A genealogical search for “Leffie” in Knox County, Ohio, in the early 1900s turns up only one possibility: Leffie Louise Wertz. She married Guy Ewart in 1912, then at some point after that, they moved to California for a short time, then returned to Ohio, settling in Bellfontaine, where they lived the rest of their days.
Anyone familiar with Leffie? I wasn’t able to find much else.
The postcard shows she had a sense of humor though. After chatting about attending fairs and ball games that summer, she tells her friend Lotta, “[w]hen you get a car, be sure to come to Ohio.”
She says that she wants to show her friend, “we are not so very ‘backwoodsified’.” She then comments on her word invention: “That was an awful word, but it is one newly coined by myself. (hee).”
The photo postcard shows a bridge near Fredericktown on the Kokosing River. Can anyone identify the location?