Black and white postcard
This photo was taken around 1910 in Fredericktown, but we don’t know who the children are. Or the dog. Credit: Knox Time Collection

History Knox

Mark Sebastian Jordan authors a column each Saturday reflecting on the community's history.

FREDERICKTOWN — The postcard features a chatty text, written in pencil:

Hello Hulda:

This is our little flock, they have the sun grins. Ethel took them some time ago.
You can see the dog’s face. It was taken by the wind pump. Ethel has gone to Jelloway & Russell to Mt Vernon to school.
Write soon.

Yours Truly,
Lizzie.

This is a real photo postcard, presumably shot on a camera by family members. When the writer, Lizzie, says “Ethel took them,” it isn’t clear if she means that Ethel took the children somewhere, or that Ethel was the one who took photographs.

Whatever the case, it was the exciting, newfangled technology of the day, and Lizzie seems excited that they actually got the dog to sit still long enough for its face to show up in the picture.

Remember, these were still the days when people had to remain still for a long time before the photographic paper would record the image.

By “sun grins,” I assume she means that it was very bright that day, and this is why the children all seem to be squinting.

The postcard was mailed from Fredericktown to Frazeysburg on Sept. 19, 1910, with a one penny Benjamin Franklin stamp.

The text on this postcard identifies the postcard writer as Lizzie, who has family members named Ethel and Russell. It is addressed to Hulda Cochran, who lived most of her life in Coshocton County. (Image source: The Knox Time Collection.)

So, who were these people (and dog)? Hulda Cochran is not that common of a name, and the only one I could find in historical records for the region is Hulda E. Cochran, who was born in West Carlisle, in Pike Township of Coshocton County in 1883.

She seems to have lived most of her life around there, eventually becoming Hulda Dickerson when she married in 1923.

I found no record of this name in Frazeysburg, but she may simply have received this postcard there while on a visit or a vacation.

Lizzie is much tougher to find. It’s a shortened version of the name Elizabeth, but that is one of the most common girl’s names around.

I searched among many of the Elizabeths, Lizzies, and Besses listed in the 1910 census for Fredericktown, but I couldn’t locate anyone with family members named Ethel and Russell as well.

Therefore, the only way we’re likely to identify the children (and dog) in this picture is if someone by chance recognizes them.

The only other clue seems to be the wind pump behind them, which at least suggests that the family lived on a farm, therefore outside of Fredericktown, and not directly in town.

Beyond that, it’s hard to speculate.

So, let us know, if you recognize these young ‘uns. Or the dog.