Color postcard of brick church
This postcard image shows the Fredericktown Methodist Church around 1911.

History Knox

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

FREDERICKTOWN — If there’s one thing History Knox has remained dedicated to over the years, it’s reading other people’s mail.

This dip into the historical mailbag finds us intercepting mail destined for Guy Van Zile of Auburn, Indiana. A friend or possibly relative of his sent this postcard from Fredericktown on Aug. 10, 1911.

There is so much text penciled in, it’s hard to make out all the text, but I think the signer of the postcard is Stella.

A quick note from wife visiting relatives in Fredericktown to her husband in Auburn, Indiana. (Submitted image.)

It says, “Dear Guy: — Cousin May took me out to Aunt Ann’s today, had a fine time.”

OK, that was easy enough to decipher. What comes next is far less certain:

“Say Guy you get (?) (?). I am going to bring Helen home with me for a few days, Eva wants me to. She thinks it will do her good.”

It appears that the writer signed the card “Stella” at this point, but then added an afterthought that she had to curve down beneath her signature, “I will be there…” then I can’t make out the rest of the sentence (other than “#7”) as it curves under the signature and up the side of the card.

Or perhaps the line on the edge of the card is a later notation.

A little genealogical sleuthing fills in some of the details.

Stella, in fact, was Guy’s wife. Her given name was Estelle Baughman, and she was apparently visiting cousins in Ohio, where her mother was originally born (Sarah Ellen Stout, daughter of Jacob Stout, born in Morrow County).

Both Guy and Stella were on their second marriages, and Guy had a daughter named Aulene from his first marriage. I think that name is the first trouble spot I had on the postcard.

I think Stella was asking her husband if he picked up Aulene on Saturday (with Sat. abbreviated).

I’m not sure about Helen, but the Eva that Stella refers to is Stella’s sister Eva Baughman Pence.

The church is still in use today as the Fredericktown Historical Society. (Image source: Google Maps.)

Anyway, no great mystery, just a slice of life showing a vintage image of Fredericktown Methodist Church around 1911. The building is still in business, though it is no longer operating as a church.

This lovely old building is now the home of the Fredericktown Historical Society, a museum full of wonderful displays that can be found just off the square in downtown Fredericktown.