Week 51: Holidays
I have a pair of twin treasure chests that sit underneath the stairs in my house. They belonged to my maternal grandparents, and they’re filled with family picture frames, wartime correspondence, loose papers, little trinkets and other ephemera. A lot of the stuff that fills the chests has been placed in them at different times, so most of it is completely random and unrelated to the other stuff, which makes it even more fun to sift through, because it’s one surprise after another.
Mary Dixon, “Post Cards”, scrapbook, Sutton, West Virginia, ca. 1908; privately held by descendant Kira D. Foltz.
One such item is a very old scrapbook whose cover is pre-printed with POST CARDS. With a quick scan through the pages, it’s clear the collection belonged to Miss Mary Dixon of Sutton, West Virginia. Mary Lucretia Dixon was my great grandmother Beatrice’s older sister. She was born 30 November 1892 in Wadestown, Monongalia, West Virginia to Nathan and Elizabeth (Rockwell) Dixon.
Mary Dixon, cropped photo from her wedding day to Thomas Hogg, unknown location, 6 Jul 1936.
There’s a variety of postcards included in the book, ranging from everyday letters, to photographs, and of course, holiday greeting cards. By the looks of it, most of the postcards are written by a fellow named Lloyd, a self-professed teacher, who was seemingly a tad older than Mary. Most are postmarked circa 1908.
The Easter Greetings card is short and to the point. Lloyd mentions he didn’t bother sending her any photographs because none came out well. While I don’t have context as to what photos he is referring to, the note implies he had promised to send her pics previously.
Lloyd’s Christmas card, dated just a couple days before Christmas Day, mentions his change in travel plans and instructions to meet up over the holidays.
I do feel that Lloyd was a suitor of Mary’s, as the majority of the cards in the book were from him. Although none that I’ve read, as of yet, express outright his love or devotion for her, they do appear rather kind, consistently written, and one can’t forget, she certainly kept them all these years! Plus, he was a good looking young man – quite handsome.
Alva Lloyd Carder, Sr., postcard photo, ca. 1908.
Lloyd would sometimes sign with initials A.L.C., which stood for Alva Lloyd Carder. I have to assume he wasn’t a fan of his first name and preferred to use his middle name for that reason. He was born in 1888 in Tesla, West Virginia – not far from Sutton, where Mary was living in her youth. And he later went on to becoming a postal worker and foreman for the railroad. So perhaps his love of letter writing spurred that later profession.
The surprising fact is that Mary and Lloyd never wed. In 1915, at the age of 22, Mary wound up marrying a man who worked on their family’s farm, Walter M. Stalnaker, who was nearly twice her age. And later on in life, she married Thomas Hogg. But Lloyd also had a happy ending, having married a woman named Valeria just a few years after exchanging postcards with Mary. The couple even named a son Alva Lloyd Carder, Junior.
But Lloyd wasn’t the only love letter sender in Mary’s life. This postcard from “Janitor Brooks” proves she had another valentine waiting in the wings! It’s a mystery why, with so many men after her heart, she would choose to marry the much older farmhand, especially when these men (or, at least, their letters) meant so much to her to entice her to hold on to them for the rest of her life. And now, more than 100 years later, they’re still in the family and span several holidays over a number of years.
O my God. You knocked me out of my chair. Thomas Hogg was my Uncle,my father's brother. I knew Mary well, she married Tommy in 1936, they had no children. I have been trying to find any info on her first husband, Mr Stalnaker, can't find his birth or death, just their wedding cert. We have that exact picture of Mary in our family albums. Not sure how Many got to Marshall cty and met Tom. All that generation died out with my father in 2016.
Nancy Hogg Jones