One of my favorites from the collection. This postcard is dated Feb. 1911. It was sent from Korbel CA to Arcata, CA, with the request to “come up next Saturday.”

Having recently spent some time in Eureka, California, it was interesting for me to go through a stack of old postcards from that area in my mother’s possession.  My great grandmother Hannah worked at the Samoa Cookhouse, near Arcata, in the early 1900s.  I recently visited the cookhouse for breakfast.  Her daughter Esther, my grandmother, attended the Arcata school for several years, and in 1910 when my she was 14 years old, her mother Hannah went to work as a cook at Haughey’s Camp in Kneeland Prairie.  Her daughter stayed in Arcata and lived with other families as a “helper.”  There are several postcards from daughter to mother starting in Aug. 1910, when my grandmother was only 14.  All the postcards were sent with a 1 cent stamp.  There are quite a few postcards to my grandmother from friends, some living as close as Korbel. Without a telephone, a postcard would have been a way to set up invitations and meetings, which was the content of many of the cards.

Post mark Jan 1910, sent to my grandmother, 13 years old at the time. The address is simply; Arcata Wharf, Arcata, Calif.

May 1910 post mark. The postcard was printed in Germany.

In August 1910, my grandmother sent her mother this postcard. She tells her mother of taking herself to the dentist. She was 14 years old.

A newsy postcard sent to my grandmother in Arcata from her friend in Korbel. It is dated Jan 1911. She tells of a neighbor who “have got a baby boy now and they think an awful lot of it.”

A 1911 Valentine. Sent from my grandmother to her mother.

The postmark on this card is March 1911. My grandmother’s friend writes “Come up this Friday night and we will go fishing Saturday morning.”

This postcard was sent from Arcata, CA to Portland, OR on Dec 24th, 1911. My grandmother’s friend Elsie wishes her a Merry Xmas and Happy New Year.

There are many postcards saved from my grandmother’s years in Arcata.  These are some of my favorites from 1910 to 1911.  I’ll post the Christmas postcards in December.