Traveling through an Orange Grove, Florida

The title of this blog post is the title on the post card. It is one of several post cards that I have in my collection that focus on the orange groves of Florida and California (see May 6, 2012, January 17, 2015 and February 2, 2018). In fact, the January 17th post has the same picture on two post cards. One says it is in Florida; the other says it is in California. This one, though, probably is in Florida. It is published by the Asheville Post Card Company from Asheville, North Carolina. Sound familiar? Two weeks ago (September 11th) I published a blog with a post card from this publisher. Just as I scanned the back of that post card for the handwritten message, I am scanning this one for the same reason.

As far as I can make out, Jack is writing to Mary to tell her that it is cold where he is - Lake Mary, Florida - and he is sending the post card to Mary in Lynn, Massachussets. He has obviously not been in Lynn, Massachussets in November; the post card was mailed on November 30, 1933. The rest of this message is that he has a two-wheeled bicycle and that he is going to give some Christmas presents away.

Going to Florida...

...Key West, to be exact. This post card is number 82 in a series of Florida scenes published by the Asheville Post Card Company in Asheville, North

Carolina. It is a depiction of The Overseas Railroad. This railroad was an extension of the Florida East Coast Railway to Key West, located 128 miles beyond the end of the Florida peninsula. Work on the line started in 1905 and was completed in 1912; the line was in daily passenger and freight service until its destruction by a hurricane in 1935. It was not an easy task building the railroad from one island to the other. Hurricanes in 1909 and 1910 destroyed much of the completed railroad. This was the dream of Henry Flagler. On January 22, 1912, Henry, by then blind, arrived in Key West aboard his private rail car "Rambler". His dream had become a reality. Nine years before the system was destroyed by the hurricane, Frank Etzcorn went from Flint, Michigan to the most southern tip of Florida - sort of following in Henry Flagler's footsteps. It is because of Frank that I have this card in my collection. He sent the message below

to his wife. I know it was his wife because he begins the message with "Dear Wife". He sent the post card on January 3, 1926 - not usually hurricane season in Florida; but, not the best of weather in Michigan. As you can see at the top of the scan here to our right, the post card was published by the Asheville Post Card Company. It was a major publisher of linen postcards that went on to produce photochromes. Their cards were manufactured by many different printers. This firm seems to have been founded by Lamar Campbell LeCompte and J.L. Widman though Widman soon left the company. LeCompte may have been publishing postcards in Ashville going back to 1910, the year he moved there. After LeComte’s death in 1977 the company continued to publish postcards as well as sell novelties, but they were eventually taken over by Aerial Photography Services. They could be found at 31 Carolina Avenue in Asheville, North Carolina from 1921 to 1982.

The Louisville & Nashville in Florida?

If one takes out a magnifying glass and focuses on the dark line that forms

the top of the tender in this picture, one can see the letters “L & N”. They are the reporting mark of the Louisville & Nashville Railroad. The American Rails website gives us a glimpse into the history of the Louisville & Nashville Railroad (The Dixie Line). This website is full of historic information about many railroads. I have taken the information below from them: https://www.american-rails.com/nashville.html The Louisville and Nashville Railroad served the heart of the Southeast from New Orleans and Memphis to Atlanta and the Florida Panhandle. the Louisville & Nashville Railroad was created on March 5, 1850 when the state of Kentucky issued a charter for the company "...to build a railroad between Louisville, Kentucky, and the Tennessee state line in the direction of Nashville." The L&N's first segment officially opened on August 25, 1855 and work proceeded quickly to push rails southward towards Tennessee. After four years of additional labor the railroad's charter was completed when it opened to Nashville on October 27, 1859. In 1881, it finally reached New Orleans via Mobile, Alabama via the Montgomery & Mobile and New Orleans, Mobile & Texas. Two years later, in 1883, it opened a 170-mile corridor from Pensacola to Chattahoochee, Florida, its furthest reach into Florida. It is this location to which the inscription on the smoke stack in the picture on the post card refers. “Pensacola, Florida Feb 1911” It also extended to St. Louis and later reached Chicago. The L&N carries precedence as one of the few to maintain its originally chartered name, operating for more than 120 years as the Louisville & Nashville.

This post card is what we consider to be a “Real Photo” post card. The person took the photo then printed it on special paper. This particular post card was printed on AZO paper. Where the stamp goes has the corporate name plus, each corner has a diamond in it. The placement of these diamonds tells us that the post card was printed between 1907 and 1909.

Going through Another Florida Orange Grove

If you have been following this blog for a several years, you have seen the picture on the front of this post card before. This is one of at least six post cards in my collection that have this picture,

or some variation of it, on the front. Four of the post cards tell us that the picture was taken in Florida; two say that it happened in California. This post card is part of the Florida camp. The way in which I chose to blog about this post card was as follows: Me – “Honey, choose a number between 1 and 10.” My wife – “Four.” Me – “Now choose a number between 1 and 345.” Her – “two hundred and twelve.” The first number was to choose the album of post cards; the second number was the post card within that album. Thus, we get this post card! The post card right below this one in the album (number 213) tells us that this picture is from near St. Petersburg, Florida. You can type “Florida” in the upper left-hand corner of the blog post and it will find all the posts that include this word in them. You can scroll down through the blog posts and see the other four post cards about which I have already written. They are from January 15, 2015 and February 2, 2018. I really know nothing about the picture on the front of this post card, except that is was very popular. The back of the post card does tell me many things.

The first thing that I see is that it was published by the H. & W.B. Drew Company out of Jacksonville, Florida. This is the only post card in my collection from this publisher. That is the symbol in the upper left-hand of the post card. It also seems to be post card number 1019, but I don’t see if it is part of a series of if this set of post cards was their 1,019th run of post cards. It could be number 1019 of their Florida Artistic Series of post cards. In the bottom left-hand of the post card there is another symbol. This is the state seal of Florida. Or at least it was when the post card was printed. The last thing that I found on the back of the post card was that it was published after 1930 by the Curt Otto Teich company. One series of their card numbers began with a number corresponding to the last digit of the year it was published in followed by a letter series denoting the decade: 1930’s A and AH prefix All cards with an H onwards designate Art Colortone. This post card is numbered A-19515; that means that it was published in the 1930s. This is sort of confirmed by the fact that between June 30, 1928 and January 1, 1952 the rate to mail a post card domestically was one cent. The last thing that I would like to point out is that the message on the back of the post card matches the picture on the front. The writer, Andy, is telling Terra that the oranges on the front look delicious.

Oranges in February of 1909, but...

... but are these oranges really located in Florida? On the front of this featured post card it says, "A January Scene - Riding Through Orange Groves in Florida" across the top. I am not questioning whether oranges grow in the winter (January, as listed on the post card). In fact, I looked up the growing season of oranges in Florida. I found out that the Early Harvest Season is from October to January. The oranges harvested at this time are Hamlins, Parson Browns and Navels. The Mid Harvest Season includes the picking of Sunstar, Gardner and Sanjuinelli oranges from December to March. The Late Season is when the Valencias (50% of the harvest) are picked from March to June. I do, however, question where this picture was actually taken. It just so happens that I have another post cards in my collection that across the top is written, "Entering California through Orange Groves in Mid winter". Normally, I would not think anything of this. But, today I have to question where the pictures were taken; or is it where THE PICTURE was taken. Here are the two post cards, one on top of the other:

It is the exact same picture. Upon closer examination, I would declare the Florida picture to be the original and the other a copy. The details in the top post card are clearer; there are two people right behind the engine; the oranges do not look like paint brush dots; the train itself has much more detail; and, the telegraph pole to the right looks more like a telegraph pole. I do have to say that the printer has done a marvelous job of changing the ground between the trough and the trees.

Another hint about which came first might be the dates on which they were mailed. This featured post card for today was mailed today in 1909 (109 years ago) from Florida. The other was mailed in 1923 from California.

The feature post card was made in Germany, a typical trait of post cards before World War I. The printing processes in Germany were superior to those in the USA. The American printers had a lot of quick catching up to do to fill in the gap the war left. So much so that the period before World War I is known as The Golden Age of Post Cards.

Here is the back of the post card: it looks like someone moved to Florida and is writing to a friend in Massachusetts to let the friend know that it is different but acceptable.

Is Seventy Years Ago Today is Still an Antique?

The Atlantic Coast Line Railroad needed its own exotic Miami-bound passenger train after rival Seaboard Air Line Railroad (SALRR) debuted its very successful Silver Meteor on February 2, 1939 connecting New York with Miami. To keep pace the Atlantic Coast Line Railroad (ACLRR) inaugurated its own version in December of that same year and called the service The Champion.

In conjunction with the Florida East Coast Railway the train provided daily service between New York and Miami. The train featured a beautiful livery and because both the ACLRR and SALRR served the very trendy vacation destination of Florida, their passenger trains to the Sunshine State remained popular through the late 1960s! However, both railroads’ flagship trains served essentially the same market. So, when Amtrak took over all American intercity passenger train operations in the spring of 1971 AMTRAK elected to keep only the Silver Meteor.

This post card is certainly not as old as those that I have recently added to this blog. However, it is older than I am, so I consider it to be old. It was mailed 70 years ago today. That's an antique in my books! The author is informing a friend of the latest happenings in her life. "Dear Lottie, guess you don't know we have been in Florida a couple month. I like it here but Dick doesn't. Too damp he says. Everything green and flowers blooming. Lovely poinsettias. It is a little cook the last couple days but has been warm. I have a little cold so I stayed home from church today. There is one across the street that I go to. I hope you are as well as common. Love Lille Busch"

The post card is printed by the Curt Otto Teich corporation. This post card falls into the Linen Post Card style. The numbers in the bottom right of the front of the card indicate the year that it was printed - 1941. The number is 1B-H1056. The B tells us that it was printed in the 1940s and the 1 in front of the B specifies the first year of the 40s. The H in the number is a code for telling us that this is a Linen Post Card. This is post card design number 1056 out of 2693 designed printed in 1941.

Goin' to Florida

The Overseas Railroad was an extension of the Florida East Coast Railway

to Key West, located 128 miles beyond the end of the Florida peninsula. Work on the line started in 1905 and was completed in 1912; the line was in daily passenger and freight service until its destruction by a hurricane in 1935. My wife and I joke a lot about cars driving down the road for kilometers with their turn signals on. We usually alert the other person by saying,"Guess he's goin' to Florida." Then the other person knows to look for a car with continuous turn signalling happening. I have to admit that she has asked me if I was going to Florida a couple of times. Today's blog post is taking us to Florida without the benefit of an ongoing turn signal. We are looking at three of my seven post cards that highlight the Florida East Railway's Long Key Viaduct. I will first tell you the story, then talk about the publisher of each post card at the end. I will simply intersperse the fronts of the post cards through the narrative as taken mostly from Wikipedia. The

construction problems were formidable; labor turnover was frequent and the cost was prohibitive. The first portion of the line, from Homestead to Key Largo, was across swamp land. Thankfully, the dredging of the drainage canals to clear the swamps provided the material to build up the roadbed. Worse than any other challenge was the weather: a hurricane in September 1906 destroyed the initial work on the Long Key Viaduct and killed more than 100 laborers. Hurricanes in 1909 and 1910 destroyed much of the completed railroad. After these hurricanes, work resumed at a faster pace — The owner of the railroad was 80 years old and wanted to ride all the way to Key West on his railroad. The completion of Seven Mile Bridge assured many that the line would soon be completed. Henry Flagler, by then blind, arrived in Key West on January 22, 1912, aboard his private rail car "Rambler", telling a welcoming crowd, “Now I can die happy. My dream is fulfilled.” Regular service on the 156-mile extension — dubbed the "Eighth Wonder of the World" — began the following day, with through sleepers between New York and Key West with connections at Key West for passenger steamers and car ferries bound for Havana. Flagler died less than 18 months later in May 1913.

The 1935 Labor Day Hurricane washed away approximately 40 miles of the Middle Keys section of the line. In addition, the Long Key Fishing Camp was destroyed, along with a rescue train which was — with the exception of locomotive #447 — overturned by the storm surge at Islamorada, Florida. With Flagler gone, the railroad was unwilling to repair a line that had never repaid its construction cost — an unknown figure. It was later determined that the total cost of what had been derisively nicknamed "Flagler's Folly" exceeded $50 million ($1.31 billion today), all from his personal fortune.

The top post card, above was mailed in 1914, soon after the viaduct opened. It was published by the H. S. Kress Company. A publisher and large distributor of postcards through their national chain of Five & Dime stores. They were purchased by Genesco in 1964 who slowly began shutting the business down.

The middle post card was published by the Leighton & Valentine Company

out of New York City. Hugh C. Leighton was a printer and major publisher of national view-cards, especially scenes of New England. They printed most of their cards in four distinct styles employing halftone lithography. Most used a simple soft yet highly recognizable RGB pallet. While some cards were printed at their plant in the U.S. most were manufactured in Frankfort, Germany. Almost all their cards were numbered. They merged with Valentine & Sons in 1909.

The last of the post cards was published by the E.C. Kropp Company:

a publisher and printer that began producing chromolithographic souvenir cards and private mailing cards in 1898 under the name Kropp. These cards were of much higher quality than those that would printed under the E.C. Kropp name. They became the E.C. Kropp Company in 1907 and produced large numbers of national view-cards and other subjects. Their latter linen cards had a noticeably fine grain. Sold to L.L. Cook in 1956 and they are now part of the GAF Corp. U.S. This post card is an excellent example of a linen post card. The texture and weight of the card are obvious when one holds it and holds it up to the light. I hope you can see the texture in this close-up:

The Preamble to the Constitution, I Mean Freedom Train

The Union Pacific Railroad loaned one of their engines (Number 951) to Freedom Train movement in 1976. We see a picture of it here on the front of this post card. It is called "The Preamble Express". It was named this for at least two reasons: 1) The Constitution of the United States has a preamble. I quote it here: "We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defense,promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America."

2) A preamble is a preparatory statement or introduction to what follows. The train in this picture was the introduction to the train which followed it. The locomotive chosen for this job was an E9 that belonged to the Union Pacific RR. The E9 was a 2,400-horsepower (1,790 kW), A1A-A1A passenger train-hauling diesel locomotive built by General Motors' Electro-Motive Division of La Grange, Illinois between April 1954 and January 1964. 100 cab-equipped A units were produced and 44 cabless booster B units, all for service in the United States. The E9 was the tenth and last model of EMD E-unit and differed from the earlier E8 as built only by the newer engines and a different, flusher-fitting mounting for the headlight glass, the latter being the only visible difference. (Taken from Wikipedia).

This seems like it would be an honor for the people sitting in the passenger coaches and for the crew chosen to pilot the train. However, as I read the words on the back of the post card describing what is on the front, I read these words: "The Preamble Express was used to check security for the Freedom Train." That is code to me for this train was used to go ahead of the Freedom Train to discover and hidden mines or bombs on the tracks or bridges. This makes the people involved in the Preamble Express true heroes in my books.

The post card was published by Mary Jayne's Railroad Specialties. I only had one interaction with Mary Jane, but I think she must be a saint. I wrote her a letter asking if she had a catalog of the post cards that she published. I explained about my train post card collection and how I look at both the front and back of the post cards. I asked that, if there was a catalog could I somehow get a copy. I fully expected that I would have to pay something for the printing or photocopying. She wrote me a personal letter (along with the catalog) thanking me for my humble approach. She had received many DEMANDS from people that she send them the catalog. All she asked was that I give some money to a charity of my choice. I gave money to the "Feeding Hungry Minds" endowment fund. If you want to know more about the fund leave a comment below. I was deeply impressed by her kindness.

The train in the picture above is passing through Hollywood, Florida. The printer of the post card is also from Hollywood, FL

California or Florida. You be the Judge.

I was just cataloguing some of the post cards that had come in while I was focused on the Pikes Peak Series of blogs last year.I had no intention of blogging about these two cards. I picked up the first one (the top picture) and saw the title: “1724 – Through California Orange Groves.” I thought of course that makes sense; I lived in Southern California for about 15 years. I turned it over to read the message and all I could make out was the greeting: “Dear Sister Mary!” The rest looked like gibberish to me. Either this very fancy handwriting is extremely difficult to read or… then, I stepped back and realized that it written in another language. I catalogued it and added it to my album. Then I picked up the next card. I read the message on the back as I glanced at the publisher. The message reads: “I never saw anything like this. Will.”

So, I turned the card over to see what Will had never seen anything like. My first thought was, “Hey, that’s the same picture!” Then I saw the title: “A January Scene - Riding Through Orange Groves in Florida.” In Florida!! It is the same picture!!!

I thought, “No wonder Will didn’t see anything like this!” THIS is in California.

It is amazing how two publishers on the opposite sides of the country could choose the same picture and print different titles. Edward H. Mitchell is the publisher of the top card. He worked out of San Francisco, California. He doesn’t tell us anything about who printed his card. The publisher of the bottom post card is M. Mark out of Jacksonville, Florida. He does tell us that his post card was printed in Germany; but, not by whom. These two publishers bought the same picture and each man claimed it for his state. It would be interesting to know exactly where the picture was taken, but alas…

I have talked much about Edward H. Mitchell in the past. Here is what I could find about M. Mark. It is taken from the website, http://aarf.com/editorial/postcardsf09.htm

Florida publishers that produced many local picture postcards were J.N. Chamberlain (Miami), Cochranes’ Book Store (Palatka), Daytona Beach News Service (Daytona Beach), H. & W.B. Drew Company (Jacksonville), Duval News Company (Jacksonville), Florida News Company (Tampa), Florida Souvenir Company (St. Augustine), W. H. Harris Company (St. Augustine), Hillsboro News Company (Tampa), M. Mark (Jacksonville), Murrell Post Card Company (Daytona Beach), Orange News Company (Orlando), Sam J. Rodes (DeLand), Southern Card & Novelty Company (Daytona Beach), St. Petersburg Post Card Association (St. Petersburg), Sun News Company (St. Petersburg), Walker News Company (Daytona Beach), and Eli Witt Company (Daytona Beach)

I know he was a publisher from Florida and wanted other to know, too. He included the state seal (or some semblance of it) on the front of the card. Maybe he know that Edward Mitchell used the same image and he wanted to add some authenticity to his picture.

I could find evidence that he was publishing post cards from between 1908 to 1919. I didn’t see anything beyond that. One site did tell us that he published in both the Divided back and White border eras. I also believe that the evidence shows that the rounded phrase over the postmark, “FLORIDA ARTISTIC SERIES” belonged to his work.