Belle’s Box – 64

This entry is part 66 of 342 in the series Belle's Box

Read about this series of posts, regarding items in a box originally owned by Belle (Lamunion) Fellows Tinker here. The cast of characters is located here. And, there is an accounting of people about whom I have little information here.

Street view, “PUBLIC LIBRARY, STATE STREET CHARLEVOIX MICH”

64f

Post mark illegible, possibly 1921, Mich.
Mrs Bell
Tinker
Manton
RFD Mich

64b

Grant April 6 1921
Dear Bell, we are at
Emmas got here about
12 o’clock last night
drove about 60
miles left Edds
a 7 am have had
no trouble so far
expect to get home
Wed night unless
??? and ???

Hattie

Well. Hattie and company took a car trip in April, 1921. They went to Edd’s. On April 5 they left Edd’s at seven in the morning, and drove 60 miles to Emma’s in Grant, Michigan. That means it took them seventeen (17!!!) hours to go 60 miles, and they had no trouble. NO TROUBLE. My handy calculator tells me that they went 3.5294 miles an hour, assuming they never stopped. I’m pretty sure they stopped to eat, use an outhouse and other necessities as they traveled, so they were probably speeding around a little faster than 5 mph.

I don’t know where home is, but in 1921 the sixth was a Wednesday. So, I guess if they were expecting to be home on Wednesday, it would the Wednesday, April 13, 1921.

This one card alone shows why studying and compiling genealogy needs to be combined with information regarding the times in which your ancestors lived. I know Michigan roads aren’t much to brag about now, but imagine rural roads between Wexford and Newaygo Counties in 1921. I’m going to need some (old) maps, some more information to understand road conditions of the time. April is early, and I remember Papa’s father saying that in rural Wexford County the roads weren’t cleared in the winter. I wonder how much mud there was on the “State Road” (US-31) which followed the railroad line north through Newaygo County?

I found one resource here, It looks like in 1921 driving from Grant to White Cloud gave two options to continue, east  to Big Rapids and continuing, or north to Baldwin, then continuing here and there.  This 1921 map gives new meaning to a common saying around our house, “you can’t get there from here”. I hope you find it as interesting as I did.

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