And Still More 19th Century Autographs

March 3, 2009 –
Here are some more autographs. These are from a little autograph book owned by David P. Flory of Hygiene and Boulder, Colo., dated 1884, and in which he writes this introduction:
To My Friends
My album is a garden spot
Where all my friends may sow
Where thorns and nettles flourish not
But flowers alone may grow
With smiles for sunshine, tears for showers
I’ll water, watch and guard these flowers.
Your friend, D. P. Flory
Hygiene, Colo.

Here are the entries, many of them with a scolding theme and that he better get his act together as his three sisters pen words of encouragement. It would seem David might have been a troubled lad. After his move to California, however, things seem to improve. I personally favor the final entry, written by his daughter. Read on:

Dave:
Be satisfied with your self and surroundings, for the present;
but at the same time, try to understand and gain a high standard.
Your friend and school-mate, Bertha Goss
Longmont., Colo. Oct. 28, 1884
* * *
To D. P. Flory
Day by day we are ??(shaping)??? the influences which will presently be our rules. We are choosing our habits, our associates, our homes. Weigh carefully all your undertakings and choose the best.
Your well wisher, Miss Nellie Goss
Pella, Colo, Oct. 28, 1884
* * *
When you get old and cannot see, put on your specks and think of me.
S. F. Fesler
* * *
Remember me as a friend.
Yours truly, W. D. Goss
Pella, Colo, Oct. 27, 1884
* * *

David
I dip my pen into the ink
And grasp your album tight;
But for my life I cannot think
One single word to write.
Your sister,
Lottie Flory,
Tujunga, Calif. August. 19, 1886
* * *
Of all the earthly goods, the best is a good life.
Your friend, Norton
* * *
Friend David
Remember thy Creator
In the days of thy youth.
Mrs. S. S. Farnocht, Longmont, Colo.
* * *
Always have courage to say "No" where tempted to do wrong.
Yours truly, Jennie Montgomery,
Longmont, Colo. Oct. 18, 1884
* * *
May your path be strewn with roses fair
and flowery to the end;
And when your body in death repose,
May your Maker be your friend.
Your cousin, H. M. Flory,
Brock Neb., Oct. 5, 1884
* * *
Dear Brother
If you wish success in life,
make perseverance your bosom friend,
experience your wise counsel,
caution your older brother
and hope your guardian genius.
Your affectionate sister, Lizzie Flory
San Fernando, Cal. Jan 12, 1885
* * *
Dear Brother
When you get far out in California,
Do not forget that you have friends and relations in Colo. who will remember you though far away.
Remember me as your loving sister, Hollie
* * *
To Dave
Ah! Lips with the curl impatient
Ah! How with the shade of scorn,
"Twere cruel fate
Were the night too late
To undo the work of the morn
Your friend, Mollie Montgomery
Longmont, Oct. 17, 1884
* * *
Dear friend
Your virtues ever shine like peaches on a punkin vine
Your friend, W. D. Perkins
Oct. 26th, 1884
* * *
Friend David
Do with heart and mind thy work and sweet will be the rest
Value time and do not shrink but do thy best
Doing this thou shall be blest.
Your schoolmate, Lizzie Wreese
Springtown, Colo., Oct. 25th, 1884
* * *
Friend Dave
May you live long and happy
May your enemies be few
May your friends be as many as the sparkling drops of dew.
Yours truly
Freta Trobaugh, Tujunga, Cal, June 10th 1888

Then she adds this ditty – a very early version of texting abbreviations:
Y y u r
Y y u b
I c u r y y 4 me
Can you read it?
* * *
Friend Dave
We may write our names in albums
We may trace them in the sand
We may chisel them in marble
With a firm and skillful hand.

But these pages soon are sullied,
Soon each page will fade away.
Every monument will crumble
Like all earthly hopes decay

But my friend there is an album
Full of leaves of sunny white
Where no names are tarnished
But forever pure and bright

In the book of life, "Gold’s Album,"
May your name be penned with care
And may all who here have penciled
Have their names recorded there
Your friend, Freta
San Fernando, Cal., August 31, 1890
* * *
Dear Friend
To blossom in the grove,

To bloom around the cot (cottage)
Please cultivate that little plant

they call Forget-me-not.
Your schoolmate, Addie Smith
Springtown, Colo., Oct. 27, 1884
* * *
Dear Daddy
To each is given a bag of coals
A shapeless mass, and a book of rules,
And each must make, ere life has flown,
A stumbling block or a stepping stone.
Your daughter, Betty

* * *

To my reader: Many more 19th and early 20th century autographs have appeared in this blog; you can read them in 11/20/07 and 03/03/08.

More 19th Century Teen Autographs

The following autographs are supplement to those in the Post below, "Our Changing Language - Through Autographs." These date from 1885-87 and are addressed to Louie Willits of Liscomb, Iowa, and seem to have been penned by teenagers. In a few cases their thoughts are incomplete or they became hurried in leaving their notes. Or, it may be that 123 years ago, teenagers had different ways of expressing themselves.

Initially, I believed Louie a boy to be;
On second thought, I see Louie was a she.

Dear Louie:
Nothing gratis is easily won.
Your Friend and School Mate
Nettie Armstrong
PS: Remember our slay (sic) ride.
***
Friend Louie
So thou sweet rose bud young and gay
Shalt beauteous blaze upon thee,
And bless thy parents evening ray
That watched thy early morn.
Etta McEarly
***
Louie:
Remember me when this you see;
Put on your eyes and think of me
Ola Detrick
***
Dear Louie
Remember me and always be true.
Nettie Middleton
PS: True and wise, you’re never despised.
***
Louie
Lock up thy heart,
Keep safe the key,
Forget me not
Till I do thee.
Your friend,
Maud Elliott
***
Louie
May your joys be as deep as the ocean,
And sorrow as light as the foam -
Is the wish of your friend,
Gertrude Wilkey
***
Friend Louie:
I will not wish you all sunshine,
As many other has done;
But just enough sadness
To soften the glare of the sun.
Ever Your Friend,
Nellie Tripp
***
Friend Louie
When in the grave my head doth lay,
Beneath the cold and silent day
And just one story is left to tell
Of one who loved you true and well.
Your Friend and Schoolmate,
Maggie Elliott
***
To Louie
Remember me early,
remember me late
remember the boy
you kist at the gate.
Edie Speicher
***
Dear Louie
Roses are red and roses are yellow and
you are the girl that stole my fellow.
Your Friend,
Iva Elliott
***
Friend Louie
It has not been long
Since we, as stranger, met.
The sun of friendship has risen;
O, may it never set.
Nancy Miller
***
Friend Louie:
What’s in your mind let no one know,
Not to your friend your secrets show;
But if your friends become your foe,
Then every one in your mind will know.
Mary Miller
***
Dear Louie:
The path of sorrow and that path alone,
leads to that land where sorrow is unknown.
Coda Johnson
PS: Remember the 1st of May, 1886.
(This note was written May 26, 1886.)
***
Louie
Remember me is all I ask,
I have no other claim.
But if remembrance be a task,
Think only of my name.
Alice Starks
***
Dear Louie,
Look not mournfully into the past, it comes not back again;
Wisely improve the present, it is the thing;
Go forth to meet the shady future without fear and with a brave heart.
Ever your friend,
Isabel Trease
***
Dear Louie:
When the distant sun is setting,
When your mind from care is free
And of distant friends you’re thinking
Will you sometimes think of me.
Your friend
Coline Murdock
***
To Louie:
Sailing down the stream of life
in your little bark canoe,
May you have a pleasant ride
with your room enough for two.
Etta Heiffner
-30-

Our Changing Language - Through Autographs

There was a time – before iPods, cell phones and text messages --when people actually wrote to each other by putting pen to paper.
And there was a time – on a birthday or the end of a school year or upon a graduation – when relatives and friends would congratulate each other on their achievements through an autograph book. Or they would just wish to offer words of encouragement and friendship.

These simple little books of blank pages would often become filled with kind and generous sayings. But where did the little poems and bits of doggerel originate? Were they bits of poetry learned in school or church? Or were they adages dreamt up by their authors? Or were they sayings handed down from adult to child?

No matter. They are recollections of a time when people were willing to express their affection on the written page. Here are some plucked from a collection of autograph books from the late 19th and mid 20th centuries. Some are clever, generous, insightful, mysterious, puzzling – even a bit sexual -- and some humorous. And a few encourage the book owner to get married. Another few seem to find solace in meeting in the afterlife. Still, most of them beat the crap out of “Have a nice day.”

Here we go:

Sacramento, 1926
Dear Irene,
First in your album,
First in your thoughts.
Last to remember
And last to be forgot.
Your school chum, Blanche K.
***
Sacramento, 1926
Dear Irene:
I love you that’s my business;
You love me that’s your business
We love each other that’s our business
Let’s be more business-like.
Your friend, Katherine
***
Mason City, Iowa, 1883
Dear Sister
May all your years
In joy be passed
And each prove happier
Than the last.
Your brother William
***
Sacramento, 1921
Dear Irene (Courtright):
Irene now
Irene forever
Courtright now,
But not for-ever.
Your school friend, Mary G.
***
Reardan, Wash, 1908
Dear friend
When you get old
and cannot see
Put on your specks
And think of me.
Your friend, Lucia
***
Spokane, Wash., 1910
Dearest Amanda
There’s a place for me in your album
There’s a place for me in your heart
There’s a place for us both in Heaven
Where good friends never part.
Your most sincere friend, Laura
***
Waukon, Wash., 1905
Dear Amanda
I like the sun,
I like the stars.
I like the rolling sea
and best of all, I like you.
Your schoolmate, Laura
***
Reardan, Wash., 1908
Amanda:
May your life by like an arithmetic.
Your sorrows divided
Your fevers subtracted,
Your friends multiplied
Your joys added
Is the wish of your friend, Horace

(Here’s another version)
Waukon, Wash., 1904
Dear Amanda:
May your life by like an arithmetic:
Your joys added,
Your sorrows subtracted,
Your friends multiplied
and your enemies divided.
Your school mate, Lulu
***
Waukon, Wash., 1905
Dear Amanda:
The bravest are the tenderest;
The loving are the daring.
Your playmate, Henrietta
***
Sacramento, 1926
Dear Irene:
Little hugs and kisses
Has changed many a miss to Mrs.
Mary E.
***
Forest City, Iowa, 1909
Dear Mama
May there be just clouds enough in your life to cause a glorious sunset.
Your daughter, Lilly

(Here’s a different version)
Neora Springs, Iowa, 1884
Jessie:
May your life have just enough shadow to hide the glare of sun.
Yours, Lollie
***
Sacramento, 1926
Dear Irene
Irene is your name,
Single is your station.
Happy be the man
that makes the alteration.
Your school friend, Thelma
***
Sacramento, 1930
Dear Irene
When you get married and live upstairs,
don’t come down and borrow the chairs.
Yours truly, Myrtle.

***
Clear Lake, Iowa, 1884
Jessie:
This world is but a bubble.
There’s nothing here but woe,
Hardships, trials and troubles
No matter where we go.
Ever your friend, Cora
***
Sacramento, 1926
Dear Irene,
In the storm of life
You need an umbrella.
I hope you have to uphold it
For a handsome you fella.
Your botany friend, Minnie

***
Mason City, Iowa, 1883
Friend Jsesie:
Some friends may wish thee free from care.
Others (may wish thee) joy and wealth
Some may wish you blessings, rare long life and perfect health.
My wish for thee is better by far than all others,
When you from this world depart, your soul may rest in heaven.
Charles
***
Sacramento, 1926
Dear Irene
It would be vain in life’s wild sea
To ask you to remember me
It will undoubtedly by be my lot
Just to be known now and then.
Amy S.
***
Sacramento, 1926
Irene
Two in a hammock
Ready to kiss
But in a jiffy
They went like sith.
Your botany friend, Rena
***
Sacramento, 1926
Dear Irene
Rena had a little lamb;
Her brother killed it dead.
Now she takes the lamb to school
between two hunks of bread.
Ross
***
Sacramento, 1926
Dear Irene:
Here’s to the flames of Heaven
Here’s to the flames of Hell
But darn the boy that will kiss a girl,
Then go around and tell.
Your friend, Helen
***
Sacramento, 1926
Dear Irene
When Cupid shoots his arrow,
I hope he “Mrs.” You.
Your friend, Hattie
***
Luton, Iowa, 1930
Dear Sis:
If you could look into my heart
and see the love that’s there
Then turn it into money
You would be a millionaire.
Your sis, Jen
***
Sacramento, 1926
Dear Irene:
I wish you luck.
I wish you joy.
I wish you first a baby boy.
When his hair begins to curl,
I wish you then a baby girl.
Your friend, Louise
***
Mason City, 1883
Friend Jessie
As gold more brilliant from the fire appears thus,
Friendship brightens by the length of years.
Charles
***
Sacramento, 1926
Dear Irene:
Life is like a deck of cards.
When you’re in love, it’s hearts.
When you’re engaged, it’s diamonds.
When you’re married, it’s clubs
And when your dead, it’s spades.
Your friend, Helen
***
Sacramento, 1926
Dear Irene
Yours till the “Dead Sea” comes to life.
Your botany chum, Maryellen
***
Sacramento, 1926
Dear Irene,
In the golden chain of memory,
Save one little link for me.
Edith
***
Sacramento High School, 1926
Dear Miss Irene:
One sunny morning in May
I sincerely sign my name.
Don’t forget the little Japanese girl
who doesn’t know anything.
Daisy Fujita
***
Sacramento, 1926
Dear Irene:
Some write for joy,
Some write for fame.
I write only to sign my name.
Evelyn
***
Reardan, Wash., 1900
Dear Friend
Remember me and bear in mind
A good true friend is hard to find
And when you find one good and true
Change not the old one for the new.
Your friend, Lula
***
Sacramento, 1926
Dear Irene,
As sure as grass grows around the stump
You are my darling sugar lump.
Your friend, Ada
***
Reardan, Wash., 1899
Dear Friend
When on this page you chance to look,
Just think of me and close the book.
Your friend, Omar
***
October 20, 1930
She’s big but cold and wears a sweater
Nevertheless boys,
You’ll have to go some to get her.
Amy
***