No. 1 - Happy New Year from Milwaukee 1904!

From the private collection of Gail Trubshaw Ryan

My paternal grandmother, Ida Vilter (b: 1891, d: 1988), collected postcards as a young girl. I estimate the postcards in the collection date from approximately 1904–1916. I will know the exact date range once I review and scan all of them. A total of 262 postcards are mounted in a black Ward's Postal Card Album and fill forty of the fifty pages in the album. 

When my grandparents moved from their home (4908 Woodlawn Ct, Milwaukee, Wisconsin) in Milwaukee, the album came into the possession of my parents, Fred A. and Elizabeth (Chovanec) Trubshaw. I acquired the album in 2015 after my parents had passed away, and we sold our family home in Brookfield, Wisconsin. 

The postcards in this album have always fascinated me, and I look forward to preserving them and sharing them with you in this blog. I intend to study the images, names, messages, addresses, and other details on the postcards to learn more about my ancestors' lives and to tell their stories. Thanks for joining me on this adventure!

This postcard was sent from Milwaukee to my great-grandparents, Theo O. and Bertha (Meiners) Vilter, while staying at the Hollenbeck Hotel in Los Angeles, California. Theo O. Vilter was President of The Vilter Manufacturing Company in Milwaukee from 1890–1919 and may have been traveling in California on business (more research is needed to verify this).

Postcard Transcription:

Addressed to:

Mr. & Mrs. Theo O. Vilter

Hollenbeck's Hotel

Los Angeles

California

Postage:    United States of America, Franklin One Cent postage stamp [green]

Cancellation:    Milwaukee, Wis, DEC 26, 11:30 AM, 1904

Image:    Court House, MILWAUKEE                              
                   Prosit New-Jahr! [translation from German: Happy New Year!]

Message:      

The message is written in German, and I will need help transcribing or translating it. The date, 12/25/04 [1904], is handwritten along the top. I believe it is signed "So long J.C.M" [Possibly John C. Meiners b: 1889, son of Gustav Meiners and Helene Meyer, nephew of Theo O. and Bertha Vilter, grandson of John C. Meiners and Wietjen Thede. More research is needed to verify this.]

Other:

View a photo showing the Hollenbeck Hotel's exterior ca. 1900–1905.