Wednesday, December 25, 2019

Christmas postcard #10:
We have mince pies


Merry Christmas! For this season's final Christmas-themed postcard, we have this colorful card that was mailed in 1910, going from Richfield, Pennsylvania, to Mr. and Mrs. and Uriah Winey in Logania, Perry County, Pennsylvania. Neither of these were high-population locations. Pennsylvania has lost much of its rural character over the past 100 years. In 1910, the state had 7.66 million residents, with 3 million of them (39.6%) living in rural areas, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. A century later, measuring by the 2010 census, Pennsylvania had a total population of 12.7 million, but the rural population of 3.46 million accounted for just 27% of the overall total.

Today, Richfield is an unincorporated community of about 500 residents that straddles Juniata and Snyder counties in central Pennsylvania. Logania, to Richfield's south, no longer really exists. At least, no one, as far as I can tell, continues to use that as a community name, as the Wineys once did. If I'm wrong, please contact and correct me.

Uriah Winey lived from 1857 to 1922, when he died at age 64, of "exhaustion from stricture of the esophagus," in Millerstown, Perry County. He was a Quaker. His wife, Mary Minerva Crouse Winey, lived from 1860 to 1935, when she died at age 74 in Perry County. Known as "Aunt Nervie," she died at the Logania home of her brother, George Crouse; she had resided there since being widowed. Among those reported to have attended her funeral was Mrs. Ursula Shelley of Richfield, who is the likely writer of today's featured postcard. The card's cursive note states:
My Dear Cousins —
I imagine how I would enjoy sitting in your cosy, warm room this evening watching the trains flying down your valley, and talking over old times. Grandpop is sick in bed since last Monday, but is better. I wish you all a happy holiday season. Come to see us. We have mince pies. Good-bye.
Ursula
At least, I think it says "mince pies." I'd like to believe it does. It fits perfectly with the rest of the message. Merry Christmas.

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