A number of
years ago, I found a treasure trove of postcards that belonged to my Grandmother.
My Mother had saved them, and I came across them in her cedar chest after she
passed away. I remember seeing them when I was a little girl in my Grandmother’s
own chest, but I hadn’t thought about them in a long while. After finding them amongst
my Mother’s belongings, I promptly put them away…forgotten, as usually happens
with things that get “put away.”
I found them
again a few years ago. I had put them in a special box where they would be safe.
So safe, in fact, that it was a lovely surprise when I re-discovered them. What
fun it was to go through them again. And what insights I gained into the life
of my Grandmother when she was a teenager and then a young, unmarried lady. Grandmother
(Lorena Grace Sanford Wallace Werkhoven) was born in 1896, so the time period
we are looking at falls between about 1911 and 1918.
Those
insights must be saved, however, for another time. Today I’m going to
concentrate on the postcard that had a photo on it of two brothers. I thought
they might be twins. The fashion of the day was to have photos made in postcard
form so that they could be mailed to friends and family members. This one had
obviously been given to my Grandmother because only their names were written on
the back: Cleades Carr and Claudus Carr. Who in the world were they?
One of the
insights I learned about my Grandmother was that she had received quite a few postcards
from various friends who were males. (Really?My Grandmother?) Naturally, I wondered about these two whose faces
I had before me. Her other friends were faceless, made real only by their words
and obvious devotion to her. These two simply left her a photo of themselves –
one she kept as a memento all of her life.
After
finding them again, I did place a post on the Carr surname message boards
hoping that someone would come forward who knew them. They never did. But recently, I began to research them again
and actually found them on Ancestry and on Find A Grave. They were indeed
twins, born in 1893 in Kentucky. It seems that they lived their whole lives in
Kentucky, so I’m not sure exactly how, when, or where they met my Grandmother.
It was probably on a trip to Memphis, or perhaps Mississippi, where she lived
for a couple of years during that time period.
According to
information I found on both of the aforementioned sites, Claudus was killed in
a traffic accident in 1931. I can only imagine how much that must have devastated
his twin, Cletus. In fact, the tombstone photo I saw on Find A Grave showed Cletus
buried in the middle, with his wife on his right and, yes, his twin brother on
his left. Cletus lived until 1965, married and had children. Claudus never married.
Shown below
is the postcard with the photo of the two brothers dressed in cowboy attire.
Someone (probably my Grandmother) had written their names on the back of the
card. Cletus’ name was misspelled, evidently written out as it sounded and
spelled closer to the spelling of Claudus.
Do you know
these twins? Are you a relative? If so, let me know. I have a wonderful piece
of history to give you to cherish.
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| Back of the postcard showing the names of the Carr brothers - with Cletus' name misspelled. |
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| Cletus and Claudus Carr (Not sure which is which)
@2015 Copyright by Carla Love Maitland
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