BC-UncagHf Firming. Saturday, May 15, 1999
LOU ANN GOOD
Lancaster Fanning Staff
REINHOLDS (Lancaster Co.)
Ask Harold Moyer to name the
presidents and their opponents
from the early 1900 s until the
present
Ask him about the trolley that
ran between Ephrata and Lebanon
where milk receiving stations were
located along the line.
Ask him about Pennsylvania's
213 covered bridges, about trac
tors and machinery, and how they
changed during die century.
Harold knows all these answers
plus many more from rummaging
through old postcards.
As Moyer flips through some of
the postcards from more than
100,000 in his collection, he said,
“I always was a history buff, so
this is really down my alley.”
Postcard collecting is a favorite
pastime for the retired farmer and
his wife Ruth, who live in the
Reinholds area of the county.
The Moyers’ interest in post
cards stems back 25 to 30 years,
when Moyer was given a box filled
with memorabilia from his grand
mother. He and his wife were
intrigued with the postcards that
Postcard advertisements such as this one picturing
Sharpies Cream Separators of West Chester were a popular
form of advertising in the early 1900 s.
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In the early 1900 s, Hers hey Company, which farmed 8,000 acres, packaged a post
card with each candy bar. This shows the interior of one of the company’s barns and
milking machines.
Postcards Open Window To
pictured local and political scenes.
They started looking for postcards
when they attended public
auctions.
“Years back, cards were cheap,”
Moyer said. Today some postcards
can bring several hundred dollars.
Generally these are postcards with
real photographs of historic signi
ficance rather than artist render
ings. When buildings are changed
or tom down, postcards of the
buildings become more valuable.
“The postcard craze was
between 1906 and World War I,”
Moyer said. During those years,
few people had telephones, so
communication between friends
and family members of other
households was done primarily by
written postcards.
Before television, children
spent hours looking at postcard
collections that parents, grandpa
rents, and acquaintances stored in
albums and boxes.
Postcards offer historical glimp
ses of the past. They show how our
ancestors lived, traveled, played,
and were entertained.
Postcards show hundreds of
buildings no longer in existence.
These cards reveal how bustling
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businesses once contributed to the
significance of the area.
Postcards show such scenes as a
horse-drawn bakery truck, typical
in many communities that had
their own bakeries. Railroad sta
tions, general stores, curb markets,
canal barges, ferry boats, chur
ches, machinery, vintage signs,
trolley and train stations, devastat
ing fires, and other significant
events are captured on postcards.
Generally local merchants were
responsible for publishing many
hometown views.
“If it wasn’t for postcards there
would be no documentation of
many of these places and events,”
Moyer said.
Some postcards are of a more
personal nature. On one, a unique
wedding announcement pictured
Mr. and Mrs. John M. Hoober, a
bride and groom. The write-up on
the card includes these words: “...I,
the groom, am in the company
with my father who is one of the
leading cattle dealers in the coun
ty. My end of the job is driving
bulls, steers, hogs, etc. around to
the farmers. . . The bride is an
accomplished young lady, well
versed in washing, scrubbing,
cooking, etc; and can cook water
without scorching it. . . .”
Messages scrawled on the back
of postcards add to the value of the
card. Messages are sometimes
interesting, humorous, and occa
sionally were written in Pennsyl
vania Dutch.
Postcards first became popular
in Europe. According to Moyer,
the first postcard issued in the U.S.
was May 13, 1973.
Before 1907, postcards did not
have a divided back. After 1907, a
line differentiated between the
spot to address the card and the
place to write a message.
During the early years, it was
not uncommon for a mailcarrier to
pick up mail at one home and
deliver it a few houses down the
road on the same day. He hand
cancelled the stamp.
When the Moyers first became
interested in postcards, they col
lected local scenes and towns.
“Now we collect everything,"
Moyer said.
Ruth categories every card. In
addition to cards capturing the his
tory of an event or place, other
popular collections are comics,
advertisements, and holidays.
Ruth has holiday cards of typi
cal holidays such as Christmas and
Valentine’s Day, but she also has
rare cards of April Fool’s, Ground
hog Day, and Labor Day cards.
Although Ruth has both a
20-drawer and a 16-drawer filing
cabinet made especially for cata
loging postcards, and meticulously
files each card, she said that her
“The postcard craze was between 1906 and World I,” said
Harold Moyer. He and his wife Ruth have collected more
than 100,000 postcards. “If It weren’t for postcards there
would be no documentation of many places that no longer
exist,” Moyer said. He considers postcards as an excellent
source for learning history.
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husband “got a computer in his
head or I would forget which ones
we have."
Scpti cards, linen, white bor
ders, photochrome, leather, are all
descriptive of postcards used in
different years and help today’s
collectors determine the age of the
card and its authenticity.
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This collection of postcards featuring chickens was com
piled by Ruth for an exhibit at a monthly meeting of the Lan
caster County Postcard Club, where members buy, sell, and
trade postcards.
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Some postcards were not com
plete alone. Some required four
cards to complete one picture. In
these, the sender would mail one
card every day or every week in
order for the set to be completed.
Other unusual postcards included
the mechanical card with a turn
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(Turn to Pag* B 8)
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