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Photo postcard of School in Evans, Colorado, ca. 1910

On New Year’s Eve of 1910, Meade Sanford mailed this postcard from Evans, Colorado, to his brother Delano in  Scotch Grove, Iowa.  Meade, born April 3, 1867, in Edinburg, Iowa, was  raised along with Delano and his other brothers in the farming family of Elizabeth Jane (Espy) and William Payne Sanford.    Elizabeth and William farmed on 500 acres and raised six boys.  As adults, brothers Meade, Delano, Albert and Franklin continued the family’s farming tradition, while brothers Harvey and Harry worked in private industry. 

Meade married fellow Iowan Mary Agnes Pierce (born in 1869) on January 24, 1887, and they went on to raise a family of two boys and four girls.  They farmed in Iowa until around 1908, then moved to Colorado to farm.  This photo postcard shows the school in Evans which Meade and Mary’s fourth child, Lila, attended.  Lila was born in 1895, so when Meade sent this card she was approximately 15.  I assume the X’s mark Lila’s classrooms.  

Meade apparently possessed mechanical skills and an interest in building a steam-powered car, as reported in two articles in the Ottumwa (Iowa) Semi-Weekly Courier.  The first article, dated February 6, 1902, stated, “Meade Sanford is planning the invention of an auto-machine.”   The second article, dated April 24, 1902, reported:  “Meade Sanford’s auto machine will soon be a realization.  It will be capable of twelve miles per hour, with a load, and will be propelled by two simultaneous steam engines.”  Unfortunately, I could find no more references to Meade’s work in this arena. 

When Meade sent this postcard, he and his family may have recently moved from Colorado’s Pleasant Valley near Colorado Springs.  A Greeley Tribute article dated March 23, 1910, reports that Meade sold 80 acres of his land in Pleasant Valley for $22,000, then had come to the Evans area and purchased an 80-acre tract near Kersey from Charles Elliott for $14,000.   It looks like it was a good deal, at least on paper. 

Meade writes as follows:  (I’ve added the parentheticals.)

“Dear Brother, We are all well hope you are the same.  We are having the nicest winter weather you ever seen. High & dry about 10 – 20 above. O (for oat?) feed is high, potatoes cheap, hay $15 (per ton in 1910).  Love to all write soon to your brother.”

Rural Free Delivery

Meade has twice applied a hand stamp above his message to his brother which reads “MEADE SANFORD, R.F.D. No. 4, GREELEY, COLO.”   I knew that “ R.F.D.” stood for “Rural Free  Delivery,” but that’s all I knew, so I did some on-line research and learned the following from Wikipedia:

Before there was a public postal delivery service, residents in rural areas either had to go into town to the post office or pay for the services of a private carrier to deliver their mail.  Private carriers were not known for their user-friendliness.   They could charge exorbitant rates using a confusing rate structure and might opt to leave your items off at the nearest train depot instead of delivering them to your home.

Not surprisingly, one proponent of a post office rural delivery service was Postmaster General John Wanamaker, who owned a major department store and would love to see a public delivery service facilitate his retail sales.  More importantly, though, a public mail delivery service would benefit the many, many thousands of citizens living outside of cities and towns.    And Congress, tending to this public need, passed legislation establishing a rural free delivery service in 1896, to be provided by the U. S. Postal Service. 

Given the size of the United States, it would take several years to put the system in place.  Establishing this system was said to be the “biggest and most expensive endeavor” in the Postal Service’s history.   The first rural delivery route for Colorado was established in the Loveland post office on November 10, 1896.  Per Wikipedia,  “By 1930, 43,278 rural routes served over 6,875,300 families, amounting to about 25,472,00 persons, at a cost of $106,338,341.”

The Sanfords return to Iowa

In 1917, the Sanfords moved back to Iowa.   The 1920 Census shows Meade working for the railroad.  He his wife, Mary, and their two sons, William and Maurice, are renting a home on 7th Street in Lovell, Iowa.   Their ages are listed as 53, 50, 32 and 14.

Loss

The years 1925 and 1929 saw Meade and Mary’s loss of two of their children:   

William Sanford

On the morning of Sunday, May 18, 1925, the Sanfords’ son, William, now 35, set out from his parents’ home (they were now living in Monticello, Iowa) to purchase a newspaper at the Palmer drugstore.  While there, he purchased a bottle of carbolic acid and apparently consumed it on his way back home.  After entering the house, he was initially unable to speak when questioned by his mother, but was eventually able to say, “carbolic acid.”   He was immediately taken to the McDonald hospital, where medical staff pumped his stomach.  It was too late, however, and he died soon after.

Speculation was rife that William was influenced in his decision by the suicide the previous week of 17-year-old high school student Loretta Weaver, who lived five miles north of  Anamosa, Iowa.  Loretta had been out with her boyfriend until midnight the night before, and after she returned home, her mother scolded her for being out so late.  Her mother later testified to the coroner’s jury that after arising and coming down the stairs at 6:00 the following morning, Loretta told her mother she would never again have to worry about her daughter.  At that point, she went back upstairs and took poison (the type of poison was not identified).  Her mother discovered her and rushed her to Mercy Hospital, where Loretta died soon after being admitted.

William’s friends said he talked a lot about Loretta  Weaver’s death in the following week, and they believe her death drove him insane.  Others believed that Weaver’s death merely served to identify a method for him to do himself in.

William, who was unmarried, was employed as a laborer with the railroad at the time of his death and was a veteran of World War I.  One newspaper reported that he was “of a very retiring disposition, and it was not his nature to mix with people to any great degree.”   

Elizabeth Irene (Sanford) Bell

Elizabeth died at age 27 on August 7, 1929, in  Cedar Rapids, Iowa.  Her cause of death was given as toxemia resulting from a burst appendix.  She had been operated on for this one day before she died.  According to her obituary, she had been in failing health for several years.

Elizabeth had married Charles Bell, a Missouri resident who came out to Colorado and became a restauranteur.  Most likely, Elizabeth met him when her family was farming in Colorado.  They were married in Greeley on December 28, 1919, and, according to the U.S. Census, were living in Loveland in 1920, where he was the proprietor and cook in a restaurant, and where she worked as a 2nd cook. 

In 1927, Elizabeth and Charles moved to Cedar Rapids to operate a restaurant.  They had a girl, Roberta, and a boy, Clarence. 

Meade and Mary

Meade Sanford would die at their Monticello home on  March 14, 1933, at age 68.  Mary would live until the age of 85, passing away in Monticello on October 31, 1954.  Meade and Mary’s remains are interred side by side at Oakwood Cemetery in Monticello. 

REFERENCES:

  • North America, Family Histories, 1500-2000 for Albert Sanford

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