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Arcade photo postcard of Ed and Effie Kouns, Denver, Colorado, 1913.
Arcade photo postcard of Ed and Effie Kouns, Denver, Colorado, 1913.

Ed (Isaac Edward) Kouns, born in 1873, was the son of Isaac Hunter Kouns and Sarah Jane (Whitehead) Kouns.  Isaac Hunter Kouns was a Civil War veteran, a former river steamboat captain and a farmer.  Before coming to Rocky Ford, the Kouns family farmed in Kansas, which is where Ed was born, and they would continue to farm when they came to Rocky Ford, which was probably around 1894. Ed’s father was heavily involved in melon farming in the Rocky Ford area and would form the growers’ association known as the Kouns Party Cantaloupe Association. 

Effie, the sender of this postcard, was born Mary Effie Scott in 1875, and, like Ed, was born in Kansas.  Her parents, who farmed, were David Scott and Lorenia (Holmes) Scott.  David came west to Kansas from Indiana by covered wagon in 1869, and Lorenia, who was born in Illinois, most likely married David in the early 1870’s. 

Effie and Ed married in about 1896.   They would go on to have six children, i.e., five sons and one daughter. 

Effie’s postcard has a Denver postmark of June 24, 1913, and is addressed to C.T. Kouns in Rocky Ford, CO.  Effie writes:  “Dear Ones, arrived O.K. Monday noon, hope to go home Friday.  Had fine roads to Palmer lake, rough there.  Effie”  She is most likely writing to their children, and the addressee was probably their son (Clarence) Thomas Kouns, the third-born of their six children. 

This postcard would have been created at a Denver photo studio that gave tourists and other travelers the opportunity to be part of a visual memento of their time in Denver. Note the backdrop of Denver’s Colorado State Capitol Building. To the left of that backdrop is a partial view of another backdrop depicting a sign which says, “45 miles to Denver.” Maybe the photographer wasn’t tending well to the backdrop boundaries that day.

Note that “E M & F Car” is written below Ed and Effie’s names to the left of the photo.  This notation may reference the car Ed and Effie are sitting in as being a product of the E-M-F company, an American car manufacturer that produced cars from 1909 to 1912.   The letters E-M-F stood for the surnames of the three founders of the company, Barney Everitt, a custom-auto-body builder from Detroit; William Metzger, one of America’s earliest car salesmen, a race promotor and an organizer of the Cadillac company; and Walter Flanders, who had worked as Henry Ford’s production manager.  Working out of Detroit, they produced several models of their own design, which were sold via contract through Studebaker wagon dealerships.  The three also established a plant in Ontario, Canada, which would produce the E-M-F 30 and the Flanders 20 models.  Studebaker would buy out their company, selling the E-M-F 30 and Flanders 20 models under their brand as the Studebaker 30 and Studebaker 20, respectively.

Ed and Effie were both licensed morticians, and at the time this photo was taken, they had a mortuary business in Fowler, Colorado.   Ed had worked toward his mortician’s license for a number of years, including training under T.G. McCarthy & Co. in Pueblo.  He was licensed by the Colorado Board of Funeral Directors and Embalmers in 1907 or 1908 and, being among the earliest funeral directors in the state to receive this license, had license number 32.  Unfortunately, I could not find information about when and where Effie had her course of training.  

In 1915, Ed and Effie moved their business to Rocky Ford, and would remain in business there until at least 1920.  During this period of time, Ed may have seen combat in World War I and been wounded.  ”Private Isaac E. Kouns” of Rocky Ford appears on page 11 of a 1918 bulletin listing World War I casualties, as reported by General John J. Pershing, commander of American Expeditionary Forces on the Western Front.  Kouns is listed under the category “Wounded Severely.”  If this was the case, he apparently recovered sufficiently to resume operating his business, for the 1920 Census reports him working as an undertaker. 

As morticians, Ed and Effie certainly comforted many who were grieving the loss of loved ones. But as parents they had much of their own personal grief to deal with through the years as well. In 1911, their son, Henry, died at age 6.  In 1918, they lost their daughter, Jenny, who died at age 16.  And they would lose their son Andrew, age 40, in 1939, when he was killed in a car accident north of Pomona, California, leaving behind his wife and daughter. 

By 1922, Ed and Effie had moved to Covina, California, which sits in the San Gabriel Valley about 22 miles east of Los Angeles.  There they took over ownership of the Covina Funeral Parlors located on San Bernadino Road.   It’s possible they moved to that area to be closer to Effie’s parents, who had come to southern California in 1912 to farm and ranch.  (Ed’s mother and father had died in Rocky Ford in 1910 and 1902, respectively.) 

In 1925, Ed and son, Thomas, would set up a business, possibly a mercantile store,  in the town of Charter Oak, which is located just a few miles east of Covina.  Effie and the rest of the family would reside in an apartment above the store. 

In 1930, Ed and Effie were living in Covina again and were raising chickens.  In about 1932, they moved to the nearby town of  Monrovia.   By 1940, they may have been retired, because the census for that year does not list an occupation for either of them.    

Ed would pass away in December of 1947 at the age of 75, and Effie would pass away in October of 1956 at age 80.   Their remains are interred at Live Oak Memorial Park in Monrovia, California. 

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This Post Has 2 Comments

  1. Mark Wynn January 18, 2022 Reply

    This is a comment on your whole site. What wonderful photos you have found of a bygone era. Thanks for sharing these.

    1. Jack January 18, 2022 Reply

      Thank you, Mark, for your feedback! I’m very happy to hear you enjoyed visiting my site.

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