F.E.T 's are FEW in West Paris, Maine

Good afternoon everyone! Thanks again to Chris, last night we had a break through! The postcard is, in fact, initialed in code. However, those initials were not "F.E.W." as I had originally thought. The initials are "F.E.T." And what a difference just one letter makes! :-)

Chris Dunham, Maine genealogy supergenious, once again tracked down some VERY interesting information. There was only one eligible bachelor in West Paris, Maine, whose initials matched our signature.

F.E.T. or Franklin Eugene Tubbs lived in West Paris, Maine, in 1910. He was born in 1886, putting him at age 24 when this postcard was sent and when he may have been courting our girl Marjorie. Theories on how they knew one another?

Well, according to Chris, Bethel and West Paris were just three train stops apart. Maybe Frederick attended Gould Academy in Bethel (the same school Marjorie went to). Or maybe Marjorie taught a semester of school in West Paris after graduating from Gould Academy.

Either way, we do know that they didn't marry. Marjorie married Albert Brooks a couple years later. So, maybe Marjorie wasn't ready to settle down when Freddie Tubbs wanted to?

Frederick ended up marrying a widow with three small children named Susie Smith Whitman in Sept. 1911, a year after her husband's death and just seven months after sending his love note to Miss Marjorie. Her late husband had worked with Frederick which would explain how they knew one another. Guess Freddie couldn't wait on Miss Marjorie or was sick of her playing hard to get!

I can't wait to track down some photos of this dramatic bunch...

The Maine Point

I've never been a blogger, but something so interesting happened to me recently that I've decided to document and share it.

I bought a pretty picture at a yard sale in Myrtle Beach, S.C., a little over a month ago. It is of a young woman and man holding one another in an antique hammock with oriental rugs. It is a sepia photo and was taken outside. I didn't think much of it, except that it was sweet. However, I recently took it out of the junky yard sale mat and frame and discovered that it was actually a postcard. In the corner the words "a ticklish play" were printed. Scandalous, eh?

The back of the card was most exciting though. It was dated Feb. 3, 1911, and sent from West Paris, Maine, to a Miss Marjorie Cushman in Bethel, Maine, with a one cent stamp. It was addressed like this:

Miss Marjorie Cushman
Bethel
Maine

And best part is the message was written in a secret code.

My boyfriend was super excited, as he was certain the code led to some sort of buried treasure. I on the other hand, given the nature of the photo on the postcard, was certain is was a 1911 version of "sexting." After all, why else would you need to put the message in code??? :-)
I'm no code expert, but I thought it was morse code at first. My genious father confirmed that it was not, however.

As you'll see in the photo, there is some English, barely legible, scrawled across the top of the address and code. Matching up a couple of the legible words with the characters in the code, I was able to almost fully match each symbol up with a letter of the alphabet. I broke a code. This will probably be the only time in my entire life that I'll ever be able to say that. (There's not a lot of code-breaking going on in public relations.) Below is a photo of my notes.


After decoding, this is what the message said:

"RECEIVED YOUR LETTER TODAY FEB. 2- AM YET ALIVE- DON'T CARE ABOUT BEING MUCH LONGER YOUR FRIEND. F E W"

What do you guys think about that? I like to think it means the man (because I think it was a man sending the note) wanted to be MORE than friends. It sounds like Miss Marjorie Cushman was playing hard to get back in 1911!

Needless to say, I became VERY interested in the postcard at this point. Maybe too interested. I spent the next few hours over two days researching online, sending out emails and making calls. Do you want to know what I was able to find? Me, who has no background in history? Me, who has no experience with tracing genealogies? Here's what I was able to find, step by step:

1. From just a google search, one can read that Bethel, Maine, is in western Maine, near the border and is a small mountain village next to the Androscoggin River. Just a little bit southeast of Bethel is West Paris, also a small mountain town on the same river, from which the postcard was sent.
Both photos of Bethel, Maine, compliments of the Bethel Chamber of Commerce. Lovely looking place, isn't it?

2. From just a rough search on Maine genealogy network I found a couple Marjorie Cushmans. Only one fitting this time period, though. Her name was spelled differently (as I think was pretty common then) and judging from the record, she would have been about 21 when the postcard was sent to her. Here is the info from the search:

Name: Margery A Cushman
Residence: Bethel village, Oxford, Maine
Birthdate: June 1890
Birthplace: Maine
Relation to Head of Household: daughter
Father name: Iseac A Cushman
Father birthplace: Maine
Mother name: Lily O Cushman
Mother birthplace: Maine
Race or color: white
Head-of-Household name: Iseac A Cushman Gender: female
Marital status: single

3. A member of the Maine genealogy network, Chris Dunham, confirmed this search. He also provided the photos above of Marjorie Cushman's parents graves and this information:

"It must have been Marjorie Alice Cushman, daughter of Issac Allerton and Lillie Estella (Swan) Cushman of Bethel, who was born on June 2, 1890. She married Allan Alberto Brooks Jan. 1, 1913, and died Nov. 17, 1988 in West Paris (Maine)."

A big thanks to Chris who ALSO provided me with a copy of Marjorie Cushman's obituary!

4. Marjorie Cushman's obituary, as printed Nov. 19, 1988, in the Lewiston Daily Sun.

Marjorie C. Brooks
West Paris-- Marjorie Cushman Brooks, 98, formerly of Pownal, died Thursday at a local nursing home after a long illness. Born in South Bethel, the daughter of Issac A. and Lillie Swan Cushman, she attended Bethel schools and graduated from Gould Academy in 1910. She taught and was school superintendent in Grafton, N.H., before moving to Pownal, where she taught at Richland Hospital and Training Center. She taught also in Durham, West Pownal and North Pownal, where she retired in 1960. She moved to West Paris in 1975. Mrs. Brooks was a member of the Friends Church in Durham and the National Retired Teachers Association. Her husband, Allan A. Brooks, died in 1966. Surviving are a daughter, Mrs. James (Beatrice) Brown, of Bethel; four grandchildren; nine great-grandchildren and two great-great-grandchildren.

WOW... what a woman! That means she was probably a school superintendent in the late 40s?? I can't imagine that THAT was common. Although it is important to note that Chris has corrected the obit a bit. She most likely worked in the schools in Grafton, Maine, and not Grafton, N.H., as the above states.

It looks like I missed knowing her by about 22 years. However, I've believe that her daughter, Mrs. Beatrice Brown is still living. And I believe I have tracked down her phone number.

Should I give her a call and see if she knows anything of her fabulous mama's coded correspondance with mystery senders??

I feel like this is only the beginning... I need a vacation anyway, so maybe it'll be Bethel, Maine, this November for James (my boyfriend) and I! If you look up the Bethel town website on google, you can see how absolutely beautiful and quaint it is for yourself. It looks like lovely bed and breakfasts abound in the little mountain village.

Then we could get the REAL story... because the sender of the postcard is still a mystery! Chris Dunham filled me in that the man she married was still living in Grafton with his parents at the time the note was sent.

More to come...