The postcard of eight Carthage, Illinois, churches that I purchased on Ebay has arrived. It was unused and is in good shape. The pictures are necessarily small, but there is a fair amount of detail in each one, especially when the size is considered.

The card not being used has hindered the dating of the card itself. 

I’m uncertain of the significance of the date of the photograph–it could have been the date someone purchased the card or was going to send it. The same apparent set of initials appear in two places on the card. The initials do not appear to have been those of the importer and publisher, Ed Hoch.

I do know that the German Lutheran Church (also known as the Zion Evangelical Lutheran Church) disbanded in the 1920s, meaning that the picture was taken and the card probably published before that time.

There are utility poles in the picture of at least one of the churches. That would be another item that could help to date the photograph.

Both sets of my maternal great-grandparents attended Trinity Lutheran Church from the 1920s until their deaths and it’s the church where my parents were married and where I was baptized. My Habben great-grandparents transferred their membership from the Zion church when it disbanded. My Ufkes great-grandparents transferred their membership from Immanuel Lutheran Church a few miles south of Carthage not too long after my great-great-grandfather died in 1924.

A neat little item on Ebay.