Big Lot Of Covers From 1900-03 Recently Picked Up

Hello all
The GF and I came across this bag of covers in a bulk Purchase and I've finally got around to sorting through them and organizing.
I have found out a little about the people who mailed back and forth, it appears this was their way to communicate while one was away during their years before and after their Marriage.

Susan Spaulding(White)
Born Oct 21st 1875 in Souix City, Iowa
Died April 15th 1966
Member of Daughters of the American Revolution


Fred Jay White
Born Sept 3rd 1874 in Grand Island, Neb
Died March 14th 1951
President of Northern Lumber Co.
Organizer of Lehigh Sewer Pipe and Tile Co of Fort Dodge
President and Direct of the Chamber of Commerce in Esthersville
Elks Lodge Memeber
Organizer of the Estherville Golf and Country Club
Was associated with Susans father in the German Mutual Fire Insurance Company of Nebraska


They Married April 24th 1901 in Grand Island, Neb


Some of these were mailed from other areas(Hotels in CA, Chicago, Seattle and one Mexico) but all date between 1900 and 1903.
I have about 200 letters and covers between them. 99% have Letters included!
Half are on Company letterhead from Fred White's Companies.
a Couple were even Wax sealed
I have not had a chance to read the letters, its not easy reading some of the writing from that period.
I have even included a Special Delivery that seemed to go all over the place before being delivered and a Western Union Telegram from 1900 from a SMALL town called Okoboji Iowa.

Would love to hear Comments, or how to proceed with them. Covers are not what the GF and I are big on, just thought I'd share this find with the Forum!

Hotel Del Coronado March 9th 1903 - Hotel Florence March 16th 1903


Great Northern Hotel March 26th 1901 - Hotel Mascarel April 6th 1903


Jas A Spaulding Lumber Sash Doors Mouldings Oct 22 1901 - The Fry Hotel and Mineral Spring Jan 17th 1901


PrePrinted Nov 13th 1907(?) - Hotel Orleans Jul 25th 1903


Hotel Metropole March 30th 1903 - The Arling Hotel Seattle April 26th 1903


This one Bounced All over - March 30th 1901 Omaha, March 31st Freeport ILL, April 1st Rockford Ill, April 2nd Sioux City Plus a crossed out address, Missent Stamp and the reverse has : A. B. WH. Apr 1 West CHL & DUB B. C. O A?????, ILL"






2 fromGerman Mutual Fire Insurance Co. one has the Day written(Others I have that are the same have it stamped, like Jul 18 1902) and a Special Delivery

@ Others From 1902 German Mutual Fire Insurance Co. The first one has the 1902 upside down


Postcard from Tijuana can only make out the March part of the Cancel


Aug 13 1900 Western Union Telegraph to Fred Jay White

Some nice covers you picked up as there's some interesting machine cancels, R.P.O.s, illustrated hotel covers and of course the special delivery covers.

Nice stuff there. Some of those RPO postmarks may be particularly collectible. It would also be an interesting study to find out a bit more about the hotels named on several of the letters. Some of these places of lodging have fascinating histories.

I was particularly drawn to the cover from the Fry Hotel and Mineral Spring of Colfax, Iowa (A. Fry and Son, Proprietor). Here's a biography on the hotel and the owners:

http://iagenweb.org/boards/jasper/b...?read=244175

There are TON more. Today I sorted by date of Cancel. The Letters inside are pretty interesting, Love how well they did Letterhead(The German Mutual Fire Insurance CO had a very nice Letterhead)
I know nothing about Postmarks, Whats RPO?

RPO = Railway Post Office. Back in the day when mail was sorted and shipped by trains. A specialty group of collectors prize those postmarks.

The Fry Hotel Colfax IA cover is a RPO Cover, look at the bottom of the dater RPO is clue #1 and the killer bars readin RMS is clue#2.
What other(s) do you see there? (yes, this a test.)

Oh Thank you, I got it now. I'm sure there are more RPO in my collection here. Seems they would write eachother religiously when away. Fred would use Company letterhead to write Sue.

I love the Mexico postcard. :)

The third cover scanned is on an envelope with the cachet from the Great Northern Hotel in Chicago. This is what the hotel would have looked like (and charged) during its heyday:



Another interesting point is that the hotel was at the beginning of the famed Route 66 and there are Route 66 specialty collectors who would find that cover interesting.

DLawson - The Hotel Orleans is another RPO with the Heavy Bar RMS Cancel. The Forest City Iowa Pre Printed also has the RMS.
The other Bar Cancels have a 1, 3 and 5 instead of the RMS.

The Hotels were the first I would look up, seemed Easier. Pretty interesting to look back at where these came from!

The machine cancels in the first two images are Barr-Fyke machine canncels. The third is International, the fourth one with the flag is American Postal Machine Company and the fifth with the straight-line postmark is a Barry just for starters. The postmarks with the "little football" oval shape together with the circular date stamp (CDS) are called duplex handstamps.

Smauggie - I love older foreign, the Mexico Post Card is a very nice Clean one. Too bad the date is unreadable.

Thank you Battlestamps. I'm going to have to note all that down. Do you have any online References for a new collector about Cancels?

Here's a website to help: http://swansongrp.com/machine2.html

Online references are few and far between. I still have difficulty determining the difference between similar types of cancels.

Thanks! That will be some more great reading material