Found this postal card today either a ux4 or ux5. I discovered a bit of history attached to the recipient.
Card is post marked Apr. 16 1881
HON. ALVIN SAUNDERS, United States Senator, was born in Fleming County, Ky., ten miles from Flemingsburg, July 12, 1817. He is a son of Grinnell Saunders, a native of Virginia, and of Mary Mauzy, also of Virginia. His father was a farmer. When twelve years of age they left Kentucky and moved to near Springfield, Ill., where young Alvin lived for seven years. He received his education in the county schools. In 1836 he persuaded his parents to let him go to the New Blackhawk Purchase in Iowa and located at Mount Pleasant, Iowa, then a hamlet of a dozen houses. Here he clerked in a dry goods store; and finally went into partnership with an elder brother. He was appointed first Postmaster of Mount Pleasant. In 1846 he was elected to the State Constitutional Convention which formed the constitution under which the State of Iowa was admitted into the Union. In 1854 he was elected to the Iowa State Senate and was re-elected in 1858. He served as a Delegate to the first Iowa Republican State Convention and also to the Chicago Convention in 1860 where he voted for Lincoln. In 1861 Lincoln appointed him Governor of Nebraska and he served in that capacity for six years, when the State was admitted into the Union. He was an earnest advocate of the Union Pacific Railroad and helped that enterprise in the extent of his power. In 1868 he was a delegate to the Republican National Convention at Chicago. He continued in private life until the winter of 1876-77, when he was elected United States Senator to succeed P. W. Hitchcock. Mr. Saunders has two children, Charles and Mamie. His term in the Senate expires March 4, 1883. He has been prominently identified with the banking interest of Omaha. For many years he was connected with the First National Bank. Later he founded the State Bank of Nebraska.
Posted 06/05/2008 12:56 pm
