My Great Grandfather The Stamp Collector

Recently I attended our Family reunion at Raystown Lake here in Pennsylvania, and as always the family auction started up and this particular lot caught my attention straight away. My uncle nabbed it and handed it off to me! It's neat to me as I now have a stamp related family item in my collection.

My Great Grandfather Rufus Wilson the stamp collector.

This was written on the box it came in:



A cover addressed to him- Front:



Reverse:



A picture of him at a local stamp expo in Huntingdon Pa. (He is the one on the right)



Another cover and letter. I love his penmanship. He was an engineer and is said to have designed a few well known street signs we see every day. I'm not sure if that's correct or not but it's a family story anyway.

Wonderful letter with exceptional creativity. How nice to have a keepsake from your grandfather that is also a philatelic gem.

ILS: what a great memory. Thanks for sharing that and what a great name - Stone Creek Ridge. I picture it as being one ridge over from Choctaw Ridge.

Pennsylvania here where I live (and where I'm from) is in the Allegheny mountains and near the PA Grand Canyon/gorge and is stunningly beautiful so the name is a good fit. Thank you.

There was something familiar about his handwriting and then I realized it was the engineer's draftsman style writing. My husband, the M.E., has a similar style. Did he make those squiggly draftsman arrows too? Now that engineers use CAD-CAM they probably don't learn to write like that anymore.

Great items, Jeff. I too love his penmanship, especially the double S's. Is that some sort of song he's written out to Miss Debbie? or did he just naturally speak in rhyme?

He didn't speak in rhyme as far as I know? But yeah he was an engineer for the John R. Wald Co. and also was a Farmer.

Thank you for the compliments I enjoy the history. This was my Grandmother's Father. My Great-grandparents raised me but they was my Grandfather's parents...I know hard to follow right/ LOL

Keyboards have ruined my cursive writing style, but my engineer/draftsman style comes out when I print. I can still print -er- I mean *letter* faster than I can write in cursive. It's much easier to read, too.

I wish there was a way to step back in time and see his collection. I never knew this fellow but my Grandmother spoke fondly of him and his stamps. I wonder what his classic section looked like as opposed to the FDC's pictured? Looks to some stuff on the table too. I know that he had all the zepps and a full set of Colombians because I remember as a child those things being broke up and sold. That's what perked my original interest in stamps.

At my Family reunion I learned that Rufus Wilson had a hand in quite a bit of the A.P.S.'s "doins'" like the circular books and the library. I'll have to find actual "documented evidence" but I think that's pretty neat anyway! If anyone finds out anything about him or his name pops up in your APS research please contact me. Thanx! -Jeff