Friday, 15 September 2023

A Postcard from Cedar Point

 A scan of a postcard sent from the Cedar Point Ohio convention of September 1922 has come to hand. It was written on September 11 (obviously during the convention) and mailed on September 13.


Front of postcard:

Rear of postcard:

Close up of addresser and addressee:


Transcribing the card, it was mailed to Walter Hixson, Grand, Okla. and reads:

Dear Bro and Sis,
It seems almost as if heaven has come down to earth. It's wonderful and glorious to be here among 15 thousand of God's people. I wish you could just peep in a second when meeting is on. Will be home for Sun evening meeting, D.V.
Love
Bro J.B.S.

We have little chance of discovering who Bro. J.B.S. was (although open to comments and suggestions) but Walter Hixson (spelled Hixon) appears in the local newspapers several times in this period. From the Ellis County Capital (Arnett) newspaper for 6 August, 1920:

This ran for a number of weeks in this newspaper. Then in 1921, the Ellis County Capital for 29 April, 1921, carried this notice:

 

The next year, 1922, the year of Cedar Point convention, Walter appears to have had a letter published in The New Era Enterprise for March 7, 1922.

Walter seems to disappear from the record after the convention, although I admit I have not done an exhaustive search of The Golden Age and Watch Tower magazine letters.

Out of available records on the Ancestry site about the only candidate I could find for Walter Hixson is a Walter H. Hixson. He was a farmer who was born 1874 and died 16 April 1958. He died in Ellis County, Oklahoma. At the time the Cedar Point postcard was written, Grand was the county seat of Ellis County. Hixson's photograph and family details are on Find a Grave, but I have not been able to find anything to connect him with the Bible Student movement. Can other readers supply more?

4 comments:

  1. WT June 1, 1938 p. 176 lists Lora Hixson but no town. Sister? Wife? (From Benek)

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  2. The letter in the Watch Tower is signed by a large group of pioneers and includes Lora Hixson. The Find a Grave page mentioned in the article for Walter H Hickson, died 1958, shows he had a daughter named Lora L Hixson. So, it's a possible.

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  3. Raymond Sommerfeldt16 September 2023 at 10:12

    In the "Chattanooga Daily Times" of March 21, 1916 p4 ; 3rd column there is a Heading-Sunday's Observance And The Picture Show followed by a letter from a William J Hixon. Possible relative, maybe?

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