As Ever, Lora: Cottage Grove postcard mystery solved serendipitously

Editor’s note: This is Part 1 of a 4 part series highlighting the history of Cottage Grove. Read the intro here.

For over 30 years, I have collected photos of the area. You have probably seen some of them in the local newspapers or the 2024 Cottage Grove Chamber of  Commerce Visitor Guide. Many are picture postcards, and sometimes the message written to someone is more important for local history than the photo. 

That was the case for this postcard, which I’ve had for over 20 years, “Postcard from home  —  Five Deaths This Week.” 

Lora, of Cottage Grove, wrote a note to her brother Ezra Baker, who was living in Portland at the time, with news of Cottage Grove.  The note is postmarked Feb. 17, 1913.

Here is what Lora wrote to her brother, typed as written:

 About the time you’ve given up I will break the spell by sending a card. When I went upstairs after some stationary and coming down I did the clown act head first I hurt my shoulder. I am so nervous I can’t hardly write. I am working in a cook-house. I am home today but will go pretty soon. We are all well. We have had five deaths this week in three days yesterday Bud Allen was buried two cars ran over him. Mr. Bayles died Tuesday Uncle Hamilton died last week, for two weeks he had no nourishment at all. Everybody feels awful bad. A woman died in the mines and just her husband with her an old man died in the Johnson Meadows and was buried there. They brought her out on snow shoes.   As ever Lora

When I first purchased the postcard, I did some research about the deaths Lora reported, which were many for a community of only about 3,000 residents in such a short time. 

Love “Bud” Allen, was born on Dec. 17, 1884, a few miles east of  Cottage Grove to Love and Elizabeth Bowers Allen. Bud, of Cottage Grove,  married Fairy Dell Wicks, of Star, April 9, 1909 in Lane County. 

The report of his death on the front page, Feb. 13 edition of the Cottage  Grove Sentinel, “Bud Allen, an employee of the Brown Lumber Co., at its Rocky  Point camp, fell under the wheels of a logging car this morning at about 8 o’clock and was instantly killed.”

• Did you know? On Feb. 11, the CGGS celebrated its 50th anniversary!

Bud died on Feb.13, 1913, and was buried at Sears Cemetery on Feb.  15 and was survived by his widow, Fairy Dell Wicks Allen. John B. Bayles was born Oct.  11, 1827, at Finley Bluffs, Jackson County, Ind. He was a Civil War Veteran as a 1st Lieutenant with the First Missouri Volunteers, being obliged to leave the service because of pneumonia. He married Miss Calitha Murril in 1865, who died in 1869. He married Miss Naomi Bridges again the same year. He died at the age of 85 on Feb. 10. Charles Hamilton Wallace, a well-known Preacher and Brickmaker of  Cottage Grove, died on Feb. 6 at 81 years, 5 months and 3 days. He was born in Howard County, Missouri on Sept. 3, 1831 and married Elizabeth  Ann Veatch at Schuyler County, Missouri on Nov. 11, 1852.

A death certificate was issued for a Roberta H. Bowling, age 42, born Sept. 15, in an unknown year, in Missouri to Phillip S Hauk and Katherine Stout. The informant was her husband P.J. Bowling. 

Family historians often have serendipitous moments while doing genealogical research. One such instance happened last year at the end of January.  We were all still recovering from the ice storm, which delayed two cousins from the Seattle area who planned to visit our library. They, Darline Hubbard, Connolley, and Karen Hubbard DeBois, spent two days at our Ellis Memorial Research Library pouring over records for the Veatch, Wallace, Hubbard, and Baker families we had pulled for them before the visit. 

Late on the first day, they talked about visiting the museum the next day, and then Darline said she wished she could find out what happened to their grandmother’s brother … Ezra Baker! 

When she said his name, my heart skipped a beat. I looked at Darline and told her I owned a picture postcard mailed to an Ezra Baker living in Portland.  She couldn’t believe it! 

That evening, I pulled the historic postcard from my collection and reread every word as it was one of my favorite finds. Then when I read, “As ever Lora,” I knew I was holding a message written almost 110 years earlier by Darline and Karen’s grandmother. 

I was excited and a little sad, but I knew I had to pass on their grandmother’s original postcard. That night, I made high-resolution scans and copies and gave each of them a set. I then promised that once I could sit down and write a story about Lora’s message to Ezra, I would send them the original. That time has come, and I am blessed to have held it safely all these years just for them. 

One final thing, Lora had written, “Uncle Hamilton died last week…” Charles  Hamilton Wallace was, in fact, her and Ezra’s uncle! 

Debra Monsive is a local and family historian. She is also the president of the Cottage Grove Genealogical Society, chair of the CG High School Historical Society Goose Mural Committee, the 2025 Coordinator History Pub, Commissioner of the Cottage Grove Historic Preservation Commission, and vice president of the Cottage Grove Senior Center.