San Antonio Express-News (Sunday)
Century-old postcard shows soldiers in S.A.
I have attached copies of the front and back of a postcard that’s over 100 years old, which my wife found with other records passed down from her grandfather, a World War I veteran who passed away in 1973. His name was Earl Albert Brown, and he was living in New Mexico when he joined the U.S. Army, having previously served in the U.S. Marine Corps. We would consider returning this postcard to family members of either the addressee, Miss Lillie Avant, or to a family member of either the sender Don L.S. or his friend in the photo, Horace. We hope you might consider including this information in a future column.
— Dan Williams, Boerne This is what is known to collectors as a “real-photo postcard” — not taken by professional photographers nor retouched nor chosen to convey a message other than greetings from the sender.
Other World War I-era photos were meant to preserve history, so they recorded momentous events, impressive facilities or military units, famous officers in key positions or something else intended to boost morale at home and in the ranks.
It’s also not an official military portrait, intended to be shared with local newspapers when a service member receives a promotion or a new assignment.
The picture on the front of this postcard might have been a snapshot taken by a friend of the two soldiers, then printed from the negative onto card stock printed as this one is with “Post
Card.” Some also had a dividing line between the areas for writing the address and the message, the latter allowed by the U.S.
Post Office only since 1907, when Kodak first began printing special postcard paper.
Instead of a printed caption, there’s a handwritten note under the photo, identifying the men as “Don and Horace” and the place as “SA TX,” with a lesslegible nod to what may be “204 Ha__ Five.”
Writing to Miss Lillie Avant of Campbellton in Atascosa County, the sender seems to imply that he’s one of the two soldiers pictured on the front of the card: “‘Two rookies’ Do (you) remember ever seeing them? Taken two weeks before being discharged. Business is rather dull today. Don’t have much to do but sit around. Think we will get the phone fixed today. Hope so at least. Best Wishes — DLS”
The postmark shows that it was mailed May 20, 1919, from McCoy, also in Atascosa County.
Given the year and that it was probably taken in San Antonio, the message may allude to demobilization doldrums. About six months after the armistice ended World War I, men like
Don and Horace were in a holding pattern at Camp Travis, part of Fort Sam Houston that was formerly an induction and training center, repurposed at war’s end as a demobilization center for returning troops.
What they’re wearing checks out for springtime in South Texas, according to John Manguso, retired former director of the Fort Sam Houston Museum and author of “San Antonio in the Great War.” The man on the left “wears the cotton summer uniform typical for 1912-1921,” Manguso
said, while the man on the right “wears the wool uniform without the coat. Both wear prewar canvas leggings.”
The red cross in the window behind them “might indicate a Red Cross facility. The man on the left looks older, so he might be a Red Cross worker; the man on the right looks like a draft-age male,” Manguso noted.
Because there were no military installations near McCoy, the card apparently had been saved and mailed after the sender had gone home.
From your subsequent research, it appears that “DLS” was Don Lawrence Stewart, who grew up on a farm in Atascosa County and was living in Jourdanton at the time he filled out his 1917 draft card.
After serving in the Transport Corps during the war, he married Lillie Avant. Census records show the couple living in Pearsall in 1930 with her mother, Isabel Avant, and a servant when D.L. Stewart was manager of a general store. Ten years later, he was a bookkeeper, and the couple lived alone in Pleasanton … no evidence of children.
You discovered that your wife’s grandfather was discharged May 23, 1919, at Fort
Bliss after serving as a mechanic in the infantry in France and later lived in Harlingen.
Did Earl Albert Brown ever serve with Don Lawrence Stewart or “Horace”? And if so, how did Brown end up with a postcard sent to his buddy’s sweetheart?
Anyone with a connection to the Avant or Stewart families who would like to have the postcard — or could explain how it found its way into the effects of another veteran — may contact this column. All responses will be forwarded and may be featured in a future column.