This postcard hit the mail 110 years ago today, sent by Hazel Britts to Capt. Luther Haleto of Provincetown, Cape Cod, Mass. The card is hand-dated June 27 and postmarked June 28, 1907. The illustration shows a banker closing his doors to “undesirable customers,” two black bear.
“Dear Capt. Hatch,” Bretts wrote. “Wow, what do you think of the wild and wooly west?”
8 thoughts on “Undesirable customers in Duluth”
Hazel Britts was the daughter of Charles A. Britts, who was a prominent banker in Duluth. She appears to have lived her whole life at 2201 E. Superior St. (Born c. 1897.) My interest was piqued by this, thinking there would be a romance I would find. But though Hazel appears many times in Duluth’s social pages, there is never, not EVER, a whisper of interest in male company. She plays bridge, she entertains female visitors from out of town who are involved in the war effort, is involved in the Red Cross, and is apparently an excellent golfer and tennis player. She graduated from Central High in 1906, then from the Normal School in 1912, and attended Wellesley College for a time (as did many of Duluth’s wealthy young ladies). She traveled to Europe in 1923.
Perhaps she met old Captain Hatch (in 1907, he was about sixty years old and married) on her travels to Cape Cod. He was a fisherman. Perhaps she met him and found him picturesque or he regaled her with tales down there on the cape waterfront.
A photo of Hazel Britts from the DNT in 1914.
And her passport photo in 1923:
She usually doesn’t appear to be working (being a rich man’s daughter, I guess), but sometimes she shows up in the city directory working as a stenographer.
Actually her birth is around 1895.
Crap! Let’s amend that… someone got her age wrong in the 1930 census, and I was puzzling over the age changes… But if she graduated in 1906….? Then other sources put her as being born c. 1887, which makes a lot more sense.
HBH1 for the win! ?
Awesome!
So lovely to find this post. How did you come across this postcard?
Hazel is my great aunt. My grandfather, Charles William Britts, was her younger brother. He was also a banker as his father was. She also had a younger sister Ruby. Neither of the sisters ever married and lived together their entire lives. I don’t remember hearing that either worked. From what I remember as a little girl she was a lovely but quiet lady. They moved to Santa Barbara before I was born and passed away Jan. 22, 1978.
I remember my mother (their niece) bemoaning the fact that when they moved from the house in Duluth they left a baby grand piano, Tiffany lights, etc. behind. When they moved west Ruby bought furniture from the Salvation Army! They had plenty of money but I think Ruby was quite tight!
My daughter googled my grandfather and found this. I have lived in England since 1986 and it is great to have a few bits to our family tree. Thank you so much for posting it here.