"Dear Honey Lobey Dubby Sister"

Albin Hazelgreen, lasted glimpsed as a toddler, was a young man of 19 when he wrote this affectionate letter to his little sister, Elna, in 1902:


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He may have been away on a railroad-grading job with his father; the letter seems to come from a station in Cincinnati, Ohio, where H.S. Hazelgreen apparently spent considerable time around August of 1902.[1] Dated October 22, the letter reads as follows:

Dear Honey Lobey Dubby Sister Elna,

Tomorrow you will be eight years old so you must be a good girl now and help mamma and when I come home maybe I will give you a hug and a kiss.

Have you got your bicycle yet?

Here is some ribbon for you to play with.

Can you read this or must you get Esther [their sister] to.

Well Elna I guess I must kiss you good bye as it is time to go to work so be sure and answer this letter and not do as you did last.

By Bye

From Albin.

Between Albin's asking her not to let this letter go unanswered like the last one, and her father's chiding her for her illegible handwriting, I gather that the young Elna was not the best correspondent.

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[1] "Lake Pick-Ups," Hobart Gazette 29 Aug. 1902.