Treasure Chest Thursday: A Letter to Clara Pape in 1904

Abby, one of the current owners of the house my great-grandfather, John Pape (1851-1945), built and lived in from at least 1882 to at least 1925, at 1043 Sherman Avenue in Evanston, Illinois, contacted me a couple months ago, and she told me she'd found a few items related to our family in the house.  Some of the items were "buried in attic insulation," like this one, and are in pretty bad shape.

This is a letter written to my great aunt Clara Martha Pape (1889-1975) from a friend apparently visiting San Francisco in 1904.  Clara had just turned 15 a couple months before this letter was written.

You can click on the images to enlarge them.  Abby was able to come up with a transcription, which I have edited a bit.  If you think you read something different or additional, PLEASE leave a comment!

{page 1, above}
San Francisco, Cali
Oct – 1[something] – 1904

Dear Clara-
I started to write a letter to you before I got yours.  But when I got your’s I started a new one.  My journey was a lovely one.  I have never seen anything more beautiful.  I am so tired of telling everybody the same thing over and over again.  Augot will tell you all about it for I am going to tell her all about it.
I have written to all the girls and am just about worked out.  My arm is so lame I can’t hardly write.  But you, you can read it if you try very hard.
I was at the Cliff House the first Sunday I was here, and I saw the seals.  I certainly
{page 2, below}
enjoyed it.  The next Sunday we went to Golden Gate Park.  It is a beautiful park.  I have sent some postals to Augot.  She will show you the places I have been.
I am just having a peachy old time here.  I wish you were here to share it with me.  I have not a bit of time to get lonesome.

Private

My cousin is just as good as he can be.  He brings home books, roses and chrysanthemums home to me.  Saturday he brought home a doz. of the largest white chrysanthemums I have ever seen to me.  We sat on the lounge together.  You might know what fun we have (ha! ha! ha!)  He just can’t keep away from me.   (ha! ha! ha!)

{page 3, above}
He has more girls coming to the house, than you can count.  But he slights them fearfully.  When he is dressed up and I am dressed up and go down the street together, whee but we are a dandy looking pair.  (ha! ha! ha!)  He wears nose glasses.  Gee but he is a perfect Dude.  (ha! ha! ha!)  There are plenty of fellows here.  There is an awfully good looking fellow that comes to the house here.  He is dead gone on me.  He is as pretty as a picture.  (ha! ha! ha!)  I sang for them Sunday night.  He congratulated me, “ahem,” on my beautiful voice.  (ha! ha! ha!)  Bernie (my cousin) and I were sitting on the lounge with his arm around me and holding me so tight I couldn’t sit strait.  (ha! ha! ha!)

page 4, below - much of this is unreadable
I must be ... but don’t you think ... Al (that boy) ... in my cousin’s place (ha! ha! ha! ho! ho! he! ... Oh! I – can’t – stop ... myself ... the ... to anyone, even to Augot.  You know ... tell each other ... is a sacred ... If I didn’t trust you rest assured I would never tell ... if I hear you have told [any]one I shall never write another ...

I figured out who the "Augot" mentioned in the letter is.  The name is actually Aagot, a Norwegian name where the "aa" at the beginning sounds like the English "aw" or "au" sound, so the letter-writer's misspelling is understandable.

Aagot Drost was born August 31, 1887, in Christiana, Norway, the daughter of Nels Anderson Drost, a Dane, and Bolette Pederson, a Norwegian.  She came to the United States in 1891, although her parents had apparently been in the United States previously, as her older sister Karen, born in 1884, was baptized that year in St. Ansgar, Iowa.

Aagot, her three sisters and one brother lived with their mother just down the street from the Papes at 1027 Sherman, according to the city directories for the years 1899-1901, and behind the Papes at 1042 Custer according to the city directories for the years 1902-1904.  From 1897 through 1898, they were at nearby 1020 Florence in Evanston.  Nels was a laborer and apparently died before 1909 – Bolette is listed as a widow in the 1909 city directory and 1910 census, living at 2534 W. Railroad (now gone) in Evanston.  Aagot married Andreas Drost (yes, she married a man with her same last name) on November 14, 1921, at Park View Evangelical Lutheran Church in Chicago.  They had two daughters, Lillian (born in 1922) and Gloria (born in 1925).  They were in the Chicago area through at least 1940, but Aagot died April 12, 1973, in California and is buried in Brea.

Aagot would have been about 17 when this letter was written; Clara was 15.  My guess is that the unknown letter-writer was a girl about the same age who also lived in their Evanston neighborhood about the same time, with a cousin named Bernie who apparently lived in San Francisco.  So far, I haven't been able to figure out who the letter-writer is.

Interestingly, Clara Pape later lived in San Francisco, from at least 1955 (possibly as early as 1947) through 1974.  She worked at the Presidio military fort around 1959.


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