Where are you Belle?
A Western Romance in Five Postcards
Today’s offering: A short, unfinished story––to be read between the lines–– illustrated with five postcard views of the American West which were mailed to Miss Belle Riley, Allensville, Kentucky in 1907.
April 8, 1907:
M 339 Dinner in the cow camp. The cow “punchers” at home.
Postcard photographer and publisher, Charles E. Morris, Chinook, Montana. Printed in Germany.
It takes quite a few to look after 2,500 head of cattle — With love Jim
March 21, 1907:
M 304 Branding a “Maverick” on the prairie.
Postcard photographer and publisher, Charles E. Morris, Chinook, Montana. Printed in Germany.
Mott, N.D., Mch 21, 1907
These scenes are passing very fast here – Jim
March 22, 1907:
M 229 A beef Herd watering at a Lake.
Postcard photographer and publisher, Charles E. Morris, Chinook, Montana. Printed in Germany.
Mch 22, 1907, Mott, N.D.
Dear Belle – Have been delayed on account of a wash out on RR.
Will leave for S.D. tonight. With love Jim
March 24, 1907:
Round up Wagon and Riders, Dickinson, N. D.
Published by the Rotograph Co., N.Y., Printed in Germany.
This scene is near me Belle, How long before you will see this?
Mch 24, 1907 With Love Jim
June 26, 1907:
K 778 Cow Girl on a “Broncho.”
Photo copyrighted 1906 by Morris & Kirby, Chinook, Mont. Printed in Germany.
Mott N.D., June 26, 1907
Dear Belle:– Two years hence. “You” Love Jim
Sadly, we have no further evidence of Belle and Jim. Did Belle join Jim in the Dakotas? Why was Jim expecting that Belle might join him after a delay of two years? Was he establishing a ranch or a business in order to support Belle? Was he waiting for her to be give her family’s blessing to marry? And the biggest question, of course: Did they fulfill Jim’s hopes and make a life together?
I purchased this group of five postcards at a postcard show/sale a few years ago. I am always intrigued by the “back story” of postcards that contain handwritten messages and occasionally one finds several cards mailed to the same recipient. In most cases they were saved for at least a generation or more and later discarded. Many are simply thrown away, but often the more appealing or remarkable ones find their way to the antique resale market where collectors, historians, artists, and others purchase them for their artistic or historic merit. This particular group of cards passed from Jim to Belle, perhaps then on to someone else in Belle’s circle of family or friends, and then to at least one postcard dealer before I purchased them. They will no doubt continue their journey for years to come.
My current avocation involves fleshing out the stories behind such old postcards (See Snapshots and Short Notes, U. of N. Texas Press, 2020) and I was hoping to search internet sites such as Ancestry, Newspapers.com, and Find-a-Grave to discover more about this couple and their long-distance romance, but it was not to be. Belle’s relatively common surname, Riley and the small town of Allensville, Kentucky did not lead me to additional details, and Jim gave us did not divulge his last name or other clues.
In consolation, there are always other avenues to explore with old postcards. In this case, four of the five cards were printed from photographs taken by Charles E, Morris, a very well known Montana photographer who traveled the west by horseback and wagon documenting a rapidly vanishing way of life. He was friends with artist Charlie Russell, who sometimes painted from Morris’s photograph suggestions. Morris’s work as a photographer is respected for its quality and the historical value of the subject matter. For more about his work see Images of the West: Charles E. Morris, Big Sky Journal, Winter 2017. https://bigskyjournal.com/images-west-charles-e-morris/
Note that these postcards were mechanically printed from photographs rather than being actual photographs printed by a photographic process. They were printed in Germany, as were many American postcards prior to WWI, because Germany had better printing techniques and inks at that time. There are many postcards from this era printed as actual black and white photographs from original negatives; they are identified in the trade as RPPCs, Real Photo Post Cards. Just after the turn of the century portable cameras and simple developing kits enhanced the world-wide postcard communication and collecting era for both professional and amateur photographers by making it possible to photographically print an image on a postcard back for mailing. A real photo postcard of any of the five postcards in this essay would have been sharper in focus and more desirable, commanding a much higher price on the antique market. In this particular case however, the value lies in the charming, yet mysterious and unfinished romance between Jim and Belle.
Belle? Where are you?
If anyone can add to this story, please get in touch.
October 30, 2022 Addendum:
When doing further research about Belle Riley, I found a contribution to Ancestry.com for Belle Riley Ewing, posted by Jeff Rice, her first cousin, four times removed. Belle Riley was his great, great grandfather’s first cousin from Allensville, Kentucky, who later married Robert Gray Ewing and, in some unrecorded family story, left “Jim” alone in North Dakota.
Belle (Isabella) Riley was born in 1886 to Napoleon and Isabella Riley in Kentucky, and although she seems to have had a persistent North Dakota suitor in “Jim” during 1907, Belle remained single until she was 33 years old.
According to Mr. Rice, her family raised horses and mules in Kentucky, and she won several horse-showing competitions as a young woman. She was apparently quite the socialite and among other news articles available on Ancestry.com, a 1907 article in the Russellville, Kentucky News-Democrat describes an elaborately decorated party Miss Riley gave in honor of a visitor from Eddyville, KY.
Belle married Robert Gray Ewing, of Elkton, Kentucky, in November 1918, in Allensville, Kentucky. Mr. Ewing made a living as a traveling salesman for the Zinsmeister Wholesale Grocery in Greenville, Kentucky. In 1937, Mrs. Belle Ewing and friends attended a reunion of the United Daughters of the Confederacy in Louisville. Robert died of injuries from an automobile wreck in 1951, but Belle survived the incident with only a broken arm. Belle died in 1960, and she and Robert are buried side-by-side in Allensville.
As things stand today, neither Belle’s cousin (X4), Jeff Rice, nor I have been able to identify Belle’s postcard writer, Jim from North Dakota. Romantically inclined readers may be disappointed that Jim’s efforts to lure Belle out to the Western Plains did not result in a story-book happy ending, but perhaps that is in keeping with the mysterious ways of the heart.
But, as consolation, remember that someone, likely Belle, kept Jim’s five 1907 postcards for many years, and they have survived her death for another significant period of time. Who saved them? Who thought about Belle and Jim over the years? We may never know those answers, but the cards remain, and, in some sense, the romance lives on.
The course of true love never did run smooth.
––Shakespeare
Ken Wilson
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