July 7, 1904
Dear Mr. Bryan,
Papa told me to write to you. I am writing on Birch Bark. Papa and Darrell went fishing Sat. and came this morning. He said he caught about 35 fish. Darrell got this birch bark yesterday. I went to town with my great uncle. How is everybody at home. We are all well except mamma. Yesterday I was a little sick, but I am alright now. Totsy would write but she can’t. Yesterday it was so hot we thought we would melt. It is hot again today. I will have papa take this to town this evening {portion is ripped} the morning if he don’t forget to mail it. Are you and Mrs. Bryan well? I write to you more than I do anybody so you must speak good of me and write often. We thought that we were going to have a shower yesterday evening but, it passed over without a drop of water. This is the first birch bark I have ever seen. I have not seen a birch tree yet. I will close with love to all. Write soon. Goodbye.
Girlie Jenks
Mayville
Tuscola Co.
Mich.
G. Ludwig Le x
RFD
Marguerite "Girlie" Jenks standing in front of her father at five years of age.
Picture courtesy of George M. Jenks - September 2003
The Jenks family, George, Girlie, Darrell, Helen ("Totsy") and Christina Fauth Jenks
Picture courtesy of George M. Jenks - September 2003
The letter written by Girlie is framed between two pieces of glass. The front of the letter was exposed to light and has faded.
Obituary from the Stephenville Empire newspaper, December, 1904 (date not shown on clipping) - Courtesy ofJudy Koehl
Mrs. C. W. Jenks Dead.
Mrs. Christina Jenks, wife of G. W. Jenks, died at the home of her father in Gonzales, TX, Friday, Dec. 9 at 1 o’clock p.m., aged 45 years. She had been sick for more than a year, with consumption, and last June, in company with her husband and children, visited relatives in Michigan, where she remained about 3 months. While this trip improved her spirits greatly, yet it did not improve her general health, and early in September she was taken to her father’s at Gonzales to spend her last days, for she realized she had not long to live. Death came on Friday, and the remains were shipped here for internment, arriving Sunday night, and were laid to rest in the West End cemetery Monday morning beside the five little ones who had gone on before in the years gone by. Mr. and Mrs. Jenks came to Stephenville about 24 years ago, buying the Empire. They published the paper for ten or eleven years and then sold it to the present owner and moved to their farm three miles southeast of town. They remained on the farm till about two years ago, when they moved back to Stephenville to give their three children the benefit of our schools. The husband and three children are left to mourn her departure. Darrel, the oldest, will for the moment remain her in school, as he is to finish the public school course in May. Girlie and Totsie, the two little girls, are at Gonzales with their grandparents.
Texas State Flower, the Bluebonnet, from Juelie's State Flower Garden of Gifs
Background from
