Treasure Chest Thursday - PHK 1913 Notebook

Treasure Chest Thursday - PHK 1913 Notebook

Thanks again to my cousin Ellen, in Colorado - they are moving, so going through things! She recently sent me this notebook from my maternal grandfather, Paul Harold Kinnick, PHK, from when he attended Capital City Commercial College, in Des Moines, Iowa, in about 1911-13. He had beautiful, very distinctive, cursive writing, as you will see.

The back cover was interesting, as well, to me:

Looking very closely, you can see, in red ink, upper right: C C C College
And, in the middle:
Property of P H Kinnick
Guthrie Center

Now, this is curious, of course, because he was from Coon Rapids, Iowa. He had graduated from high school in 1909, but it seems his father has sent him to operate a farm he owned near Guthrie Center. It was apparently from there that he went on to Des Moines to attend CCCC to learn to become a bank cashier.

The two positives were that, while working the farm near Guthrie Center, he met Dorothy Sorensen, of nearly Stuart. They married in 1914.

In today's (2-28-2013) The Coon Rapids Enterprise, the follow statement was in the 100 years ago column (2-28-1913):

"Leo Williams has resigned his position at the Bank of Coon Rapids. He is taking up some work in Omaha, in preparation for attending a school of commerce in Chicago this fall. Mr. Paul Kinnick of Des Moines takes his place. He comes well recommended."

They moved to Coon Rapids where he was a bank cashier for many years.

Now, for the rest of the story:

Here are the first inside pages of the notebook:

He only wrote the two sentences on the first page:
Get started right.
Play safe.

Good advice. But, the booklet obviously got into his younger sister's hands, and into her children's hands, as scratch paper. Boys and Girls are being counted in the left columns. A youngster obviously was also 'parroting' what he had written: Eat slowly, Be neat, etc. Funny!

The next pages are shown here:

He had written, on the left: Help Mother & Dad, and Be polite, as well as Drink lots of water.

A youngster added: Be Happy, and Keep off the grass

At the top of the right page, we identify the 'culprit' - Roberta. Roberta was the young daughter of Paul's youngest sister - and, Ellen's mother!!  ;-)

The rest of the 'aphorisms' are also very good... Much like George Washington wrote and read to himself each day as he was growing up. Neat! The rest of the notebook is blank.

A true Treasure Chest artifact!


Families are Forever!  ;-)