No envelope.

2730 Kenwood
Sept 7, 1905

Dear Homer;

Your letter came o.k. after I had despaired of receiving it and I was very glad to hear from you. I thought at first that you had gone south and that I should receive my letter back again but I was agreeably surprised to hear from you and that you are so near.

You spoke of the weather, yes I am glad it is cooler. Are you? Last Sunday I visited Riverside Park and although it was cool and I’ve had to wear jackets, I enjoyed it. We stayed out until about 7:30 P.M. and from there to church. We had our supper out there, of sandwiches, hot coffee and cream.

Last night (6th) I took part in a concert at Allen Chapel and did not get home until 1:00 A.M. We had a very nice time.

O Homer what are you doing? Are you well? May “we” hope to see you soon? How is your mother and friends at home? Mother and the boys send their best regards to you.

Homer forgive this pencil, for the old pen point refused to write at all and I have not another just now and it is 9:30 P.M.

I have worried you to desperation Homer I am sure and I shall say good-bye.

Yours truly, P.D.R.

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Looking online I found that “The Old Maid’s Association” was a farcical entertainment for thirteen females and one male that was often put on by church groups as a money raiser in the early 1900s.

Miss Blanche Young mentioned in the news item, married Pearl’s brother, Hugh the following year. In 1905 she was a 17 year old high school student at Manual Training High School, a well respected and innovative new high school. Blanche was several years younger than Pearl. According to several news items, she was active in both the Ninth Presbyterian Church and Allen’s Chapel, as Pearl was. She lived about a mile from Allen’s Chapel and a mile and a half from Pearl.

Blanche was born on October 26, 1887 in Indianapolis, Indiana. She was the oldest of the seven children born to James Harvey Young, a teacher and Roberta Ruth (Jordan) Young, a housewife. Two of her younger siblings died before 1900. The youngest, Elizabeth, died of cholera in 1900 before she was a year old. Her mother died of meningitis in 1901.

Blanche’s father re-married a widow with a young daughter later that year. Soon afterwards he and his new wife moved to Southern California. They took the two youngest daughters. Blanche and her brother Clifford, remained in Indianapolis. Blanche completed two years of high school and married Pearl’s brother Hugh  in 1906 when she was 18 years old.

You can read more of Blanche’s story here Blanche Celeste Reed aka Celeste J. Averette.

Homer Jarrett
1702 Chestnut St.
St. Louis, MO

2730 Kenwood Ave
August 27, 1905

Dear Homer;

Forgive me for not writing sooner but I thought you did not care to hear from me. How are you? Would like to be friends and hear from you soon and now.

Am in a hurry

Write soon
Just
Pearl Doras Reed

Homer Jarrett
1702 Chestnut St.
St. Louis, MO

2730 Kenwood Ave
Indianapolis, In
July 16, 1905

Dear Homer,

It is just 8:25 P.M. and it happens that we are not going to church this evening, so I am going to speak with you a while, or in other words, spend the evening with you. Are you at home I wonder? I will take it for granted that you are. How are? I am quite well at present. Did you receive the other letter? Of course you did. I forgot, Homer, I am visiting you not writing you. Where did you spend the day? Was it very warm in St. Louis? It was terribly warm here. There did not seem to be a breath of air stirring at times. We visited the First Baptist Church in N. Indianapolis. It is no larger than Calvary. Baptist, if so large. It is very neat and clean and airy and light. The pastor is an old genial pastor if sternly spoken old man and his name, I think is Simmons or something like that. The church is in walking distance from home and so we walked over and mother has had the headache ever since I suppose the sun was too hot or something.

Did not (you) go to church today? O, maybe you will go tonight. Are you near one like at Hot Springs? Some church holds their services in the schoolhouse near us and while I speak to you the singing floats in to me very sweet and clear.

Have you heard from home lately? Your mother is well I hope? O, yes, Homer, do you think you will go to school again? I just thought of you saying that you was thinking of being a Doctor of Medicine. Homer it is hard to give up doing something we have set our hearts on is it not? I was thinking that today on the way to church till I happened to notice an elderly lady, lying in an invalids chair, where it seems, she has lain for a great, great while, and I thought that, how very thankful we should be for health and strength even if we can’t have everything we care and wish for.

Well, I think it’s near 9:00 o’clock, yes the whistle blows just as I speak, and so I shall wish you good-night and very pleasant dreams

Sincerely yours
Pearl D. Reed

Front and southern side of Benjamin Franklin Public School Number 36, located at 2801 N. Capitol Avenue in Indianapolis, Indiana, United States. Built in 1896 and since converted into apartments, it is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

Homer Jarrett
9 Walnut St.
Hot Springs, Ark

2730 Kenwood Ave.
Indianapolis, Indiana
April 26, 1905

Dear Homer;

Your letter came today and I was very glad to hear from you. I have but just written to mother and thought I would “speak” with you too.

Glad you had a nice Easter, Homer, for mine was a “grand failure” I think the most pleasure I had that day was a fifteen, twenty minute walk home with my cousin on the way from a friends house. He was so full of his troubles and trials that in trying to make him forget his, I forgot my own.

I received a very nice book a few days ago “The Eternal City” by Hall Caine. I think I have read it but never owned it before.

You wonder why I did not accompany mother away? Well I didn’t. I did want to go, but still, I wanted to take a few more lessons in music and I stayed for that purpose solely. I have a real nice elderly lady teaching me now, a Miss Williams. Mother wanted me to go badly and only yesterday her letter tells me not to stay away too long. I don’t think I shall go this year.

The question you mention is, if I had told another of I struggle of warfare(?), is it not? Well, I have not.

Glad your mother is improving so nicely.

We are having just typical April weather here now sunshine-cloud-rain-snow-hail all in one day.

I received no flowers Easter. I was not disappointed and didn’t expect any. I saw and admired them though.

Thank you for thinking of me at that time. I am grateful for it.

Good-by
Yours Sincerely
Pearl Reed

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I wish I knew who the cousin was who was having such a hard time. Pearl’s older sister, Josie, had two children – a boy and a girl about pearl’s age. I cannot trace them so I don’t know if this cousin is that boy or not.

The Eternal City  (click link to see original review)
Hall Caine (1853–1931)

Eternal City, The, by Hall Caine was published in 1901. The story opens in London, where Prince Volonna, who has been exiled for conspiracy against the Italian government, lives a life of charity under an assumed name, being known as Dr. Roselli. He rescues from the snow, a street waif, David Leone, who is one of the many who are brought to England yearly from the south to play and beg in the streets. This lad grows up in the household of the good doctor and his English wife and little daughter Roma, imbibing his foster father’s theories and becoming his disciple. Prince Volonna is finally tricked back to Italy, where he is captured and transported to Elba, and David Leone is likewise condemned as a conspirator; the latter escapes, and as David Rossi enters Rome and preaches his principle of the brotherhood of man. After the death of her father, Roma is discovered by the Baron Bonelli, Secretary of State, and a man of cunning and duplicity, who brings her to Rome where she becomes the reigning belle of the capital, but one whose name has not remained untarnished. The author recounts her meeting with David Rossi, her recognition of her foster brother, their love and the various obstacles which beset their path. In ‘The Eternal City’ Mr. Caine has presented a sociological study with a strong element of love-making in it. Through the efforts of a humanizing socialism, the principles of which are based upon the Lord’s Prayer, the Pope resigns all temporal power and the young King is brought to abdicate his throne, and an ideal republic is born, whose creed is the brotherhood of God and the brotherhood of man. The story, with its background of Rome the Eternal city, is thrilling in detail and holds the reader’s attention by the intricacies of its plot and the brilliancy of its author’s dramatic style.

Miss Mary L. Williams was born September 5, 1837 in Beares, Pennsylvania. Her father, Louis, was a school teacher. Her mother, Rebecca, did not work outside the home.   The family were members of the United  Presbyterian Church.

By the time Mary was 23, she was teaching music. Between 1870 and 1880, Mary’s mother died and she and her father moved to Indianapolis. He taught Latin and died in 1888. Mary continued to teach music, both guitar and piano. She died of a cerebral hemorrhage in Indianapolis on April 23, 1916.

By 1916, my grandmother Pearl was married to my grandfather, Albert B. Cleage.  The first three of their seven children had been born. They lived in Detroit, Michigan where my grandfather practiced medicine.