Edward Richard Woods and Roxanna Opal Hostetler were married on 24 June 1909 in LaGrange County, Indiana, where Roxie grew up. Ed grew up in Dutton, Kent County, Michigan, about a hundred miles from Roxie, so how and where did they meet?

Clues in this postcard collection helped to solve the mystery. Many of the postcards were postmarked “Alto, Mich.” Some were addressed to Ed, and some to Roxie. Of the cards addressed to Ed, many were from small children, and several were written by Clara M. Vandewerker, a former teacher at Bowne. Cards addressed to Roxie were from her young cousin, Florence Stahl.

A newspaper item revealed that Ed was a teacher at the Logan School in Bowne Township from 1904 to 1907. Alto was the nearest post office to Bowne. Florence lived in Bowne, and was likely one of Ed’s students. In 1904, she was about 8 years old. Florence several times refers to her mother’s poor health in her postcards; perhaps Roxie came to care for aunt, or to help out in other ways. Perhaps she just came for a visit. Whatever the reason, it is almost certain that on one of those occasions, Roxie met the handsome young teacher, perhaps through an introduction from Florence,  and the result was a courtship, alluded to here in the postcards they wrote to one another, and received from friends and family.

The clues to their courtship are necessarily subtle in the postcards, because they could be read by anyone. (That Ed and Roxie sent cards so frequently to each other is surely a big clue.) More intimate communication, in the form of letters, does not survive, but the postcards still reveal interesting insights about Ed and Roxie, and their community of friends and family.