Letters and Telegrams (Group G)

Letters 

Since the beginning of time, humans have been using written forms of correspondence in order to communicate with one another, however, it wasn't until 1653 that the first postal system was established in Paris France. In 1775 the United States established a postal service as an agency of the federal government. It should also be noted that standardization of mailing expenses was implemented in the 1840s when English schoolmaster Rowland Hill established the first uniform postal rates and created an adhesive postage stamp. Furthermore, it wasn't long after this invention that the Universal Postal Union was established, allowing for easier international mail exchanges. 

Telegrams 

During the 20th century, people often relied on telegrams when they wished to convey a message quickly due to the fact that personal and household phones were not widely available for commercial use. The telegram was invented by Samuel Morse and began to be widely used in the mid-1800s. Telegrams are simply electronically transmitted messages that are then printed and delivered to the intended receiver. Furthermore, It is important to note that the price of telegrams was determined by letter count so the messages were often as brief as the sender could manage. 

Jewell Cooper's Handwritten Letters 

The first letter was written on September 19, 1926. This letter is written by Beu.

She begins by saying that she just wanted to send a letter to let Jewell know that "we are all safe". She transitions to explaining that she is sure that she has heard about the hurricane that recently hit them in Miami the day before (September 18, 1926). Although she and the family are safe, she goes into detail about the damage the "terrible hurricane" cause. She says that everything, from the church to everyone's roof was completely wrecked. Additionally, all of their furniture is ruined due to a leak they had. Luckily, however, their roof is still intact although one of their windows are broken due to the wind. No lights or water are available in the house and therefore it is impossible to send a telegram because she cannot get a wire through. Beu wrote the letter in Dr. Anderson's house because the house is fine despite a couple of minor leaks here and there. She claims that the storm went on for three entire hours without a pause. Beu concludes the letter by saying that they haven't heard about the damage done at the beach and may tag along with the Anderson's to see what happened.

A few days later, Beu then writes another letter going into greater detail regarding the Hurricane. 

This item is a handwritten letter addressed to Jewell Cooper sent from Maimi Florida in 1926. 

This letter begins with Beu describing that she went through great difficulty to attain "some papers" for Jewell. She claims that there is a lot of "good reading" in them so she hopes Jewell enjoys them because she would "hate for any of it to go to waste".

Beu then moves into a description of the storm. She tells her the warning of the storm came on Friday, September 17, 1926, so he missed any "pre-storm worrying" since it the warning was right before the storm. She says that the wind came at around ten pm but then at 2 am, it began to rain so hard that it started to leak into the house. The lights were all off and then something from outside hit the window and fell on her bed which caused all the glass from the window to fall into her bedroom. Some of the glass hit Margaret's leg but he was not hurt. They both ran out of the room and Beu called "mama" and after putting a nightgown on they all ran downstairs into the living room because it was dry down there. The storm ended at about 9 am but then started again. The second storm which caused some of the roofing to fall off. The final parts of the letter are hidden by what looks like lead, appearing as though Jewell or Beu purposely hid what it says. 

These letters depict the great difficulty that individuals during this time had to go through in order to communicate with their loved ones. Jewell Cooper was definitely worried out of her mind about her family and had to wait several days to hear whether or not they were okay.

Jewell Cooper's Telegrams

This item is a telegram sent to Jewell Cooper by someone named Nola. This message was sent to Cooper who was living in Reynolds Hall at the Florida State College for Women in Tallahassee Florida, from Miami Florida. The message simply reads "We are all safe letter follows" which is most likely referring to the hurricane that hit Miami in 1926, which is addressed in following handwritten letters sent to Cooper around the same time period.