A 'Swenglish' journey through family photos, notes and postcards
from the early 20th century.

2026-09-19

Two Steamboat Postcards from 1909 - Sepia Saturday 844

Two steam boat postcards from 1909, reposted for Sepia Saturday 844 (previously posted on this blog 2021-04-24 and 2021-05-01

Both cards sent by a John Beckman to my great-uncle Gustaf Ekman in 1909, while Gustaf was living in Galeton, Pennsylvania (working at a sawmill there).  

Str City of Buffalo, landing at dock, Celeron, N.Y.

 
Made expressly for S.H. Knox & Co. Printed in Germany

To: Mr Gust Ekman, Galeton, Pa

From: John Beckman (Jamestown N.Y., Jul 18, 1909)

Str City of Buffalo, landing at dock, Celeron, N.Y.

Hello Gust. I will send you a postal now and thanks you very much for the postal you send me. I hear you had good times on 4 of July in Buffalo, did you have any girls whed [with] you all [-?-] Gust. I had lovely times out here in Jamestown to[o]. Alfred and Henning is working here in town now so pretty soon all de Boy [all the boys] from Galeton will be here in Jamestown. I supoese Hilding have a picnic now whed all de girls. Good bye, ans. soon. / John Beckman, 27 Broadhead Ave., Jamestown N.Y.

Hej Gust. Jag skickar ett kort och tackar så mycket för det kortet du skickade mig. Jag hör att du hade trevligt 4 juli i Buffalo, hade ni några flickor med er? Jag hade det härligt här i Jamestown också. Alfred och Henning arbetar här nu, så snart är väl 'alla pojkarna' från Galeton här i Jamestown. Jag antar att Hilding kan välja och vraka bland alla flickorna nu. Hej då, skriv snart. /John Beckman, 27 Broadhead Ave., Jamestown N.Y.



Boat Landing at Celoron, Chautauqua Lake, N.Y.

(Can't interpret the publisher's symbol)


To: Mr Gust Ekman, Galeton Pa, Box 342
From: John Beckman (Jamestown N.Y., Aug 26, 1909)
Boat Landing at Celoron, Chautauqua Lake, N.Y.

Hello Gust
I thought I will send you a postal now and thank you very much for the letter you sent. I se[e] you whont [won't] come over to Jamestown. I was to a picnic 2 weeks a go, and here is the boat. How do you like it all. Tell you Gust I had [a] pretty good time that day. Ans. soon. - Best regards from your friend J. Beckman. Send my best regards to mine girl, you know who that is.

Swedish text:
Hej Gust, jag tänkte jag skickar dig ett kort nu och tackar så mycket för brevet du skickade. Jag ser att du inte tänker komma över till Jamestown. Jag var på en picknick för 2 veckor sedan, och här är båten. Vad tycker du om det hela. Du ska veta att jag hade roligt den dan. Skriv snart. - Bästa hälsningar från din vän J. Beckman. Hälsa så mycket till min flicka, du vet vem jag menar.


My note from 2021: I googled "steamboats celeron new york", and found a web page from Chautauqua County Historical Society: Large Chautauqua Lake Steamboats. (Phew, that is one tricky name to keep spelling...) Evidently there were several steamboats of this kind in traffic on this lake in the late 19th /early 20th century. On a previous card (G.042.03) from John B. we had the steamer City of Buffalo, The one on this card looks similar but not identical. The card does not reveal its name, and I can't find an exact match on that web page either. 




4 comments:

  1. A nice match to the prompt. Those steam ships carry quite a few passenger! And speaking of nice, nice to see you back here!!! :)

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    1. Thanks Gail. The thing is I've worked my way through most of my family history related postcards and photos by now... But occasionally I'm reminded of something already posted in the past, but not previously linked to Sepia Saturday. :)

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  2. Wow, that is a lot of people on that boat, in the photo. Interesting to hear of the messages on the post cards. Outings do sound so fun. And yet people didn't seem to get together as much as Mr. Beckman wished.

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  3. Perfect choices for this theme! I love postcards like this. I can almost hear John's voice in his phrases and misspellings. I wonder if, like Gustav, he was an immigrant too. Do Swedish messages sometimes have that quick casual style with shortened words or slang? I recently tried Claude AI to transcribe and translate some old handwritten postcard messages in French and German and it did surprising well and was very fast. I recognized some errors and suggested corrections which it picked up and expanded for me. It now remembers all our interaction and every few weeks when I drop in, it is like meeting an old colleague. Creepy but very useful for understanding foreign languages.

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