Postcard to Our Brother & Cousin, W.H. Glasper, 1909

L to R:  Robert Bender, Freddie Glasper, Springfield, Ohio, 1909

This is another antique store find that demanded to be bought.  The postcard offered an addressee, a postmark with location and date, the first names of the senders and a delightful image.  I was curious if I could discover who these two boy in the matching outfits were, and who W.H. Glasper was.  My initial assumption was that Mr. W.H. Glasper was probably Freddie and Robert's father.

I started by looking at the 1900 US Federal Census.  I found the family of Robert. G. and Louisa Glasper.  Robert and Louisa came to the US from England in 1887, with their son, Charles.  In 1900, they lived in Washington, Lucas County, Ohio with their nine children: Charles, b.1885; James, b. 1889; William H., b. 1890;  Elizabeth, b. 1891; John, b.1892; Thomas, b.1895;  Henry, b. 1896; Fredrick, b. 1898; and George, b. 1899. 

Aha!  There was Fredrick, and there was William H, which means that Freddie had been writing to his brother.  But where was Robert?  Perhaps he hadn't been born yet.  In the photograph the boys look to be only a couple of years apart.  Since Fredrick was only one year old in the 1900 census, it is possible that Robert could have been born just after.

On to the 1910 census.  There's been a bit of an upheaval it seems, since 1900.  Siblings George, Harry (Henry), and Elizabeth are living with the James B. McDonald family in Toledo, Ohio.  I discovered from  Ohio Births, & Christenings, 1800-1962, that Louisa Glasper's maiden name was McDonald.  William H. is a seaman on the USS Carolina.  Fredrick is living in Springfield, Clark County, Ohio with Adam J. and Sarah Bender, and their son, Robert Bender, age 9.  On the census, Fredrick is listed as a nephew. It looks as if the Glasper children's parents may have passed away and their children are now being taken care of by an uncle and aunt.

I was curious about W.H. Glasper and discovered that he is listed in The Official Roster of Ohio Soldiers, Sailors, and Marines in the World War, 1917-18, along with his brother, James.

William H. Glasper died in Los Angeles, on April 18, 1968.