Bovina Center Postmaster, Appointed by Hoover, Retires

On January 1, 1949, Fred Thomson, somewhat unwillingly, retired as Bovina's postmaster when he reached the mandatory retirement age of 70. The news clipping below came from the scrapbook of Helena Hilson and dates from early 1949. It is not clear from which newspaper, though probably either the Delaware Republican Express or the Oneonta Daily Star.

The post card below shows the Thomson residence when it was the post office. This is now the residence of Chuck and Betty McIntosh.

Bovina Postcards

Work continues on the 2014 Bovina History Calendar for the Bovina Historical Society, the theme of which will be postcards.  Today (May 24), Chuck McIntosh shared a number of cards from his collection with me.  He had a few postcards which are generic ones with 'Greetings from Bovina, N.Y.' or 'Greetings from Bovina Center, N.Y.' stamped on them.  The two color ones below are both from "'NYCE' Quality Colored Landscapes Local."

This card has a postmark from 1929.  It was sent to a Myrtle Gibson in Andes from someone named Lillie. 

This postcard, though likely not from Bovina, made me do a double take.

Compare it with the one below that is from Bovina:

The color card is not a watercolor version of the black and white card, but I had to really look. 

Chuck also had a number of postcards with authentic images of Bovina that had been 'colorized.'  Here's one of the Bovina Center school (now the Bovina Public Library) that has a postmark of 1910:

From everything I can tell, the building was never painted red, so someone took some artistic license.  This postcard, like many of that time period, was printed in Germany. 

The plan is to try and have the 2014 Bovina History Calendar ready for Bovina Day in July.  Stay tuned.  

Postcards and the Bovina Historical Society Calendar for 2014

I am starting work on a Bovina History calendar for 2014, proceeds to benefit the Bovina Historical Society.  If things move along ok, I hope to have the calendar ready this summer, so you'll be prepared for the new year in good time.

The theme is going to be Bovina postcards.  I have some good postcard images, but am asking for your help in finding some others.  If you have a postcard with a Bovina scene on it and you aren't sure whether or not I've seen it, assume I haven't and get in touch with me.  Sometimes, I might have the image, but your card may be in better shape.  Though I'd like to see any Bovina postcards that are out there, for the calendar, our preference is black and white images. If you don't have a scanner, don't worry, I can arrange to come and scan the card myself or make whatever other arrangements to capture the image.

And below are several images for which I have low resolution scans only.  Some of these came off the Delaware County genealogy web site and were provided by the late Alan Davidson.  They are great images, but I need a higher resolution scan (at least 300 dpi) to make them work for a printed calendar.

Does anyone recognize where this is?

This is now called Silver Lake or Cole's Lake. It's right on Route 28 as you head towards Andes.

There are some very old Bovina postcards which, unfortunately, are of such poor quality that they will not blow up to 8 1/2 by 11. I do hope, however, to include some of these in a set of four on the inside pages of the calendar.  The card below, recently shared by Dan Finn on Facebook, is a wonderful view of Bovina Center that, unfortunately, is very blurry.  He scanned it at a good resolution, so the issue here is not the scanning.  The card is black and white but has been somewhat 'colorized' - basically, leaves and grass have been colored green!  If anyone has a version of this image that is clearer I'd love to see it. 

So start digging through those boxes of treasures and let me know if you have Postcards from Bovina.