I obtained the photographs below from a friend, who found them at a flea market. He knew I had lived in Mascoutah, so he bought them for me. (Thank you, Jerry!)

The first two cards were posted & are dated as shown. The remaining cards were not posted, but have captions on the reverse as indicated. The latter are numbered 3, 5, 6, 9, 10 and 12; no others were available when this set was acquired. I would guess that "Josephine" was a student or student teacher who lived with Prof. Klingelhoefer and his family for the school year starting that fall (I wonder if the Mascoutah Herald might make mention of this visitor? The cards were mailed to Mr. & Mrs. J. F. Duda or to Mr. Otto Francis Duda; both addressed to 3842 W. 26th St., Chicago, Ill.

Photo #1 - PUBLIC SCHOOL postmarked August 31, 1916	Photo #1 - Reverse / Caption: "My dears: I have arrived safely at Mascoutah this morning & have been received very cordially by Prof. & Mrs. Klingelhoefer. I am just in love wiht the place. It is so beautiful, and Prof. K. and the members of his family are very kind and sincere. With best regards, Josephine."
Photo #2 - PUBLIC SCHOOL postmarked February 5, 1917	Photo #2 - Reverse / Caption: "Dearest Otto, Am sending you a picture of the school house about three years ago, if I am informed correctly. Thought you would like to see a view of it. How are you & all the folks at home? I sincerely hope you are all well. I trust that you are getting along nicely at school - my best wishes are with you dear. With love to all, yours, Josephine."
Photo #3 - EVG. PROTESTANT CHURCH undated / Caption: "This is the church that I attend every Sunday at 9:00 AM. It is the Evangelical church. Sure am early at church, nicht wahr? for I am sure not to miss the services." (One more line appears to be written in Polish)	Photo #5 - RAILWAY AVE. LOOKING NORTH - undated / Caption: "This is the street on which Mr. & Mrs. Klingelhoefer live. I drew an arrow above their home. I'll change my mind! I'll mark it with a red cross so as not to spoil the card!"
Photo #6 - KOLB COAL CO. & COAL MINE undated / Caption: "There are a number of coal mines on the outskirts of Mascoutah where the poor class of men work. Thought you would like to see what mines look like from the exterior. In the portion where you see the rings is an elevator which takes you into the tunnels underground."	Photo #9 - L. AND N. DEPOT undated / Caption: "This is the Mascoutah depot where I landed and had my "kufr mufvn!" Around the corner in the direction of the arrow is Railway Ave. where Mr. & Mrs. Klingel. live. It is about 10 minutes walk from the station to their home."
Photo #10 - E. MILL ST. undated / Caption: "This shows the street on which I live - Mill St. named from the flour mill on the corner. On the left across from the mill where you see all "those sports" is the largest drug store in town! On the right where you see the sign "hotel", around that corner & going in the right hand direction is our school. It is about 5 min. walk from my komierka. The hotel is near the corner of a cross street rt. & left you understand? Goo bye kits!"	Photo #12 - LOOKING EAST ON MILL ST. undated / Caption: "This is another view of the street on which "her majesty" lives. See the mill in the background? The arrow in the foreground shows direction of our home, but we just were cut off from view. Compare this with card #10. That card makes you think that we live right next to the mill, but this view shows you how far away from the mill we really are & how many houses come in between. The view on card 10 is West on the street. This is a view of the East side. Now do you think you could find my kownirka all the way from the station if you landed there? I guess you could! It's about 15 min. walk. Goo by Kits!"

Photo quality: these photographs were scanned at 600 dpi and should provide excellent results when viewed enlarged, either on screen or on a suitable printer. Note that the photos on this page are reduced to 200 pixels tall - to view high quality images, click on the desired "thumbnail" for a large view of the same illustration. Printing any of these on a printer with less than 600 dpi resultion will result in a poor quality reproduction! I've had several emails from people who overlooked this fact, so please take note.

I hope you enjoy these! If you know where others can be found that may be shared as well, please let em know and I'll do what I can to help get them on the web.

Regards,
Rob DeLand
email: rdeland@bluesrolls.com

AN EARLY HISTORY OF MASCOUTAH, to and Including the Year 1850. By Herbert F. Lill. 184p. (1963) 1996. $29.00

HISTORY OF ST CLAIR COUNTY, with Illustrations Descriptive of its Scenery & Biographical Sketches of Some of its Prominent Men & Pioneers, 1686-1881. 385p. (Brink, McDonough & Co.; 1881) 1997. $44.00 Original oversized book has been reduced slightly to fit our 8-1/2x11 format.

Both are available online from http://www.higginsonbooks.com/