My grandfather Frank Erickson takes a boxing pose while he was living in Daly City, California in 1910. He was eighteen years old and arrived out west from North Dakota seeking adventure and warmer climates.

At the time a very popular style of photography was the photograph - postcard. The 4th image below partially solves a mystery of these two boxing images of Frank. In the process of scanning the two dozen or so postcards dated 1910 through 1918 from various Erickson family members I have learned a lot about the lives of my grandfather and his siblings and parents.

They loved to write postcards is one thing and fortunate enough many survived the one hundred and seventeen years since they were penny posted across the country.

Frank was eighteen years old when he headed west in 1910 and lived off and on for the next many years in Daly City California, Phoenix, Arizona, Miles City, Montana and multiple towns in Oregon. At twenty five years old Frank would end up joining the American Expeditionary Force in 1917 while he was living in La Grande, Oregon along with his brother Ernest Julius Erickson. The two had been Oregon railroad deputies at the outbreak of the war in Europe. Both would serve in France in 1918.

Amazing a card could be sent with the minimal address you see below and actually get to the person. Daly City at the time was tiny and had one post office most likely, so there is that possibility. Daly City is just south of San Francisco. I have been there many times and never realized till a few years ago Frank had lived there. I would love to know what Frank was doing out here in Northern California in 1911.

You can see the embossed "Erickson Studio" on the front right from Helmer's photographic studio in Wilton, ND. Two of Frank's boxer postcards are attached below that he had mailed home to North Dakota. They are referred to in Helmer's writing.

Here is the transcription of the postcard sent to Frank Erickson in Daly City, California and mailed by Helmer Erickson from Wilton, North Dakota in March of 1911:

Dear Brother,
Received both of your cards. Say! are you a pugilist now? ha ha. Must be nice and warm down there. I'll bet you could not go outside here without your shirt on. How do you like California? Is it a large city? How is business doing there? I am in business for myself now. Have been since last summer. I have a gallery and a camera outfit that cost me $120. I intended to go to Sweden this summer but I don't know if I can. Write again soon, send postcards of yourself and Daly City.

Helmer

Many thanks to my cousin Mark Henninger of Bismarck, North Dakota for helping me with the Family Restoration Photograph Project, most especially with the transcribing of the Ernest Julius Erickson diaries and the multiple family postcards.

He was kind enough to go through the archives of his mom Zena had kept of the family photographs going back to the late 1800s in Sweden.