Batavia couple receives postcard in the mail, 74 years after it was sent

BATAVIA, N.Y. — “It was actually the day after Christmas,” recalled Dan Dickens, when he collected the mail from the mailbox outside the Batavia home he shares with his wife Kate.

Among the mail items received that day was a postcard to which Dan initially, gave barely a glance.

“Typically we get a lot of junk mail…I’d thrown it on my desk like I normally do. And then I came back and I picked it up and started looking at it. It had some faint writing on it and I noticed the name on there was not one of the names I had recognized before of being a previous resident or owner of the house.”

The postcard depicting the Nevada state capitol building in Carson City is addressed to Mrs. K.H. McClintock.

“We didn’t know much more to begin with,” said Kate Dickens. “There’s a Facebook page in Batavia called Memories of Batavia. So we had posted it to that and somebody found out that Katherine McClintock used to live in this house in the early 1900s. She worked at the school for the blind, and was the secretary to the president.”

The postcard bears two postmarks. One indicating it was mailed from Carson City, NV in September of 1949. A second postmark indicates it came through Milwaukee, WI four days before it arrived at the Dickens residence.

Why it took more than 74 years to get there is another part of a great mystery.

“The sleuths that are online thought that it could have got caught underneath something (at a post office) or behind something,” said Dan. “And maybe it was found when they updated their equipment finally? I mean, that seems like a long time to go without updating equipment. But I guess that by law or whatever they have to send the letter if it’s found.”

Even with only a one-cent stamp on it, as this postcard has.

“We actually have no idea. That’s just what other people’s theories are as to why it was so late in getting delivered,” Dan said.

The online sleuths also learned that Katherine McClintock, to whom the card was sent by someone who only signed their initials, was married only briefly, never had children, and died in 1967 at the ripe old age of 93. 

“The obituary I found had two nieces listed, one in Rochester and one in New York City,” said Kate. “But no names listed.”

2 On Your Side contacted the US Postal Service regarding the find.

In an email response, Mark Lawrence, a Strategic Communications Specialist for the USPS wrote:

“Although rare, letters re-entered into the mainstream occasionally happens. In most cases, these incidents do not involve mail that had been lost in our network and later found. What we typically find is that old letters and postcards – sometimes purchased at flea markets, antique shops, and even online – are re-entered into our system. Some of these letters, originally kept by family members as keepsakes, are even found in an attic, basement, or garage of a new homeowner who wants to return the letters to the rightful owner. When done so, the Postal Service will make every reasonable attempt to once again deliver the letter/postcard to the original recipient’s address, or that of the sender.”

The fact that the stamp on the postcard appears to have only been canceled when it recently came through Milwaukee might lead one to believe that it had never been mailed in the first place back in 1949.

However, that it bears a postmark with a date on it from Carson City on September 14, 1949, would indicate that it was sent back then and got “lost in the mail”. 

As pleased as they are to be the stewards of the postcard, the Dickens’ say they’d like their custody to be temporary. 

What they really hope is that by sharing their story, the postcard can eventually be placed in the hands of someone for whom its meaning might be much more significant.

“I would love it, said Kate. “I guess we’d have some closure to it, and make sure we get it to the family and to the rightful heir of the postcard,” Dan said.