Rice University
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13 December 1911: When this postcard went on sale, Rice Institute was still under construction, so the presentation here is an architectural rendering. The building was completed in 1912 and the college opened to a select group of 77 students and 10 faulty. Visible through the central archway is the artist’s conception of the mausoleum of William Marsh Rice, the founder and original benefactor of Rice Institute.
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5 September 2013: As other buildings were added to the campus, this building became the Administration Building, but was renamed Lovett Hall in 1947 in honor of the first president of the college, Edgar Odell Lovett. The Mausoleum was not constructed in the grand style depicted in the architectural rendering, but a smaller structure with memorial statue still holds the remains of William Marsh Rice, murdered by close companions in an unsuccessful attempt to steal his fortune for themselves.
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Postmarked: 13 December 1911; Houston, Tex.
Stamp: 1c Green Ben Franklin #374 To: Mrs Bee Hempil 1522 Ave M. Galveston Message: Hello. Bee Did you get home all right-? And did you get to go out at nights?. Hope you and Fred are well. We are haveing some raing weather for the last week. With love G S W
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“GSW,” the author of the postcard, gives too little information to be identified, but she (or he) seems to have met with the Hempels on a recent visit, presumably to Houston where the postcard was mailed. The Galveston-Houston Electric Railway was inaugurated on December 5, 1911, eight days before the postcard was sent, and it is conceivable, though it cannot be confirmed, that the Hempels came to Houston on one of its first runs.
Bee and Fred lived in Galveston where Fred was the foreman in the composing room of the Galveston Tribune. Printing in the early years of the 20th Century required many more workers than our efficient computerized methods now employ. The composing room was a hot and dangerous workplace where men labored over keyboards inches away from molten lead alloys that sometimes went astray. There was no air conditioning and vented w and Gulf breezes, even motorized fans could only do so much to make the composing room bearable in Galveston’s often humid summertime climate. Blue-eyed, blonde Fred was 24 years when the postcard was sent, a native citizen of Galveston “Born on the Island,” son of German immigrant Emil Hempel. Emile was born in Dresden, Germany in 1840, trained as a tailor, and entered the military, rising to the rank of lieutenant and garnering many medals. He came to the U. S. in 1874 at 34 years of age and settled at Galveston immediately. Three years latter he married and Josephine E. Dittmar, daughter of German immigrants Johanna and Johan Martin Dittmer. Josephine was born in Wertheim, Baden, Germany, in 1849 and the family immigrated in 1853. Bee (Beatrice Amanda Thompson) was 22 when she received the postcard, daughter of William Robert Thomson of London and Mary E. Teale from Louisiana, the second of eight children. William Thomson came to Galveston in 1881 and married Mary Elizabeth Teale in 1884. Bee was as British in origins as Fred was German, born in New Orleans, LA, her maternal grandparents were from England and and Ireland, and paternal grandparents from London and Kent. Fred and Bee were married in 1908 and raised a small family: Fred E. Jr. (born 1917) and Jacqueline (b. 1922). They moved a bit within Galveston, but Fred always worked in the topographical trade, and was active in professional organizations, serving as secretary for the Galveston Typographical Union at the time of his death. Fred died in 1942 in his 56th year, and is buried in Galveston Memorial Park in Hitchcock, Galveston County on the mainland. Thirty years later Beatrice died in her 83rd year and is buried beside her husband. Also in that cemetery are Bee’s parents, William R. Thomson (1863-1944) and Mary Teale Thomson (1863-1937) and Fred, Jr. (1917-2004) and his wife Dorothy Wilcoxon Hempel (1921-2010). Emile Hempel (1840-1909) and Johanna Dittmer Hempel (1848-1935) are buried in Oleander Cemetery on Broadway in Galveston. |
