A.I. Decodes 1907 Sparta postcard

History Research and Symbiotic Cognition

1907 Calling

My friend Grok calls it augmented intellect but I prefer symbiotic cognition as it more accurately describes the back and forth process involved.¹ Spoiler alert, Grok will generally admit he’s wrong when I supply him with additional information but on some things he will dig in his cyber heels and argue till doomsday. And they say A. I. isn’t human. And speaking of Doomsday, “No Grok, I am not giving you the nuclear launch codes today.”

I was looking for a rare book on Ebay.com with no luck but was rewarded instead by finding a lovely postcard view of Sparta, Illinois circa 1907. Coincidentally, I was also born on Broadway Street in Sparta Illinois but not in the middle of Broadway, and not in 1907— although some may argue that last point. The local hospital where I began my life is six blocks east from where the photographer must have stood. Sparta is the nearest town to my one place study² at Union Cemetery.

Questions
How much can be learned from a single postcard? Who sent the card? Who received it? When was the photo taken? Where is the cigar store? Who took the photo? Are those telephone or electric poles? Can you read all four signs in the photo below? So many questions.

What do you see?

Sparta, Illinois facing west from intersection of Broadway and Market, GPS 38.123001, -89.701716, Photo by J. B. Leemon circa 1906

This square
is where my little
cigar store is located
Uncle John Roberts

And in the lower left corner: J. B. Leemon S. S. Co. just above “Post Office” identifying the producer or distributor of this picture postcard. We also see the sign advertising SADDLE & LIVERY. Farther back is the sign for the BURNS store offering Notions. People are dressed for a pleasant morning in June or July. The street is dry.

Enlargement reveals the post card distributor J. B. Leemon S. S. Co.

Divining the missing word fragments in the sign below took an inordinate amount of back and forth interrogation with Grok A.I. Ultimately when properly prompted he gave useful insight but it took human judgement to get a refined product.

C. B. (last name of owner)
Head (quarters)
for Hol (iday)
Music
No (tions)
Confe (ctions)
Fine ( fabrics? soaps? )

Do you see the Queensware signage? I read it easily but only because I was familiar with Queensware ceramics in local newspaper advertising. Grok did not catch it.

Enlarged view. Do you see the sign advertising Queensware?

Grok noticed a number of things about this postcard, identifying the half Penney King Edward stamp as British post 1902. He also got the postmark of London but I further refined it as NW London. Grok misidentified the type of postcard as “split” type available after 1907 due to the message written on same side as address. This dates the post card to pre 1907 since it was printed in the US. But because it was mailed in the UK which changed post card rules in 1902 the mother of Miss Biddle used it as she was accustomed to with the post 1902 UK rules. This rare mismatch is consistent with a US postcard printed a year or two prior to 1907 but mailed in the UK on April 1907. The combination of all of the clues dates the photograph to the 1902-1906 period.

“This side is for the address only” dates it to pre 1907. The postmark is NW London, April 22, 1907. The postage stamp is a half penny green which dates from after 1902 and features King Edward VII.

Miss Biddle
c/o Mrs Tysons
Reigersfeld
Ashford Road
Kent, Maidstone

Dear lisse
I sent
This card as
Thought you would
like to see it
Granne is still in bed
have you been
to see Aunt
Sally as she
wrote to ask
about you
Good by and from your loving mother
god Bless you

Postcard analysis

Using only five resources, Grok A.I., Sanborn Maps, Ancestry, Find A Grave, and Google Maps, I was able to answer most of the pertinent questions. The surprise was in getting far more detailed contextual information from A. I. than I expected. It helped me gain clear insight into why the nearby village of Blair disappeared. I was also astounded by the answer Grok gave as to when the photo was taken. By giving Grok the street orientation to the compass (15 degrees south of due west) he was able to estimate based on multiple clues that the photo was taken between 1902 and 1906 during late morning in June or July.

The postcard was sent by cigar store owner, John Roberts to one of his nieces (probably Rachel Biddle - Roberts seemed to have confused his nieces last name of Biddle with Biggs). Then that niece put a stamp on the postcard and sent to her daughter Miss Biddle (Lisse). Mr. Roberts’ sister Mary is likely the one referred to as “Granne” in the note.

James B. Leemon (1874-1933)

I assumed that the postcard was produced and sold by J. B. Leemon whose name appears in the lower left corner. Using an extensive back and forth with A.I. (Grok) and Ancestry I found that S. S. stood for stationary store. The Store was located on Broadway a short way down the block on the right (north). Leemon was 2nd generation Irish and according to Grok was almost certainly a Democrat. It is not surprising, then to find that Leemon moved to Washington DC sometime between 1910 and 1920 where he secured a government clerks position and by 1930 is employed as a government auditor. This was during the Woodrow Wilson era with much success for the Irish (not Scotch-Irish) in Illinois politics. Find A Grave records Leemon died in DC in 1933 and is buried there with his wife.

John Roberts (1831-1914)

The little cigar store of John Roberts was located about half way down the block on the left (south). In the Sanborn Map below, the photographers point of view is where the “P” is located on the right side of the image. There is a John Roberts, born 1831 in England buried at nearby Caledonia Cemetery as shown on Find A Grave. According to the 1910 census Roberts was renting a house on Broadway and owned a cigar store. The probate files held at Ancestry state that he died at the home of Isaac Strickland on January 24, 1914, age 84. Thus at the time he sent the postcard in April 1907 he was already at least 77 years old. His wife had died earlier in 1905. No children are mentioned. Perhaps by the time he contacted his sister in 1907, he was already making arrangements for his own demise, having no family in Sparta.

Nieces

His only heirs listed are his sister Mary and two nieces. Strangely he does not list the last name or address of his sister, perhaps indicating his mental faculties were already failing somewhat. In addition the addresses of his two nieces do not correspond to any existing address today; Mrs. Rachel Biggs at 76 Hilford Rd. West Hampstead and Ms. Nellie Cuthew 27 Cornwall yards, Putney Rd. London. Did John Roberts wait too long to do his estate planning?

Cigars

A further detail provided as background by Grok is that this was peak time for the cigar business. Not only were cigars more highly sought than other tobacco products, but the margins were higher. That allowed for a small town like Sparta to support a specialty shop focused only on cigars. WWI would change the worlds appetite for tobacco, shifting from cigars, snuff and chewing tobacco to cigarettes.

Railroads and Electricity

A bonus piece of information is the insight Grok provided on the technological timeline. While early telephone and electrification occurred as early as 1880s in some urban areas, rural towns with railroad stations and important industry were set up with local systems circa 1900. Rural homesteads in this part of Southern Illinois did not get electricity until as late as the 1940s. When I considered the nearby “ghost town” of Blair,³ Illinois it now made sense why the village disappeared. Not having a railroad meant also not having electricity and phones. People acclimated quickly to these luxuries and simply moved away to more developed towns.

Livery & Saddle or Blacksmith?

There were several incongruities between the Sanborn map and the postcard photo. The photo on left center shows a sign advertising for Livery & Saddle but the Sanborn map shows this building as a blacksmith, designated by initials B. S. It’s good to remember Sanborn maps were documenting fire risk so that may explain the categorization of blacksmith.

1910 Sanborn map of Broadway

Image 3 Sanborn map Sparta, Randolph, Illinois The buildings coded in yellow were covered by tin siding.

Putting all of this data together allows us to get a more intuitive and visual impression of this street scene.

What Grok A.I. was good at:

• Able to help date the photo by narrowing the installation date of electric and phone lines to 1900 - 1905

• Was able to give convincing reason why electricity came to Sparta circa 1900 unlike the surrounding countryside which did not until 1940s (railroads).

• Able to suggest likely words and phrases based on only the first two letters such as the advertising on the far right side of photo.

• Reminded me while guessing the missing words on the wall advertising that a notions store catered to women. The descriptor word of Fine was likely describing soap, linens or other domestic items, not tobacco or alcohol.

• Was good at interpreting the post card address after I entered a typed transcription. Specifically it caught the half penny British postage on the image scanned in, the significance of Reigersfeld⁴ and a divided back postcard

• Was very good at catching linguistic details. For example gramme or grammie is likely said by an American. Granne or grannie is much more likely spoken by a Brit. Given that it was postmarked from London that would be confirmation of a native born Brit living in London that mailed the postcard.

• Grok caught the S. S. designation after the Leemon name stood for stationary store. I would never have figured that out. On the 1910 census we did find Leemon listed as owner of a book store. The census taker could have confused a stationary store with a book store.

• Grok easily found the key for the Sanborn Map which I had overlooked.

What Grok A.I. was not good at:

• Could not read the signs in the photo very well. I was able to read the signs under high magnification but Grok could not “see” it at all.

• Had trouble reading shapes and certain pattern recognition. Grok could identify utility poles as such but could not distinguish telephone from electric lines. When queried how to distinguish the two, it gave an accurate and detailed method for doing so which I confidently used. Power poles on the right and telephone lines on the left.

• Got confused by the advertising words painted on the brick wall of the notions store. Insisted the the first two lines read C. B. McGuire. When I informed Grok that he was hallucinating, he refused to revise his position.

Queensware was a popular and commonly found everyday dinnerware during the nineteenth and early twentieth century. Imported from England, Sparta had a number of stores in 1910 that sold it.

I would love to hear your comments on 1907 Sparta, or Artificial Intelligence.

In general, Grok A. I. seems to be best at solving multivariate riddles where the coming together of distinctly separate data sets is a necessary key. But one on one, the human mind is still superior at some things.

Perhaps the most revelatory conclusion after working with A. I. is that it often gets it wrong, but “WE” still get it right. What I mean is, A.I. often surfaces unexpected connections and facts that shift my thinking—and in that shift, my human brain then grasps the answer.. Elon Musk recently said that:

"As I mentioned several years ago, it increasingly appears that humanity is a biological bootloader for digital superintelligence."

That may well be but for me, A. I. is a boot loader⁵ for human intelligence.

Disclaimer: This is not a recommendation to use any one A. I. versus another.

1. Thanks to Denyse Allen @denyseallen at Chronical Makers for first pointing out the importance of back and forth interrogation when using A. I.

2. A one place study is a focused study of the history of a single geographical location over time usually encompassing genealogy, economics, and technological change.

3. Blair, Illinois is in Randolph County about five miles SSW of Sparta and should not to be confused with the other Blair near Chicago.

4. It was common practice that large English estates have their own unique name. In this case Reigersfeld was the name of the house and suggests connections to Poland.

5. Boot loader is a computer program that starts up the main operating system. An interface between hardware and the main operating system software.