Chelsea Ia Mar 26, 1884
Dear Mattie
We may write our name in albums
we may trace them in the sand
We may chisel them in marble;
with a firm and skillful hand;
But the pages soon are sullied,
Soon each name will fade away.
Every momment will crumble.
Like all earthly hopes, decay.
But, Dear friend there is an album,
full of leaves of Snowy white.
Where no name is ever tarnished,
but forever pure and bright.
In that Book of life, God's album
May your name be penned with care
And may all who here have written
write their names forever there.
From you Sincere friend,
Katie Hanify

"From the autograph album of Martha M. "Mattie" Roach of Chelsea, daughter of Fred and Eliza J. (Hutchins) Roach. She married Samuel T. May in Toledo, Tama County, in 1891."

Submitted by: Bob Hutchins tecxas@earthlink.net