George Quinn was the youngest brother of my husband’s grandmother, Catherine Quinn Hickey. He was born in Dakota County in 1883, the youngest of eleven children, and only five years old when his father, Thomas, died.

Back when I researched Catherine’s siblings and their descendants, George was the last one to be found. I finally tracked him to California where he died in 1959. George had worked as an electric company lineman, married a woman considerably older than he, and had no children. I’ve never seen a photo identified as George, but I’ve caught a glimpse of him in another way.

Among some old books stored in our basement, I found a copy of Classics for Children: A Second Reader, published in 1892. The book is in remarkably good shape and may sell for a few dollars on ebay, if I can bring myself to sell it.  

What I found inside the book took me back to October 1, 1895, when George Quinn’s teacher at Winthrop School in Minneapolis sent Mrs. Quinn a ‘warning notice’ about her son’s absence from school (below left).

Was George sick that day and his mother forgot to send a written excuse? Or had 12-year-old George found something more interesting to do and skipped school? Or, since I found the note in George's book, had Mrs. Quinn even seen the warning notice?

Inside the flyleaf of the book George had written his name and drawn a picture (below right): a fairly realistic drawing of a man holding the reins to a horse with a whip in one hand. The man’s clothing looks a bit like a uniform with its cap and double-breasted buttons, which reminded me of photos I’d seen of Catherine’s husband, Patrick, as a fireman. But Patrick never had a mustache, and he didn’t marry Catherine until 1906.

I’m always amazed by the snippets of history that survive.