[Howe’s Hunter]

Paul, I try not to think about how many he must have started with.

At right at 200 I know exist now, I'm guessing (and this is a SWAG, nothing done truly mathematically) that he must have had over a thousand. You figure over the course of 100 years, some must have been recycled during paper drives during World Wars I and II, some that survived that are bound to have been tossed by mothers who were cleaning the house while son was at college or after he was married, etc. Surely some where just tossed because whoever had them got tired of them and didn't know what else to do with them.

I do wonder at times if he still have the bulk of the collection by the time he was married and started his family? He and his wife had one child, a daughter, who never married (or at least no records of that) and who died just 10 years after he did. So did she get the collection at his death, and then it was dispersed at the time of her death, or had he gotten rid of most or all of them by the time he was a young family man?

So many questions and no one left who knows the answer. Part of the fun is never knowing if I'll have the complete collection. At least one new one seems to show up every month. Guess that could go on for a long time.

Thanks, Johnny.