At last summer’s Robbins reunion cousin Sherrill Beck (a Jacob Robbins descendant) handed me an envelope containing some old calling cards.  I didn’t have time to really study them until recently.  What is interesting is that the cards all come from the Theodoshia (Robbins) Herren branch of the family – Theodoshia being a first-cousin to Sherrill’s Jacob.  Obviously there were either visitations back and forth between the younger members of the family or they included them in letters they wrote each other. The Herrens and the Jacob Robbins family had a close relationship: I’ve previously written of William J. Herrens’ unsuccessful attempt to entice his cousin Jacob in accompanying him in a return visit to Decatur County, Indiana, in 1877.

According to a Wikipedia article on visiting or calling cards, by the 19th century, men and women needed personalized cars to maintain their social status.  Cards were left at homes, sent to individuals, or exchanged in person for various social purposes.  They became an indispensable tool of etiquette. 

Another website quoted an etiquette book from 1882:  “Callers should always be provided with cards.  A gentleman should carry them loose in a convenient pocket; but a lady may use a card case.  No matter how many members of the family you call upon, you send in but one card.  Where servants are not kept, and you are met at the door by the lady herself, of course there is no use for a card.  If you call upon a friend who has a visitor, send in but one card; but if they are not at home, leave a card for each.  Calls of pure ceremony are sometimes made by simply handing in a card.”

The etiquette on the Oregon frontier and among family members may have been less formalized as I’m not sure close relatives needed to follow the formality of the very detailed social rules and conventions.  But I’m sure it was a good way for young people, in particular, to share their calling “availability” to others or to simply exchange cards with each other, either in person or by mail.

What’s particularly interesting about these calling cards is that I can date most of them to the early 1880s because we know Docia (Robbins) Herren died in 1881, several of the cards belonged to three siblings who died of diphtheria in June of 1883, and Ida Herren was married in 1884.  

Here is a list of the relatives with calling cards.

• Mrs. Docia W. Herren (1804-1881)
• George L. Herren (1864-1883)
• Lizzie E. Herren (1868-1883)  (3 cards)
• Sarah Herren (1866-1883)
• Lottie E. Herren (1854-1896)  (2 cards)
• John C. Herren (1828-1898)
• Mrs. Elizabeth Herren (1833-1910)
• Thomas L. Herren (1862-1922)
• Ida A. Herren (1864-1936) (married Ralph Morris in 1884)

And here is a simplified family tree showing the relationships of those who have calling cards (names in bold):

Besides the cards shown above here are the rest of these Herren family artifacts from the early 1880s:

[Jacob Robbins-William Robbins-Theodoshia (Dosha/Docia) (Robbins) Herren]