The months between October 1913 and October 1914 were a time of great change. New technology was bringing men and women from the farm into cities. The automobile was supplanting the horse as the primary means of travel and America's isolationism was about to be shattered with the beginning of World War I.
In the midst of this change, Hildred L. Cress, a young secretary in St. Paul, Minnesota, met Charles W. Husband, M.D., who was establishing his medical practice in Detroit, Michigan. They decided to correspond, conducting their courtship via the written word, more than 300 letters in all.
A century later, the letters survive, providing a unique perspective of the couple and the world about them. Journalist Hildy Corbett uses the letters, census data, newspaper records and oral history to chronicle what happened to the pair, as well as others significant to their story.
