862 Place Viger Station, Montreal
W.G. MacFarlane, Publisher, Toronto
Mailed from Montreal on September 26, 1904 with a 2¢ KEVII stamp to
F. Mathys Esq., Veras Del Puerto, Salina Cruz, Oaxaca, Mexico
with Salina Cruz receiving cancel
This W.G. MacFarlane patriotic postcard is a week earlier than the earliest reported use of this series, being mailed September 27, 1904. The card is number 862 from Series 2, as listed in Mike Smith’s The W.G. MacFarlane Picture Postcard Handbook, 1902–1910.
The card was mailed from Montreal to Salina Cruz in Oaxaca, Mexico, prior to the transformation of the town into a major Pacific seaport. The port expanded due to its location at the southern terminus of the Tehuantepec National Railway. There was only a small Native village before Salina Cruz was chosen as the Pacific terminus of the railway, whereupon a modern town was laid out and built on adjacent higher ground. The new port was opened to traffic in 1907 and in 1909 its population was largely composed of labourers. The card may have been sent to someone involved in the creation of the seaport.
Below, reverse of card
