In a fine Spencerian hand ....

Yes, children, there was a time in the distant past when keypads (or keyboards) did not exist and youngsters were launched into the world equipped with training in cursive handwriting. Prior to 1850, the favored form was called "copperplate." Then Platt Rogers Spencer (1800-1864) introduced the simplified "Spencerian" school, which endured until about 1920. By the time I came along, the Palmer method of penmanship was favored.

Not only was penmanship taught in public schools, but free-standing courses also were offered by specialists in the field. In Chariton, during the spring of 1868, a course taught by a Prof. Henderson was heartily endorsed by several prominent residents. Their endorsement was published as follows in The Democrat of May 2:

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Chirography --- Prof. Henderson has just closed his lessons to a second large class in penmanship in Chariton. The Professor has been long and favorably known among us, having taught classes in his art here every year for the last four or five years. The system which he teaches is the Spencerian, so justly celebrated for its beauty,  simplicity and adaptation to business. It is universally pronounced by experienced judges to be the best system extant. Professor H. deserves, and has met with, remarkable success among us. His methods of teaching are unsurpassed, and he himself is seldom equaled as a penman, in either the plain or ornamental branches. Great demands have been made upon him for fancy card-writing, in which he excels. We cheerfully commend him as a person in every way deserving of public patronage, feeling confident that those who gain the benefit of his instructions will never have cause to regret it.

(Signed) J.B. Custer, County Treasurer; N.B. Gardner, Clerk District Court; W.A. Nichol, Principal Chariton Public Schools; W.H. Maple, County Superintendent; Prof. A.P. Lathrop, Prof. C.C. Burr, Prof. J.W. Perry, Warren S. Dungan, D.T. Henderson.

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And still today, if you visit the Lucas County Courthouse and ask to see the earliest records (or consult records from that era online in digital format), you'll find page after page of deeds and wills and court transcripts painstakingly entered in huge volumes in fine Spencerian handwriting. So courses like Prof. Henderson's were not in vain.