This story started exactly 100 years and one day ago, on December 5, 1916, and resulted in what a California man called a “re-distribution of happiness.”

It began when a woman named Alex Durand mailed a postcard to her friend, Grace Cronkkite in Detroit, Mich. It was postmarked 3 p.m., Dec. 5, 1916.

When she signed her name on the postcard, she used a period after the X, possibly indicating Alex may have been short for Alexis or Alexandria. But space on a postcard is at a premium.

“Frank was sent here on business three weeks ago for the firm, and I came with him for a little trip,” she wrote. “Do not know how long we will be here, but hope to be in Detroit for Xmas. Best regards from Frank and with much love I am as ever your friend.”

The front of the card was a photo of the old Will County Court House in Joliet.

The story of the journey the postcard made from Michigan and how it ended up in California is lost to time, but it eventually fell into the hands of 86-year-old Lowell Joerg, of Stockton, Calif.

“I was at an antique shop here and found this old circa 1916 picture card of your beautiful court house,” Joerg wrote in a letter he addressed to “Will County Auditor.” “It's an old classic for sure, so I thought to myself, ‘by golly, I'll send it back home where it can be appreciated.' ”

And so a century after it was first sent, it landed in the hands of Duffy Blackburn, Will County's current auditor.

“Well, I gave $6 for it, so if you want it for $7 or $8, or so why that's sure OK,” Joerg wrote. “Throw in a little postage if you want, too.

“My wife says if I hear from you, I will have to take her to lunch,” Joerg said. “I am 86 years old and still going strong.”

In his letter, Joerg called his correspondence “a ‘re-distribution of happiness.' ”

“Our world sure needs it,” he wrote.

Blackburn responded with a letter of his own, telling Joerg the gift “surely brightened my day.”

“It brought smiles to my wife, my staff, and many more,” Blackburn responded.

Blackburn slipped in a $20 bill and told Joerg to take his wife to lunch.

“As to the contents of this letter, I hope the enclosed wins your wife a lunch,” the auditor wrote back. “I am happy to report that this will be one of my favorite moments of my career in elected office.”

Joerg could not be reached for comment about his “redistribution of happiness” or where he took his wife to lunch.

Erin Gallagher is a freelancer.

About the Old Will County Courthouse

The structure depicted in the postcard sent by California resident Lowell Joerg to Will County Auditor Duffy Blackburn was the third Will County Courthouse, built of Joliet limestone at Chicago and Jefferson streets between 1884 and 1887, according to the Will County Court Facts website posted by the 12th Judicial Circuit Court in Will County. It was demolished in 1969 and replaced by the current courthouse in Joliet. The obelisk Civil War monument pictured in front of the courthouse in the postcard remains. It contains elements designed by sculptor Lorado Taft and was erected in 1889.