After a little research, I found that the original owner of this book was a woman named Hester Ann Walsh Brady. The dedication is to a "Mrs. Sheldon J. Brady" And I found an ancestry listing for a man named Sheldon Jackson Brady, born in 1892, who's spouse was Hester. She was born in 1893 and passed away in 1949. She is currently at rest in a cemetery just a few hours away from the address in the dedication.

The two had a daughter named Lesley (her name is in pencil at the top of that same dedication page) who went on to have four children of her own, and had 16 grandchildren at the time of her passing in 2005. (18 at the time of her husband's passing five years later)

Sheldon's father was John Green Brady, the governer of the district of Alaska from 1897-1906, who had a life-changing encounter with Theodore Roosevelt Sr. when he was a young boy (further info on this is in the first paragraphs of his wiki if you care to know more.)

Honestly, I would like to have learned more about Hester herself, as she was the original owner of the book, but sadly didn't find much at all about her no matter where I looked.

All-in-all, my interest in (and the point of) all of this, is that I believe it's worth remembering that books carry so many more stories than just what's written on the pages. From just a few words I was able to take a glance into history, no matter how "insignificant," and see how a person has impacted the world. I hope you find that as amazing as I do.