E Butler 1880

Today, I thought a little stronger challenge was about due, rather than simply finding people for whom we have lots of clues. So I took a look at the photo of E Butler. It is a cdv on green cardstock, with an inscription on back that reads: “Truly Yours, E. Butler, July 2, 1880″.

There is no photographer’s imprint on back, but there was one on front — however — most of it was trimmed off when somebody decided to shorten the card. So that is where the detective work began. A close look at the name convinced me that it must be Barker or Parker. Only the tips of letters were left on the right, where the location is usually shown, but enough remains of the first letter to be fairly sure it is a W. That is followed by another mark, and some space — so it looks like the location is upper and lower case, with only the longer letters leaving marks. The first letter after the W is one of those long letters, and the possibilities are: Wb, Wh, Wk, or Wl. The Wh is of course the most probable, since town names beginning with the other prefixes are rare.

Next I turned to the ClassyArts.com Database of Photographers, a list of historic photographers approaching 60,000 records and still growing. I looked first at all the Parker listings, but none of the towns for those photographers began with Wh. I checked Barker, which had fewer listings, and there was listed James Barker of Whitehall, New York, who was aged 35 in the 1880 census, and born in Vermont. Well that not only places a photographer Barker in a town beginning with Wh, but it places him there the very year we are interested in — 1880.

Now, to confirm the probable identification of the photographer, I filled in the letters for Whitehall, New York under the marks on the cdv, to see if the tall letters match the marks:

The clipped imprint and proposed restoration.

They match perfectly! There can be little doubt then that James Barker of Whitehall was the photographer for this image.

Now, what about E Butler? Are there any candidates for him in or around Whitehall, New York? Again we turn to the 1880 census, since that is the same year as the photograph. Our photo shows a man in middle-age, his hair is greatly receded, but he doesn’t appear very wrinkled, so my guess is that he is between 35 and 55.

There is only one E Butler in Whitehall, Ebenezer Butler, age 46, a school teacher, born in New York. I searched various online resources, but could find no other photograph of Mr Butler to confirm this identification. I suspect this is Ebenezer, but we do not have enough evidence to say so with a high degree of certainty. It could be Edward Butler, age 27, who also lived in the same county, though not the village of Whitehall. Or it could be any of hundreds of E Butler’s who lived elsewhere in the country, and may have had some reason to visit Whitehall. For this one, we can only say ‘probably’ — until more evidence surfaces.

12 Year old Merle Penry of Iowa in 1909

This portrait shows a young girl in a pensive pose, seated in a chair and gazing downward. She wears a white blouse and colored skirt with H shaped halter straps over her shoulders. Her hair is parted off-center, and held in back by a bow. The back of the card is marked ‘Merle Penry, 1909, Blockton Ia’. Our research shows she would have been about 12 years old when the photo was taken.

Merle E Penry is listed in the 1900 census, aged 3, daughter of James and Annie Penry, farmers. For a farm family they seem to have moved around a lot — that census shows them in Le Claire City, Scott county, Iowa. The 1905 Iowa state census shows them in Clinton, Ringgold county, Iowa. This photo indicates Blockton, which is in Taylor county, Iowa. And the 1910 census lists them in Jefferson, Taylor county, Iowa. In fact, the last two are the same location, Blockton is a town in Jefferson township. Clinton is a township in Ringgold county that is adjacent to Jefferson township — so it is possible that their farm spanned the border between the two (or else their move between 1905 and 1910 was only a few miles), so they probably didn’t really move as much as the placenames make it appear.

This style of photograph was introduced in the 1890s and continued to be popular into the 1920s. It is smaller than a carte de visite, roughly two inches wide and three long — with a very small photo attached. The black card with white borders and white floral motif with a bottom banner dates from about 1905 to 1915.

This attractively colored CDV of little Ada May Josselyn was taken in the mid-1860s at the studio of famous photographer William Shew. A little research reveals that Ada grew up to be a spinster school teacher.

The Photograph

Ada May Josselyn ca 1864

The photograph is a typical carte-de-visite from the early or mid-1860s, with square corners, white cardstock, a double line around the front edge in violet (gilt is more common), and a simple three line photographer’s imprint on back.

Little Ada is posed seated on a cloth-draped table, with a plain dark background. She wears an off-the-shoulder dress of lightweight wool cloth called delaine, with short sleeves and three lines of dark horizontal trim near the hem, complemented by two similar trim lines at on the sleeves. The bodice is gathered into a flat sash at the waist. She has on black square toed slipper style shoes held with a strap at the ankle, over white short(?) socks. The left sock looks long, but that is probably just over-exposed so the top edge is not visible, and the colorist has left the leg and sock white, while the other leg was colorized.

The colorization, other than the sock-discrepancy mentioned, is finely done, with green for the table cloth, purple for Ada’s dress, and flesh color on her face, arms and one leg. A thin necklace has been highlighted in gilt.

The Subject

Genealogical research reveals that Ada May was born May 18, 1862. She looks to be about 1-1/2 or 2 years old here, so we can suppose the photograph was taken about 1864, which is consistent with the style. There is no tax stamp on the card, which may suggest that it was taken before August 1st of 1864, but that is suggestive rather than firm evidence, since the stamps sometimes came off without a trace, or were not placed on every card.

The California deaths index shows she died 3 September 1940 in San Francisco, and her mother’s maiden name was Lacey. It does not list her father’s full name. The 1900 and subsequent censuses show her living in the household of her cousin Albert E Lacey, with no occupation. Census listings consistently show her father was born in Massachusetts and her mother in Canada.

The 1889 San Francisco city directory, and Ada’s 1912 voters registration both list her as a school teacher. The directory even lists the school — Bartlett Primary School.

We find her listed in the 1880 census, aged 17, living with her mother 35 year old Maria Josselyn, and a 13 year old brother, William Josselyn. I could not find the family in the 1870 census, and so did not find the father’s full name.

The Photographer

William Shew was born in 1820 on a farm near Watertown, Jefferson county, New York. He and his brothers learned the daguerreotype process from Samuel F B Morse in 1840 or 1841, just a year or two after the technique was first made public.

After building a successful business as a daguerreotypist and case maker in Boston, Shew sold his interests there and sailed for California, arriving in March, 1851. Shew opened a photographic business in San Francisco, where he remained until after the turn of the 20th century and his death in 1903.

This CDV has the address 423 Montgomery Street on the back. He seems to have used that address between 1861 and 1869, though his earlier address is also on Montgomery Street, so it is possible the street was renumbered, rather than his studio moved, in 1861. His later 1860s imprints have additional addresses in the same block, along with 423, such as the 1867 imprint that shows: Nos. 417, 421, 423 & 425 Montgomery St.

Miss Bettie Baldwin of Cherryvale KS 1879

In this photograph we have a portrait of an attractive young woman, identified on the back as Miss Bettie Baldwin of Cherryvale Kansas, and dated April 1879. The photographer is G H Dresser, at Benders Gallery, Independence, Kansas. Both Cherryvale and Independence are in Montgomery County, Kansas.

Independence is the Montgomery county seat, and probably the nearest photo studio to Cherryvale at that time. Cherryvale had only been platted in 1871, though there were many settlers in the area in the preceding decade. In 1880 the census showed 620 residents for the town.

The name ‘Bettie’ is of course a nick-name for Elizabeth. In the 1880 census we discovered that Elizabeth was no longer Elizabeth Baldwin, but had married William Graham, so she was listed as Elizabeth Graham. We know it was the former Elizabeth Baldwin however, because the couple are living in her parent’s household, headed by John Baldwin. William is listed as son-in-law and Elizabeth as his daughter. Both John Baldwin and William Graham were hardware merchants. Elizabeth’s mother’s name was Lucinda. Elizabeth was 18 in 1880, and so 17 when this photo was taken.

We also found the photographer, George H Dresser, listed in the 1880 census for Independence, Kansas. Sometime before 1900 George moved to Winfield, Kansas and continued his photographic career there, where he is also listed in the 1910 census. He was born in October, 1854 in Missouri, of German parentage. Elizabeth’s parents were also born in Missouri, so there may have been some recommendation from a common acquaintance that lead the Baldwin’s to use that photographer, rather than John Huey, the only other photographer in Independence at that time.

The reference to Bender’s Studio makes us think that George Dresser, who was only 25 when this 1879 photo was taken, was probably running the studio owned by Bender. In Darrah’s list of CDV imprints we find H A Bender listed for Independence Kansas. That would presumably be Henry Bender, born about 1848, who was listed in Independence as a farmer in the 1870 census and a dentist in the 1880 census. We hope he was no relation to the ‘Bloody Benders‘ a family from the adjacent county — quite near Cherryvale — who are said to have murdered as many as two dozen guests at their inn.

Minnie Bean of Binghamton NY

Here we have a carte de visite (CDV) of a young girl (I estimated age 10 to 12) shown in a vignetted bust view. Her hair is curly at top, and parted down the center, and long enough that it is drawn back behind the ears and disappears behind her shoulders. It is not tied up the way adult women wore their hair in that time. The card has a single line around the print, and a photographer’s imprint on back. A light pencil inscription informs us that this is “Minnie Beane, June 28. 1872.”

Everything about this CDV is consistent with the inscribed date. The vignette style photo was very popular in the 1860s, but continued well into the 1870s. The 1860s vignettes generally have smaller bust views, leaving wider margins around the vignette — but this image has the larger size typical of the 1870s. The girl’s dress is a light plaid, typical of the late 1860s and early 1870s. The photographer’s imprint is a simple four line text, but unlike the 1860s imprints of that type, this has the photographer’s name in much larger type and a fancy ornate typeface. Such imprints were more typically turned horizontally by the mid-1870s, but in 1872 regular vertical imprints still outnumbered the horizontal ones.

Minnie Bean

So if we accept the date, can we also accept the identification? Searching the 1870 census I found only one Minnie Beane listed, and her information did not match what we know of this photo. I searched again, however, for the name without the terminal ‘e’ — and found there were over 20 Minnie Bean listings — including one in Binghamton New York, the location of the photographer. Add to that the fact that the Minnie Bean listed in Binghamton was ten years old in 1870 (so she would have been 12 in the 1872 photo) and I think we can be fairly sure this is the correct identification.

Minnie is first listed in the 1860 census, aged three months, the youngest of four children of Jeremiah and Clementine Bean, living in Cincinnatus, Cortland county, New York. Jeremiah has no occupation listed, he is shown as a ‘Gentleman’ with $10,000 worth of real estate, and $20,000 in personal property. The older children are Mary, age 14; Emma, age 6; and Frank, age 4.

By 1870 the family has moved to Binghamton, and Jeremiah’s occupation is listed as merchant. His personal property has grown to $50,000 — a very large sum for those days. Such a prosperous family includes a resident household servant girl, of course. The household is similar in 1880, except Mary is not included, probably married and moved into her own home. By 1900 Clementine is a widow.

Minnie apparently never married, as she continues to be listed right up to the 1930 census, when she was 70, still living in Binghamton, now with her widowed sister Emma. She never has an occupation listed in the census, apparently her inheritance was sufficient to support her — but she also never owned her home, but was always a tenant of some other household — one year it was a preacher and his wife.

George N Cobb, The Photographer

George N Cobb was born in New York state in March 1847 to Ziphron and Sarah (Crane) Cobb. The family moved to Pennsylvania soon afterward, and are listed in New Milford, Susquehanna county, Pennsylvania in the 1850 census, and Montrose, Susquehanna county, Pennsylvania in 1860. When he was 20 (1867), George married 17 year old Augusta. Apparently George opened his first photographic studio about 1866, in Montrose, according to a dated CDV listed by Darrah. He employed Asa Warner, according to the 1870 census, who was later a photographer in Greene, New York.

George and Augusta (’Gussie’) are listed in Montrose in the 1870 census, with five month old daughter Nina. George is listed as photographer, but obviously rents his studio space, since he lists no real estate in the census, but has a personal estate value of $2,000. Asa Warner is boarding with them, and listed as a photographic studio employee.

Our CDV is evidence that George moved to Binghamton New York very early in the 1870s. Darrah also lists an 1872 dated CDV for George N Cobb, as well as another dated 1875 where his description refers to him as ‘Artist’. The existence of several dated images suggests that Cobb himself added the identification and date to these CDVs, which helps explain the misspelling of Minnie Bean’s last name. Misspelling it not unusual in genealogical research, George Cobb’s census records, for example, variously list him as George N, George M, or George W Cobb. Indeed, the CDV we have shows George’s location as ‘Binghampton’ New York, but the town name has no ‘p’ in the correct spelling.

The 1880 census shows Charles J Howe, photographer, boarding in the Cobb household, no doubt working as an employee in George’s studio. By the late 1880s Charles J Howe had his own studio in Elmira (Chemung county) New York.

George and Augusta Cobb continue to be listed in Binghamton New York in the 1880, 1900, 1910 and 1920 censuses. In 1880 and 1900 he is listed as ‘Photographer.’ The 1910 census listing shows him as Commercial Photographer. By 1920, at 73 years of age, he is listed as Studio Proprietor, suggesting that his role in the business was less active by then. He probably died between 1920 and 1930 since he does not seem to be listed in the 1930 census.