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.

Dorothy and Elanore Pieper 1906

According to the information recorded with this photograph, this is a portrait of “Dorothy and Elanore Pieper, 1906. Dorothy married 28 June 1911, now Mrs. P. S. Bomberger.” The photographer is noted as
F A Free, of Davenport.

The first thing we want to do is to take a good look at the image, see if the information we have ‘fits’ — and can we discern any other pertinent details. As with any genealogical record, there are many reasons why the information we find on old photos may be wrong, or at least not what it seems. A sound knowledge of photographic techniques and styles allows us to judge when something is not-quite-right.

In this photo, however, there are no apparent problems. The photographer’s name, F A Free and the word Davenport are right there on front. Now, there are about 16 Davenport’s in the United States — but the mere fact that the photographer didn’t feel he needed to mention the state suggests that this is the largest one — Davenport Iowa.

The card mount is a textured beige, with embossed lines framing the photograph, and the photographers imprint at lower right in red ink. The wide boarders around the picture and the style of the card mount are consistent with a date of 1906.

The image shows two attractive young ladies, holding ribbon-tied scrolls, so we can probably conclude this is a graduation picture. The girls look similar, and so are probably sisters, which is consistent with the identification — though they could also be cousins. We must wonder why the two would be graduating at the same time.

The girls each have very large light-colored ribbons at the back of their hair. They are wearing simple pearl necklaces, and identical dresses with billowing three-quarter length sleeves. The bodices come straight down to belts set high at the waist — flowing outward toward the waist. Each has a ribbon pinned near the left shoulder. The skirts fall to below mid-calf, and the white shoes have ribbons on them too. All of this fits well with the attributed date of 1906.

First, let’s look up the photographer and see if this is, indeed, Davenport Iowa. Checking the 1900 census we find Frank A Free is listed as Photographer in the 1900 census for Davenport IA, born Aug 1875 in IL; living with his wife of less than a year, Emma R Free, born Nov 1881 in IL. Frank is listed again, as F A Free, as a photographer (own studio) in the 1910 Census for Davenport IA, age 36, living with wife Emma E Free, 29, married for 10 years; two sons aged 3 and 9, both born IA. Frank Free is also listed as a photographer in the 1930 census for Davenport IA, age 54; living with wife Emma, age 48 born IL, and son Henry who is also a photographer. So yes, we have the F A Free who was a photographer in Davenport in 1906.

Turning to our subjects, we search for Dorothy and Elanore Pieper. That last name is not very common, but it is the sort that often gets incorrectly indexed. We can not assume they lived in Davenport, since a graduation photo may have warranted a visit to the city if they lived anywhere nearby — but that leaves us still searching within Iowa.

We did find the family living in the city of Davenport in the 1900 census, with William H Pieper as head of house, born September 1853 in Germany. He immigrated to the United States in 1868 and was a naturalized citizen. His wife, Maggie E Pieper, was born August 1861 in Ohio. In 1900 they had been married 22 years, and she had born nine children, though only five were still living. Those five surviving children were Herman, born May 1884 (age 16), Laura F, born Feb 1887 (age 13), William H Jr, born May 1889 (age 11), and twins Dora and Nora, born October 1891 (age 8).

Thus in the census, Dorothy is listed as Dora, and Elanore as Nora. That explains why they would both be graduating at the same time — they were twins! But that raises the question as to why they would be graduating at age 14-1/2 (assuming the photo is Spring 1906, since most classes graduate in Spring or early Summer). Seems a bit young. Nor do they look that young. My guess is that the year was more likely 1908, and was either mis-read or mis-written. Further research could clarify that, but none of the resources I have easily to hand are sufficient, so I will leave that to someone with more pressing interest in the issue.

The inscription also told us that Dorothy married on 28 June 1911, and became Mrs. P. S. Bomberger. We found the Bombergers in Modesto, California in 1920. Mr Bomberger is Paul S Bomberger, age 28 in 1920, born in Pennsylvania, and working as a broker for a grain company. Dora is listed as Dorothy P Bomberger, his wife, also 28 years old, born Iowa. They had three children at that time, John W – age 7, Dorothy E – age 6 and Robert P – age 2-3/12. All three children were born in California.

So we can conclude that this image was correctly identified as to subjects, though we are slightly suspicious about the date. Still, it is certainly within a couple years of being correct, and may be exactly right — a bit more research would clarify that point.