[Postmark: Indianapolis, Indiana, 23 December 1915, 11:00 PM]
Address: Mr. and Mrs. J.W. Hackleman, Connersville, Indiana
Best Wishes
for a
Merry Xmas
Clarence, Nellie
and
Wayne
©2018 copyright owned and transcribed by Deborah Sweeney
Post originally found: https://genealogylady.net/2018/02/07/lenas-postcards-75-clarence-nellie-wayne/
A benefit of a little digital organizing is discovering files that have been hidden. A recent David’s diary entry mentioned photographs taken in March 1971. I found the photographs! I don’t have the original, but I have a scan I made several years ago.
Deborah, March 1971
©2018 copyright owned Deborah Sweeney
Post originally found: https://genealogylady.net/2018/02/03/photographic-trio/
Letter transcription:
Meade Center, Kas. Oct. 4, 1886
Sister Lena;
Dear Sister; I have been owing you a letter for some time and will improve the present opportunity. As you will see I am way out here in south western Kansas, am here to preach and am getting along finely, last evening the new Church was full to overflowing and quite an interest is being manifested. Two have been added since we began—a week ago yesterday.
I left home Wednesday morning Sept. 22 at 6 a.m. and was met at the Depot at Bloomington by Minnie, and as the cars were very much crowded I thought best to accept the invitation to remain over night. Thad. has suffered very much for several months with a sore eye. He had his eye ball cut some six months ago. He had gone to work for the first time in months the week I saw him. His children (Lee Roy Excepted) are all doing well. Arther is a model of a young man, and Minnie is a real lady. No one could change more than has El [Eldora].
I staid home with Thad Wednesday night while the rest went to prayer meeting. We had a long talk which
[page 2] I enjoyed very much. On Thursday morning I resumed my journey arriving in Kansas City too late for the train west and put up at a hotel for the night. At 10 a.m. I took the train and crossed the State of Kan. by daylight arriving at Dodge City several hours late at 2 a.m. and went to bed. At 8 a.m. I again took up my moving tent and for 9 hours wended my way over the great Buffalo plains of the Southwest arriving at my destination at 6 p.m. Saturday.
Thus you see I made my journey of 1,000 miles mostly by daylight. I had traveled most of the road from New Castle to Bloomington along which there are very few objects of interest, save Wabash River which is lovely this season of the year. On my journey crossed the Wabash, the Illinois, the Mosouri and the Kansas and Arkansas all about the same size. at 2:30 p.m. the 24th I crossed the Great Mississippi River at Louisianna Mo. It is as clear as White Water, and greatly in contrast to the muddy Mo. River.
Kan. has suffered from a drouth this year yet in the eastern part of the state the crops look fair, at least the corn in the field, and out here the corn, oats, millet & cane
[page 3] look very fine. The cattle in all parts of the country are looking well as are the horses and sheep, hogs are a scarce article.
This is one of the finest counties in the State. One year and a half ago there was not a house where the Co. seat now is, now there are 800 or 900 people. A quarter section bought of the U.S. two years ago just north of the present town for $200 is now worth $12,000 and quarters all over the County are ranging from $800 to $3,000 and $800 piece is generally much broken but good pasture land. Keep it in the family—I bought a half section of as fine land as there is in Kan. last Saturday. It is 12 miles out, but that will not affect in 10 years from now, and does not affect it much now. By the help of my friends here I got it at a big bargain from parties auctions to sell, and have just been offered $500 for my bargain—but no. It lies to the south west of here. See map. Please say little about it.
Right here the Buffalo roamed not more than 4 or 5 years ago. I have seen hundreds of prairie-dogs and now and then a Jack-rabbit, as large as a small dog. Deer still
[page 4] and few miles west of here the wild-horse.
Well I guess I have told all of interest save it should be about domestic matters. The houses here are all small. In the country most of them are made of sod, and when plastered outside and in are very cozy—but not many are thus finished. The most of the people are industrious and honest. They leave doors unlocked, and are seldom troubled with thieves.
They are chiefly from Indiana, Ill., Ohio and Mo. as named in proportion of numbers.
Give my regards and these presents to Dan. My love to Ella and the Babies and also to Bal. & all.
Lovingly Your Brother
Eugene B. S.
©2018 copyright owned and transcribed by Deborah Sweeney
Post originally found: https://genealogylady.net/2018/02/02/fayette-friday-eugene-b-scofield-4-october-1886/
When the soldiers returned home after World War I, many small towns honored their fallen sons and returning soldiers with parades. This series of photographs found their way to me via my maternal grandmother’s family and I believe the location is Avon Square (Avon, Massachusetts) in the spring of 1919. My family lived for many generations in the area of Massachusetts where Holbrook, Avon, and Brockton come together. My great grandfather, Malcolm W. Leonard, served in Company A, 23rd Engineers. In his late twenties when he enlisted, Malcolm was a college graduate and civil engineer before joining the Army. (If you have been following along, he was the boy in the boat in yesterday’s post. The two girls were his sisters, Sibyl and Eunice.)
Malcolm W. Leonard, 1918
©2018 copyright owned by Deborah Sweeney
Post originally found: https://genealogylady.net/2018/02/01/throwback-thursday-wwi-parade/
©2018 copyright owned by Deborah Sweeney
Post originally found: https://genealogylady.net/2018/01/31/wordless-wednesday-leonard-siblings/
Gladys and Jim certainly enjoyed posing for the camera. They were the two youngest siblings of their family, born twenty-one months apart. By the 1920s, their oldest sister Lydia Allie (Foster) McCammon had died. An even older half brother—whom they may never have met in person—lived in Arkansas. Jesse was partially raised by their grandparents, James H. and Margaret (Rea) Lawhead, and an uncle Jasper Lawhead. Another brother Glenn moved west at some point. James E. Foster, the father, had long left the family so Gladys and Jim remained to take care of their mother. The siblings possessed strong work ethics and helped to support their mother until Emma died in 1943.
©2018 copyright owned by Deborah Sweeney
Post originally found: https://genealogylady.net/2018/01/30/siblings/
Roscoe, Gladys, and John Yegerlehner, 1932 (Photograph from the author’s collection)
Sometimes, even when you think a project is finished, the project isn’t done! I’ve been sorting through the digital images I have stored over the years, from scans of old photographs to my contemporary collection of iPhone photographs. When I posted the collection of pictures of my great grandmother holding my uncle John a few days ago, I completely forgot the above photograph. It belongs in the same pile.
The weather was certainly mild in late February 1932! The 28th landed on a Sunday that year. The perfect day for a family get-together and presumably attending church. Roscoe and Gladys moved frequently in the early days of their marriage. He worked in Clay County teaching school. The setting isn’t rural enough to be Clay County. I presume the photograph’s location to be Terre Haute. In 1932, Emma and James Foster resided at 719 Harrison Street, Terre Haute. When the photographs were taken, James’ divorce from his first wife Gladys was about to be finalized (March 1932). I am also making the assumption that the automobile belonged to Roscoe and Gladys. He bought his first car a year or two before he married Gladys.
719 Harrison Street, Terre Haute (Image courtesy of Google Maps)
If Roscoe, Gladys, Emma, and Jim were standing at the curb, looking back at the house when the photographs were taken, their house would not have been visible. By panning the angles in Google Street view, a large tree obscures the view of the house directly behind the family! Notice the newly planted trees in the background behind Roscoe and Gladys. However, by moving back down the street a house of interest is detected. The two-story house behind Gladys’ head has a gable window as well as roofs of two different heights.
Harrison Street, Terre Haute (Image courtesy of Google maps)
Emma and Jim’s house is the first house on the right. The tree obscures the house directly across the street, but the house with the two roofs and gable is visible to the left of the tree.
Have you searched for an ancestor’s home using Google yet?
©2018 copyright owned by Deborah Sweeney
Post originally found: https://genealogylady.net/2018/01/29/a-family-of-three/
Another three photographs create a grouping in my collection. Since everyone is dressed in black—at least they seem to be in the black & white photographs—I assume the foursome attended a funeral. Again, the time frame appears to be the mid to late 1920s. None of the women are wearing jackets, but the ground is covered by a light layer of snow. The tree limbs are bare. The photographer is unknown (since they never make an appearance). The petite woman standing next to Gladys is believed to be her Aunt Minerva, fraternal twin to Gladys’ mother Emma. Minerva’s dress is old-fashioned compared to Gladys’ stylish frock. The longer skirt hem and squarish collared neckline hearkens back the the World War I years. James (Jim) and Emma stand in the background. He was quite tall; his shoe can be seen on the ground next to Minerva’s feet. While Emma stands on the lower step—her boot just visible behind Gladys’ legs—creating the illusion that mother and son are the same height.
Gladys, Emma, & Jim Foster, with Aunt Minerva (Photograph from the author’s private collection)
I do not know whose funeral generated these photographs—especially since the mood is not particularly somber. Gladys smiles in both pictures. I have not discovered a Foster or Lawhead relative, living in the Terre Haute area, whose death occurred in the late 1920s, who would have prompted such a reunion. Perhaps I will someday…
©2018 copyright owned Deborah Sweeney
Post originally found: https://genealogylady.net/2018/01/28/a-funeral/
Another group of photographs in my possession likely dates from the spring of 1929. I did not acquire them together, but spread out over a few years. Until I started looking at each photograph closely—sometimes better achieved once a photograph is scanned—I did not realize that they were taken on the same day. Or at the very least, Gladys is wearing the same dress. Because of the quality of the photographs, the different angles, lighting, and her hat, it may be hard to tell that the dress is the same. The feature that stands out the most is the sleeves—a fitted upper sleeve with a gathered, more voluminous lower sleeve controlled into cuffs at the wrists.
In the five photographs, Gladys is captured alone and with both her husband, Roscoe, and her brother, James. My gut feeling tells me that the outing took place in the spring before Gladys and Roscoe married—perhaps an engagement photo shoot. They married on 25 May 1929. Gladys wears a ring on her right hand (the only one clearly visible in any of the photographs). While an engagement ring is traditionally worn today on the left hand prior to marriage in western cultures, that has not always been case. The band appears simple so it may or may not be relevant. Skirt hems rose during the 1920s, and the tight fitting bell-shaped hats, known as cloche hats, remained popular throughout the decade.
It appears that the threesome had fun taking turns with the camera. Unfortunately, it appears that they didn’t find a stranger to take a photo of all three of them together!
©2018 copyright owned Deborah Sweeney
Post originally found: https://genealogylady.net/2018/01/27/sunday-in-the-park/
Letter transcription:
Sexton, Rush County, Ind., June 6 1886
Dear Sister Lena:
Ettie wanted me to write to you Friday last but as I was very busy I failed to do so, and as I have been from home every since I had to put it off until now. I am on my way home from the Hannagan and am waiting for my train.
I write this expressly to urge you to come up and visit us as soon as you can arrange to do so. Ettie would like for you to come the last of this week and remain as long [as] you can. I am at home most of the time and can be with you.
Can you not spend several days with us before harvest?
Yesterday was quite rainy.
Love to all—Drop us a card that you will come. Write soon.
Lovingly E. B. Scofield
©2018 copyright owned and transcribed by Deborah Sweeney
Post originally found: https://genealogylady.net/2018/01/26/fayette-friday-eugene-b-scofield-6-june-1886/
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