Mary McLean, Mobile, Alabama 1860s-70s

Mary McLean was born in Mobile, Alabama on January 26th, 1851. She was the fourth of Susannah and James Bennett McLean's nine children. James was a butcher, a profession he passed on to his oldest son, James Madison. James M. was also the only one of the McLean boys old enough to enlist in the Confederate army at the outbreak of the Civil War, during which he fought with the 1st Alabama Infantry Regiment, Company D.

In 1870, about the year this photo was taken, 18-year-old Mary lost both her father and her younger brother, Robert Benjamin. Her second oldest brother, John, became a butcher as his father and brother had, perhaps as a way to help support the family. James, who had married and continued his work as a butcher after the war, lived next door with his wife, Emma, and their two children. After Mary's older sister Elizabeth died in 1878, her four young children came to live with the McLeans. As the oldest surviving daughter, Mary would likely have taken on the responsibility of helping raise her nieces and nephews.

In 1888, 37-year-old Mary became the second wife of William Henry Farnell, a farmer and former Confederate soldier. From their marriage, Mary and William had daughters Carrie Ethel (born about 1890) and Susie Mae (born about 1893). William died in 1918 at age 82, leaving behind 67-year-old Mary and their two girls, who were then in their 20's. From what I could find, neither Carrie Ethel nor Susie ever married. Susie was the only one in the family to have a job, working as a railroad clerk to support her mother and sister. The two women continued to live with their mother until Mary passed away in 1940 at the age of 89.

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Alice VanDusen Haehr and Family, Providence, Rhode Island 1900's

"Alice Heir nee VanDusen
Mother's Sister
in New York City
Clarence Nichols
Aunt"

Alice Mary VanDusen was born in New York in 1859 to Ezra and Lydia VanDusen. Ezra was a farm laborer from Canada who married Lydia after the death of his first wife Lorrinda in 1854. From her father's first marriage Alice had two half-brothers, Charles and Adelbert. Ezra and Lydia went on to have a total of 8 children, including Alice's older sister, Josephine, and her younger siblings William, Amelia, Frederick, James, Hobert, and Ida. (Ida would eventually marry Clemon Nichols and I believe she may be the "mother" referred to in the inscription.) The family lived together in Pittsfield, New York. 

Alice married William Haehr, a lithographer and the son of German immigrants, in Chicago on June 30th, 1894. (I wonder what brought Alice to Chicago?) From there the couple settled in Providence, Rhode Island. Their only child, Margaret, was born in 1901. William continued to work as a lithographer in Providence and judging by this photo, the family lived comfortably. Sadly, Alice died in 1912 at age 53 and William was left to raise their young daughter on his own. In the 1915 Rhode Island state census, William and 14-year-old Margaret are living with a housekeeper, Lillian Perry, and her son Robert. In 1925 Margaret married John S. Barry and William, now in his 60's, moved in with his daughter and son-in-law. He finally retired from his life-long work as a lithographer in his 70's. 

William Haehr passed away in 1944 at age 82. He was buried with Alice in Cranston, Rhode Island.

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Mrs. Henry Dearsman and Daughters, Ohio, 1900's

Writing on the back reads:
"Mrs. Henry Dearsman
Faye
Alice"

Before she was Mrs. Henry Dearsman, she was Ada Lucinda Garrett. Ada was born in Seneca County, Ohio, in 1877 to parents William and Elvira Garrett. She was the second oldest of the Garrett children, with one older sister, Viola, and four younger sisters, Estella, Mabel May, Nellie, and Hazel.

In 1895, 18-year-old Ada married Henry Dearsman, the son of German-born Adolph Dearsman, a respected farmer in Seneca County.

This photo was likely taken in the Dearsman home in Adams Township around 1901. At Ada's shoulder stands her eldest daughter, Faye, born November 22, 1898. In her arms, she holds Alice, born April 9th, 1901. Their third child, Homer, would not arrive until October 1905. Also living with the family at the time was Ada's younger sister, Nellie. 

Henry supported his family as a farmer until April 1924, when he died at the age of 61. A few months later, 24-year-old Faye married Clarence Kreh, a farmer. Clarence and Faye had been together only 8 months when Faye fell ill with pneumonia brought on by measles. She died on March 13th, 1925, at age 26. I can't imagine what a terrible blow this must have been to Ada, especially so soon after the death of her husband. Just days later, 23-year-old Alice married Harold Diehl Meyer in nearby Tiffin, Ohio. Ada's youngest, Homer, married Delphine Le Jeune in 1928. 

That same year, Ada herself decided to marry again. At 51 she married 60-year-old Elmer E. Howey. In the 1930 census, Elmer is working as a carpenter while Ada is working as a chambermaid in a sanitarium. She later worked as a cook at a hospital. Elmer eventually fell into ill-health and was forced to retire. He died of a heart attack in 1942. Ada lived to be 89-years-old, passing away in Green Springs, Ohio in 1966 after an extended illness. Her obituary noted that she was a member of the Green Springs Evangelical United Brethren Church, the Grange, and her local Garden Club. At the time of her death, Ada had two surviving children, eight grandchildren, 19 great-grandchildren, and one great-great-grandchild, as well as five step-children and 14 step-grandchildren. 

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Helen Sanner, New Jersey, 1940's

Recently, I was contacted on Instagram by Gina, who found photos of a woman named Helen Sanner in her grandmother's photo album and wanted to know more about her. I'm sharing the photos here, along with Helen's story, in the hopes that we can reunite the photos with her family! 

Helen and her brother, Ralph,
 in Kutztown, Pennsylvania

Helen, right, and
Gina's grandmother (also named Helen)

Helen and Helen,
on the beach in Atlantic City

Orpha Helen Sanner was born in Virginia in 1917 to Harry G. Sanner, a retail merchant and farmer, and his wife, Ruth. Ruth passed away in 1927 when Helen was 9. Her father remarried the next year to Clara Budd, a teacher. The family moved to Woodbury, New Jersey, where Helen’s half-brother, Ralph, was born in 1931. In 1940 Helen was 22 and working as a stenographer. Four years later, she married George W. Myers, a toolmaker for the RCA. The couple had two children, George Jr. and Ruth. 

Helen passed away in 1999 at the age of 82.

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Nancy and Iola Bass, Muskogee, Oklahoma 1910's

The writing on the back reads:
"Wife
Nancy Bass
Iola Bass
Daughter of
Z.H. Bass"

Nancy Jane Skinner was born in Meigs County, Tennessee in 1872 to parents Seaborn and Adaline Skinner. Nancy's father died before she was 7-years-old, leaving her mother to care for five children. In 1880, Nancy's 14-year-old sister Tennessee, her 12-year-old brother Samuel, and her 10-year-old brother Madison all have “farming” listed as their occupation. Nancy and her 5-year-old brother, James, may have been considered too young to work.

In 1900, Nancy is living in Bloomington, Illinois with her brother Samuel and his family. She is 27 and working as a housemaid. Also living in Bloomington at the time is Zephniah H. Bass, a 26-year-old blacksmith living as a boarder. Though they were unmarried and lived separately, Nancy and Zephniah had two daughters together. Their first child, Iola, was born in 1896 in Illinois and their second, Annabel, was born in 1899 in Missouri. The girls went to live with their grandparents, Robert and Millie Bass, along with their uncle Robert, on a farm in Cedar, Missouri. They came back to their parents after Zephniah and Nancy’s marriage in 1901. Zephniah became a successful blacksmith in Bloomington, and in 1903, the Freeman Newspaper noted his partnership with a Mr. Browning, "a wealthy white blacksmith of the city." Their cards read: "Browning & Bass, horseshoeing and plow works, carriage and wagon repairing."

Zephniah Bass's advertisement in the Muskogee Times, 1907

In 1910, the Bass family is living together in Muskogee, Oklahoma, right next door to Nancy’s brother, Madison, and his family. Zephniah has gone from blacksmithing to quickly become a successful veterinary surgeon and dentist. Nancy became a member of the Francis W. Harper Club, an African-American women’s service club named for writer Francis Ellen Watkins Harper. Nancy often hosted club meetings at the Bass home, where the ladies engaged in literary discussion and shared embroidery and crochet work. Iola and Annabel attended Manual Training High School, or M.T.H.S, the first high school in Muskogee for black students. In 1916, Dr. and Mrs. Z.H. Bass invited the entire M.T.H.S. Senior Class to an evening of whist at their home. Iola graduated in June but returned that fall to teach at the high school. She went on to teach at both the Langston and Douglass elementary schools in Muskogee.

In 1927, the Sedalia Democrat announced the marriage of Iola Mae Bass to George Reynolds of Sedalia, Missouri in Chicago, where the couple continued to live after the wedding. George worked there as a bell boy at a hotel while Iola stayed home to be a "homemaker." George and Iola were married 12 years before they divorced in 1939.  Iola married again in 1942, this time to George Winfred Halliburton, a pharmacist and the owner of the Emporia Drug Company. As far as I can tell, Iola never had children.

It was a little harder to follow her sister Annabel's story, which I lost track of after she appeared in the 1922 Muskogee directory as a dressmaker. I did find an Anna Bell Bass who married a Herman Lampkin in Jackson, Missouri in 1929, though the age given on her marriage records is 24. In 1929, Annabel would have been 30.

Dr. Zephniah H. Bass died in 1940 at age 67. Nancy passed seven years later at age 75. Sadly, Iola only outlived her mother by a few years, passing away in 1952 at the age of 55. Iola and her parents are buried together in Memorial Park Cemetery in Columbia, Missouri.

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Ruby Davis, Dallas, Texas 1900's

Ruby Dee Davis was born August 1890 in Italy, Texas, to parents Nancy Fleming and Daniel Davis, a farmer from Tennessee. She was their youngest, with four children having come before her: Effie, Mary Lee, William Thomas, and Daisy. Their grandfather, David Fleming, also lived with the family. By 1910, Ruby and her sister Daisy were the only Davis children left living at home.

Though not labeled, I believe this photo is of Ruby
and her older sister Daisy.

1915 was a complicated year for 22-year-old Ruby. She was married that year to Daniel F. Stellman, who worked on a dairy farm with his twin brother, William. The Stellman brothers were born in Kentucky to German immigrants. On his WWI draft registration card, Daniel is described as having brown eyes and black hair- he is also marked as being "physically unfit," though they don't give any further details.  That same year, in March, Ruby's only brother William died at age 36.  The next year, in 1916, Ruby lost her father to tuberculosis.

In 1920, Daniel was working at Bluff View Dairy Farm as a "milker." Daniel and Ruby had no children and lived together at their home on Lemmon Avenue in Dallas. Also living on Lemmon Avenue at the time was a man named Ed Halbert. Ed eventually moved in with the Stellman's as a lodger while working as a clerk in a phonograph store. Ed must have become close with the Stellmans. On his 1941 draft registration card, Ed listed "Miss Ruby Stellman" as someone who would always know his address. This makes sense considering the addresses given for Ed and Ruby are the same- 6919 Lemmon Avenue. Ed has also given his occupation as being self-employed at a dairy. Photos of Ed and his family were found with these photos of Ruby, and I will tell more of his story in a later post.

Daniel Stellman died in 1948 at age 73 after suffering from "Bright's Disease". By this time, Ruby's sister, Daisy, had moved in with them, perhaps to help out as Daniel's health declined. Daisy had never married and Ruby was now widowed. The two moved into a house together at 6634 Forest Park in Dallas. As far as I can tell, they lived together until Daisy's death in 1969.

Ruby Davis Stellman passed away in February 1978 at age 88.

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Jennie Hoag, Glens Falls, New York 1890s

At some point during her teenage years, Jennie Hoag had her photograph taken as she perched upon a paper moon in Glens Falls, New York, not far from her home in Amsterdam.

Jennie, born Jane E. Hoag, had a difficult start in life. She was born on December 17th, 1884 in Amsterdam, New York to Grace Arabella Fronk and William H. Hoag. William and Grace had been married just over a year when Jennie arrived; William was 36, and Grace was 27. A few days after giving birth to Jennie, Grace began to suffer from puerperal fever. She died on December 29th, 1884, leaving behind William and their newborn daughter. She was buried in Green Hill Cemetery in Amsterdam.

Two years later, William remarried. His new wife was 32-year-old Helen Catherine Day, who went by Ella. To Jennie, Ella was the only mother she knew. As noted in her obituary, Ella was an active member of the First Baptist Church, as well an ardent supporter of the temperance movement and member of the Woman's Christian Temperance Union. William, meanwhile, worked as a stove supply salesman.

In October 1907, 23-year-old Jennie married photographer Henry A. Marcellus- or "Ham" as he was often called. Their wedding announcement in the Fulton County Republican described Henry as "a popular and enterprising young man," and Jennie as "well and favorably known in her home city." After the wedding, the couple settled in Johnstown, New York, where Henry operated his photography studio. In an advertisement for the studio in Johnstown's Morning Herald, Henry referred to himself as a "photo craftsman." Jennie and Henry had only one child, a daughter named Grace. She was born on October 28th, 1914. Just days later, Jennie lost her step-mother Ella at age 58.

Sometime after 1930, Henry and Jennie relocated to nearby Gloversville. From their studio apartment, Henry continued to operate his photography business. Jennie, meanwhile, discovered a love of dress-making and decided to start a business of her own, which she called Judy's Alteration Shop. It, too, was operated out of their apartment. Henry's failing eye-sight and a leg injury eventually caused him to give up photography. He decided to take up painting instead, describing his work as "self-expressionism." According to an article on the couple's golden wedding anniversary in 1957,  Jennie was "just as enthused in her husband's work as the artist himself." After years of declining health, Henry died in 1968 at the age of 88.

Jennie Hoag Marcellus lived to be 94. She died at home in Gloversville in 1979.

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