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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Ethel Webb, Brunswick, Maine 1880s-90s

Ethel Moulton Webb was born in Brunswick, Maine, on October 6th, 1877. Her father, Franklin, worked as a grocer, while her mother Elizabeth stayed home to care for Ethel and her little brothers, Harold and Frank. Also living with the Webbs was Ethel’s paternal grandmother, Cynthia.

An 1893 article from the Portland Daily Press noted Ethel’s “pleasing” piano performance at a teacher's convention held at her high school.

Ethel in the 1899 Smith College yearbook

She was also an exceptional student and the valedictorian of Brunswick High School’s class of 1895. It must have been no surprise when Ethel was accepted to Smith College, a women’s college in Northampton, Massachusetts.
After graduating from Smith in 1899, Ethel returned home to Brunswick to live with her family. It was during this time that she met Ralph Bushnell Stone, a student at Bowdoin College in Brunswick. Like Ethel, Ralph was intelligent and studious, especially excelling in math and science. After graduating from Bowdoin in 1902, he went on to receive his Master's degree from Harvard. He then returned to Brunswick to teach.
It was also during this time that Ethel tragically lost her youngest brother, Frank, to heart disease. He died in 1909 at only 26 years old.

Better times came in 1913 when Ethel and Ralph were married. Their first and only child, Franklin, was born in 1915. When Ralph was offered a job as a mathematics professor at Purdue University, the family packed up and headed to West Lafayette, Indiana. Just three years later, Ralph was appointed registrar of the university. Ethel stayed busy in West Lafayette, becoming a member of the Current Topics Club and the Purdue Women's Club, and hosting the other wives of Purdue faculty members at her home on Russell Street, close to campus. After Ethel's mother passed away in 1932, her father joined them in Indiana. He died there two years later after a period of illness.

Ralph served as Purdue's registrar until 1947 when he went back to teaching mathematics. He retired in 1952. In February 1959, Ralph fell ill. He passed away at the age of 76. Ethel passed two years later in 1961. She was 84.

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William N. Beeman, Jackson, Michigan 1890s-1900s

William Noah Beeman was born in Eaton County, Michigan in 1858. He was the only son of farmer Gilbert Beeman and his wife, Phoebe Wright, both of whom were originally from New York. William grew up in a house of girls. He had three older sisters, Caroline, Mary, and LaVancha, and one younger sister, Stella. In 1880, 21-year-old William was working with his father on their farm in Chester, Michigan. The very next year, William married Hattie Adele Sullivan of Jackson, Michigan.

Hattie was very socially active and seems to have been in every club in Jackson, including a
Chautauqua reading circle, the Home Culture Club, and the Jackson Camera Club. In fact, she won second place in their amateur photography competition in 1899, which makes me wonder if she took this photograph herself! I have a feeling that's William standing proudly in front of his wood and coal business with his dog at his feet. William operated the W.N. Beeman Wood and Coal company in Jackson from the 1890s into the 1900s. Then in 1909, William and Hattie crossed the border into Canada and settled in Calgary-East, Alberta. Here, William became a farmer.

Finally, after years of living in the North, the Beemans were ready for a warmer climate. They permanently moved to Los Angeles, California, where they lived out their later years together. Hattie passed away in 1931 at the age of 71. William lived to be 85. He died in 1943.

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The Enis Family, Arkansas, 1900s

"Silver shines and so

2 does tin four 2 love

you- it is a sin"

It's a strange thing to write on the back of a photo of children. The only thing I found about this poem was that it was one of many popular verses written in autograph books around this time and that it may have originated in the Ozarks. That makes sense considering the photo comes from Arkansas, though I still wonder who would have written it.

The mother of these children, Sallie Thomas, was the second wife of Samuel V. Enis, a dry goods merchant in Crawford, Arkansas. They married in 1883 when Samuel was 47 and Sallie was only 16. Their first son Tine (short for Valentine) was born in May 1889. A year later came Everette, followed by Etta in 1893 and Clayton in 1895. In 1896, just a year after Clayton was born, their mother passed away at the age of 29. The children were soon sent to live with their Aunt Lou and Uncle Wily Enis, as well as their eight cousins. Their uncle was a farmer and former school teacher. All of the boys- with the exception of 6-year-old Clayton and his 5-year-old cousin Oliver- are listed as farm laborers. Where their father was in 1900, I'm not sure. He died in nearby Onyx, Arkansas in 1902 and was buried there with Sallie. 

Tine and Everette eventually set out for Oklahoma and found work in the town of Cravens. In 1910, 20-year-old Tine is working on the farm of Jess Neavoll, while 18-year-old Everette is working on the farm of George W. Pate. Also living on that farm were Pate's two daughters, Ollie and Minnie, with whom the Enis brothers must have become well acquainted. Everette married Ollie in April 1911 and Tine married Minnie in September 1913. Tine and Minnie had seven children: Bertha, Orville, Otis, Betty, Otho, and twins Ronald and Donald. Everette and Ollie had three: Ethan, J.D., and Edeth.

16-year-old Etta married William S. Wagner, a blacksmith and farmer, in 1909. Soon after the marriage she moved in with her husband's family on their farm in Jones, Scott County, Arkansas. According to his WWI Draft Card, William was of medium height and build, and had light blue eyes and light brown hair.  Etta and William eventually had a farm of their own, which was run with the help of their nine children: Geneva, Hershel, Ada, Arthur, Floyd, George, R.V., Udell, and Eugene.

Like his sister, Clayton remained in Arkansas. In 1916 he married 20-year-old Eula Mae Ammons and together they had nine children: Devola, James, Ora, William, Roy, Jewel, Eskew, Peggy, and Donald.
A photo I found on Ancestry shows Tine and Clayton as older men. Though they lived apart, the siblings must have stayed in touch. Etta passed away in 1949 in Parks, Arkansas. Clayton passed in McAlester, Oklahoma five years later. After a long illness, Everett followed them in 1958. The eldest of the Enis siblings, Tine, lived to be 86-years-old. He died in 1975. If you know who these folks may be, let us know in the comments!

Edd and Mary Tuggle, Texas, 1890's

The inscription on the back reads:
"Aunt Mary + Uncle
Edd Tuggle
To my dear Aunty-
Mrs. Lizzie Cooper"

Edward Hamilton Tuggle was born in Comanche, Texas in 1866 to parents Alex and Lucy Tuggle. His father was a stock raiser and farmer. Ed, as Edward was known, was one of 8 children. Like his siblings, he began working on the family farm as soon as he was old enough.

On June 15th, 1890, 24-year-old Ed married 16-year-old Mary Cass. Mary was from Tennessee, the daughter of farmer William B. Cass and his wife Cordelia. Ed and Mary had five children: Ella, Elena, Cordia, Carroll and Mary Elizabeth. In 1900, Ed was working as a traveling salesman while the family lived in Temple, Texas. Around 1905, the family relocated to Chickasha, Oklahoma, where Ed started a grocery. Sadly, Carroll died in 1907 at only 18 months. That same year, Ed became ill with typhoid fever and was forced to sell his grocery while he recovered. The Tuggles, meanwhile, were active in the Methodist Episcopal Church. Mary was a Sunday school teacher and a member of the Woman's Home Mission Society, often hosting meetings at the Tuggle home. Ed was a member of the church's temperance committee.

In 1913, Ella Tuggle married John Aloysius Ryndak, a bookkeeper. Ed opened E.H. Tuggle Grocery, where he employed his second oldest daughter, Elena, as a clerk. During the First World War, the entire Tuggle family became very involved in buying War Savings Stamps, even 8-year-old Mary Elizabeth. Ed was noted in the paper as being the first in Chickasha to purchase them.

On Jan 24, 1922, a fire destroyed the Tuggle grocery. According to the Chickasha Daily Express, the loss was "estimated at several thousand dollars." Good news came the next year when Elena married Elliot Doggett. When Elena and Elliot moved to Oklahoma City, Mary Elizabeth joined them and found work as a stenographer there.

Ed and Mary remained in Chickasha for the rest of their lives. Mary passed away in 1948 at age 74, and Ed followed in 1957. He was 89.

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Edith Balliet, Bazine, Kansas 1890s

The back reads:
"Edith Balliet to

Mamie"

Edith Balliet was born in Pennsylvania in November 1877. Her parents, Peter and Katherine, moved with Edith and her older brother Willie to Kansas not long after she was born. In Pennsylvania, Edith's father had been a carpenter with a sawing mill in White Haven. In Bazine, Kansas, he became a farmer.

As a young woman, Edith considered becoming a teacher. In a June 1896 edition of the Ness County News, Edith is listed among those attending the Normal Institute in Ness City. I suspect this photo was taken during her time in school- maybe "Mamie" was a school friend? If Edith had plans of becoming a teacher, those plans quickly changed. She was married to Charles Frederick Harbeson, or "Fred," in 1897 at the age of 20. Fred was a farmer from Iowa who later became a carpenter, similar to Edith's father. The couple's first child, Bertha, was born in September 1898. Their only son Lawrence arrived in 1905, followed by Florence in 1914.

The Harbesons lived in Stafford County, Kansas. Here, Edith was close to family and enjoyed visiting her parents and in-laws. As well as raising her three children, Edith kept busy in other ways. During World War I, she volunteered her sewing skills to the Red Cross. She was also an active member of the Daughters of Rebekah, a branch of the Independent Order of Oddfellows.

Their oldest child, Bertha, was very social and enjoyed entertaining at the Harbeson house. In 1918 she was attending business college, and was married to Abraham Bowman in 1919 (I wonder if there is any relation to the Bowmans in my last post?). After serving in World War II, Lawrence moved to Austin, Texas with his wife, Helen, and their son Stanley. There he became a cabinet maker. Florence, who went by her middle name "Alma," married Dewey C. Boles in Oklahoma in 1932.

Edith and Fred remained in Stafford County for the rest of their lives. Fred passed away in 1951. Edith followed in 1954 at age 77.

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Eli Bowman and Family, Dayton, Iowa 1913

Written on the back: "Mr + Mrs Abraham Bowman. Oct 4. 1913"
 I believe this photo was sent by Eli to his father and stepmother back in Indiana.

Eli Emery Bowman was born in Hagerstown, Indiana in 1873 to Abraham and Louisa Bowman. Abraham and Louisa were both of the Dunkard faith and were baptized into the Church of the Brethren in 1863. Abraham was a deacon in the church before becoming a minister and eventually, an elder. Eli was the youngest of their six children, including older brothers Oliver, Daniel, Charles, William, and Abraham Jr. Eli tragically lost his oldest brother when he was 7. In 1880, 18-year-old Oliver was returning home from helping with the harvest when he suffered an epileptic seizure, fell into a water-filled ditch, and drowned. Three years later, tragedy struck the Bowmans again when the family fell ill with the measles. The children all recovered but their mother did not. Abraham remarried soon after Louisa's death to Elizabeth Mahoney, with whom he had two children, Albert and Mary Ethel. When Elizabeth died in 1889, Abraham was married a third and final time to Catharine Hoover.

Written on the back: "Ethel Allred's picture. All Bowmans picture."
Ethel was Eli's half-sister. Unfortunately the individuals in this photo are not identified.

In 1893, a notice in the Hagerstown Exponent announced the marriage of 20-year-old Eli to a Miss Letha Ann Scott. Eli and Letha had one daughter, Lola, born in 1894. A few years later, the couple separated, and Lola stayed with her mother. I wasn't able to find any official record of a divorce, which would have been uncommon at the time, but in 1899 they both married other people: Letha to a Mr. Lewis Wrightsman, and Eli to Luetta Mae Shields.

Eli had met Luetta, or Louie, in Dallas County, Iowa, where he had moved the year before. According to the Hagerstown Exponent, Eli was "getting along famously" having "struck Iowa practically without a dollar, determined to carve out his own fortune." He began as a farmhand and saved his money until he could purchase a farm of his own. The paper describes Louie as "one of Dallas County's finest young ladies, who has proven herself a helpmeet indeed." Eli and Louie's first child, Ralph, was adopted. They went on to have two more children, daughters Edna and Ruth. The Bowmans did not stay put in Iowa for long. In 1908, they moved to Wyoming, where Eli had purchased 320 acres of land near the town of Egbert. Perhaps the Bowmans were not quite as fortunate in Wyoming as they had been Iowa, as they returned to Iowa not long after. In the 1915 Iowa State Census, they are living in Dayton, where this photograph was taken.

In 1920, Eli, Louie, and Ruth are living in Des Moines. Eli is working at a brickyard, while 15-year-old Ruth has gotten a job as a "saleslady" at a grocery store. By this point, Ralph and Edna had moved out. Edna married Martin Wolff in 1918 and soon moved in with his family in Grove, Iowa. After serving in the army between 1918 and 1919, Ralph went to Sugar Grove, Iowa to work on the farm of his aunt and uncle, Mary and Edward Shields. He married Estella Britton in 1922. It wasn't long before the youngest Bowman, Ruth, was married herself. She married Frank Anthony Barber in 1923. Ruth didn't go far, however, as she and her husband, as well as their 5-year-old daughter Mary Lou, are living with the Bowmans in 1930. Eli, at 57, is now a watchman for a heating company. Ruth's husband is a clerk at a cigar store, while she works as a "comptometrist" at a packing house, meaning she worked a mechanical calculator.

Eli and Louie lived out the rest of their lives in Des Moines, though Eli did return home to his family in Indiana for special occasions. Eli worked up until three weeks before his death. He died of heart problems on December 7th, 1945, at the age of 72. According to his obituary, he left behind a wife, three children, twelve grandchildren, and seven great-grandchildren. Louie followed him in 1947.

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