New Treasures from My Mother #1 - Zora and Ned Staples

Zori & Ned Staples c.1897, St Paul,MN

My mother brought me a baggie of really old photos and memorabilia today from my grandmother's boxes. I thought I had already discovered all of the family treasures that were in my immediate family's possession, but I was wrong. The one that jumped out immediately is this photo of Zora Edith "Zori" Hewitt Staples and her son. As I blogged in the past, I have always wanted to find a photo of Zori. (Aunt Cleo wrote about her here.)

I am in touch with her great granddaughter thanks to Ancestry.com. Tragically, they lost all of their family photos when their home burned down in the Sycamore Fire of 1977. I immediately emailed her to share this great news. She was ecstatic and happened to be planning on visiting her mother (Zori's granddaughter) on Thursday, so this will be a fantastic surprise!

The boy in the portrait is Zori's son Edwin Herrick "Ned" Staples who was born in 1895. I tried to narrow down the exact year of the photo by researching the photographer. Thanks to the Minnesota Historical Website's list of photographers, I was able to find quite a bit about this photographer. Alfred U. Palmquist, also known as A.U. Palmquist, was born in Finland on 21 June 1850 and died 23 March 1922.  He was well known for his images of Sitting Bull which can be found all over the Internet, including at the Library of Congress, Amazon and various auction sites. He worked in Minnesota from the 1870's to the 1900's and had a number of locations over the years. This photo has the address of 88 West Fourth Street, which, according to the listing from the Minnesota Historical Society below, was his location from 1891-1899. Since he was at this same location for quite awhile, I will have to hazard a guess that the photo is c.1897 when Ned would have been about two years old.

Locations:

     Studio: Palmquist & Lake

     Address: 32 West Seventh Street, Saint Paul, Minnesota

       Dates of operation: 1873

     Address: 25 East Seventh Street, Saint Paul, Minnesota

       Dates of operation: 1874

     Studio: Alfred Palmquist & Company

     Address: 28 East Seventh, Saint Paul, Minnesota

       Dates of operation: 1876-1881

     Studio: Palmquist & Jurgens

     Address: Seventh and Robert, Saint Paul, Minnesota

       Dates of operation: 1883-1885, 1888

     Address: 225 East Seventh Street, Saint Paul, Minnesota

       Dates of operation: 1890

     Address: 88 West Fourth Street, Saint Paul, Minnesota

       Dates of operation: 1891-1899

     Address: 10 West Sixth, Saint Paul, Minnesota

       Dates of operation: 1900s

It is wonderful to have finally discovered a photo of the young Zori and to be able to share it with her descendants. I hoped to one day see one, but I never would have expected it to come from my own collection!
[Update - Apparently, this is the only known photo in existence of Ned.]

Amanuensis Monday: Letter from My Great Aunt Cleo, 1990

The author, Cleo Proctor Cavanaugh

In my possession I have an eighteen page letter written in 1990 by my maternal grandfather's sister, Cleo Proctor Cavanaugh (1905-1995). This letter has assisted me in solving many genealogical puzzles. My research has shown some of its content to be incorrect, but it has always provided hints and a starting place for my research. For that, I am very grateful to Aunt Cleo. I cannot transcribe the long letter all in one post, but I will make a start here [with my comments]:

Our grandfather Ephraim Proctor was born in Kentucky, Feb. 20, 1822 on his father's plantation. Ephraim's father owned slaves, but the slaves were freed before the Civil War. I understood however they never left the plantation having no place to go and also because they were well treated. [I sure wish I knew if this was true.]

Our Uncle Charley Proctor told us he remembered seeing his Great Grandmother Jane who was married to Dr. Martin Gillett [I have found wives Lura and Hannah], our Great Great Grandfather who was born before the American Revolution [actually 1776] . Uncle Charley was five years old at the time [born in 1851]. It was through Dr. Martin that we inherited our one-sixteenth French. [Dr. Gillett was not 100% French, but from a Colonial family whose origin could be traced to France many generations prior.]  It could have been here too that we inherited the thalassemia, a blood cell deficiency...Since it is a Mediterranean linked trait, it could have come from there. I would like to say here the body pretty much compensates for the thalassemia. [Cleo and her siblings were carriers of a rare form of dominantly-inherited beta thalassemia.] It's because of being born with it. Doctors have told me this and from things I've observed I believe this is true. However, if both parents have the trait, their children cannot live well or long. [25% chance]

Ephraim Proctor came to Equality, Illinois from Kentucky as a young man and started a livery stable business with buggies to taxi people around. He also had heavy wagons for hauling goods.
In Sept. 1875 someone came to his door after hours and wanted to be taken out in the country and as he couldn't get a hold of any of his men (no phones) he took them himself. It was a stormy evening and on the return trip, his buggy [got stuck] in a swollen creek. He was soaked and became very chilled and so caught pneumonia and died at age fifty-three Sept. 17, 1875 and is buried in Equality, Ill.
Ephraim Proctor and Mary Ann Hewitt were married Feb. 20, 1850. They had eight children, five of them living to adulthood.
Charles Campbell Proctor born April 9, 1951
William Ephraim Proctor born Dec 16, 1852
John Martin Proctor born July 29, 1855
George F. Proctor born Sept 20, 1859
Mary and Sallie Proctor born Jan 13, 1862
Martin Hewitt Proctor born Sept 17, 1864
Daniel Hewitt Proctor born Sept 17, 1866

Mary Ann Hewitt was born Sept. 21, 1827. Her ancestors came over on the Mayflower [true]. This is true because her brother my great uncle [William Martin Hewitt] had his ancestors traced and his daughter Zori Staples was a member of the DAR. [I think she means the Mayflower Society.] Great Uncle Hewitt was at our house many times and my Aunt Sallie took me to their beautiful home on Cascade Av, in the Mt. Baker area in Seattle. He had built and owned the first street railways in Minneapolis, Minnesota and operated them for many years. Uncle Charley and our dad both ran street cars there for him when they were young. Uncle Hewitt was a millionaire which meant something in those days. They had two children, Sylvester [actually Lawrence Scott] and Zori. Their family moved to Los Angeles where Uncle Hewitt died [William Hewitt died in Seattle on May 27, 1918].
Aune Proctor and I visited Zori in the largest department store in Los Angeles at the time. It was Robertson's. She was an interpreter for foreigners who came to sell their goods. She was highly educated and spoke many languages. [According to her descendants, some of this may be incorrect.] I wish now that I had gotten her papers on the ancestors. She had one son Ned Staples who died of TB at twenty-one years. He was married to his nurse first before he died. [Edwin "Ned" Staples died in 1923 at 28 years of age. He and his wife/nurse Dorothy Hope had a daughter together.] Sylvester never married [Lawrence married Josephine Ben Hoyen on March 18, 1907. They were divorced by 1910].

Mary Ann Proctor Hewitt died Dec 4, 1892, two months after being burned in a bonfire. She was burning rubbish her sons had gathered together in the backyard. The children [26-42 years old] had all gone to Sidney, Iowa on a Saturday afternoon to have some fun. They told her that they would burn the rubbish when they returned. She didn't wait and started the fire. The long full skirts worn in those days were a hazard around fire. She suffered terribly after being burned all up the back. Her daughter Sallie took care of her. Of course if antibiotics were in use at the time she probably would have lived. She is buried near Sidney, Iowa where the family had moved when our dad Daniel Hewitt Proctor was sixteen years old.

To be continued next Monday...

Benny and Cleo Cavanaugh

Lawrence Scott Hewitt c.1875

Lawrence Scott Hewitt b. 26 July 1872 

This is probably the oldest photo that I own. It was in a box of family photos that my mother had saved. On the back it said, "Zorrie's brother." After a lot of research, I was able to learn quite a bit about it's subject and his family.

Lawrence Scott Hewitt was the son of William Martin Hewitt (1825-1918) and Selinda Scott (1847-after 1920). He had a sister named Zora Edith Hewitt (1869-1963). William was the brother of my great great grandmother Mary Ann Hewitt Proctor (1827-1892), so Lawrence was my great grandfather Daniel Proctor's first cousin. 

My great aunt Cleo Proctor Cavanaugh wrote in 1990, "Great Uncle (William) Hewitt was at our house many times and my Aunt Sallie (Proctor Fargo) took me to their beautful home on Cascade Ave in the Mt. Baker area in Seattle. He had built and owned the first street railways in Minneapolis, Minnesota and operated them for many years. Uncle Charley (Charles Campbell Proctor) and our dad (Daniel Hewitt Proctor) both ran street cars there for him when they were young. Uncle Hewitt was a millionaire which meant something in those days."

There are some mistakes in the above description, but it did give me a starting point. The Hewitt family was, indeed, quite illustrious.  William was born in Gallatin, Illinois and moved to Scott County, Iowa sometime between 1850 and 1860. He started as a clerk in a store in 1860 and was the Superintendent of the Street Railway by 1870.  By 1880, he was the Superintendent of the Centre City Railway in Milwaukee and by 1892 he was the Superintendent of the Stillwater Street Railway in Stillwater, Minnesota. I have not been able to determine if he "owned" any of these railways, but from my research, I have confirmed that he was definitely involved in building and running them.

William married Selinda Scott and had two children - Zora (who married into the Staples family of Stillwater, Minnesota) and Lawrence. Sometime before 1900, the Hewitt family moved to Seattle, Washington. Lawrence lived there and worked as an electrician and car dealer. He married during that time, but divorced soon after. It appears he did not have any children. He died sometime after 1920.

The photo of Lawrence was taken by Photographer Phil E Thuemmler,  387 Broadway. He was active in Dubuque, Iowa from 1856-1865 and Milwaukee, Wisconsin from 1871-1883. (However, I did not find the Broadway address.) Since the Hewitts moved to Milwaukee sometime between the 1870 and 1880 Federal Censuses, this would fit with the approximate date of 1875.

Although Lawrence is not a direct relative, it was fascinating to learn about his father's career and his sister Zora's life. Fortunately, due to their social standing their were many articles in which they are mentioned. I am very glad that I found this photo, prompting me to look further into this very interesting family. I have never seen a photo of the rest of the family. Considering their wealth, there is no doubt that family photos must have existed at one time. Hopefully, they survived and will eventually surface in the course of my research.

**If you liked this post, please visit Sepia Saturday for more great photos.