Sepia Saturday: Dating a Photo

Courtesy Jack Cavanaugh - Kent, WA

This is a Real Photo postcard of the Gordon home in Sidney, Iowa taken around the turn of the last century by "J.F. Lewis of Sidney, Iowa". According to various issues of the Fremont County Herald, Mr. Lewis opened a photography studio in Riverton, Fremont County in 1889 and ran his business from there until his studio burned down. He then moved to Sidney, Fremont County where he was again eventually burned out, moving West in 1917. I haven't yet been able to find the exact date that this move to Sidney happened, so it is difficult to date the photo from the photographer alone. Fortunately, I do have some other information from the back of the photo that should help to date it. The home is identified as that of Sadie Gordon, my great grandmother Millie Travis Proctor's sister. From other photos I recognize Sadie (Sarah Eveline Travis) as the woman standing on our left, so the man sitting next to her is most certainly her husband Andrew Marion Gordon. They married in 1893, so that narrows the date to after that year. A close-up of the photo gives me more clues. Although the three people on our right are unidentified, I have a pretty good idea of who, at least, two of them are. Sadie's parents were my 2nd great grandparents, Abraham and Ruth (Stolebarger) Travis. I own one photo of each (below).

From comparing these to the postcard, I am pretty confident that the elderly man and woman are Abraham and Ruth. Since Ruth died in June 1901, that further narrows the date to between 1893 and 1901. The photo that I have of Ruth was taken in 1893, so the postcard must be a few years later since she looks substantially older. It is pretty exciting to me that I have most likely discovered another photo of my great great grandparents!

I'm not sure about the younger woman standing on our right, but it is possible that she is my great grandmother Millie. She married my great grandfather Daniel Proctor in Oct 1900. Prior to that date, she was living with her parents in Sidney. The body, stance and arm look very much like hers from later photos that I have, but the face doesn't look quite like her wedding photo. I would conclude that it was another of the Travis sisters, but I have seen photos and it definitely isn't them. Below is a direct comparison of the young woman in the postcard versus Millie in a full length photo from later years and a close-up from her wedding photo in 1900. Could it be her? Looking at it like this, I think it just might be!

From all of this, I think I can safely conclude that the photo was taken no earlier than about 1897 and no later than June 1901. If that is Millie in the photo, that further narrows the time frame to before Oct 1900. The Gordons lived at 21 Clay St, Sidney Town, Iowa in the 1900 Federal Census, so I can further conclude that this photo was likely taken at that address.

Pretty neat what you can do with a little research!

For more great posts visit my friends at Sepia Saturday.

Mapping Out a Life: Joseph Travis

Courtesy Jack Cavanaugh -Kent, WA

Last spring, we went on a roadtrip to visit relatives in the Seattle area. While there we had a mini-reunion for my mom with her Proctor cousins. During the get-together, our host, Cleo Proctor Cavanaugh's son Jack allowed me to go through his late mother's photo albums and scan family photos. Over the next few months, I am going to post some of them here and discuss the people in them.

This photo is of Joseph Travis and his wife Florence Byram Travis of Sidney, Fremont County, Iowa. He was the brother of my great grandmother Amelia "Millie" Travis Proctor. As you can see from the writing on the photo, it was taken in July 1913. It is a Real Photo postcard and was sent through the mail from Sidney to Seattle. On the back, it discusses Millie and Joe's father Abraham Travis' deteriorating health, who died on January 5, 1914. Their mother was Ruth Ann Stolebarger Travis who passed away June 23, 1901.

Joe (26 Dec 1866-21 Nov 1942) lived his entire life in Fremont County, Iowa. Like most of his siblings, he didn't marry until relatively late for that time and did not have any children. He and Florence married on October 6, 1897.  He appears to have lived a pretty simple life, running a farm and spending time with his eleven siblings. Most of the Travises stayed in Sidney and they remained a very close family.

Julia M. Travis' book All in the Family discusses this family in great detail and is, undoubtedly, what first sparked my interest in genealogy when it was published at the end of 1975. Detailing the many descendants of Asa Travis, the book included me and my family in its pages - very exciting for a six year old.

To get a better look at Joe, I cropped and enlarged the photo below. His horses made the cut since they were probably an important part of his family.

Ruth Ann Stolebarger (Stoalabarger), 1893

My great great grandmother Ruth Ann Stolebarger Travis

Every time I look at this photo, I wonder...

Here is what I know:
Ruth Ann Stolebarger Travis was sixty-one when this photo was taken in 1893. She was born on June 3, 1832 in Huntingdon County, Pennsylvania and was a redhead.
The first trace I find of her family is in Union, Huntingdon County, PA in the 1830 Federal Census, though her eldest brother Ephraim is said to have been born there in 1823. Ruth's other siblings were Thomas (1825), Almira (1842) and Martha (1843).
In 1843, Ruth moved with her parents and siblings to Jefferson County, Iowa.  Her father John Stoalabarger passed away soon thereafter and her mother married Samuel Berry in 1846 and had one more son, William (1849).
Ruth Ann married Abraham Travis on March 20, 1852 in Fairfield, Iowa. On May 6, 1852, the newlyweds moved to Sidney, Iowa and, by all accounts, lived a wonderful life there as one of the town's pioneer families. Ruth Ann was extraordinarily lucky in that all twelve of her children lived into adulthood and none predeceased her.
To the town's great sadness, she passed away on June 23, 1901 at the age of 69. Her obituary stated that her funeral was so well attended that townspeople were forced to stand outside in the hot street, straining to hear the eulogy.

Questions:
There is a lot of mystery surrounding Ruth Ann's parents. Her father John is said to have been born in the Upper Rhine area of Germany c.1800, but, to my knowledge, no one has ever found any documentation of this. Additionally, her mother Sarah's maiden name is unknown.
One of the biggest problems in researching this family is the name "Stolebarger." It is a very difficult name that was spelled differently on virtually every record. The most common spelling seems to be Stoalabarger, but I have also seen it as Stolebarger, Stolabarger, Stulebarger, Stuhlberger, Stuleberger, Stulabarger, Stella Barger and more!  Furthermore, I have not been able to find a record of anyone with a similar name on any passenger records at all! I sometimes theorize that the name was originally something more traditionally German, like Stahlberger. Unfortunately, that hasn't led me anywhere either.

For now, I am just very happy to have such a good photo of her from so long ago.