Photo Rescues: The class photo.....who is Jennie M. Boyle and why can't I find her!

I can never resist a school photo.  I found this lonely photo when visiting a junk shop along highway 75 in the western part of Iowa.  The woman said she bought a bunch of photos from someone in Eastern Nebraska.     Now the question is who is Jennie M. Boyle and where was the photo taken?

• This is a postcard-sized photo. my guess is the photo was taken around 1900
• The back of this photo says "compliments of your teacher, Jennie M. Boyle. 
• This is probably a one room country school, from the wide variety in age of children.  Note the long stockings and boots being worn by all the children in the photo.
• I would say the woman in the center with the big black bow is Jennie M. Boyle?

Photo Rescue: So how is your Swedish?

These two photos were purchased in Spirit Lake, Iowa. They are no relation to me, but I liked that they were from the same studio and the women were wearing the same dress. It would have been a horrible thing to separate these photos so I bought them with the hope they could find a new loving family that would appreciate their message and beauty.         

• Baby in the first photo is named Wilford Lewellyn.  Not a very Swedish name.
• The baby in the second photo is named Violet Wallgren.The second photographs mention 2 more names Dagmar, presumably Dagmar Martinsen Wallgren and Maren Martinsen.

A scam or did we miss inheriting the Emerick Millions?

Before the internet, there were scammers, though not just as sophisticated.  I will not go into details here, for there is a blog that covers the story, no reason to reinvent the wheel. This is the link if you want more information  https://www.genealogy.com/forum/surnames/topics/emrich/88/

If you really are interested, there are numerous books:

• John Jacob Astor and the First Great American Fortune / Alexander Emerich
• John Jacob Astor: Business and Finance in the Early Republic / By John Denis Haege 
• John Jacob Astor: An Unwritten Chapter /  by Calvin Hoy  (this is the first book written specifically about the case. the publication date is 1936)

 As far as our family goes, we lucked out genealogy-wise when the scam started.  The descendants of Abraham Emerick and Hannah Bloom dug into their store of papers, paid for genealogists and corresponded with each other. Back then, everyone wrote letters, lots of letters!  The letters in this blog post are dated from the 1927-28 time frame.

I do have to laugh, no one could place Abraham Emerick until DNA came out.  We knew he lived in Centre County, Pennsylvania, and was born in 1803.  I have no idea why we had so much difficulty finding his parents.  But DNA helped us trace the tree, and as you can see there is no relation to Johan Nicholas Emerick.   So no, the descendants of Abraham Emerick would not have inherited a dime, even if this story was true.....

Now to introduce the letter writers:

1.  Dr. Charles S. Shultz was my grandmother Gwen Shultz Rute's father.  Dr. Shultz' mother was Elizabeth Emerick and his father was Daniel Shultz.  Daniel Shultz and Elizabeth Emerick were married in Cedar County, Iowa.
2. The writer of the letter is Mrs. James O. Douglass.  I hate it when women used their husband's name for their own work. Ida Curtis the wife of James Omar Douglass was living in Gibbon, Nebraska when she wrote this letter.  Ida Curtis was the daughter of Tilson M. Curtis and Henrietta S. Emerick.  Henrietta "Hattie" Emerick was the daughter of  Abraham Emerick and Hanna Bloom.
3. Ida Curtis and James O. Douglass had one daughter Hattie Lois Douglass, and a son Elam Douglass. 

I'm attaching the letter and corresponding trees for everyone to see. My giant family tree can be found at  https://ancstry.me/2yMbwqm

Updated 10/17/2918: Rescue Photo collection: Uglow Family Janesville & Fort Atkinson, Wisconsin

Confirmation class from Ft. Atkinson, WI

This is the first of many photos I will upload to this particular post.  I purchased along with a suite of other images from an antique store in Houston, Texas. As per my usual routine, I bought this as a group of photos because the handwriting was the same on the back of the photos.  Google Maps tell me it's 1117 miles to Fort Atkinson, Wisconsin from Houston, Texas, so the collection is a long way from their origin!  The first photo I posted is a confirmation group photo, with the Clergyman at the center of the picture. Was this Catholic or Lutheran?

Merill and Florence Paynter

https://ancstry.me/2Ep1EJ9

These two children are identified as Merill and Florence Paynter.    

Marie McCutchen 

The back of this photo identifies this child as Marie McCutchen of Janesville Wisconsin. Her father was Harvey Uglow McCuchan who was the son of Pearl Uglow and James R. McCutchen. He was born on 15 Sep 1914 in or near Kenosha, Keno, WI. He spent his life in Janesville, Wisconsin.

Roberta Black
Back of photo says Aunt Blanche Black's Daughter.  Blanche (b. 1895)
was married to Louis Black (bl  1890) had Harriett1922
 and  Roberta (1926)

 

Unknown part of Uglow / Diamond Cache.

 

Gene and Mae Paynter 

This is Cora May Uglow and her husband Eugene Paynter. If you scroll up a bit, you will find the adorable photo of their two children Florence and Merrill Paynter.

Rescue Photo: Three men from Savanna, Illinois and a mysterious book

This photo is one I purchased in Spirit Lake, Iowa this summer.  The three men in this photo are unidentified, though their photograph was taken by A. Steelhead in Savanna, Illinois.  This image called to me, and I realized after I purchased it the man on the right is holding a book or plaque. I tried to get a close up of the item.  I can not read the writing.  So with one name to go on, that of the photographer, I searched on A. Steelhead.  The last name is one of those that has an English definition (the name of a fish) so I had to scroll through may pages before I found one that matched. Mr Albert Steelhead was a Swedish immigrant living in Sioux Valley, Iowa in 1900.  I know I had a match because his occupation is a photographer.   So back to the identification of the three men.  The photo was taken prior to 1900, my guess is 1890's.  Since Savanna is on the Mississippi River, could they be business partners?  

Rescue photo Art Asylum trip: Charles Whitebread James and his wife Vanelia Meeker

One of the reasons I started this blog was to showcase the old photos I find at antique stores and junk shops. Amongst the piles of vintage items, I found this oval shaped photo of a couple dressed in civil war era clothing. They looked out of place at the Art Asylum, which is where I found them.  The photo was obviously removed from its original frame, and the photo dumped into the misc. lot of papers and photos.  A former owner had thought to identify the couple in the photo as Charles W. James born 10 June 1798 in New Jersey and his New York City born wife Vannelia Tucker who was born 6 Nov 1806. There has to be descendants of this couple who would appreciate this photos as they had 10 children!

I created a tree for this couple on Ancestry which you can find at https://ancstry.me/2RQYvUS.