Genealogy, Photography

Cartes de visite

Shelly

CDV08
Fred H. Smith
born 15 March 1874 in Brooklyn, Hennepin County, Minnesota, United States
died 1956

CDV07
Lena Mellisa Smith
born 1873 in Brooklyn, Hennepin County, Minnesota, United States

CDV04
Georgia Belle Smith
born 5 October 1878 in Osseo, Hennepin County, Minnesota, United States
died 22 October 1973 in Los Angeles, Los Angeles County, California, United States

The last two were sisters, and I’m guessing Fred is part of the family, too, but I can’t find him listed in the census. Lena and Georgia Belle were the daughters of Andrew J. Smith and Georgianna Isadore Russell.

ETA: Lena and Fred were cousins! Fred was the son of George Haskell Smith and Frances Isabell Thomas. George Haskell Smith and Andrew J. Smith were brothers, the sons of Horace Harding Smith and Caroline Louisa Shepard.

Cemeteries, Genealogy, Photography

Family Headstones

Shelly

Finally, headstones from my own family. I took these in Minnesota last week. The first is my grandpa’s parents, the second is my grandma’s mother, the third is my great-great aunt, and the last is my uncle.

IMG_0458
Cecil John May 17, 1904 — Sept. 30, 1988 & Clarice Marie (Lord) March 21, 1906 — April 4, 1996
Cedar City Cemetery, Austin, Mower County, Minnesota

IMG_0574
Helen Gertrude (Basquille) Thompson Apr. 22, 1895 — July 1, 1974
Calvary Cemetery, Austin, Mower County, Minnesota

IMG_0572
Margaret Desales (Basquille) Pooser 1889 — 1976
Calvary Cemetery, Austin, Mower County, Minnesota

IMG_0571
Anthony Meineke 1956 — 1984
Calvary Cemetery, Austin, Mower County, Minnesota

Photography

1760 Miles

Shelly

IMG_1657

Apparently, when I said “blogging will be light,” I actually meant “blogging will be non-existent.” But I’m back from Minnesota and have a ton of photos to go through. Most of the pictures are from visiting cemeteries. I also found some old cabinet cards in a junk shop, which I need to scan.

But first, a nap. Or two.

Photography

Writing on the Wall

Shelly

2IMG_1372
4th Floor, East Tower, Herman B Wells Library, Indiana University

The only explanation I can think of for people doing math on the wall is that there’s a photocopier right under this area. I wonder if people are tying to figure out how many copies they can make with the money they have left?

Blogging will probably be light for the next few days, as I am going to be on the road.

Ladybusiness

Harriet Talcott Buckingham Clarke

Shelly

All the diarists mention the Indians they meet on their journey. Most of the women’s descriptions fall somewhere between thoroughly ignorant and deeply racist. This passage is one of the few I’ve read that contains even a hint of awareness of the affect the white settlers’ movement westward was having on the peoples living on those lands.

May, 1851

Crossed the Missouri at Council Bluffs, where we had been a couple of weeks making the final preparations on this outskirt of civilization

The weather has been mild, and we have walked evry day over the rolling hills around — one day found a young physician and his wife who were interested in examining the numerous skulls and human bones that were found near the surface of the ground. After much speculation the fact was elucidated that, large tribes of Indians from the middle states had been pushed off by our government to this frontier region to make room for white settlers, and had here perished in large numbers by starvation consequent upon removal from familiar hunting grounds: they had been buried in large trenches with heads to the east. Skulls were thick: of peculiar shape differing from the Anglo Saxon type.

Clarke, Harriet Talcott Buckingham, 1832-1890, Diary of Harriet Talcott Buckingham Clarke, May, 1851, in Covered Wagon Women: Diaries & Letters from the Western Trails, vol. 3: 1851. Holmes, Kenneth L., ed. & comp. Lincoln, NE: University of Nebraska Press, 1995.