Saturday, July 31, 2010

Photo Number 268

This is a cabinet card that we can date 1889. Frank Jay Haynes, the photographer was at this location that year. I wonder why the x on the photo?  I read someplace where the x meant that the person was dead, yet I have lots of photos that my Mother In Law marked with an x of her very much living children.
Note the envelope flap mark on this side of the cabinet card..I have seen this before, apparently it fit inside an special envelope.  I was curious about the name on the back of this photo..how did it come to be there..who was Mrs. James Green of Portal North Dakota?  Is she the woman in the photo?  I have decided that she is not, but perhaps someone mailed this photo to her.

I researched the Greens and none of the dates I have fit this photo.  However they were interesting people.
James Green Jan 9, 1877 to December 16, 1936.    His father ( John L.)  was the Chinese Inspector for the US Immigration Service in Portal.  The family had moved to Portal in 1895.  When John L Green died of diabetes in 1905, his son donated the NW corner of his farm for a cemetery.  I can find no record of a Mrs. James Green..she is not buried in the family cemetery.  However the Green Family was quite large..there were thirteen children, and not all of them are buried in the cemetery either.

I never could find any reference to Wheatland..and the 1/4 mile south west of town does not fit where her husbands farm was one mile east of Portal. So I will give up on this one.
Thanks for stopping by, do come again:)

4 comments:

  1. I love your old forgotten photos Connie. Interesting info you came up with too. It is odd to me that the dad has his free arm hanging down rather than on the baby or his leg! That's baby's gown has the prettiest trim!

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  2. Isn't it amazing the clothing styles and how far they have come in change. I suppose a lot of it is the style that was brought over with them and eventually it just changed because all of it was not really necessary.

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  3. If the x was for those that were dead, everyone in the whole picture - most likely would be "x'ed" out now. I wonder if they were just indicating someone that they wrote about on the backside? Like "x" marks the one?

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  4. F. J. Haynes was an interesting guy too - He moved from Fargo, ND to the North Pacific railroad terminal in Saint Paul, MN in 1889. In 1890 he published, "Haynes Practical Guide to Yellowstone National Park". He also published a great many of his own pictures taken at the park on postcards. His son, Jack Ellis, born in 1884, spent 76 of his 78 summers in the park.

    Samuel L. Schmucker: the discovery of his lost art By Jack Davis, Dorothy Ryan (Paperback - 2001) and available via Google Book search

    The book has a lot of cabinet shots by Haynes - including one of his son on a highwheeler tricycle. It seems to indicate that Haynes was still in St. Paul until 1915 or so - perhaps he had some printed cardstock to use up and the picture was taken later than it appears?

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Hi, Thanks for the comments, your input on these old photos is appreciated! English only please! All comments will be moderated! Connie