Monthly Archives: November 2017

Mrs. Delia Hoak, Idaho, Circa 1930

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Two old photos, circa 1925 – 1935.

Price for the pair:  $15.00           Size for photo on left: 2 and 5/8 x 4 and 3/8″

Size for photo on right:  3 and 1/8 x 5″

“Delia on her mount…..Taken after Ernest’s & Cleo’s wedding when they went to Rupert.”

Most likely these are photos of Delia Olive Bull, born September 12, 1909 in Rupert, Idaho, daughter of Walter A. Bull and Victoria Virginia Howell. Delia married John William Hoak October 25, 1926 in Minidoka County, Idaho. Though the back of the photo on our right shows “Delia or Mrs. Coke,” no matches were found, so the correction in pencil to “Hoak” would be correct. The photo on the left might have been taken before Delia married, as she looks younger in that snapshot. The 1930 Federal Census for Boise shows John, Delia and their two young sons, Willis and Kenneth.

As for the newlyweds, Cleo and Ernest, there are a few possible couples that fit the time period with these given names, in Idaho.

Sources:  Idaho State Department of Health; Boise, Idaho; Idaho Birth and Stillbirth Index, 1913-1964. (Ancestry.com).

Upper Snake River Family History Center and Ricks College; Rexburg, Idaho; Idaho Marriages, 1842-1996. (Ancestry.com).

Year: 1930; Census Place: Boise, Ada, Idaho; Roll: 395; Page: 2A; Enumeration District: 0012; FHL microfilm: 2340130. (Ancestry.com).

Thanksgiving Cheer

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Divided back, used postcard. Postmarked November 27, 1916 from Santa Cruz, California. Printed in Germany. Series 0758.

This poor card is really beat up, but it’s the only one we have at the moment, for the holiday, so Happy Thanksgiving! And it’s another in the Ethel Main Collection. Ethel’s nickname was “Tottie.” The sender wrote:

“Dear Tot, Just a line of greeting, recd your letter today, enjoyed it very much. Yes I have just finished my [?] I will send you the pattern. Glad you have such good luck. I don’t know what I will start next. Maybe a purse. The birds are singing gayly this morn. I will write……..Blanche.”

Addressed to:

“Miss Ethel Main, 3622 18th St., San Francisco, Calif.”

W. J. & Family At Old Home On Colorado

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Photo from 1911 printed to canvas on wooden board and frame

Price:  $20.00        Size:  10 x 7 and 3/4″    

Condition:  Some scratches, markings and canvas tears

Surname mystery

This was an unusual find at, it was either an antique store or a thrift store. (Yikes, I guess this means I have to start writing them all down.) So, it was somebody’s cool idea to take an old family photo (their family or one they just found and liked) and have the image transferred to a canvas (or canvas-like) type of surface. It was then glued onto a thin board on a wooden frame, so that it could go up on that person’s wall. (Now it’s on mine.) It’s the fourth for me, of those that are not family but have become family. A couple have names but nobody’s claimed them yet, another has no name, and then there’s this one:  What in the world is this family’s surname? Ferris, Harris, Ferix misspelled as Farrix (can’t find surname Farrix). Even with a magnifying glass, and in the sunlight, it’s hard to say. The location could be almost anywhere, too, since it appears to say “on Colorado” rather than in Colorado or on the Colorado, as in River. Well, but whoever they are, they’re a beautiful group of seven people and two dogs (didn’t the dogs do well to not move too much while the photo was being taken? 🙂 ) Love that wooden fence, and the porch running the length of the house. The home seems to have been pretty big, and it’s rustic-looking. Was it originally a log cabin? We can’t see the details. You’ll notice a windmill behind the house on the right. But, it really strikes me with an impression so significant, a feeling that we could wave to the family and they’d wave back across this current span (insignificant, really) of six and one hundred (going old-school here) years.

Our Horseback Adventure

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Old photo, white border. September 1922.

Price:  $15.00            Size:  About 2 and 1/2  4 and 1/4″

A great remembrance of a wonderful day:  Three friends, identified on the back as Florence Gallison, Zilda Smith and Maude Fields, September 1922. The three cowgirls at heart are posed on horseback in front of a scenic view in, it’s a safe bet to say the Sierras, maybe in or near the Stanislaus National Forest, or Yosemite National Park. Reason being is that the three were only found in reasonable proximity, living in the Central Valley of California: Florence and Maude in Turlock and Zilda in Stockton.

Note: There were two Florence Gallison’s in the area, but Florence G. Gallison was ruled out as she was a Gallison by marriage, and was not married until after 1922.

Below, a short news blip that appeared in the Modesto Evening News, June 17, 1914, informing that Florence (she would have been about fourteen) was spending the summer in Sugar Pine, California (near the south entrance to Yosemite National Park.)

UPDATE re a banjo:  Please be sure to read the comment below from Jay, who so kindly provided the color photos. As you will note from one of the photos, our three horseback adventurers were part of a musical endeavor called the Yosemite Blind Bats. As of March 28, 1923, the band members were:

F. C. Alexander; H. A. “Red” Halls; A. I. or A. L. Mill; F. M. Gallison; M. A. Stout; A. B. Leavitt; Gene DePaul or Depauli; Maude Field; Zilda Smith; “Edythe” Leavitt.

From our research, F. C. Alexander was Fred Colville Alexander, born Kentucky 1885. A. B. Leavitt was Amy Belle Leavitt, born San Francisco, California, April 1897. Fred and Amy married in September 1923. They were both residents of Yosemite at the time. From Fred’s WWI Draft Registration Card in 1918, his occupation was property clerk and storekeeper at Yosemite National Park, and interestingly from a musical standpoint, deaf in his right ear. By at least 1926 he was postmaster at Yosemite. (Scroll to the bottom of the page for a clip from the Santa Cruz Evening News.)

“Edythe” Leavitt was Amy Belle’s sister. Spelled Edith in records, we love the hinting toward some type of running joke re the quotation marks. She was born in California, about 1901.

And, rather grainy, but still a nice find – a photo of Zilda Smith that appeared in the Stockton Evening and Sunday Record, July 1924:

Other readable names from the banjo photos are:  Pete Van Bake; Thelma Britton; Philip Patterson; [?] Van Wormer; Bob Davison; B. B. Harlett; E. M.[?] Metcalf; G. E. Comstock; [?] Thompson; The Brockway Splashes. (Brockway is an unincorporated community on the north shore of Lake Tahoe, at the California-Nevada border.)

Photos from Jay:

Below, Postmaster, Fred Alexander of Yosemite is involved in the arrest/custody of two n’er do wells:

Sources:  Florence Gallison. Year: 1920; Census Place: Turlock, Stanislaus, California; Roll: T625_152; Pages: 1B; Enumeration District: 188. (Ancestry.com).

Maude Fields. Year: 1920; Census Place: Turlock, Stanislaus, California; Roll: T625_152; Page: 2B; Enumeration District: 184. (Ancestry.com).

Zilda Smith. R. L. Polk and Co.’s Stockton City and San Joaquin County Directory, 1925. Vol. 18, p. 59. Ancestry.com. U.S. City Directories, 1822-1995.

Modesto Evening News, June 17, 1914. Wednesday, p. 7. (Newspapers.com)

Ancestry.com. California, U.S., Marriage Records from Select Counties, 1850-1941.

Year: 1910; Census Place: Stockton Ward 4, San Joaquin, California; Roll: T624_103; Page: 1a; Enumeration District: 0144; FHL microfilm: 1374116. (Ancestry.com).

“Planting Young Trout in Lakes and Streams Requires Extreme Care.” Stockton Evening and Sunday Record, July 26, 1924. Saturday, p. 29. (Newspapers.com)

“Former Postmaster of Arkansas Town Arrested With Female Companion.” Santa Cruz Evening News, June 25, 1926. Friday, p. 1. (Newspapers.com)

Snake River Bridge At Blue Lakes, Idaho

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Divided back, unused postcard, circa 1911 – 1915. Publisher:  Wesley Andrews, Baker, Oregon. Series or number 305.

Price:  $12.00

 I. B. Perrine’s Blue Lakes Bridge

Started in 1910 and completed in 1911, is the steel bridge seen in this postcard, spanning the Snake River at Blue Lakes. It replaced I. B. Perrine’s ferry and was known as I. B. Perrine’s Blue Lakes Bridge or Perrine’s Bridge, and was a toll bridge until Perrine’s building costs were recovered. It was closed to the public in 1921. Ira Burton Perrine was a renowned fruit rancher and is credited as having founded Twin Falls, Idaho.

Below, a clipping from The Oregon Daily Journal, October 1910, informs readers that the piers for the new bridge were completed, and the work on the structure would soon be undertaken by a Minneapolis company. According to the article, the bridge’s length was going to measure 600 feet.

Watermelon in the desert and where was Blue Lakes?

Below, two newspaper clippings:   On the left, a partial clip from The Evansville Press, September 1906, on Perrine’s mineral-rich fruit ranch where fruits too numerous to mention were grown in the volcanic soil. On the right, a partial article from The Minneapolis Journal, September 1903, and the best description found online of Blue Lakes. According to the unknown journalist, Blue Lake was not a town, but a post office established for the fruit farmer, whose ranch was referred to as Blue Lakes, located about four miles below the Shoshone Falls on the Snake River, north of the city of Twin Falls, and who’s name derives from the two almost pond-size bodies of water, so poetically described below, as “….blue with a blueness that defies description…….the water is sparkling, transparent indigo shading into purple….”  And the million-dollar question in 2017:  Are the lakes still there? (Hopefully someone will comment and let us know.)

Sources:  “Bridge The Snake At Blue Lakes.” The Oregon Daily Journal (Portland, OR). October 30, 1910. Sunday, p. 5. (Newspapers.com)

Matthews, Mychel. “Hidden History:  First Perrine Bridge.” MVMagicValley.com. July 7, 2016. (Web accessed November 18, 2017).

I. B. Perrine. n.d. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/I._B._Perrine (accessed November 18, 2017).

Gardner, Gilson. “Romance Of An Idaho Eden.” The Evansville Press. (Evansville, IN). September 28, 1906. Friday, p. 4. (Newspapers.com).

“An Idaho Romance.” The Minneapolis Journal. September 26, 1903. Saturday, p. 5. (Newspapers.com).

Walter Wetzel, Red Lodge, Montana, 1922

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Old photo. August 8, 1922, Red Lodge, Carbon County, Montana.

Price:  $15.00       Size:  4 and 1/8 x 2 and 3/8″

Here’s a beautiful photo of a man in jeans and cowboy hat, standing, holding the reins of two horses. On the back we have the i.d. showing,  “Aug 8/22. Walter Wetzel. Red Lodge, Montana.”  To our right, in the photo, is a rudimentary-looking log cabin (no windows) and in the background, snow covered mountains of the (assuming) Beartooth Mountain Range. In searching records for a Walter Wetzel that might fit this photo we find a Walter W. Wetzel (1902 – 1953) a well-known forester, who married Elva Ellis. A newspaper clipping from 1927 that announced the couple’s marriage license, stated Elva was a resident of Red Lodge. But how old is the man in the photo? My first impression was of someone about age fifty, albeit a very fit age fifty. But he could certainly be much younger. It’s hard to tell because of the lighting and the distance the photo was taken from.

At The Rodeo

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Vintage photo, white border, circa 1950s.

Price:  $3.00         Size:  About 3 and 1/2 x 2 and 1/2″

A great vintage snapshot:  a cowboy, or maybe vaquero would be more appropriate, riding a saddled bull or steer, posing for the camera, with a great smile. Looks like this was taken at a rodeo or rodeo fairgrounds due to the loudspeaker behind the bovine and rider. Hopefully someone will fill us in on the breed of the animal.

Ezra Meeker’s Ox Team, 1910

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Divided back, used postcard. Postmarked July 9, 1915 from Oakland, California. Publisher:  Ezra Meeker, Seattle, Washington. Number or series: A-14670.

Price:  $5.00

“This view represents a snap shot of the team in motion at the head of the Industrial Parade, Kansas City, Mo., Oct. 5th, 1910.”

Ezra Meeker (1830 – 1928) was a pioneer from Iowa, who traveled the Oregon Trail, and who worked later to memorialize it. He was also an author, served as Puyallup, Washington’s first mayor and its first postmaster, was one time known as the “Hop King of the World” and was also the publisher of this postcard.

Addressed to:   “Miss Ella Ellison, 1415 – G St., Sacramento, Calif.”

“Dear Ella, Went to the Fair to-day. Am coming home Sun. and going away Tues. (write) Muriel.”

Straight and to the point, the comings and goings of Ella’s friend, Muriel in July 1915. Love the order to “(write)”. This is one of many in the Alice Ellison Collection.

Source:  Ezra Meeker. n.d. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ezra_Meeker (accessed November 12, 2017).

A U. S. Navy Man, WWI

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Real Photo Postcard, unused with writing. Circa 1914 – 1918. EKC stamp box.

Price:  $10.00

For Veteran’s Day….

“Best Wishes & Good Luck to a splendid Bunk Mate, Charles Ed. Sickler. Paxton, Ill. R-R-I.”

Most likely we’re looking at Charles Ed. Sickler in the photo (at least one presumes!) as it sounds like this writer of best wishes was giving this remembrance of himself, along with his mailing address, to his buddy, “the splendid Bunk Mate.” A cool guy, Charles, you can read his perhaps dry sense of humor in the card. The RR1 would be Rural Route 1. But no confirmation was found for him in census, military or city directory records, and that is surprising.

Farm Wagons At Biltmore Village, North Carolina

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Old photo, Biltmore Village, NC. Circa 1905 – 1910.

Price:  $20.00        Size:  3 and 1/4 x 3 and 1/4″

At first glance, one might think this photo was taken on a special occasion, because of the striking contrast between the line of three oxen-driven covered wagons and the row of Dutch Colonial Revival style homes and manicured lawns in the suburban-looking setting. But rather than some type of commemorative event, it may have just been a “working day” wagons-carrying-supplies scene in Biltmore Village, NC. Note the partial glimpse of horse and rider on our right. And with scrutiny one can make out the vague image in the middle vehicle of a driver wearing a hat.

The book, Around Biltmore Village, (see p. 38) by Bill Alexander provides a couple of photos of this same street, Brook St., circa 1906 and 1909. Those are Linden trees in the images (and we hope they’re still there.) The rental houses in the village were referred to as “cottages” which seems unusual but then decidedly not…..when viewed in relation to the Biltmore Estate mansion built by George W. Vanderbilt, II. The village was a planned community for the estate workers, and was also designed to be an aesthetically pleasing entrance to the estate, modeled to have the feel of an English village. Biltmore Village was formerly known as Best but also referred to as Ashville Junction and Swannanoa Bridge. Today, Biltmore Village is a part of the city of Ashville, and is a popular shopping, dining, art, spa and historical destination. Below, another photo (Wikepidia Commons) from around the same time period.

Sources:  Alexander, Bill. Around Biltmore Village. Charleston:  Arcadia Publishing, 2008. Web accessed November 11, 2017.

Biltmore Estate. n.d. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Biltmore_Estate (accessed November 11, 2017).

File:Biltmore, NC-Lindon Trees (5167651749).jpg. Original Collection: Arthur Peck Collection, P99, Item Number: P099_C_278. (accessed November 11, 2017).