Those Places Thursday - William Barlow Briggs' Family & Friends - 1880 Linn Co. Iowa?

This 10 x 8 photograph shows eight people posing outside a home.  It is a quite interesting piece and has puzzled me for some time.  This photograph was surely taken in Iowa although I had my doubts for some time.  If you look closely at the first photo you will see what appears to be mountains or at least large hills in the distance in the far left. I did not think that Iowa had mountains, but initial research shows that this area has what are called "pahas" or sand dunes which could explain this appearance in the photo as well as the woman with the broom. 

1880's Linn Co Iowa Group?

On the back the subjects are identified as:

William Briggs

Olive Jordan Briggs

Lillian Emma Briggs Taylor

Lou Henry Hoover

H. Maria Dobbins

Lillian Nudgett Horn

Jean Henry

Mrs. Henry

I have identified the male as William Barlow Briggs born 27 Sep 1837 in the state of Maine to Ezra and Phebe (Goddard) Briggs.  In 1866 he married Olive Jordan and their daughter Lillian was born in April of 1874.    The 1880 Maine, Linn County, Iowa shows Briggs living with his wife Olive and five year old daughter Lily. By 1900 the Briggs were living in Whittier City, Los Angeles, CA according to the US Census.  

William Barlow Briggs, Olive Jordan Briggs, Lillian Emma Briggs ca 1880-81

In this photo their daughter Lillian or Lily appears to be about five or six years old which would date this photograph about 1880 or 1881.  Additionally the women's clothing suggests an 1880's date.  Briggs appears to be handing his wife a document of some sort, perhaps a deed?  This type of photo was typically not seen until the later 1880's so hence my puzzlement.  I had no luck find any of the other women in the Linn County census so I am not sure of their connection to the Briggs'.  I have also been unable to identify the photographer as parts of the name have been torn off on both side of the picture.

Sepia Saturday #136 - Professional Baseball Player & Scout John Ralph "Jack" Warner

I posted a brief blurb earlier about my great-grandaunt Wave Bruce's husband John Ralph "Jack" Warner who was for a time a professional baseball player in the 1920's and 1930's.  This week's Sepia Saturday illustration comes from the AG Spaulding Baseball Collection and although I have two reproduction cards of Uncle Jack's there are numerous others of his out there that I cannot afford to purchase.  When I Google him I can find a number of great old photos.  The photo left is from the 1933 Goudey Baseball Card collection when Jack played for the Philadelphia Phillies at second base.

Jack was born 29 Aug 1903 in Evansville, IN to Norman and Emma Warner, the fourth of five children. On September 24 1925 he debuted in the major leagues at age 22 for the Detroit Tigers and was their third baseman for the 1926 and 1927 seasons. He played alongside the legendary Ty Cobb and in 1926 won a $25 bet from Cobb by beating him in a footrace. Click here to see a great team photograph where Jack is sitting next to the great Ty Cobb? It the 1926 team profession photograph, about 1/3 the way down the screen and Jack and Ty are the two in the very middle of the photo.

His best year was 1927 when he played 138 games at third base and finished among the American League leaders in at bats (559), outs (431), and hit by pitch (6).  In 1929 he was traded to the Brooklyn Robins (1929 - 1931) and finished his career with the Phillies in 1933 playing his final game on September 30 1933. After his playing career he was a scout for the Chicago Cubs. He spent 12 seasons as a coach for the Los Angeles Angels farm club and was a West Coast scout until he retired.

I found Uncle Jack and Aunt Wave in the 1940 Los Angeles Census where he listed his occupation as professional ball player. They lived for many years in California before returning to Illinois upon retirement. He died in Mt. Vernon, IL at age 82 on 13 Mar, 1986 and is buried at Memorial Gardens.

For more great American baseball stories swing on over to Sepia Saturday!

Sentimental Sunday - Women with Hats - Edna Wallace Hopper

I just love these two cabinet cards taken in 1898 of Edna Wallace Hopper (17 Jan 1872 or 74 - 14 Dec 1959) who was a famous American stage and silent film actress and her dog.   She was born to Walker and Josephine Wallace in either 1872 or 74, but refused to give her exact birth date and no one could find out for certain because her birth records were destroyed in the 1906 San Francisco earthquake.  In these photographs she is wearing very typical 1890's garb while posing with her beloved dog. Her hat is quite impressive and you will notice she is wearing a long chain around her neck that appears to be a dog whistle.  Also on her hip is an object that I was quite curious about, but I found something similar today and believe it to be a vintage scent bottle (see picture). The photographer is Benjamin J. Falk (1853 - 1925), who was one of the leading celebrity photographers in New York City at that time. He opened his studio at 13 and 15 West 24th St. N.Y. Madison Square in 1892.  He also had studios at twenty-third street and Broadway (on the present site of the Flatiron Building) and the Waldorf Astoria at West 33rd Street.

vintage scent bottle

Edna was no stranger to drama in her personal life. Her father was the head night usher at the California Theatre.  According to Wikipedia, while she was still young her parents took in a wealthy boarder, Alexander Dunsmuir (1853 - 1900) co-heir to the Dunsmuir coal and shipping fortune.  Unfortunately her mother fell in love with their boarder and ran off with him and left Edna, her father and her sibling. Wally sued for divorce and Alex's parents disapproved so their marriage was on hold.  Alex apparently was an alcoholic and began to drink heavily.  In the spring of 1886 he disappeared in San Francisco on a drinking binge for ten days. After his father died in 1889 Alex bought the estate of Souther Farm now known as Dunsmuir House, near San Francisco at a cost $350,000 and deeded it to Josephine. Alex and Josephine were married on 21 Dec 1899 in California and honeymooned in New York City.  

Edna Wallace Hopper 1898 NYC

Edna had gone to New York to train for the stage. While there she had married DeWolf Hopper (1858-1935) on 28 June 1895. They appeared together in comic operas including John Philip Sousa's El Capitan, but divorced in 1898, the same year these photos were taken.  They were a somewhat mismatched couple on stage and in life; DeWolf was tall for the times at 6 foot 3 inches and Edna was less than five feet and weighed 85 pounds. By the time her mother married Alex Dunsmuir, Edna was already a star on Broadway. She met with them while they were in New York.  Unfortunately, Alex was very sick with alcohol withdrawal, worsening each day and died on New Year's Day in a New York City Hospital.  Josephine, now a widow, returned to her new San Leandro estate where she died of cancer on 22 Jun 1901.

By this time Edna had achieved great fame starring in her most famous role, Lady Holyrood in the popular London inportation Florodora.  Although she did not play one of the renowned Florodora Sextettes, she shared in the wide adulation of the many male admirers who mobbed the backstage door after each performance.  She remained very active on stage over the next decade including starring in George M. Cohen's Fifty Miles from Boston in 1907.  In 1908 she married Wall Street broker Albert O. Brown.

1910

During the 1910's and early 1920's her career slowed down but took a different direction.  She was one of the earlier stage actors to have a facelift and had the operation filmed.  Over the next eight years she made personal appearances and tours showing the film and giving beauty tips.  Over the years she would put her name on a line of products noted for keeping her youthful looks - Edna Wallace Hopper Cosmetics.  

She separated from her second husband Brown and he died in the 1930's.  She went on to become the only woman of the thirty-six member board of L. F. Rothschld & Co..  She traveled daily by subway to her office to handle investments until shortly before her death in New York City from complications of pneumonia on 14 Dec 1959 at the reported age of 94 leaving no immediate survivors.  She is buried at Mountain View Cemetery in Oakland, Alameda County, California.

Sources:

1.  Wikipedia
2.  Shades of the Departed:  http://www.shadesofthedeparted.com/2011/08/todays-shades-old-photograph.html#links
3.  Find-A-Grave:  http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=19073997

Sentimental Sunday - Women with Hats - Who is She?

This unidentified, well-dressed woman was photographed by Fred Hartsook of California probably between 1915 and the early 1920's. Hartsook, a well-known California photographer of silent era actors was born in 26 Oct 1896 in Marion Indiana.  According to Wikipedia he was born into a family of successful photographers and as a young man moved to Salt Lake City and began his own photography business.  In 1901 he married Florence Newcomb, a photographer as well.  They traveled around Utah taking photos with a team of mules pulling a homemade darkroom.  If you look closely in the lower right hand corned you can see the Hartsook embossment which matches the Hartsook name in the copyright image below.

Eventually they settled in California where he opened studios in a number of cities including Los Angeles and San Francisco.  His clients included Mary Pickford, Charles Lindbergh, Lillian Gish and President Woodrow Wilson.  I've looked at hundreds of Google images and have half convinced myself that this could be Mary Pickford.  

In 1919 Hartsook remarried Bess Hesby and they honeymooned in the redwood forest of Humboldt County, CA.  They eventually purchased their honeymoon cabin and 37 surrounding acres turning the cabin into the Hartsook Inn where many Hollywood celebrities stayed including Mary Pickford and Bing Crosby.  A forest fire burned down the inn in 1927 and in 1928 the photographic business went into receivership and was sold at auction.  Fred died on 30 Sep 1930 at age 53 of a heart attack.  His wife would live for another 46 years.