The above photograph depicts Charles Elwood Bain, Sr. (1871-1951). He was born in Amanda, OH, the son of Jesse Franklin Bain (1818-1890) and Maria E. House (1828-1917), both of whom were born in Virginia. Franklin, as he was known, and Maria moved from Amanda to Lancaster in the 1870s. There, in a house at 323 North Maple Street, they raised Charles and siblings George W. (1861-1893), Albert A. (1865-1935), Mary Virginia (1867-1944), Maria Elizabeth (1869-1946). Maria’s obituary states that she had four sons, but I could only find three. Charles was the only sibling to marry.
Charles married Florence E. Garrabrandt (1878-1920) and they made their home in Columbus, OH where she was born. Florence was the daughter of Howard Garrabrandt (1844-1914) who was born in Ohio, and Emma Green (1843-1929) who was born in Newark, NJ. Florence had a son when she married Charles, Howard Leroy Wilson (1905-1987) who went by Leroy, and they had a son together, Charles Elwood Bain, Jr. (1914-1997) who went by Elwood. After Florence died in the 1918 Flu Pandemic, Charles and Elwood moved to Lancaster to live with Charles’ unmarried sisters and Leroy stayed in Columbus.
Elwood graduated from Lancaster High School in 1931, Miami University in 1937, and went to Harvard University before enlisting in the U. S. Navy in 1942. He married Elizabeth McLean Guion (1918-2009) on 9 November 1942. Their wedding was held in the New York City apartment of Elizabeth’s aunt, Dr. Connie Myers Guion (1882-1971).
Charles was retired from the Hocking Valley and Chesapeake and Ohio Railroads. When he died at age 80 he had spent his last few years living with Elwood in Philadelphia, PA. He was a Methodist and a Mason.
Pop quiz: Below is a page from the 1937 edition of The Recensio, the Miami University yearbook. Before you check the list of names, can you identify which of the students below is Elwood based on family resemblance ?
Here is the back of the photo:
Useful tidbit: Miami was a university before Florida was a state.
I’m going to guess it’s the gentleman on the top right. This photograph, like so many others, reminds me of my epiphany, many years ago as I was strolling through the now defunct Baltimore City Life Museum, that people don’t look the same as they did a hundred years ago. I remember saying that to a number of people, including my then-wife Jennifer Bishop, a renowned portrait photographer, and most people thought I was crazy. I’m reminded of it every time I look at the huge blowup photos, in the Kenyon gym, of the athletic teams of the nineteenth and early twentieth century. It’s got nothing to do with clothing but a lot to do, I believe, with genetics, diet, and attitude. People were different then, and they looked different.