I almost always grab military photographs when I come across them and I couldn’t resist this one when I encountered it at a Baltimore antique store in mid-2022. I rarely can make much of them, but this one was a surprise. It sat around in a stack of stuff until I finally decided to see what it was about. A close examination revealed a name plate on the table in the foreground, “LT R. H. Farber”:
Detail of name plate
Farber, the only officer in the shot, is obviously the subject given that almost everybody else is looking at the photographer while Farber appears to be engrossed in his work.
Robert “Bob” Holton Farber (1914-2013) was born in Geneseo, IL to Charles William Farber (1881-1965) and Hulda Ella Ogden (1881-1968). Both families had been in Illinois for several generations. He married Edna Earle Klutts (1918-1997) in 1946 and they had two children. He also outlived his second wife, Vera May Knauer Kierstead (1913-2012).
Farber graduated from DePauw University in 1935 and was never far away from the institution for long after that. According to an obituary, Farber returned to the university in 1937 as secretary of admissions. After serving in the U.S. Army in the European Theater from 1941-1946, Farber went back to DePauw, got his Doctor of Education degree in 1951 (IU), and was appointed dean in 1942, eventually retiring as vice president and dean of the university in 1979.
Farber enlisted as a private in September 1941 at Ft. Benjamin Harrison, IN. He was commissioned at some point and separated as a major, and somewhere along the way was awarded the Bronze Star. He ended his career as the Classification Officer for the U.S. Third Army, which means he was a personnel officer responsible for making sure the right personnel were put in the right jobs in furtherance of the unit’s mission. A Google search, or a search on Ancestry, will show you quite a few photographs of Farber sitting at a desk and working at every stage of his career.
The photograph above depicts the birthplace of Everett Hughs Upton (1915-2007) in Haynesville, Claiborne Parish, LA, the son of Edwin Adolphus Upton (1875-1950) of Claiborne Parish, and Emma M. Hughs (1886-1983) of Poolesville, MD. Emma’s origination in Poolesville probably explains why I was able to purchase the photograph from an antique store in Baltimore.
Edwin moved to Washington, DC and was employed as “Clerk, Class 1” in the “Office of the Military Secretary” in 1905. In 1910 he graduated from Georgetown University Law School. In 1912 he married Emma, a school teacher who had been working as a printer’s assistant at the Bureau of Engraving and Printing in 1905. Edwin registered for the WWI draft while he was working for the Office of Indian Affairs out of the courthouse in Ashland County, WI. Edwin and Emma divorced in 1944. Their other son, Edwin David Upton (1913-1980) was born in DC before they moved to Haynesville.
There isn’t a lot of information available about Everett. He never married. He graduated from Dickerson High School in Dickerson, MD in 1931 and the Strayer College of Accountancy in 1934 with a “secretarial diploma.” He was a member of the executive committee of The Canterbury Club, “the Episcopal student group of George Washington University in 1940. Corporal Everett Upton returned from overseas service in December 1945. According to his obituary published in The Frederick New-Post on 24 July 2007, “Mr. Upton was a graduate of Brown University, and had served with the U.S. Army in Europe during World War II. He taught in the public school system of Providence, R.I., for many years, until his retirement.”
The above photograph depicts Romeo Tate Perry (1871-1931) who was the third husband of Esther Ellen “Nellie” Oertly Alexander (1869-1955), mother of Edward Lescallet Alexander (1889-1959), the subject of the post before last. I was doing some organizing in the home office and found Romeo’s photograph in a stack of stuff purchased at the same antique store in Baltimore where I bought Edward’s photograph.
Romeo was born in Morgantown, NC to James Alexander Perry (1847-1923) and Mary Elizabeth Sisk (1848-1886).
This photograph of Romeo was used in a news story about their marriage that also included a photograph of Nellie:
Another marriage announcement contained a succinct version of Romeo’s career to that point:
I found three letters to the editor that Romeo wrote over the years. The first one appeared in the St. Louis Globe-Democrat (St. Louis, MO) on 8 April 1903:
The second one appeared in the Fort Smith Times (Fort Smith, AR) on 29 March 1904:
The last one appeared in The Washington Herald on 15 August 1922:
The image above depicts Edward Lescallet Alexander (1889-1959) who was born in the District of Columbia to Clarence Lee Alexander (1865-) and Esther Ellen “Nellie” Oertly (1869-1955). Clarence seems to have disappeared. He was enumerated with the family in the Census of 1900, but the Census of 1910 records Nellie’s surname as Larson. There is no death date on Clarence’s tombstone. The section where his father’s name should be is “Unknown” on Edward’s death certificate. Clarence and Nellie had two other children, Pauline Elizabeth Alexander (1891-1896) and David Lee Alexander (1896-1957). I was unable to figure out who Larson was, but Nellie later married Romeo Tate Perry (1871-1931) and outlived him by 24 years.
Update: Nellie married Arthur H. Larson (1876-1907) in 1903 but he died of TB in his home state of Wisconsin in 1907.
Edward married Susie “Sue” Minerva Timmerman (1893-1957) of Illinois in 1911. They had one son, Ralph Valden Alexander (1911-1960) who married Eva Valline McDonald (1917-1995) in 1942. Edward worked as a fleet mechanic, as a gas station manager, and, after 1942, for the Timber Engineering Company-Southwest in the Houston area. Edward died of heart disease and cirrhosis of the liver.
I might not have been able to identify the subject of the photograph had his mother’s maiden name not been unusual. Nellie’s father, Bartholome Oertli (1827-1878), an architect and inventor, was born in Switzerland. Edward’s middle name was the surname of a husband of one of Nellie’s paternal aunts: John William Lescallett (d. 1901) was married to Elizabeth Wilhelmina Oertly Lescallett Miller (1869-1956).
The subjects of a November 2021 post on this blog, the Clarence Colton Dawsons, wrote a caption on the reverse of the above photograph identifying its subject:
Miss Helen Robinson [sic], Home Economics Teacher at Goodlettsville, Tennessee, standing in front of Mrs. W. B. Myers home where we all boarded. [signed] Mr. & Mrs. C. Colton Dawson
That the W. B. Myers mansion served as a boarding house for more than one of the teachers at Goodlettsville High School [GHS], not just the Dawsons, was new information to me. This research was complicated not only by the various spellings of her surname, but also by the fact that there were two other Helen Robisons teaching in Tennessee when this Helen was teaching.
Mary Helen Robison (1910-2005) was born in Williamson County, TN to William Thomas Robison, Sr. (1858-1915) and Lillian “Lillie” Mai Wilson (1857-1939), the eighth of ten children. W. T. and Lillie were also natives of Williamson County and he was serving his third term as county trustee at the time of his death. Helen graduated from George Peabody College for Teachers with a bachelor of science degree in June 1931. The Census of 1940 listed her residence in 1935 as “Corners,” in Marshall County, TN, which probably refers to Cornersville where I suspect she taught at the high school.
Helen was the Home Economics teacher and the Home Economic Club sponsor at GHS in 1938. Here are two photographs of Helen that appeared in the 1938 GHS yearbook, Les Memoires:
Goodlettsville High School Faculty, 1938
Goodlettsville High School Home Economic Club, 1938
I’m not sure how many years Helen was at GHS before 1938, but by February 1939 she had moved to Memphis and joined the Teacher Training Faculty at Memphis State College [MSC]. In the Census of 1940, Helen and fellow faculty member Pauline Hilliard were enumerated as renters of apartment #2 at 449 Patterson street for $37.50 per month. Hilliard eventually became Dr. Francis Pauline “Polly” Hilliard (1909-2005), an author and professor of elementary education and curriculum who was chair of the education department at the University of Florida’s College of Education from 1960-1968. Their portraits appeared in MSC’s 1940-1941 yearbook, the Desoto:
Helen Robison and Pauline Hilliard in the Memphis State College Yearbook for 1940-41.
Helen married Lawton Reginald Wadsworth, Sr. (1909-1996) in November 1941. Lawton was a teacher in the Shelby County [Memphis] school system after having been educated at Lambuth College and George Peabody College. Lawton was a native of Ripley, TN, as were his parents, the Rev. Lawton Rhette Wadsworth (1855-1966), a school teacher before answering the call to ministry in the Methodist church, an Eddie Mai Bibb (1888-1838), also a teacher.
The house pictured above is located at 2111 Fifth Avenue, Altoona, PA. There is a caption on the reverse [see below] which informs that the folks standing in front of the house are
Aunt Mary Moore Uncle Willie Moore Bill Moore Elizabeth Moore George Kearney (Grandpa Kearney in Center)
The mother of the family was Mary Kearney (1866-1955), the daughter of George Kearney (1822-1886) and Catherine Moore (1838-1873). She was married to William Moore (1863-1946), also a native of Ireland, whose parents I was unable to identify. Mary and William arrived separately to the USA from County Donegal in the 1880s and married in May 1890. Their children were William Victor Moore (1891-1988), Elizabeth Kearney Moore (1895-1961), and, not pictured, George Harold Moore (1900-1981).
George Kearney is Mary’s nephew, George William Kearney (1895-1966), and Grandpa Kearney is Mary’s brother, William Kearney (1862-1922), who married Mary Margaret “Maggie” Moore (1864-1942) in 1893. George and Maggie’s other children were Thomas C. Kearney (1899-1901) and Allan Moore “Al” Kearney (1902-1979).
The first mention of the house in the newspapers was in May 1899: A quiet wedding was celebrated yesterday evening at the home of Mr. William Moore, 2111 Fifth avenue, who is a brother-in-law of the bride. The wedding united Mary’s sister Elizabeth Anne Kearney (1872-1939) with James Crawford (1870-1919), both also natives of Ireland. In the Census of 1900, Grandpa Kearney’s family was enumerated at 2107 Fifth Avenue, which had not been built when this photograph was taken. We can date the photograph to 1896-1898.
I suspect the person who wrote the caption on the back of the photograph was one of the Crawford children. I’d explain why I think that, but figuring out the Kearneys and Moores of Altoona in the late 19th Century gave me a headache — I want to move on to the next thing.
Both 2111 and 2107 are still there but, because the GoogleEarth camera did not drive down Fifth Avenue, we can only see them from above:
Carlo and family, Vergennes Township, Kent County, MI, July 1893
Above we see Carlo the Dog resting on the ground in the foreground while his family poses around him. I was unable to find Carlo’s vital statistics or any other information about him. From all appearances, he was a good boy. Carlo’s identity and the identities of his family members are inscribed on the reverse of the photograph, along with the date.
Standing to Carlo’s far left is Otis Bailey (1848-1920) and standing in the doorway is Amy Parker (1852-1907). Both were born in Vergennes Township, Kent County, MI and married there in December 1870.
Otis and Amy had two daughters. First born was Nellie M. Bailey (1872-1927) who is standing to Carlo’s immediate right. She married Frank A. Gould (1871-1945) in December 1891 and their first child, Mary Amy “Matie” Gould (1892-1977), who is sitting on the blanket to her mother’s right, was born the following September. Matie married Oscar U. Rivette (1888-1925) in 1912 and they had two children, Zeona Avon Rivette (1916-2001) and Gould Oscar Rivette (1995). Matie’s siblings were Zeona Gould (1894-1982) and Howard O. Gould (1898-1963).
Standing to Carlo’s immediate right is Otis’s and Amy’s other daughter, Grace E. Bailey (1882-1939). She married Bela C. Cowles (1880-1961) in 1912, divorced him in 1916, then married Anthony Baldus (1880-1930) in 1917.
The lady standing near the front porch steps is identified in the photograph’s caption by the apparent nickname “Auntie Duggy.” Assuming that Auntie Duggy was a member of the familly, I imagined that I would find her in an obituary, but the newspapers in and around Kent County are not well digitized. I got lucky in that one of the very few newspaper articles associated with this entire project was this one:
On this slim evidence, I am confident that Auntie Duggy refers to Clarissa T. “Clara” Mason (1835-1907), the only child of Benjamin Mason (1811-1884) and Mary Tompkins (1817-1885). When the photograph was made in 1893, Clara was the widow of Jerome A. Duga (1833-1887), though it appears the marriage had failed earlier because Jerome had married Miranda “Mattie” Griswold in 1880. Clara and Jerome had three children: Henry A. Duga (1856-1916), Josephine Duga (1860), and William C. Duga (1861-1919). Henry had one son who married twice, William J. Duga (1930-2004), but there were no grandchildren.
On 24 November 1900, Clara was honored as a pioneer of Grattan, MI, having moved with her family to the community from New York around the time of its founding in 1844. The Belding Banner observed that the guests spent time eating oysters and chicken pie and
[R]ecalling all the tender memories of those pioneer days when show and pride counted for nothing. When false appearances covered with broad cloth, silk or rich apparel made none famous. When we lived heart to heart, visited our neighbors, knew all their sorrows–like one family, confided in one another and loved one another too. I earnestly ask: are those virtues lost and past, must we ignore plain common sense, or the teachings of conscience to become popular, or is it the glamour of mistaken ideas peculiar to this day and generation, throwing a dazzling unreal over the real, pure and true that our old eyes cannot just at present penetrate?
The setting of the photograph was the home of Amy’s parents, Sheldon B. Parker (1827-1912) and Mary Jane Dickson, (1831-1892), both of whom were born in York County, Canada. Below is an 1876 map showing the location of the Parker farm on what is now Bailey Drive Northeast in Kent County. Also shown is the farm belonging to Otis’s parents, Smith Bailey (1818-1884) and Miriam “Mary Ann” Wait (1820-1924) who were both from upstate New York. Use the Vergennes Church on the left and the Flat River on the right as reference points.
Detail of a 1876 Map of Vergennes Township, MI
August 2021 GoogleEarth view of the above detail
If anyone can identify the small wooden structure to Otis’s left, please let me know. I suspect it might have something to do with an underground water cistern. Here is a detail:
Caption on the reverse: Mrs. W. B. Myers’ home-Goodlettsville, Tenn. Where we lived the first fiveyears of our married life. From Sept. 1927-June 1932. Also Summer of 1933.
The caption on the above photograph appears to have been written by Clarence Colton Dawson (1897-1966), a teacher born in Linton, Trigg County, KY, the son of Thomas Arnold Dawson (1871-1944) and Leona Alice Ricks (1880-1851). He married Mary Elizabeth Riggins (1898-1988) in August 1927. Mary was born in Mintonville, KY, the daughter of John Byron Riggins (1859-1934), a farmer, and Orpha Jane McClure (1869-1962), natives of Columbia, KY. They had one child, John Thomas Dawson (1937-2001) who, apparently, never married.
The house is located at 127 North Main Street in the village of Goodlettsville, TN which is located about 12 miles north of Nashville, the county seat and state capital. It was built circa 1907 by William Benjamin Myers (1870-1925) and his wife Mary Olivia Milam (1872-1956) to replace a house that burned down that year. Myers was the proprietor of B. F. Myers & Son, a dry goods store across the street from the house which his father, Benjamin Franklin Myers (1843-1907), established before the American Civil War. B. F., who was born in New York state and brought to Goodlettsville as a child, was also a founder of the Bank of Goodlettsville of which W. B. was later a vice president. Today the house is the home of the Cole & Garrett Funeral Home and Cremation Services which bought it in 1933. The funeral home is decorated with art depicting Goodlettsville’s history and you can see other photographs and take a virtual tour on their website.
The Dawsons taught school in Goodlettsville while they lived in this house, he in the high school where he taught business and coached athletics, and she as a teacher and basketball coach in the grammar school. Colton, as he was known, received a master’s degree from Nashville’s George Peabody College for Teachers while living there (1931, and another in 1938). Mary received a bachelor of science degree in commerce from Peabody in 1938. Both Mary and Colton were very active in the civic life of the village while they lived there.
Mary taught in West Virginia, Georgia, and Adair, Warren, Franklin, and Trigg Counties of Kentucky. She was a member of the Columbia Christian Church and the Kentucky Education Association, and had been a vice regent of the Daughters of the American Revolution James Thomas Chapter of Trigg County. Colton was chairman of the Department of Business at Berea College and was an assistant professor in the business department at Eastern Kentucky State TeachersCollege. After his 1928 bachelor of science in commerce from the University of Kentucky and the master’s degrees mentioned above, Colton did graduate work at New York University, Ohio State University, and the University of Kentucky. He worked on a PhD dissertation, History of Tax Administration in Kentucky since 1850, but never received the degree. He was a veteran of WWI, a Mason, and a Methodist. They are buried with John Thomas in East End Cemetery in Cadiz, Trigg County, KY.
Colton (center) was faculty sponsor of the Commercial Club at Goodlettsville High School in 1931 (Nashville Banner, 21 March 1931, p. 28)
I’m doing research for another project and came across this photograph in an online auction a few weeks ago. It was a diversion, but I learned a lot, including some information informing the other project. I was raised in Goodlettsville and a century’s worth of relatives on my father’s side were buried by the Coles and the Garretts. My earliest memories recall being sad, confused, and bored at funerals in that house, open caskets, a break room full of food homemade by friends and relatives, unceasing cigarette smoking and coffee drinking, a bewildering array of relatives (I had about 60 first cousins). Walking the halls of Goodlettsville High School (1917-1985), I frequently looked up at the class photographs hanging in the hallways and probably gazed upon the faces of students taught by Mary and Colton; I probably knew their descendants who were fellow students.
Chester de Hart’s surname was spelled a couple of different ways; I’ll keep it simple by using his daughter’s version.
Chester de Hart (1883-1912) was an civil draughtsman by trade and born in New York. He was the second son of Henry Garrett Voorhees de Hart (1849-1917), a physician, and Margaret Adellaide Winship (1850-1909). He married Minna “Minnie” Sievert in 1906. Chester’s and Minnie’s only child was Elaine de Hart (1909-1993) who married Harry Helgans (1894-1965) in 1934. There were no grandchildren.
Suicide has been described as a permanent solution to a temporary problem. Call the number or visit https://suicidepreventionlifeline.org to save yourself and those you love.
I found this one in a pile of random stuff. It was wrapped in ancient cellophane clasped by ancient tape. There are no inscriptions or identities associated with the photograph except for the writing on the store windows, “M. J. Serbe Teas – Coffees” and “M. J. Serbe Spices – Sugars”.
Max John Serbe (1878-1953), born Johann Max Serbe in Berlin to William F. Serbe, born Friedrich Wilhelm Serbe, (1850-1919) and Louisa J. Malke, born Johanne Luise Malke Serbe, (1854-1927). The family and the first five children arrived to the USA in 1884; William took the Oath of Allegience in 1890 and Max was naturalized based on that. William and Louisa had four more children that were born in Maryland.
Max married Eleanore “Ella” S. F. Kronenberg (1883-1951) in about 1902. She was born in Maryland to German-born parents I wasn’t able to identify. Their one child was Milton John Serbe (1905-1952), a newspaper photographer, reporter, and editor, who married a fellow reporter named Norma Lorella Sherburne in Providence, RI in 1939.
Max received a certificate in electricity from the YMCA in 1898 and was running the Columbia Electrical Company in 1933. In the Census records of 1910, 1920, and 1930 listed his occupation as a merchant of tea and coffee, but he was also dealing real estate the whole time and in later years dropped the other enterprises.
Max’s first store was a 776 Columbia Avenue (now Washington Blvd) which he purchased from the estate of William F. Gauer in 1902 for $1000. The house number was sometimes mistakenly written “706” but 706 Columbia was a barbershop owned by Mr. Matthews during these years. Max’s actual residence and real estate business address was 806 Hollins Street.
1905 Baltimore City Directory (1997-2021 Ancestry.com)
George, Otto, and Paul Serbe were Max’s uncles. His father, William, was a piano maker by trade but here is listed as a cabinetmaker. They all lived at 1110 Bowen Street (now Sargeant Street) which was just a couple of blocks away from the tea store.
Max used a wagon to deliver his wares.
Max J. Serbe is pictured on the left in this photograph, from a Peter C. Chambliss (1889-1963) column called “Fisherman’s Luck” which ran in the Sunday and Evening Sunpapers. Max and Milton were avid fishermen.
1940 U. S. Census
I include the above screenshot from the 1940 U. S. Census to illustrate the frustration one sometimes encounters when doing genealogy. In this record, the residents of 806 Hollins Street are recorded as Micheal J. Serbe, his wife Anna V., and his stepmother Victoria. The head of this household’s occupation is listed as the owner of an electronic supply store. The address and occupation are what Max’s would be, but Max had no wife named Anna V. or a stepmother named Victoria. I found no records anywhere else for Anna V. Serbe. The Census taker must have erred in some way.
Do you think the photograph depicts Max holding Milton atop the horse standing in front of 776 Columbia Avenue circa 1906?
