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?
Above we see Guy Thomas Burroughs (1892-1951) who, according to the caption on the photograph, was principal of School #8 in Levant, NY in 1914. If the school building exists, I could not find it. The photograph appears to be inscribed “A Merry Christmas, To Ione” on its water-stained reverse. Below is the photograph from his obituary.
Burroughs was the oldest child of Truman A. Burroughs (1886-1939) and Edith L. Thomas (1862-1918) and a native of Chautaqua County, NY. Burroughs was ineligible for military service because of a condition associated with his right arm which was described as “crooked” and “disabled”. He attended Cornell University, class of 1922 and taught at several public schools in the county. He married Ethel May Chase (1886-1962) in 1917, a teacher from neighboring Cattaraugus County who graduated from Genesco Normal School, and the daughter of Manley L. Chase (1863-1909) and Lucy J. McKay (1866-1943). His only sister was Ione Burroughs (1903-1957) who married Norman Dudley Rowley (1904-1983). His brothers were Lawrence Alden Burroughs (1893-1979) and Forrest Truman Burroughs (1898-1979) who married Ethel M. Ormsby (1899-1978).
Professional activities included: former vice president of the Los Angeles Advertising Club, former president of the Los Angeles Exchange Club, former western governor of the Direct Mail Advertising Association, former western vice-president of Mail Advertising Service Association International. He was also a member of the Los Angeles Optimist Club and the University Club. For several years he taught advertising classes at USC. In 1946 he retired from active business on account of his heart ailment. Since that time he has been active in local community affairs. He was a member of the Breakfast Club, and after several years directorship of the Community Arts Association, he was recently made president of the organization. Other activities included the Los Angeles County Orchid Society and Palos Verdes College.
Palos Verdes Peninsula News, Volume XXVIII, Number 43, 16 August 1951 — Community Saddened By Passing Of Civic Leader Guy T. Burroughs
“Mrs. A. L. Butt & great grand daughter Margaret Gattis” [circa 1950]
Mrs. A. L. Butt was Elizabeth Davidson “Bessie” Townsend (1863-1961) and her great-granddaughter was Margaret Catherine Gattis (1949-2004).
Bessie was born in Logan County, KY to Presley Ephraim Townsend (1823-1896) and Amanda Offutt (1824-1890). In June 1892 she married Dr. Albert Leonidas Butt (1858-1941) who was born in the Richland Station community of Sumner County, TN. They eventually made their home in Danville, KY and are buried there in Bellevue Cemetery.
Bessie gave birth to three daughters. The oldest was Winifred Estelle “Winnie” Butt (1884-1966). Winnie graduated from Logan Female College and, in 1906, from Randolph-Macon Woman’s College as president of her class. She moved to Danville in 1909 to be head of the department of English at Caldwell Female Institute, later Kentucky College for Women. In 1913 she married Judge Henry Green Sandifer and they lived in the Danville house where he was born.
Winnie had two daughters, the oldest of which was Elizabeth Townsend Sandifer (1919-2015). Elizabeth obtained a degree in library science in from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 1942 and served as Director of Technical Services for the Kentucky Department of Libraries and Archives from 1972-1981. She married Walter Robert Gattis, Jr. (1918-1989), a federal and Kentucky state administrator who was awarded a Silver Star, Bronze Star, and three Purple Hearts during World War II.
Elizabeth Townsend Sandifer’s oldest daughter was Margaret Catherine Gattis (1949-2004). Margaret went to Frankfort County High School [KY] where she was a student journalist and played clarinet in the marching band, then attended Eastern Kentucky University. One genealogical note said her occupation was social worker, but I could not verify that.
I found the above photograph in an antique store in Providence, RI in June 2021. It was in a box marked “$2.00 each,” but the nice lady gave it to me for nothing. I always try to find material when I visit new places and this looked like a good challenge because there are no date or location clues to help start the search.
The reverse of “Mrs. A. L. Butt & great grand daughter Margaret Gattis” [circa 1950]
Guyan Valley High School was located in Pleasant View, WV along the west bank of the Guyandotte River. The school was built in 1926 and graduated its first senior class of eight students in 1929. The school and three other area high schools were merged to form Lincoln County High School in 2006. The old school building now houses the Guyan Valley Junior High School.
The family of Ada Grace Hertzler and Charles B. Eberly
Above we see the family of Ada Grace Hertzler (1882-1974) and Charles B. Eberly (1877-1967) of Mechanicsburg, PA. Both Ada and Charles were descended from German families that immigrated to Pennsylvania in the 18th Century, and their genealogies are recorded in the records of the Mennonites in Pennsylvania.
Ada’s parents were Christian Myers Hertzler (1833-1922) and Eliza E. Mumma (1837-1912). Charles’ parents were Simon G. Eberly (1845-1924) and Margaret Ellen Bashore (1845-1918). Charles was, like his father, grandfathers, father-in-law, and son, a director of what started as the Merkel, Mumma & Company in 1859, later chartered as the Mechanicsburg Bank (1861), First National Bank (1864), First Bank and Trust (1927), and PNC Bank (1987).
Their children were Paul Eugene Eberly (1910-1983) who married Dorothy Elizabeth Adair in 1937, and Ada Grace Eberly (1907-1998) who married Harper Andrew Snelbaker (1908-1971) in 1931.
This photograph was purchased at an antique store in Baltimore in early 2021. The following is the caption on the photograph’s reverse.
The above photograph depicts the Johnsville (MD) Public School class of 1917. The school building, located in Johnsville, MD at what is now 10808 Green Valley Road, Union Bridge, MD, was built in 1903 and is now used as a residence. A 1991 image of the school and other details about Johnstown were found in the Architectural Survey File produced by the Maryland Historical Trust for its Inventory of Historic Properties.
The principle of the school, on the far left holding his hat in his hands, was Daniel Oliver Metz (1860-1949). I was able to confirm this is an image of Metz by comparing it with images of him posted by genealogists on Ancestry.com. Metz replaced George Klein Sappington (1855-1916) as principle of the school in 1891 with Emma Jane Sayler (1868-1929) as his assistant. I could not confirm that the woman in sunglasses on the far right in the image is Sayler.
Metz was the son of Nicholas Metz (1833-1904) and Mary Susan Albaugh (1837-1918). He married Olivia E. Eaves (1860-1941) in 1887, the daughter of Ephraim Eves (sic) (1835-1904) and Mary Jane Filler (1834-1920). All were Natives of Maryland. They had two children who lived to adulthood, Charles Daniel Metz (1895-1973) and Hilda Eaves Metz Bohn (1900-1960). Metz taught in Frederick County public schools for 33 years and was active in the Beaver Dam Church of the Brethren (Dunkard Brethren) for over 50 years as an elder, minister, and Sunday School teacher.
Emma Jane Sayler (variant Saylor) was the daughter of Solomon Sayler, Jr. (1824-1903) and Harriet Albaugh (1829-1905). She married James Daniel Leakins (1868-1941) in 1898 and they had a daughter, Lettie Pauline Leakins (1900-1965) who married Hall McCauley Martin in 1919. Given Metz’s longevity as principle at the Johnsville School it doesn’t seem unreasonable that Sayler was still the assistant in 1917 and the woman in this image looks age appropriate, but the only mention of Sayler as a teacher was in 1891 when she was appointed; all available Census records inform that she had no occupation.
The above photograph depicts the class of the public school in Frizzellburg, Carroll County, MD, in May 1932. I bought it from an antique store in Baltimore, MD. The teacher at the school in 1930 was Marian Ruth McAllister (1910-1987) who taught in the Carroll County Public Schools for 31 years. I am assuming that’s her in the center of the back row and hoping someone will confirm that. She married John Clifford Schaeffer, Sr. (1899-1987) in 1937 and they had four children. The following Evening Sun (Hanover, PA) photograph shows Marian in July 1973 when the Carroll County Board of Education presented her and other retired teachers and administrators with engraved silver bowls:
Marian Ruth McAllister Schaeffer is back row, far right
There isn’t a lot of Frizzellburg history to be obtained online when one is confined to the home office, so I’ll borrow a short history from the Historical Society of Carroll County Facebook page:
A bit of history from Frizzellburg – – On April 17, 1814, Nimrod Frizell married Ann Fischer Frizell and moved into the area. He first built a home and opened a blacksmith’s shop. A short while later he built another house, this one large enough to house his family as well as serve as an inn and a small general store. Frizell’s Tavern was one of the few places along the way to western Maryland that accommodated travelers. It lay on the road that linked the bustling Baltimore area and the rural towns west of it. The Frizell family became so active in local affairs that the settlement became known as ”Frizzells” (with an added Z). The name was formally changed to Frizzellburg later. This road is said to have been made of 2″ x 10″ x 14′ planks, placed crossways on heavy beams or timbers as supports in the soft dirt of the highway.
The photos show that Frizell’s Tavern stands today and is very closely restored to its appearance in 1818. Next door stands a fieldstone house which was the later home of the Frizell family when they moved from the second floor of the tavern. Nimrod and Ann Frizell are buried in the Westminster Cemetery.
Alfred Warner built a general store fronting the road in the 1860’s to serve the needs of the community. It’s now the Frizellburg Antique Store and stepping inside is like stepping back in time. Frizzellburg was also the home to a handsome brick school shown in an 1888 photo from the collection of the Carroll County Genealogical Society.
In 1997 when a feature article was written about Frizzellburg in the Baltimore Sun, about 70 families resided in the heart of the community, living in homes built seemingly to last forever. Typically, a Frizzellburg home has a log structure hidden behind modern walls which are meticulously maintained down to the neatly trimmed flower beds and backyard vegetable gardens.
The Family of Peter A. Diehl (1841-1907) and Mary A. Schnell (1846-1921), 1905
I copied the above photograph with my phone because the original is too big for my scanner. It was purchased in late 2020 from an antique store in Baltimore, MD. At the bottom is an image of the 8.5 X 11 inch piece of paper glued onto its back
Peter A. Diehl (1841-1907) and Mary A. Schnell (1846-1921), seated next to each other in the center of the middle row, were both natives of York County, PA. They were married in 1860 and lived in Hopewell Township, York County, PA. His parents were Levi Diehl (1816-1901) and Juliann Klinefelter (1816-1885), and her parents were Jacob Schnell (1815-1902) and Catherine Keller (1815-1897), all natives of Pennsylvania. Peter’s obituaries described him as “prosperous” and said his estate was valued at over $20,000 (~$557K). The note on the back states the photograph is dated 1905, but I think it’s 1906 because the youngest child pictured was born in February, 1906. The family members, their Find A Grave memorial number, if known, and their birth-death dates are listed below:
Eli B. Keller, 49932969, (1865-1938), 2nd Son-in-Law
Harry Diehl, 96842816, (1865-1936), 1st Son
Zeno Diehl 96842991, (1889-1955)
Navin McWilliams, 123613598, (1891-1958)
James McWilliams, 114306764, (1867-1945), 1st Son-in-Law
James Emory Diehl, 160242424, (1878-1958), 2nd Son
Mildred Diehl, (1906-1973)
Family Groups:
Peter A. Diehl (9) married Mary A. Schnell (10) in 1860 and their children were Harry Clinton Diehl (15), Bertha May Diehl (1870-1953) (11), Zana Irene Diehl (1873-1963), and James Emory Diehl, Sr. (19).
Harry Clinton Diehl (15) married Sarah Jane Herbst (8) and their children were Zeno M. Diehl (16) and Leonard Hastings Diehl, Sr. (1). Harry was the senior member of the firm H. C. Diehl and Son, butchers in Loganville, PA.
Bertha May Diehl (11) married James F. McWilliams (18) in 1891 and their children were, Navin D. McWilliams (17) and Mary Etta McWilliams (5). Bertha raised her family in Shrewsbury, PA
Zana Irene Diehl (7) married Eli Benjamin Keller (14) in 1892 and their children were Russell Conwell Keller (6), Treva Margarite Keller (2), Jarius B. Keller (3), Kenneth A. Keller (4), and Harold Diehl Keller (13). Zana raised her family in Glen Rock, PA.
James Emory Diehl, Sr. (19) married Annie V. Shirey (12) in 1900 and their children were Mildred Louisa Diehl (20) and James Emory Diehl (1912-1997). James was the proprietor of D&D Sewing Company, York, PA.
Reverse of The Family of Peter A. Diehl (1841-1907) and Mary A. Schnell (1846-1921), 1905
There are a lot of interesting facts about the family, but there are too many people to profile in this space. I do want to share the following account of the death of Peter’s mother in 1885, just because. I was unable to find a report of of her funeral.
The above photograph shows a U. S. Navy airship over Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. The date of the photograph is unknown. It appears to have been taken from aboard a ship.
The U. S. Navy’s first airship was the DN-1 which first flew in April 1917. The Navy flew dirigibles out of McCalla Field, Cuba which was operational from 1931-1970. I am not certain of the perspective because I can’t determine if photographer meant to depict his own entrance to the bay or the dirigible’s entrance. Judging by the ships visible in the distance, I can see at least four, the photographer could be northwest of the airfield.
Guantanamo Bay, Cuba (Google Earth, 2004)
This photograph was purchased from a Baltimore antique shop in November 2020.
The above photograph depicts the Forster family of Philadelphia. We know the names of people in the photograph and where it was taken because of a type-written note on its reverse. It was purchased at an antique/junk store on in the Hampden neighborhood of Baltimore, MD.
Heinrich Joseph Eduard Adolph Fäster (1817-1891), later Forster, and his wife, Eleonore Dorette “Dorothea” Henrietta Klieves (1822-1913), immigrated from Germany to the USA separately. I don’t know when or how Adolph got here. Dorothea was single when she arrived in to the Port of Baltimore in 1841 aboard the S.S. Caspar sailing out of Bremen, Germany. Immigration documents say she “originated” in Nienover.
Adolph’s occupation in 1850 was “looking glass maker” and the family lived in Philadelphia’s Pine Ward. We know from Census records and Adolph’s obituary that the full address was 421 S. 2d Street, now the site of a CVS. Adolph’s other recorded occupations were “variety store” owner, “toy maker,” and proprietor of Adolph Forster & Company which imported toys and dolls from Germany.
Of their children, the first born was Amilie Louise Forster (1845-1928). She never married and no occupation was listed on her death certificate.
Second born was Emma Augusta Forster (1846-1934). She married German-born Henry Bauermeister (1837-1904) who was a toy importer. When I learned that Emma married a Bauermeister, I remembered the box I got the above photograph from contained a photograph of the Bauermeister family in Germany, so I went back to the store and found two versions of it.
Third born was Josephine Doris Forster (1848-1938). Josephine also never married though her death certificate lists her occupation as “housewife.” Her obituary asked that “Wheeling, WV papers please copy,” but I was unable to figure out the reason.
The fourth born was George Forster, in September 1852, and he is not in the photograph. He lived at least until age 18 when he was enumerated with his family in the U. S. Census of 1870, but I found nothing more about him.
Fifth born was Wilhelm “William” Heinrich August Forster (1859-1939). William followed in his father’s footsteps as an importer of toys and dolls from Europe and apparently renamed the business after himself. William never married. When he died he left his estate of $70,000 ($1,311,306.47 in 2020 dollars) to four nieces who lived in Baltimore, Olga Marie Wacker (1899-1961), Ilse Forster Wacker (1904-1962), Dorothy Forster Wacker (1895-1989), and Carla Wacker (1908-1985).
Those Wacker girls were among the children of the sixth child, Cecelia Louisa Forster (1864-1927). She married German-born Charles N. Wacker (1847-1921) in Philadelphia in 1893. By 1900 they had moved to Baltimore and Charles was working as a ship chandler. Charles’s obituary informed that he was “engaged in the canning business in Maryland” for many years. Here is the best version of the photograph I went back to the store to get:
Caption on the reverse: Picnic in Bremen, Celia (sic) Forster with Bauermeister Family
The owner of the antique/junk shop where I bought these materials called me back a week or so after I obtained the above photographs to tell me about the availability of some actors’ head shots in a box of papers at the shop. I went over to have a look and found four photographs autographed to Stanley Broughton Tall, Sr. (1891-1966), a Baltimore playwright whose second wife was Dorothy Forster Wacker. Tall was born in Baltimore County, MD to Otis Jackson Tall (1866-1920) and Onia Broughton (1865-1917).
Tall’s obituary in The Evening Sun described him as a “versatile dramatist and public relations writer” who was a drama critic for that newspaper in the 1930s, a program director for WBAL, and a publicist for the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra. Tall self-published Pages From a Critic’s Note Book in 1913, which contained “the personal opinions of the writer concerning authors, plays, and players . . . written in true journalistic manner; the night of the play and in the night of the midnight oil.” Tall also formed Tall-Owens Publishing Company to publish a number of songs with him as the lyricist and one William Owens as the composer.
The actors whose autographed photographs follow performed in the premiere of Tall’s “Green Jade” in Dayton, OH in September 1921. I was unable to find a copy of the play but here is a review of that performance. A notice said it was expected to be the first play performed at the Times Square Theater in September 1920 with Florence Reed starring, but the theater opened with Reed starring instead in The Mirage and that ran for 192 performances.
To Mr. Broughton Tall with my sincere good wishes, Jane Stuart, “Green Jade,” 9-12-21
To Mr. Tall–Hope the play goes over big in N. Y., Sincerely, Frances Pitt
Francis Pitt was the daughter of the English actor William Addison Pitt (1876-1968) and Helen Agnes Schayer (1875-1959) and the grand-daughter of the actress Fannie Addison Pitt (1876-1968).
To Mr. Tall, In sincere appreciation of the opportunity of playing “Richard,” Corliss Giles
To Mr. Tall, a fellow Baltimorean, I wish the greatest success. The original “((Maz)),” Fraunie
“Fraunie” had a number of stage names but his true name was Francis Anthony Fraunholz (1883-1961). Fraunie was, like Tall, a Baltimorean, the son of a wood carver named John M. Fraunholz (1854-1936) and Catherine E. Parr (1863-1943). All four of his grandparents were born in Bavaria. His Wikipedia page has a list of films he appeared in between during 1913-1919 which I can’t vouch for given that Fraunie’s vital statistics are all wrong. In the 1930s Fraunie was the Bergen County, NJ director of the Federal Theater Project (1935-1939).
