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).