This portrait shows one of my 2nd Great-Grandmothers about 1860 (we all have 8 females of that relationship in our distant history); my Mother's Father's Father's Mother. The summer of 1860 was when she married; she was 18, he was 25, a farmer with assets. She was not "too young" (for our taste) and the age spread was not very large (sometimes the husbands were 10, 15 or even 20 years older than the teenage brides--creepy in our present-day opinion). She was the oldest child in her parents' large family; when she married, her mother was still having children.
She looks at us levelly, honestly, composed, across all the 160 years. By this time in her life, she has likely seen it all: her mother already had 10 other children; perhaps she has helped to delivers some of them. In early 1860, one little girl was born and died two months later; the first one the family had lost, amazingly. One of her little sisters, not born till 1863, I met in the last year of her life
in the mid-1950's.
History is personal. I'm not calling her by her name, though I know it. Her photograph lay in a dusty cardboard box along with many others, newly discovered, after about 90 years. When rescued by one of my cousins, still on the home place farm, the box was in a damp outbuilding along with animal droppings. Our ancestor never in her wildest dream suspected that her photo-edited image could be electronically transmitted worldwide in 2020; there was barely electricity in her day, if at all.
There is something like a smart little rebel about her (not a political, Confederate rebel). I mean, independent, capable, not afraid of her shadow, not afraid of a dark cold night at the farm with strange noises outside. I bet she could shot a rifle if necessary. Her style looks individual--her hair flows; not bows and silly spit curls on her forehead.
This lady's family experience echoed her mother's; she had 13 children over the next 36 years: 8 big boys and 5 girls; mostly born in the 1860's and 70's. It appears there was one little surprise boy in 1894 who did not live. Maybe the first that the family lost. The occasion may have been the motivation for these photos: First, the older parents, though he looks pretty good. He lived on till 1914. She looks "about done-in". She passed away in 1896, just 54 years old. Lots of hard work, a Civil War in the area, many deliveries, worry, concern for sick family, the steady drum beat of meal preparation, etc. (though I think she had "help" in addition to the girls.) and our spunky, spirited girl of 1860 has faded.
We are in the process of trying to identify the subjects of these photos--using information available on Ancestry.com, US Census and other documents. Sadly, 120 years ago, no one thought to identify the photos---they all knew the names; 90 years ago, there was still a lady alive who knew them all. My great-grandfather lived until 1960.
One of these eight men is my great-grandfather: If the subjects are lined up by age, then he would be in the top photo, 2nd from the right (hand near his heart).
