Elizabeth Mary McCall Beach, ca 1865-70
Mills/Beach Family Graphics
Submitted by: Michael E. Woods
Grandson, Arthur & Martha Beach Mills
Elizabeth Mary McCall Beach, ca 1865-70 |
Mills/Beach Family Graphics |
These pictures were sent by Michael E. Woods, Grandson of Arthur & Martha Gertrude Beach Mills. To run through what we know, Martha Gertrude Beach was one of the Beach sisters. The sisters included Emma Beach Carlyle, Henrietta Beach Anderson, Sarah Ann Beach Duffie, Rachel Alice Beach Bloomfield, Mary Elizabeth Beach Robinson, and Agnes Beach.
Arthur & Martha's oldest daughter, Nova Jane Mills, married Clyde Woods, resulting in a son, Michael, a 2nd. cousin to my generation of the Beach/Duffie family.
Some pictures were identified adequately, others with some names, some with none. I will post them with whatever information I have gathered about the people involved. If I have guessed wrong, hopefully Michael or some of his siblings/cousins will correct me.
Send additions or corrections to: Tim Duffie
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See The USA |
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Much of trying to identify these pictures is a matter of applying a Who - When - Where logic process based on what we do know of the location of the family members at any given time. In essence, if we have the identity of several of the participants, I try to determine when and where those individuals might have all been together for a photo opportunity.
The time frame for this picture I estimate at 1907 to 1910.
Where would we have found Elizabeth Mary McCall Beach, Rachel Alice Beach, and Martha Gertrude Beach in 1907-1910? In Shelby, Ohio, living with Dr. Willis & Henrietta Beach Anderson. I believe this Dr. Willis Anderson with sisters-in-law Martha Gertrude Beach (front) and Rachel Alice Beach (rear right), and his mother-in-law, Elizabeth Mary McCall Beach. I believe it is Rachel Alice Beach on the right, rather than Dr. Anderson's wife Henrietta Beach Anderson. The tone of the picture is a man with his in-laws, all of whom had been living in Shelby since sometime shortly after Hugh Percy Beach died in Cass County, Nebraska, in 1900. Not everyone in the picture is posing, so it was not a set-up professional shot. The first Kodak "Brownie" Camera was placed on the market in 1900, it sold for $1.00 with film costing $.15, and this certainly looks like Henrietta Beach Anderson took a picture of her husband with her family. I originally stated that the other woman (rear left) is either Elizabeth Mary McCall Beach's mother, or possibly her mother-in-law, Emerencianna Frith Beach. However, both are highly unlikey. She could well be Dr. Anderson's mother. There are some facial similarities between her and Dr. Anderson. His mother would enjoy the day touring with her "daughter-in-law and granddaughters", and she is more likely to have been in Shelby, Ohio, Dr. Anderson's home town, than either of the other two possibilities. All conjecture, of course, but there really aren't that many other possibilities. |
NOTE: I received the following e-mail on 27Aug2010 confirming my conclusions that it was taken in Shelby, Ohio. The identity of some of the individuals is still conjecture, but I'm pretty sure I'm right.
From: Tom Clabaugh
To: tduffie@cinci.rr.com
Sent: Friday, August 27, 2010 7:40 PM
Subject: Mills/Beach Family GraphicsHi Tim,
I stumbled on to your Mills/Beach Family Graphics page. I don't know when it was posted, but thought you might find this interesting or helpful concerning the picture labeled: See The U.S.A. In Your Wayne Automobile!
The picture was taken in Shelby, Ohio on North Gamble Street, probably in front of the Anderson office - 19 North Gamble or home at 21 North Gamble. You can see (in the background) the First Baptist Church which was then located at 25 North Gamble. Dr. Anderson and family were listed in the Shelby 1901 directory and thru the 1914 directory. He was living at 21 North Gamble in the 1900 and 1910 censuses, and Henrietta was still living at 21 North Gamble in the 1920 census.
You probably have all this info, but I thought perhaps there might be a bit here or there that is new to you.
Tom Clabaugh
While we're on the subject of automobiles, perhaps someone can identify these families, identified only as "Unknown Beach Family" when I received the picture from Bruce Dillinger.
Dr. William & Elizabeth Wolfe Beach w/William Hugh & Richard Potter Beach
William Hugh was born in 1911, and he looks to be 9 or 10 years old in this picture. According to Marcia Beach Ditter in her story of her grandfather Dr. Will:
After his release from the service, a doctor friend persuaded him to join his practice in Coupeville on Whidby Island, state of Washington. He felt there was not enough challenge there and did not really enjoy what he called "the easy life", so he contacted the mission board for reassignment.
In June, 1920, the family was reassigned to Siam and sent to Chiang Rai on the Mekong River, also near the border of Laos in northern Siam.
Timing is critical here, but this picture almost had to have been taken on Coupeville, Whidby Island, Washington, sometime around 1920. (The 1920 census shows William & Elizabeth on what was called Coupeville Island at the time. I'm not sure which it is supposed to be.)They stayed in Nan (Siam) until August of 1918. At this time they came home on furlough. Grandfather then enlisted in the Army and was commissioned as Captain and assigned to the United States General Hospital #3 in Colonial, New Jersey. He served there until June of 1919.
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Martha Gertrude Beach Mills w/Nova Jane Mills (Woods).
Nova Jane Mills was born in Nebraska in 1918. Michael stated that she was born in the home of her "Aunt Emma". In our original conversations we wondered if that was Emma Beach Carlyle. However, she also had an "Aunt Emma" on the Mills side of the family.
According to an article from the Western Nebraska Observer newspaper dated 14 February 1907, Emma Beach Carlyle put their household furnishings up for sale because she planned to leave for Oregon to be with Sam who had moved there earlier.
Nova Jane Mills Woods was probably born in the home of her Aunt Emma on the Mills side of the family.
Arthur & Martha were living in Kalama, Cowlitz County, Washington, when their second daughter, Dana Ray Mills, was born in 1923. It would appear this picture was taken there sometime in the early 1920s.
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Left: Elizabeth Mary McCall Beach, ca 1865-70
I've posted this picture with the one of Elizabeth McCall Beach and what originally was an unknown woman to the right to show Elizabeth's approximate age. I believe the woman to the right is her sister-in-law, Elmira Beach. I concluded that when I located Hugh Percy Beach's brother, John, living in Whitman County, WA, in the 1880-90s. Hugh Percy & Elizabeth McCall Beach were in Arnold, NE, during that time frame. I suspect that they visited Hugh's brother sometime in the 1890s, and Elizabeth & Elmira went to Walla Walla, Walla Walla County, WA, just south of Whitman County, for the picture. I came to that conclusion based on the estimated ages of the women.
The more I look at the picture on the left, the more I think it pre-dates her marriage to Hugh Percy in 1867. This portrait may well have been taken in Michigan, probably while she was still living in Grand Rapids, prior to her marriage. She looks awfully young!
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Martha Gertrude Beach & Ava Sarah Carlyle
Michael believes this was a highschool picture of his grandmother, Martha Gertrude Beach Mills. Mills family tradition states that Martha attended school in Ohio, and that is possible since she moved to Shelby with her mother, Elizabeth Mary McCall Beach, after Hugh Percy died in 1900. Martha would have been 18 in 1908-1909. She probably graduated at that time.
My only question is the presence of Ava Sarah Carlyle, Martha's cousin. Sam & Emma Beach Carlyle were living in Orenco, Oregon, at the time. I have sent this picture to Tom Clabaugh, an historian in Shelby, Ohio, to see if the "Maximum" banner represented a Shelby High School at the time.
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Martha Gertrude Beach & Ava Sarah Carlyle? Looking at Ava & Martha in the picture above, this certainly appears to be them several years later. What we do know about Ava is that apparently she and her husband, George Douglas Garratt, were both Corporals in the United States Army at one time.
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That is based on two things:
