Mysterious Photos
This past Saturday I was at
the shore (NOT
at the beach) at my mother's house. (I'm going to continue to call it
that because that is what it is. My mother purchased it in 1995 and she
loved it. To me, it will always be her house. To all those sharks who
have been circling me with phone calls and mailings about selling it, it's NOT
for sale. My father is quite happy there. UNLESS you can find
someone who is willing to pay at least $15,000,000 [yes you read that right] at
which time I MIGHT consider it. I MIGHT.) I was going through some
drawers (as one often does when you start to clean items out) and came across a
large padded shipper that had some photos in it. There were some that
were very old (over 100 years) and some "newer". Some had some
context. (Like the photo of my great uncle and his freshman basketball
team. He wrote all their names at the bottom and on the back had written
some notes as to who had done what or scored. The only thing I can't
figure out is why he was going to a neighboring town's high school.
That's a story I'll have to dig out from his son someday.) But there are
two that are a mystery to me.
The "event" (Tom
Thumb Wedding) was apparently relatively common at the end of the 19th/beginning
of the 20th century and was often performed in churches. As per an
Atlas Obscura article from 1917 (https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/tom-thumb-weddings)
the spectacle which "reenacted" the wedding of Tom Thumb (real name
Charles Stratton) and Lavinia Warren. There was a script/pamphlet to
follow (published by Walter H. Baker Company) and the performance was
often used as a fundraiser.
So I have to assume that this
"production" took place at our local Methodist church. The
setting is obviously a church and my Great Grandmother and her family were
Methodists. (And remained so until after her death in 1954 at which point
my mother started to attend the local Presbyterian church where all of her
friend went.) The Methodist church was also THE church in town in the
early 1900s. (I know the class of 1918 had their high school graduation
there on Thursday, June 20th.) When the photo was taken I can only guess
sometime between 1913-16. This is only a guess based on the appearance of
my grandmother, who is obviously one of the older children, but not yet a high
school graduate AND if the Anita noted in the photo is the person I think it
is, she was born in 1908 and looks to be in the 5-8 age range. Of course I
could be completely wrong. A cursory search has provided no leads as to
when, why or where. (Although I am rather confident that this IS the Methodist
church.)
The photo itself was affixed to
a black piece of cardboard. Perhaps this
was part of a larger poster that contained additional photos? The backing has obviously been cut. I will NOT remove the photo from the
board. (It’s too much of a risk in my
opinion). The back side does have the
following details:
It must have been a relatively
important event to have two professionals (all the way from Brooklyn!)
involved. And there were so many
children involved for such a little town.
The why behind it gnaws at me, but it will remain a mystery. At least for now.
As for the other photos…that’s a
blog post for another day.
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