A Christmas Surprise

Inspiration and information comes from everywhere….if you just let it.

Above is a photo of my paternal grandmother Lena Smith Albert on 1 December 1910, the day she graduated from music school. I am not sure of the identity of the girl with her but I feel she is most likely Lena’s cousin, Lela Van Meter.

Lena Smith was the eldest child of Marion Sylvester Smith and Addie Abbott Walker; born in 1897. Two brothers followed: Harley in 1899 and Donald in 1905.

Over the years I have searched Ebay for family treasures that may have made their way to auction. I haven’t had much luck locating anything directly related to my family group, but there is always that chance so I take a peek every now and again. One evening before Christmas happened to be one of those times. Truthfully, it was really late at night while the mister was sleeping and I was terrorizing the internet on my iPad. I plugged in some search parameters and scrolled through the results. Nothing caught my eye….at least not at first.

I took a second look at a posting for a photo of a little girl from Dunlap, Iowa. The name was listed as Adda Dona Smith who was one year old, 17th February, 1906. My brain went from a slow churn to a fast whirl in seconds! I quickly realized that this was not a girl.

Side note: The children’s fashion at the turn of the century was to clothe toddler boys and girls in dresses. Remember at this time that there were only cloth diapers, no hook and loop tape or zippers and finally buttons and hook and eyes were expensive clothing closures generally reserved for adults. To ease the mother’s task of diaper changing without excessive gyrations, both sexes wore dress-like outfits. So, while this photograph appeared to be a year old girl in truth it was a little boy!

I surmised that this could be a photo of Lena’s youngest brother, Donald. I jumped on Ancestry.com to double check his birthdate and other information. Donald Addis Smith was born 17 February, 1905 which meant that he was the youngster posing in this photo for his 1st birthday! I really wanted to wake up the mister right then and share the details of my exciting find, but I figured I wanted to live until the morning and it wasn’t a good idea. The next day we purchased the photo and the anxious waiting began.

My prize photo of Don Smith arrived in the Christmas Eve mail.

Once I received the photo, I realized that there was additional information on the back.

Aunt Mary Perkins, Penobscot, Maine  Addas Donnie Smith 1 yr. old Feb 17th 1906 Dunlap, Ia.

I can see how the seller mistook the name and thought this was a little girl. Without all of the pieces of the puzzle, it would be difficult to think otherwise. Of course the photo wasn’t enough for me….I had to know who this Mary Perkins was.

William Edgecomb (1823-1901) and Susan Sophronia Clapp (1826-1882) were the parents of 9 children including sisters Mary Anne Edgecomb (1863-1934) and Harriet Emily Edgecomb (1852-1936). Mary Anne stayed near the family roots in Enfield, Penobscot, Maine and married Amos Perkins. Harriet defied her father’s wishes by marrying Joseph Howard Walker and then promptly moving to Iowa. Harriet’s second eldest child was Addie Abbott Walker (1876-1959) who married Marion Sylvester Smith (1872-1959) and their children Lena, Harley and Don are my grandmother and grand uncles. It makes perfect sense that either Addie or more likely Harriet sent the photo back to Maine. I would have to surmise that a letter accompanied this photo and the writer of the inscription is Mary Edgecomb Perkins, thus explaining the misspelled name of the child.

I can’t help but wonder the route that this image has taken to get back to me. From an Iowa photo studio to Maine and then to be sold on Ebay from a seller in Oregon back to a relative in Tennessee some 108 years after it was taken.

The Smith brothers. Harley (sitting) and Don taken circa 1910.

Don Smith taken circa 1925

By the way, until I edited the photo of my grandmother Lena, I didn’t see the face peeking out the window over her right shoulder. That would be Lena’s grandmother, Harriet Emily Edgecomb Walker. Lagniappe!