Sunday's Child: Master Clifford Brown, Bristol, Tennessee, 1894

This young fella is identified as "Master Clifford Brown" on the reverse of this cabinet card photograph circa 1890s.

A search of the 1900 US Census provided 11 hits on the name "Clifford Brown" born between 1880 and 1900 in Tennessee.  There was only one from Bristol, Sullivan County, TN:  Clifford M. Brown, b. May 1892 in TN, son of Walter Brown, and living with his father and step-mother, Clenna Brown.  This birth date fits in with the time period of the cabinet card.

In 1910, Clifford M. Brown was eighteen years old and  living in Civil District 16, Sullivan Co., TN in the home of his uncle Dr. Fred Massengill and Fred's wife, Eulalia Massengill.

At the time of the his WW1 draft registration, Clifford is living in Bluefield, West Virginia, and working in the hardware store there.  He also registered for the WWII draft and is found living with his Aunt Sallie J. Smith in Bluefield.

Clifford never married, and died 2 June 1954 in Bluefield at 62 years of age.  He managed a flower shop there for many years.  His parents are listed as Walter K. Brown and Naomi Massengel.

I did a quick search on the photographer S.C. or C.F. Hodges and Hodges Art Gallery.  I couldn't find any reference to S.C. Hodges in the directories or censuses for Bristol that I have access to.  I did find C.F. Hodges listed as an artist in the 1880 census for Bristol, and later, in the 1900 census, as "photographer."  C.F. Hodges died in 1903.  If he was the photographer, the photo would have to have been taken prior to 1903, which is fairly obvious by the style of photograph.

While I can't say for certain Clifford Massengill Brown is the as the young man in the photograph, it's a good possibility.  It would be helpful to locate a photograph of Clifford Massengill Brown to compare it with.

On a side note, I found some references to the Massengill family of Bristol, TN.  Apparently the family was quite influential in the medical sciences.  I would not be surprised if Clifford's uncle, Dr. Fred Massengill, belongs to this family.  It would be interesting to know if Dr. Fred appears in the book I found online called, Sketch of Medicine and Pharmacy and a View of Its Progress by the Massengill Family from the Fifteenth to the Twentieth Century by Samuel Evans Massengill, who started the S.E. Massengill Pharmaceutical Company in Bristol in 1896.