Holding Up Baby: Tirzah Grace Neville, East Palestine, Ohio, 1894

I do believe someone's holding up dear little baby beneath that drop cloth.  The inscription on the back of the cabinet card tells us that the child is Tirzah Grace Neville, who was four months and twelve days old when the photograph was taken on Feb 28, 1894.

Tirzah was born October 16, 1893 in Pittsburgh, PA, according to Pennsylvania, Births and Christenings, 1709-1950  on Familysearch.org.  Her parents were Stanton H. Neville and Elivira Shull.  Stanton was the son of Levi and Julia Neville of Unity, Columbiana County, Ohio.  In the 1900 US Census (Unity Twp, Columbiana County, Ohio) Tirzah is living with her grandparents and uncle.  Unity is very close to East Palestine where this image was photographed at the Mell Cress studio. The 1880 Census shows the Levi Neville family (with son, Stanton, age 10) living in East Palestine.

I wondered why Tirzah was living with her grandparents in 1900.  In Ohio Deaths and Burials, 1854-1997, I discovered that "Stanton Nevel," a druggist, died on the 18th of February 1894 in East Palestine.  It's sad to think this photograph was taken only 10 days after Tirzah's father died.

But what happened to her mother, Elvira Shull Neville?  I wasn't able to locate her in the death indexes online, but found her resting place in Glenview Cemetery, East Palestine, OH on Find A Grave:  Elvira Neville (1869 - 1898) - Find A Grave Memorial.  It appears she died when Tirzah was only four to five years old.  Stanton and his parents are also buried in Glenview.

I located the 1910 census record for Grace Neville, born ca. 1894, living in Indiana, Pennsylvania in 1910.  She is living with her aunt and uncle, William & Ella Armstrong.  Ella would have to be a sister to her mother or father.  I never found an Ella on either side of the family, but Tirzah's father had a sister, Emma Lucretia Neville, who married George E. Kellock/Kallock in 1899.

Tirzah Grace Neville (Mrs. George E. Kallock) appears in the Indiana State Teachers' College (Indiana, PA) Alumni Directory for 1940 as a graduate from 1912:

According to the 1930 census (Castle Shannon, Allegheny, Pennsylvania) Tirzah Grace was married for the first time when she was 23, around 1917.  George E. Kallock born circa 1885 married for the first time at age 21, around 1906.  Not an exact match, and as you know, census records are seldom exact on everything. When I found George Eaton Kallock's gravestone on Find A Grave: George Eaton Kallock (1877 - 1958) - Find A Grave Memorial, his birthdate is given as 17 May 1877.  If he was 21 at the time of his first marriage that marriage would have occurred circa 1898.  Much closer to the date Emma Neville married her George Eaton Kallock.

T. Grace Neville Kallock died in 1944, according to the gravestone she shares with her husband.