William Loring Clark's Grand House and Grounds in Dorchester, MA, 1867

I was in San Francisco last week, browsing bookstores and visiting the California Historical Society Library and Archives. This photograph was found in a box of ephemera at John Windle's Antiquarian Bookstore located on Geary Street. I was intrigued because I don't often find outdoor images from this time period. If the inscription on the back of the photograph is accurate, the picture dates to 1867, just two years after the end of the American Civil War. The woman standing on the front porch is wearing a dress very much in line with what I would expect from that time period. Rachel, the bookseller at John Windle, kindly gave me this photograph and I took it back home to Vancouver Island to see what I could do with it, in terms of identification.

On the reverse:

"Home of Wm Loring Clark Ashmont & Adams of Dorchester

taken spring of 1867

Mrs. Clark W.T.C. Ruth & Webster in carriage Annie Harmon standing

5 acres of grounds."

Sometimes an inscription such as this can be read a number of ways, especially when punctuation is absent. At first glance it looked as if the homeowner's name might be William Loring Clark Ashmont. But that didn't seem right. I thought a good starting point would be to figure out which Dorchester we were dealing with. I learned that Ashmont & Adams are intersecting streets in Dorchester, Massachusetts, and so that is where I began the search.

In 1865, William L. Clark, a thirty-eight year old auditor with the Rutland Railroad, lived in Boston with his wife, Ann and three children: William T., 14; Ruth M., 4; and one-month-old Webster¹. This seemed like a close match with the individuals mentioned on the back of the photograph, but I was a little concerned that this family resided in Boston's Ward 11 rather than Dorchester, a community  located just outside of Boston. A check of the Dorchester City Directory for 1868 shows that Wm. L. Clark, a merchant, had a house on Adams near Ashmont in Dorchester, in addition to a location in Boston, at 105 Summer Street². 

Information about the family after 1870 was difficult to locate. I was able to trace the children, as grown-ups, living in the San Francisco area, but I was unsuccessful locating them in the 1880 US Federal Census. I learned why after finding two death notices for W. L. Clark, one in the Boston Herald on December 25, 1887, which was published about eight months after his death. News must have travelled slowly from San Francisco to Boston in the 1880s. A more timely notice appeared in the San Diego Union³:

San Diego Union, 20 April 1886

The family appears to have moved from Massachusetts to Japan for a period of twelve years, resettling in the Bay area on their return to the United States around 1883. This explains how the image ended up in San Francisco.

As of yet, I haven't figured out how Annie Harmon connects up with this family. 

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1 "Massachusetts State Census, 1865", database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:MQCP-C94 : 1 June 2018), William L Clark, 1865.^↩
2 "U.S. City Directories, 1822-1995", indexed database and digital images, Ancestry.com (http://www.ancestry.com : accessed 6 Aug 2018), page 46, Wm. L. Clark entry; citing "Dorchester, Massachusetts, City Directory, 1868 (Boston, Ill.:n.p., 1968)." ^↩
3 San Diego Union (San Diego, CA) 20 April 1886, page 3 GenealogyBank https://www.genealogybank.com/doc/newspapers/image/v2%3A136E6A0F0DF56B38%40GB3NEWS-13ECFCA5670509CD%402410017-13ECEEA4B9D4EBC4%402-13ECEEA4B9D4EBC4%40 : accessed 10 August 2018^↩

From the White Collection: Henrietta Levina Hill White (1841-?) Mont Clair, NJ>Brookline & Cambridge, MA

Henrietta Levina Hill White, cdv, ca. late 1860s.  Photographer:  Whipple, Boston.

This image comes from a collection of approximately 30 tintypes, cartes de visite, and cabinet card photographs I acquired relating to the Henry and Henrietta Levina (Hill) White family of Mont Clair, Essex County, New Jersey, and later, of Cambridge, and then Brookline, Mass.

The couple had two children:  Norman H. White, born 1871 and Herbert H. White, born 1869.  Not all the images are identified, but there are details enough to piece together a bit of a history of the family.

There are at least four CDVs of Henrietta, all taken in the 1860s.  She may also appear in group portrait of three women, probably sisters, which may have been photographed a few years earlier than the other four.  The other photos are of Norman and Herbert Hill White, the White boys with children from the Young family, Frances Sturtevant, and an infant named Eddie and his young mother who appear in several images. I believe the young mother to be one of Henrietta's sisters.  There are a number of older gentleman, from various locations.  Most of the photos were taken in Massachusetts, but there are a number from Massillon, Ohio as well.

Henrietta Levina applied for a U.S. passport on June 17, 1889 for herself and her son Norman H. White (born 25 Dec 1871, Mont Clair, New Jersey) for a year-long trip abroad¹.  According to that application, Henrietta was born at Boston on the 20th of October 1841.

In 1880, the Henry White family lived in Mont Clair, New Jersey.  Henry's 62 year old mother, Lucy J., and his 24-year-old sister Kate lived with them².  Henry's occupation is listed as "clerk" and the family employed one servant.  By the 1900 census, Henry's occupation is "capitalist" and the family has added a few more servants to the household³.  In 1910, Henry and Henrietta's children have left the nest and they have a staff of four servants⁴. 

I haven't been able to track Henry and Henrietta after 1910, but perhaps someone with access to newspapers or obituaries from Brookline might be able to help with that.  I will be looking at some of the other images in this collection as time goes by.
 

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1 “U.S. Passport Applications, 1795-1925,” database and images, Ancestry.com (http://www.ancestry.com : accessed 28 Aug 2012); Herrietta H. White [Henrietta H. White], no. 6111, issued 17 June 1889; citing Passport Applications, 1795-1905; Collection Number: ARC Identifier 566612 / MLR Number A1 508; NARA Series: M1372; Roll #: 333.); General Records of the Department of State, Record Group 59; National Archives, Washington, D.C.^↩
2 "United States Census, 1880," index, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/pal:/MM9.1.1/MN8Q-Z28 : accessed 30 Aug 2012), Henrietta H. White in household of Henry White, Mont Clair, Essex, New Jersey; citing sheet 39D, family 1, NARA microfilm publication T9-0780.^↩
3 "United States Census, 1900," index and images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/pal:/MM9.1.1/M9RY-CDC : accessed 03 Sep 2012), Henriettia H White in household of Henry White, ED 677 Cambridge city Ward 1, Middlesex, Massachusetts, United States; citing sheet 9B, family 207, NARA microfilm publication T623, FHL microfilm 1240656.^↩
4 "United States Census, 1910," index and images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/pal:/MM9.1.1/M2KS-QY5 : accessed 03 Sep 2012), Henrietta H White in household of Henry White, Brookline, Norfolk, Massachusetts; citing sheet 7B, family 139, NARA microfilm publication T624, FHL microfilm 1374621.^↩

Half an Imprint: Young Genevieve E. Lynch, Boston, 1902.

I didn't botch the cropping job on today's photograph, I really didn't.  The corners and edges were trimmed this way, probably to fit an odd-shaped frame.  The young girl in the picture is identified as "Genevieve E. Lynch." on the reverse.  Unfortunately, a place or a date is not provided.  Normally, at this point, I would move to the photographer's imprint to see what I can learn about their dates of operation.

What to do when the photographer's name is almost gone?  Well, I thought I would see if I could make sense of the half-imprint.  The first two letters look like stylized Ts or Fs to me.  There seems to be a surname after two initials, beginning with P or D.  I see the last letters, "hee." And, a street address:  22 Winter St. Then, it looks like A.E. -and I can't make out any more.  But the big clue is "22 Winter Street."  I googled the word "photographer" along with the address.  It appears there were a number of photographers at that address in Boston, MA.  With a little more digging I found an imprint that matched exactly.  "F.F. Dunshee & A.E. Hill of 22 Winter Street, Boston."

Fredrick Fargo Dunshee and Alfred E. Hill were photographers who formed a partnership around 1893.  Dunshee had a partnership with F. H. Maxwell prior to  Hill.  Dunshee & Hill operated until around 1904-05.

So we know the photograph was taken somewhere between 1893 and 1905.  I studied a few of the imprints for this company, and this particular one seems to date from the later years of the company.  The style of the card seems to be turn-of-the-century to me.

A search of the US Federal Censuses found two possibilities in Boston.
1) Genevieve E. Lynch, born 1901 in Massachusetts, daughter of Mark and Mary Mason Lynch.  They lived in Ward 22, Boston.
2) Genevieve E. Lynch, born 1893, in Massachusetts, daughter of Sarah J. Lynch Conboy and living with step-father Patrick Conboy in 1910 in Connecticut.

I'm inclined to think it is probably #1.  But, of course we'd need more proof to be absolutely certain.