(Click on images to enlarge)
Images courtesy of Diane Barnes.
These photographs were inside an envelope marked "John Gruel Farm" in a keepsake box that had belonged to Lillie Newman Barnes. She, as we know, was John Gruel's niece, and her wedding in April 1909 took place at the Gruel home. On the back of the first photo, someone had written: "April 14, 1909." But that was all we had in the way of identification.
I showed these photos to someone who had known the Gruels, having spent his early years on a neighboring farm. As to these two photos, he said they might be of the Gruel house, but his memories were just too dim for him to be certain. While he didn't positively recognize any of the people, he did remember John Gruel as having facial hair, similar to the man at the center of the group in the second photo.
So the circumstances around these photos, including the fact that two other photos in the "John Gruel Farm" envelope show a structure we can positively identify as the Gruels' magnificent cow barn,* provide evidence that they may show the Gruel house, but I can't be 100% sure.
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*Which I will post in the future.
2 comments:
Wow--great detective work. Can't wait to see the barn, too. Where is/was this house located?
It was on the grounds of the River Pointe Country Club, probably somewhere near the clubhouse, but I can't get any more specific than that at the moment.
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