Never Trust a Cute Goat Story

I thought this goat story was cute, and its being on the front page of this small-town newspaper was cute, too.


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Hobart News, 24 Jan. 1924.

As everyone in Hobart in 1924 did, we know the Veal family: Walter Veal married Hazel Thompson in August 1922, and we saw the announcement in November 1923 of the birth of that little daughter.

Reading further in the microfilm, I found this item in the "Local Drifts" of the Hobart Gazette of March 21, 1924.

Baby Ruth Olivia, infant daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Walter Veal, who live on South Center street, died suddenly about 7 o'clock Wednesday morning, March 19, aged 3 months and 20 days. The child had seemed rather delicate all along, and gave the parents much anxiety. Funeral services will be held Saturday afternoon at 2 o'clock from the Church of Christ by Rev. R. Warren Main.

The death certificate gives the cause of death as maramus, with bronchitis contributory.

At this point the goat story stopped being cute, and became a story of worried parents trying ineffectually to help their very sick baby. I was moved to look further into this family, and found a long history of trouble and grief.

We know that Myrtle, Walter's previous wife, had a nervous breakdown and then died "due to a complication of diseases." When we check the death certificate, we find a grim situation: the contributory cause was interstitial nephritis; the main cause was dementia praecox, which, as I understand it, is an outdated term for schizophrenia.

I initially thought Myrtle had been Walter's second wife. A little digging on Ancestry.com brought me to a family tree that had dived deep and found two wives before her. The first, Iva Ball, had married Walter in 1900 in Preble County, Ohio (not too far from his hometown of Greens Fork, Indiana); they were divorced sometime before May of 1907, when she remarried. (I believe the stepdaughter referenced in Myrtle's obituary was born during this marriage: Lucille Veal Fye (1901-1973).) In 1907 Walter married Florence Olvey in Wayne County, Indiana; they were divorced in Colorado in 1910. In 1911 came his marriage to Myrtle Mantauk in Cass County, Indiana.

One man with two divorces was unusual in the early 20th century. It didn't bode well, then or now. Did Hazel Thompson know about Walter's past when she decided to marry him?

Less than a year after Walter and Hazel lost their little daughter, they had another: Ellwyn Lorraine, born in Hobart on January 5, 1925, who would be known by her middle name. The Veal family was still in Hobart when Kenneth Lee Enos was born in March 1927. By June 1929, when Mary Margaret was born, they had moved to the unincorporated village of Mexico, Indiana, where they remained at least through April 1930 when the 1930 census was taken.

They were in the small town of Akron, Indiana for the births of their next two children: Enos Glen (January 1931) and Robert Glen (July 1932).[1]

Then the family moved to Nappanee, where Doris Jean was born in October 1934 and George Morris (named for Hazel's dead father) in December 1936.

That's a lot of children and a lot of moving in ten years. This was all happening during the Great Depression, while Walter was practiced a dying trade (blacksmithing), so I imagine the family's life was not easy.

This 1937 story came out of Nappanee:


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South Bend Tribune, 25 June 1937.

The children were probably Kenneth (10) and Enos (6). The grandmother in question was Nancy Thompson. I remember Eldon Harms telling me that Nancy sewed clothing for her grandchildren, and the Eva Thompson collection includes an envelope sent to Nancy from Nappanee on which someone has noted a measurement for Nancy's use in sewing a dress for the eldest Veal child, Lorraine:


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Images above and below courtesy of Eldon Harms.



But something tells me that the 1937 story about the hitchhiking children is not as whimsical as it sounds. The kids might have wanted to go see their nice grandma, yes; but they might also have wanted to escape from a home that was stressful and perhaps even violent. The "something" telling me that is a 1939 story:


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"Circuit Court," Elkhart Truth, 24 Feb. 1939.

The 1940 census, taken in April and May, records a scattered family. Walter was still an inmate at the Putnam County penal farm. Hazel was in St. Joseph County, keeping house for a widowed farmer with four children; her youngest child, George, was living there too.[2] The three boys, Kenneth, Enos, and Robert,[3] were all in Elkhart County, living at the Bashor Children's Home. The two oldest girls, Lorraine and Mary Margaret, were in Wabash County, inmates of the White Manual Labor Institute.[4] Five-year-old Doris Jean had been adopted by a childless Indianapolis couple, William and Hazel Hart, and was now named Carolyn.[5]

Hazel was finished with Walter. By November 1940, she had moved to South Bend and filed for divorce.


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South Bend Tribune, 13 Nov. 1940.

In January 1941, Hazel married the 55-year-old Otto Keck, whose wife had died in the spring of 1940. He had three adult children,[6] and lived in the village of Wyatt, southeast of South Bend, where he operated his own well-drilling business. There Hazel joined him. No doubt she brought little George with her; I'd like to think she brought her other children as well.

On July 11, 1942, at the age of 41, Hazel gave birth to twins — Jerry Alan and Joyce Ann. The following year, they died within a day of each other.


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Bremen Inquirer, 4 Nov. 1943.

According to their death certificates, Joyce died of scurvy, Jerry of broncho-pneumonia, but both suffered from malnutrition. Perhaps the disorder that had killed little Ruth in 1924 had surfaced again. But unlike Ruth, who seems to be lying in an unmarked grave in Crown Hill Cemetery, these little ones' graves are marked with an impressive stone.

By the way, I am not reassured by the fact that of all Hazel's own children, only George is listed among the survivors in the twins' death notice. The others may have still been scattered. But Robert, at least, joined Otto and Hazel's household in time to be counted with them, and his brother George, in the 1950 census.

After the twins, Hazel had no more children, and — aside from losing her mother in 1944 — no more heartbreak, I hope, at least until Otto died in 1959. All her other children were still living at Hazel's death in 1972.


When Eldon Harms was telling me about the Thompson family, he never hinted that Hazel's life had been so difficult. Perhaps he didn't know.

_______________
[1] I can't find a birth certificate for Enos. I got his birth date from his Korean War draft registration.
[2] To the enumerator (or maybe to her employer), she described herself as widowed.
[3] The census enumerator put him down as "Lester" Veal, but his age is right for Robert.
[4] The enumerator added a note to the name: "home for problem children." This institution, during the latter part of the 19th century, had been one of the notorious boarding schools in which Native American children were forcibly placed.
[5] I owe this information to a family tree on Ancestry.com; I would never have figured it out on my own. The 1940 census reported that Carolyn had been living in the Hart home since 1935, which would mean she was adopted as an infant, but that may have been an assumption on the enumerator's part. (I mean, the enumerator might have asked one of the adults, "Where were you living in 1935?"; that person said, "Here"; and the enumerator assumed the answer applied to the child too.)
[6] Still living, that is; one son had been killed in an accident in 1938.

Ready to Cut the Wheat

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Image courtesy of Eldon Harms.

The photographer is standing on Ainsworth Road just west of County Line road and pointing the camera south(west), toward the big barn on the farm the Thompson family rented.

There are four horses, two men, a woman, and two dogs. The photo isn't clear enough to identify anyone, although, to me, the woman looks vaguely like Nancy Thompson.

There is no date. I'm guessing, very roughly, at the early to mid-1920s.

As for the machine, here are the notes I took as Eldon Harms told me about it:

The machine is a binder. The rotating arms with horizontal planks knock the grain against the sickle bar at the bottom to cut it. It cuts wheat/oats and binds bundles of grain (ties it up themselves), continues filling up with bundles to a set number, at which point it drops them all at once so you can shock them. Grain is left to dry and cure (maybe days or weeks); then you gather all your bundles and haul them to one place to be threshed. How to tell if grain ready for threshing? You can rub it on your hand to see how dry it is. Some guys chewed on a grain to judge.

If the big barn was still standing in 1939 (at which time the land was owned by Michael and Julie Carrozzo), we can tell where it stood from the aerial photo of that time.


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Photo from https://igws.indiana.edu/IHAPI/.

Hood Ornaments

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Image courtesy of Eldon Harms.

Eva Thompson is at left, sitting on the car; her mother, Nancy, is at the far right. The other two are unidentified.

There is no date on this photo. In my notes, I wrote: "The car is a Chevy like Lester Dye's"; Eldon Harms must have told me that. But the Ainsworth vintage-car expert tells me that — based on what little he can see of it — he thinks the car might be a 1926 or '27 Dodge. The fashions are consistent with that era.

Eva and Nancy are coatless and hatless, which suggests that they are at home. But the location is unidentified. Behind Nancy is a substantial two-story brick building; that, plus the rolling landscape in the background, tells me that we're not at the old James Chester place east of Ainsworth, where the Thompsons once lived. If I had time, I'd go driving around to look at the land surrounding their other known homes, to see if any combination of home and landscape might resemble this photo. But, of course, I don't have time.

Eva seems to be wearing her "good" clothes. Her dress shines like silk, but I wonder if it could be rayon? My mother, who reached young womanhood in the late 1930s, told me that in her day rayon was looked down upon as "poor man's silk" and you had to be pretty hard up to resort to wearing it. I really don't know how prosperous the Thompson family was. In the same vein, I don't know if Eva's long necklace is made up of real pearls.

At about knee level, her costume gets so complicated: the dress seems to be lined, or maybe that's a slip; and then — bloomers? And stockings held up with pretty lace-edged garters, which she doesn't care if the camera memorializes.

Which leads me to wonder who was operating the camera.

Threshing Circa 1919

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Images courtesy of Eldon Harms.

There is no date on this photograph. I'm guessing at roughly 1919 based two things: first, the tractor is an International Harvester Titan 10-20, a model produced between 1915 and 1921 according to online information.

Secondly, the men in the photo are named on the back …



… and the three I've been able to identify lived in the vicinity of the Sela Smith farm in Ross Township, where Eva Thompson (who gave the photo to Eldon Harms, who let me scan it) moved with her family in 1918.

Spade was the Americanized spelling of the German name Spaeth. Richard was born in 1874 to Edward and Alvina Spaeth (1900 Census). In 1897 he married Minnie Keiser (Indiana Marriage Collection). The Spaeth family lived and farmed on the west side of Clay Street at 83rd Avenue.

Albert Wilier, I'm willing to bet, was actually Albert Weiler.

Gust Kaiser is a mystery to me at this point. It seems possible that he was related to Mrs. Richard Spade, née Minnie Keiser, whom I think I've found in Hanover Township, Lake County, in the 1880 Census, but I can't find a brother or other relative of hers named Gust (August).

We've met Harry Sullivan before; he was Arthur's brother.

Put Your Foot in the Air Like You Just Don't Care

We know nothing about this photo, but I like it anyway.


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Image courtesy of Eldon Harms.

It is from the collection of Eva Thompson. None of these people are identified, and I don't recognize them (except that the guy with his foot in the air looks a bit like the guy getting his hair cut here, or am I imagining things?). The location is unknown.

The car at center in the background is a Ford that dates circa 1915-1922, according to Eldon Harms (he had one like it in his garage), which helps us slightly in dating the photo.

A.B. Colkitt Buys an Olds Roadster

This sales contract somehow found its way into Eva Thompson's collection.


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Image courtesy of Eldon Harms.

My best guess at the identify of this person is an Alfred Colkitt who shows up in a Gary city directory in 1920:


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Ancestry.com. U.S. City Directories, 1822-1995 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2011.

… and who gave his name to a draft board in 1942 as Alford Byron Colkitt (WWII Army Enlistment Records).

But what connection did Mr. Colkitt have to the Thompsons, that his auto sales contract should end up in their hands? — I do not know. The contract was inside an envelope addressed to Nancy Thompson in Hobart, postmarked in December 1933 from Nappannee, Indiana. Was it sent to her in that envelope, or did that envelope just turn out to be a convenient storage place?

In looking around for an image of a 1921 Oldsmobile Roadster, I discovered that something similar to Alfred's car, modified into a truck, was the vehicle that carried the Beverly Hillbillies.

I also learned that a 1921 Olds Roadster was involved in the development of the "automobile exception to the Fourth Amendment search warrant rule, … less formally referred to as the Carroll doctrine."

Aunt Nancy's Birthday Pictures

These photos of Nancy Thompson, taken on two consecutive birthdays, survived among the many photos owned by the Harms family.

The first was taken on February 20, 1943, when she was 75 years old.


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Images courtesy of Eldon Harms.

The second was taken exactly a year later.



Nancy was born February 20, 1868, the first child of Valentine and Rebecca aka Anna (Winsell) Swartz, who had been married in Porter County in February 1867. The family shows up in the 1870 Census farming in Union Township.

Then they started moving around, it seems: if I've found the right people, for the 1880 Census the Swartzes were living in Cass County, Nebraska. By the 1900 Census, they had moved to Elk Falls, Kansas, and Valentine gave his occupation as a guard at a penitentiary. Valentine and Rebecca both ended their days there.

However, I would not be surprised to learn that between 1880 and 1900 they had come back to Indiana for a time — why else would Nancy, in 1898, have married George Morris Thompson of Porter County (Indiana Marriage Collection), rather than some nice young man in Nebraska or Kansas?

At the time of their marriage, the young couple planned to live in Hobart ("Local Drifts," Hobart Gazette 16 Sept. 1898), but, as I have tried to trace, they moved about a good deal.

I do not know much about where Nancy lived after being widowed in 1928, nor do I know where either of the two photos above were taken.

Not two months after the second photo, Nancy died in Hobart (Indiana Death Certificates). She was buried beside her husband in Salem Cemetery.

I am classifying these photos as belonging to the Eva Thompson collection even though, technically, that's not where I got them.

Bobsled on a Snowy Day

In honor of the (let us hope) last snowfall of the season, which is now turning the ground into mud, here's a picture of some snowy transportation.


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Image courtesy of Eldon Harms.

The photo is undated; based on general appearances I'd put it in the 1920s. The location is not specified. It might possibly be the old James Chester place, but I can't say for sure.

The woman second from the right looks like "Aunt" Nancy Thompson (as she was known to the young Harmses), Eva's mother. The rest of the people are unidentified.

The sled was probably a wagon for three seasons out of four. When snow fell, you'd take the wagon wheels off and put on skids.

Some Guy On an Aermotor Windmill

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Image courtesy of Eldon Harms.

This man could be Roney Sauter's saner cousin — I don't know; he is not identified. But the photo was among Eva Thompson's, so he may be a Thompson.

Eldon Harms told me that the windmill on the old Harms homestead was 65 feet tall, and when he was a kid he'd once had to climb the ladder like the guy in the photo — and then climb out onto an arm, too — to retrieve a kite tangled up in the framing.

To my surprise, the Aermotor Co. is still in business. Here is a video of a 1935 Aermotor windmill in action.

At the Lake County Fair

These photographs, which come to use from Eva Thompson via Eldon Harms, were taken on the Lake County fairgrounds circa 1926, which date I guessed at because the only license plates I can see say "IND 26."


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Images courtesy of Eldon Harms.

We have no notes identifying any of these people. I have made a few tentative IDs:



(1) Herman Harms, Sr.; (2) Walter Dye; (3) Minnie Rossow Harms; and (4) Lester Dye.


The next photo shows two unidentified couples getting cozy. And I wish I knew what was going on with those two in the background.




Finally, we have a photo of four men, unidentified except I believe that's Herman Harms Sr. second from the right.



In the background, we see the young woman in the white hat and pearl necklace (second from left) who was getting cozy in the previous photo.

Note the automobile second from the right — its peculiar back end was called (Eldon told me) a turtle deck luggage carrier.

My Latest Half-Baked Theory

As I was writing about Hazel Thompson's marriage to Walter Veal in my last post, I happened to remember a photo left to us by Eva Thompson in which two adults were unidentified. The two thoughts suddenly connected in a flashing arc across my brain — oh! so that's who they were!

Upon further examination, I began to think it was just a case of faulty wiring, but I'll tell you my bright idea anyway.

Here's the photo in question:


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Images courtesy of Eldon Harms.

In the front row, we have (left to right): Nancy Thompson; Alta Thompson Dye with an unidentified child on her lap; Minnie Rossow Harms with an unidentified child on her lap; Herman Harms, Sr.; and Eldon Harms. Eldon, born in 1924, looks about six years old here, so we can date the photo to approximately 1930.*

The two in back are unidentified — no, wait! They must be Walter and Hazel (Thompson) Veal!

In another photo taken probably within minutes of the first, Herman Harms, Sr. has taken the place of the unidentified guy in back, and Eva Thompson has taken Herman's place in the front row, with an unidentified baby on her lap.



In the 1930 Census, taken in April of that year, we find Walter and Hazel Veal in Jefferson County, Indiana, with three children: Lorraine (five years old), Kenneth (three years and five months), and Mary (ten months). So maybe Kenneth and Mary are the children in this second photo. (The unidentified child on Minnie's lap in the first photo might be Norma Harms, who was then about two years old.)

Mystery solved! … or not. Now that I look at that unidentified man, I have to admit he has some resemblance to Walter Dye, Alta's husband. And in the 1930 Census, Walter and Alta Dye had two boys, Robert (two years old) and James (six months), who could account for the two children in the second photo (although the baby on Eva's lap seems to be dressed more in the style of a girl). Furthermore, in 1930 Walter Veal would have been almost 50 years old; could that unidentified man pass for 50? But he could pass for 29, Walter Dye's age.

I should mention also that in looking at these photos, Eldon Harms did not recognize either of the unidentified people.** On the one hand, if Walter and Hazel Thompson Veal were friends of the Harms family, you'd expect him to recognize them; on the other hand, if they only ever visited during his early childhood, then 80-some years later and with weakened eyesight, he might not pick them out of a photo.

The Dye hypothesis still leaves the woman in back unidentified. Let's just say she's the Mystery Woman of Ainsworth.

__________________
*A copy of this photo found in another collection had "31" written on the back; it's not clear whether that means 1931.
**That's why they're unidentified, duh.

Lester Dye

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Image courtesy of Eldon Harms.

The handwritten note on the bottom margin reads, "Lester Dye," but in my notes I was calling him "Leslie." That may just be confusion on my part. All the other records I can find give his name as Lester.

He was the brother of Walter Dye, who married Eva Thompson's sister, Alta. Lester was born in 1907, one of the seven children of George and Anna Dye. The family farmed in Winfield Township (1910 Census, 1920 Census). Around 1929 he married, and the 1930 Census shows him and his young wife, Berta May, farming rented land in Center Township. By the 1940 Census they were back in Winfield Township with their four children, and Lester was working as a carpenter.

In looking over this photo, Eldon Harms remembered Lester as a preacher. Perhaps that came later, or was just his Sunday job.

We don't know where the photo above was taken. The buildings in background might possibly be outbuildings on south side of Ainsworth Road, on the old James Chester place, but that is not a positive identification.

The car Lester is sitting on, according to Eldon Harms, is a Chevy, possibly 1927 or 1928 model. Note disc wheels (rather than spokes); to change the tire you took off the four bolts on the outer rim.

Lester lived to the age of 99. Someone who worked in a Crown Point nursing home where he was a resident remembers him as a very kind and gentle man.

He and Berta May are buried in Salem Cemetery.

Unidentified Schoolchildren and Teacher

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Image courtesy of Eldon Harms.

This photograph is a mystery. There are no notes on the original to tell us where or when it was taken. We can guess that these are all the pupils of a school, and to judge by the way the instructor (at right) is dressed, the school is Catholic.

Two of the little boys seated in the front row are holding up slates, but if any identifying information was written on them, it is illegible, and stays illegible no matter how much I tinker with the light, dark, and contrast in the image.

The photo comes from the collection of Eva Thompson. I do not know what religion or denomination she and her family belonged to.

In a One-Horse Open Sled

Oh, what fun! Here's Eva Thompson making the best of the snow and cold.


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Image courtesy of Eldon Harms.

The unidentified child's sled is tied to the back of Eva's sled.

We have no date and no location for this photo.

In the background, toward the left, you can see a one-horse buggy; at right, part of a windmill, and a pump house that looks as if it might have a stock watering tank beside it.

Bathing Beauties of Ainsworth

Probably on their way to or from the Deep River swimming hole, Walter Dye and Herman Harms stopped for a picture with Eva Thompson.


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Image courtesy of Eldon Harms.

The notes on the bottom of the photo identify the man on the left only as "Walter," but the photo's present owner believes it's Walter Dye, and it would certainly be natural for Eva's brother-in-law to be hanging around with her and her neighbors.

Walter, born in 1900, was one of five children of George and Anna Dye, who farmed in Winfield Township. After marrying Eva's sister, Alta, around 1925, Walter got out of farming; by 1940 he and Alta got out of Indiana, moving to California.

Looking at this photo, I think Walter Dye also appeared in the swimming-hole photo, second from the left. These photos may have been taken the same day.


Sources:
♦ 1900 Census.
♦ 1910 Census.
♦ 1920 Census.
♦ 1930 Census.
♦ 1940 Census.
♦ WWI Draft Cards.

Deep River Swimming Hole

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Image courtesy of Eldon Harms.

This photo comes down to us with no identifying notes on the back, but its present owner recognizes the spot — it was the swimming hole in the Deep River, where it ran along the southern border of the Harms farm east of Ainsworth. Up the bank behind the swimmers, you will notice two fence posts next to each other; they mark the boundary between the Nolte land and the Harms land.

These days, if you go through the Ainsworth Road entrance of Deep River County Park and follow the path that goes along the river (on a day when it's not flooded), at some point not too far along you will be walking opposite to the swimming hole, but I couldn't tell you exactly where it was.

No one in the photograph is identified. In my opinion, the man fourth from the left looks like Lee Thompson, and fifth from the left looks a bit like Herman Harms, Sr.

Mud, Mud, Mud

This photograph of mud includes Arthur Sullivan and a horse-drawn school bus.


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Images courtesy of Eldon Harms.

Arthur Sullivan, born circa 1904, was the son of Thomas and Augusta Sullivan, and the grandson of Patrick and Sarah. This photo has no date. It's difficult to judge Arthur's age here — I would guess about 20, give or take a few years. In my newspaper reading, I have not yet noticed him receiving pay from the township for driving a bus, although his father had in 1919 and 1921 (and likely other years that I can't lay my hands on at the moment). Ross Township may have had at least one motorized school bus by about 1920, but horse-drawn buses were still in use through the 1920s. Inside the bus (according to this photo's present owner, who rode a horse-drawn bus throughout his first year of school), there were two benches, one along each side wall, so the riders sat facing each other.

Notes on the back of the photo suggest that this bus carried Vincent school students.

Students at the Vincent School

I have mentioned that in the spring of 1918 Evie Thompson's family moved to the vicinity of the Vincent school, and Evie became a student there. We have a photo of her with her classmates.


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Images courtesy of Eldon Harms.

On the back, someone has hinted at the identities of the children …



… failing to include a full surname, or to indicate which name belongs with which child. The only one we can recognize is Eva Thompson herself, the tall girl with glasses, second from the left in the back row.

Looking through the 1920 Census, I have come up with possible surnames for these children, based on the matching first letter and the apparent proximity of their families to the Vincent school:

Elmer Reithel, Harry Sullivan, Clarence Reithel, Theodore Henning, Delmer Henning, Donald Weiler, Eva Thompson, Mathilde Prochno, and Mabel Burkley

These are only guesses on my part, and I still don't know which name goes with which child.

The former Vincent schoolhouse still stands on the southwest corner of the intersection of Clay St. and 83rd Ave., and you can still see that pattern in the brick on its side wall.

Incidentally, I suspect that when the Gazette, in June 1912, mentioned that Gust Lindborg had "bought the old Sullivan schoolhouse" and moved it to Ainsworth to serve as his residence, the building referred to was the old frame Vincent schoolhouse. At that writing, per the 1891 Plat Book, the Sullivans had owned for some twenty years what was originally the Vincent land (per the 1874 Plat Map), and the schoolhouse had always been catercorner to that land, so I can understand why either name might be applied to the schoolhouse.

Also, this obituary of Mercy Vincent suggests that the Vincents had owned the land from circa 1844 until circa 1890, which really has nothing to do with anything, but I didn't post this before so I might as well do it now.


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Hobart Gazette 12 Jan. 1906.

Plein-Air Barbering

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Image courtesy of Eldon Harms.

The man standing is Lee Thompson, Eva's only brother; born in 1902, he was six years her senior.

I don't know when Lee picked up the barbering trade. The 1920 Census describes him as a laborer on the home farm (his parents'). I can't find him in the 1930 Census. In the 1940 Census we find him living in Hobart with his wife, Doris (maiden name unknown), and 14-year-old daughter, Betty. Lee is a barber with his own shop, Doris a "beauty operator" with her own shop. They live and work at 348 Main Street, where they have lived (and perhaps worked) since 1935.

A Hobart city directory for 1940-41 at the Hobart Historical Society Museum includes a classified listing under "Barbers" for Lee Thompson at 348 Main St. That is the only directory I could find listing Lee or Doris.

We know very little about this picture: no date, no location, no identity for the man getting his hair cut. The fact that Lee is cutting hair in the open air on a farm suggests he didn't have his own shop at the time … though I suppose he could still have made house calls.

Evie, Outside the Studio

Her formal portrait was very nice, but I think we can get a better idea of Eva Thompson's personality from an informal portrait like this one:


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Image courtesy of Eldon Harms.

She looks like fun, doesn't she?

The little child is unidentified; so is the location. We don't have a date, either, but I'm told that the car is a Chevy, probably 1927 or '28, which would also be consistent with the style of Evie's dress.