ID'ing Location - Cabinet Card Puppies

It's such an interesting picture. These guys are all dressed up in their Sunday best - except the guy with the collar - and they look very serious, but they're posed with a mother dog and puppies which gives it an "aww" feeling. There's got to be a fascinating story behind it. Too bad someone didn't write it on the back.

 

It occurred to me this morning that in the early 1910s my maternal grandfather had a house in Oakland, CA and a farm in Merced, CA, 120 miles apart.

I never really thought about how far away the two locations were in a day when there weren't planes or fast cars.

 

I've wondered what the men are looking at, and why a photo was taken of them all looking away from the camera... was there some significance to that?

 

Love where this discussion has gone! I'm in the same boat! So many questions!

As of now, the story I have conjured up is...

5 Friends (Gang?) are passing through Kansas. They have stopped in town for a drink, shave and a rest. They are at the local saloon when this guy comes in yammering about His dog getting knocked up and having a litter of 5. The guys are like, "hey, we've been looking for some company" "Five of us, Five Puppies." A Photographer over hears the conversation and is like.... DING (I can make a buck off this) Says "Gentleman, you should get those puppies and I'll take a photo of you with the fellow and the mother dog"

Boom, 15mins later, Photographer is back and they step outside of the back of the saloon for a quick photo.

 

Like your creativity!

 

Love the story, Scantic!

 

Haha Thanks! Sometimes my darn mind runs wild!!

 

>So the photo could be from the 1880's - 1890's as it seems their fashion is about then in (Western American) terms.<

Because of their overall dress and composure, I feel it is more the 1890s or early 1900. Taupou, I also thought about the farm equipment. Earlier I tried to pin it down in hopes of dating it. I couldn't see enough of it to ID it. I wonder if it is 1 piece of equipment or 2. Was extensive farm equipment like this used much before 1890? Following are close-ups of the few parts of the equipment I can see.

>...interesting picture ... Sunday best...<

Isn't it! At first I thought a relaxed Sunday afternoon, but if that is a barber's cover for a shave then probably not a Sunday. Possibly a group of traveling salesman (like for farm equipment, etc) staying at a local hotel having a drink and a shave. Salesmen would be dressed like this on any day of the week.

--- Susan

 

If we've narrowed it down to the late 1800s, I think the photo might have been taken by an itinerant photographer.

I see quite a few references to photographers who traveled around in the 1890s.

Which makes me think the photo might have been taken in Pawnee County, KS where we found the references to Wormwood.

 

Not sure if J. W. Mosser Traveled. I've only seen Meade Center & Caldwell Kansas as of now. But I'm not sure if he had two locations or like you said traveling.

 

When you've seen Meade Center given for the the photographer, have the locations in the photos been identified as definitely being places in Meade Center?

I'm wondering if the owners of other photos might have made assumptions based on the address printed on the back?

 

No Address Printed on Back, just on the front. Standard sorta Photographer Print of the Time. I've seen Photos labeled "Meade, Kansas" by the same photographer, so I'm guessing it's actually Meade Center, but I'm not sure

 

J W Mosser, born 1843 Pennsylvania, lived in Caldwell City, Sumner County, Kansas from at least 1885 until his death. Listed his occupation as photographer in every census. Now his oldest child Mary aka Mamie was born in about 1877 in Iowa and was living with her mother and grandmother in Iowa in the 1880 census. I could not find JW. By 1885 the whole family was together in Caldwell.

Caldwell is a long way from Meade, but Sumner County is also on the Kansas-Oklahoma border. I imagine he must have travelled a lot of the sparsely populated landscape around there.

 

The J stands for Jeremiah. He was retired by 1920 (although still working in 1915) and died (and is buried) in Caldwell City in 1927.

I'm thinking that the reason I can't find him in the 1880 census is that he was travelling back to PA (from Iowa) to get his father Isaac. Isaac is living with him in Caldwell in the 1885 Kansas Census, but was still in Bangor, Northampton County, PA in 1880 living with a widowed daughter and a 20 yr old unmarried son. Two of his other sons were living in the next 2 houses with their families and all 3 young men were working in the local slate factory.

 

Ha! One of JW's brothers left the slate factory and took his family out to Caldwell at the same time that JW went there. He was a farmer, though. JW must have been "on the road" at the time of the 1895 census, because JW's daughter was living with them then.

 

That's interesting that you didn't see JW in any Census in the same time period that I didn't find Wormwood. Probably a coincidence, but curious.

 

So interesting! All of this just makes me want to get to the bottom of this photo more than ever!

 

Hello all!

Heard back from Nancy over at Meade County Historical Society.

She said that the photo dates between 1885 and 1889 as the name was
shortened in 1889 to just "Meade" and "Meade Center" was no longer used.

She could not help with the identification of the people, but said that Mosser traveled around that area.

Interesting!

 

Excellent!

 

Great info, and so nice that she got back to you.