Shakin' the Family Tree

This is a photo of the Elmira Cornet Band, Thirty-third Regiment of the New York State Volunteers taken in July 1861, sourced to the amazing collection of photos at the Library of Congress.

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Bands were important to the morale of soldiers serving in the Civil War. Militia bands were very highly valued by the local militias as they participated in musters, ceremonies and parades and were useful in recruiting soldiers. As state and local militias were mustered into service they naturally brought along their bands. Within a few months of the start of the war, Congress authorized the creation of Regimental bands for the Regular Army.

The Confederacy also had military bands of its own. My great great grandfather, James Henry Balding, served as a musician in the 15th Regiment, Arkansas Infantry (Josey's). On 6 Aug 1862, by order of Brig General Cleburne, he was detailed to Polk's Brigade Band. I've not been able to find out what musical instrument(s) he played, and our family lore hasn't included any stories about his service in the war. Most of the time, musicians were noncombatants.

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This is a Sepia Saturday post. Head over there for more interesting vintage images and postcards.

Not horse drawn conveyances this Saturday, but the automated kind.

Walter Nathan Brandon, Sr., Ruth Balding Brandon (my grand aunt) and Walter's son, Walter Nathan Brandon, Jr. Photo circa 1932/35.


The tour bus "at Glen Cove on Pike's Peak" Co. My grand aunt Marion "Murnie" Balding seated back seat, closest to camera. Photo taken 12 Aug 1929.


The Williams Grocer Co., owned by my great grandfather, Jo Desha Williams, made home deliveries. Photo taken before the business went belly-up prior to 1920.

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This is a Sepia Saturday post. Head over there for other old photos and postcards.

Several commenters from Sepia Saturday commented on this photo of my grand aunt, Ruth Balding. Ruth was 23 years old at the time this photo was taken of her in July 1926, at the beach in Santa Monica CA.



One of the commenters mused that it would be neat to know what Ruth was thinking as she dabbled in the surf.

Indeed.

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Of course, Ruth did not record her thoughts on the back of this photo, or any of the others in the album she kept. An album I had no idea existed until one of my cousins clued me in. She made scans of the photos and sent me a CD. We marveled over them on the phone as my cousin read me the labels from the photos in Ruth's album.

The album seemed to be a record of the travels of the Victor Balding family, primarily during the mid to late 1920s and then at the end, some travel in the 1930s, after Ruth had married and left home.

One question I had was - how did the family afford to travel? My remembrances of discussions with my grandmother focused on how tight finances were for the Baldings. Ruth and her father supported the family with their jobs. Ruth lived at her parents's home until she married in 1932 at the age of 29 - contributing her income as the bookkeeper at the Brandon Co. to the good of her family.

My theory about how they were able to travel is connected to Pop Balding's job. In 1904, Victor Balding began working for the railroad as a telegrapher. He advanced to chief telegrapher, and worked for the railroad for 38 years, until his retirement in 1942, just three years before his death.

I think it was likely that, as a perk of Victor's job, he and his family were able to travel by train either at greatly reduced fares, or perhaps, free.

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Aunt Ruth has always intrigued me.

I never knew her. She committed suicide on 30 Dec 1959, when I was thirteen months old and living with my parents in Clearwater FL.

How she got to that tragic end from the woman we see above...carefree? thoughtful? pensive?...is a matter of perspective, one I searched for in a four part series of blog entries I did about Ruth in January 2012.

I don't know if I got it right.

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During my childhood, the only perspective I was presented about Ruth came from abrupt endings of adult conversation coinciding with my entrance into the room, and whispers from some of those same adults when they thought we kids weren't listening, as our extended family gathered for food, televised football games and fun.

So even up to the time I started seriously researching Ruth's history to write that blog post series last year, the mental image I had of this aunt I had never met was a picture of a stern, no-nonsense woman in sensible shoes - one with a good head for business, but not much heart for people.

My mental image of Ruth fit neatly with this photo of her - undated, but surely within the period of time she was diagnosed with lymphatic leukemia (now called lymphocytic leukemia) and the time of her death.



Of course, as family historians know, it is often helpful to look at the big picture, too.


Ruth with her mother, brother, sister-in-law and nephew, photo taken in Ruth's mother's home.

When I saw that photo, it hit me.

There was the visual image of Ruth's difficult relationship with her family of origin, difficulties that would span decades.

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I wish I knew what Ruth was thinking as she played in the surf on Santa Monica beach.

Was she glad for the break from work? From looking after her younger siblings? Did she have more spacious sleeping and living quarters on the train that carried her from home in Little Rock AR to Santa Monica? Did she look forward to adventure on this trip?

I don't know. But I hope that as Aunt Ruth got older, and things got more difficult for her, she was able to reach for her photo album and look back on her youth.

And smile.

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See you on other other side, Aunt Ruth.

I have so many things to ask you.

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This is an encore presentation of this entry for Sepia Saturday. Head over there for a look at more interesting sepia photographs and post cards.

This is a photo I estimate to be circa 1868-1875 of the millinery shop owned and operated by my great-great grandmother, Mary Emily (Conner) Meek in Grenada Co., MS. (Click here to read more about her.)



From comparing the only known photo I have of her to this one, I think grandmama was the lady seated to the right of the post.

But I can't be sure.

This is a Sepia Saturday post, republished on 26 Oct 2013 for Sepia Saturday 200. Head over there for more wonderful photos.

Jo Desha and Maxie Leah Williams family, Christmas Day 1900
photo by McLeod, the Wild West photographer

Every time I see this one, I just dissolve into gales of laughter.

Can't you just imagine the dinner table discussion a couple of weeks before the holiday?

"Honey, what shall we do this year for Christmas? After all, it's the first Christmas of the new century."

Oh, I don't know. . .hey, why don't we get that McLeod guy to take a picture? We could dress up and go sit outside on some rocks."

"Marvelous idea, darling! And we could put Paul and Cedric on a couple of asses. They've been acting like asses for a few days now. It would serve them right. . ."

The back of the photo has an extensive ad for "McLeod, the Wild West Photographer. . . the man who made Happy Hollow famous the world over."

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I don't know how you celebrate this holiday season in your home. However you do it, do it with gusto. Laugh and love and enjoy.

You could do it in Williams family style. Dress up in all your finery and go sit on some rocks. Take a photo. Take lots of photos.

From me and the petting zoo at the cottage, happy holidays.

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This is a recycled post for Sepia Saturday 199.

Head over there for other great old images.

For most of my younger life, my dad owned his own business. He was a masonry contractor here in Arkansas - mostly commercial construction.

I got this photo yesterday in my email.

I had never seen it before.


Photo taken September 1958

I had no idea he had the same type of business when he and my mom lived in Florida, where I and my middle sister were born.

That's my 22 year old dad in the driver's seat. The photo was taken in 1958, the same year I was born.

Here's that street address today.

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Dad will be 76 years old tomorrow.

Happy birthday, Dad.

I love you.



This is a Sepia Saturday post. Head over there for more interesting old photos and postcards.

I'm not even close to on point with this week's theme.

But I am fascinated by this photo of my grand-aunt Murnie on 12 Aug 1929. She was 17.



I wish I knew who the other folks are. Aunt Murnie is sitting in the back seat, closest to the front of the photo.

I guess the altitude made it cool enough for everyone to be wearing a hat.

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This is a Sepia Saturday post. Head over there for more really cool photos.

Unfortunately, I have no photos to go with the theme this week.

So I offer a photo of my great-grandmother, Hattie Chapin Balding, taken in front of the ruins of a Hopi dwelling on a trip to the Grand Canyon in the 1920s.

Before my cousin discovered an old family album, we had no idea our Mema was such a traveler.

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This is a Sepia Saturday post. Head over there for other really wonderful old photos.

Today's theme for Sepia Saturday is dogs...

So here is Teddy, newly discovered among photos in a scrapbook compiled by my grand-aunt, Ruth Balding..

The photos appear to span a period of time from 1922 through the mid-1930s and ~gasp~ are almost all labeled.

Teddy appears in the earliest of the photos, so I'm dating this about 1925.


Teddy, the Balding family dog, about 1925.

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This is a Sepia Saturday post.

Head over there for more interesting photos.

While I was at my dad's house, I took pictures of some more of his pictures.

What we believe to be the first building that became St. Joe Freewill Baptist Church - where my g-g-grandpa set up a Sunday school under a brush arbor until they could get a building - and the very beginning of the cemetery, way over to the right.



St. Joe as I remember it when I was little kid, going to "Decoration" on Mother's Day...

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There's a very nice, modest brick building there now.

And a much larger cemetery.




This is a Sepia Saturday post.