Benjamin Family, McMurray Family (Click for Family Tree)
Genealogy is not a pastime for those who cannot shake their head and calmly say, “Well, I guess we will never know for sure…”
This Clutter photo album is just one of those things- unless someone sees this post and has another piece of the puzzle to share, it will be fun to enjoy the photos of persons in our genealogical past but we will never be able to put a name to the face.
In one of the (too many) “To Sort” file folders on my computer I recently found these scanned album images from a cousin. The Clutter family married into the Benjamin family, which is a part of the McMurray line. That marriage took place between Emmanuel Clutter (1846-1921) and Frances “Fannie” Drucilla Benjamin (1843-1899) on Dec. 31, 1868, in Licking County, Ohio per some sources; more likely is that they received a marriage license (the only record) on Dec. 29, 1868, in Jasper County, Iowa and married after. The bride was the sister of Hannah “Melissa” Benjamin McMurray (1854-1932), AKA known as “The Scary Lady” by Melissa’s own 5th generation descendants. (See notes.) So it is very curious that descendants of Melissa would end up with a photo album of the Clutter family, her sister’s in-laws.
Sadly we do not have an image of Fannie, but here is Melissa:
Some of the album photos were taken in Mt. Vernon, Ohio, and some in Newton, Jasper County, Iowa, or Cedar County or Cedar Falls, Iowa.
Since the Ohio photographer, Charles C. Curtiss passed away in 1895, we can narrow the time of those pictures to before that date.
The above left image is what helped to further identify persons in the album. Going to Ancestry.com and searching to learn more about the Clutter family, this image was found:
The man in the left portrait from the album looks like this image of James I. Clutter, the father of Emmanuel Clutter, it seems, only younger- do you agree? A similar neck piece can be seen in each of these images. (So possibly a man who liked the status quo, since it appears there are quite a few years between pictures? Or maybe he had a neck injury he preferred to cover up? Again, we shall likely never know.)
An old eBay listing for a CDV (carte de viste, the type of photo on a card as are most of these) stated it was taken by Clutter and Young- or maybe it was by Clutter and was the Young family from Newton, Iowa- the wording is not clear. The auction image did eventually come up in a search but no longer can be found on eBay. The back of the eBay image that was found in Google had the name “Clutter & Daft” as the Newton photography studio on the very ornate reverse. An Iowa Culture website notes that a person named Clutter had a Newton studio in the 1870s, and was in a partnership with a person named Daft. “Our” Emmanuel Clutter was listed in the 1870 and the 1880 US Federal Censuses in Newton, Iowa as an “Artist”- perhaps he was working as a photographer, as they did often call themselves ‘artists.’ (And they are!) So his own family likely sat for him.
We need to clarify some confusion in the description of the photo on the right. Charles C. Curtiss of Mt. Vernon, Ohio may have taken the photo, or it could have been Joseph Longaker in Newton or in Cedar Falls, Iowa- he was active there too, at least in 1865. A search on Ancestry.com and through Google did not give us much pertinent information. All the persons with the surname Daft in Newton, Jasper County, Iowa, were farmers around 1860-1880, and we were unable to locate a person named Joseph Longaker in either Newton or in Cedar Falls, Iowa. This will take more research from someone more acquainted with these families.
Next: More images from the Clutter Family Album
Notes, Sources, and References:
- Emmanuel Clutter – Frances “Fannie” Drucilla Benjamin marriage license in Jasper County, Iowa Marriage Records, Volume 1, 1848-1869.
- Hannah “Melissa” Benjamin McMurray- Melissa’s unwavering gaze peered out from a portrait hung in a bedroom, and no one in that family knew her name. Her great-grandson knew her when he was little and she was in her 70s. Thankfully when he was about 80 he finally recognized her picture (years before he did not know who she was), but only remembered that she was very, very stern.
- Unfortunately where the actual album is located is unknown, as all we have is a date of 2014 for these scans, but that year does not correlate with any remembered access to such an album or a trip. More mystery… and a reminder to title folders appropriately at the time they are created, no matter how busy one is with scanning in a limited time frame!
- Charles C. Curtis– https://billiongraves.com/grave/Charles-C-Curtis/19053670.
- N.F. Strong, photographer 1864-1866, Mt. Vernon, Ohio, per
Ohio Photographers: 1839-1900 by Diane VanSkiver Gagel, 1998, page 99, via books.google.com.
- Clutter (& Young? or is Young the family in the photo?) or more likely, Clutter & Daft– https://iowaculture.gov/sites/default/files/history-research-collections-photoav-iowastereographers-02192019.pdf
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