Portions of the lyrics posted for educational use only.
2) Photos from family treasure chests.
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Southern Pacific Depot in Santa Rosa, California. Postcard circa 1910? Pacific Novelty Company, San Francisco and Los Angeles, California. (Click to enlarge.)
When I first saw this postcard in the handful I was going through in an antique shop in Franklin, North Carolina, my heart skipped a beat. Edward B. Payne probably stopped at this station on his way from Berkeley, California, to Santa Rosa where he and his followers planned a Utopian community called Altruria. Colony members and visitors also may have gone through this station when Altruria existed between 1894 and 1896.
Of course I had to buy it before I was able to do detailed research, but I knew a lot of the history of EB Payne, so this purchase turned out well.
So, how does one go about checking to see if a postcard or photo could have been taken during an ancestor’s lifetime?
First, try to ascertain the age of the photograph, or postcard. Lists of photographers and postcard printers may be found online. In this instance, the postcard was printed by the Pacific Novelty Company, San Francisco and Los Angeles, as seen on the reverse. A Google search of this company brought up a number of websites and images, some including this same depot. It was interesting that the best search results were when I misspelled the name, so try a couple of permutations of the name or a phrase if you need more hits. I also knew that the style of the reverse, writing side of a postcard can give clues as to its age if one know what to look for. Researching all that would be much more complex than what I was interested in learning, so I put that off to another day.
Results: The Metropolitan Postcard Club of New York City noted that Pacific Novelty was in business from 1908-the 1960s, so we know that the earliest this particular card could have been published was 1908.
Reverse side of Southern Pacific Depot in Santa Rosa, California postcard, circa 1910? Pacific Novelty Company, San Francisco and Los Angeles. (Click to enlarge.)
Second, research the history of the building or the place. Include details about the city and state and/or country in your Google search as necessary. You may find information in Wikipedia (double check the accuracy), on a county historical society’s website, museum website, or, if the building is still in existence, there may be a website devoted to that building. You might need to make a phone call to the local historical association or genealogy group, or could even get information from Rootsweb or various genealogy mailing lists. Additionally, Google maps can be used to search for an address, and see what the area looks like today.
Results: The Sonoma Heritage Collection of the Sonoma County Public Library has a wonderful and charming image of the depot on its website. It states their photo was taken in 1885. The images look very similar, so now we know the station was in existence at least between 1885 and 1908.
Third, determine the timeline of your ancestor and include places. I create a specific timeline for my most researched ancestors (EB Payne certainly qualifies there), and in my documents folders I use file names that start with dates, such as:
This is my file name for an newspaper article that was published June 9, 1892. My folders are ‘automagically’ sorted into a timeline with this system (make sure to use leading zeroes on month and day, and if either are not known, use ’00.’), so all I sometimes have to do is check my collected documents file to know where someone was at a particular time. Most genealogy programs also provide timelines, but a quick check of my computer folders keeps me from having to open another program. (An extra pain since the best genealogy programs are for Windows but I use a Mac. But I digress…)
Results: Edward B. Payne was living in Berkeley, California in 1892, and that falls between the dates of 1885-1908 that we know the train depot existed at minimum.
Fourth, think about a motive for your ancestor being in that place at that time. Back to my timeline to find this file:
1894_1016_PAYNE_EB_Land for Altrurians_San Francisco Call_v76_n138_p8_c2_cdnc.pdf
Results: I know that Edward Payne was looking for land for the new colony in 1894 in Santa Rosa per this San Francisco Call article, plus I know they did build Altruria and he traveled there frequently from Berkeley. (He did not live at Altruria because he had a pastorate in Berkeley.) He did take the train when he traveled frequently- I have news stories that verify that- so we know he may have been on a train that stopped at this station.
Fifth, evaluate your data and see if there are any other circumstances which should be considered.
This would be a good place to stop and check train routes- was there a route from Berkeley to Santa Rosa? The map found on Wikipedia for the Southern Pacific suggests there was. There also was a ferry system between Oakland and San Francisco, California as early as the 1870s; after taking the ferry, passengers would then take the train to points north or east.
The Southern Pacific Company’s Bay City ferry plies the waters of San Francisco Bay sometime between 1870 and 1900. Denver Public Library-public domain. (Click to enlarge.)
Conclusion: Edward B. Payne likely visited the Santa Rosa train depot in the image during the 1890s. He could have gone from Berkeley to Oakland, taken a ferry across the bay, then the train from San Francisco to Santa Rosa. A horse and buggy would have carried Payne and his daughter, Lynette Payne, to Altruria.
Of course, it is also likely that we will not know for sure that Edward B. Payne stepped foot in this train depot, but the odds look pretty good with this analysis.
How sad that the depot no longer exists for me to step foot there too.
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Copyright 2013-2014 by Heritage Ramblings Blog and pmm.
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The Payne Family. From left, Ninetta Wiley Eames Payne; little Maude McMurray & young Edward McMurray, Lynette Payne McMurray’s children; Lynette in front and her father, Edward B. Payne, in back. Taken at Wake Robin Lodge, Glen Ellen, California, c1907. (Click to enlarge.)
It is fitting to add this post today, on the anniversary of Edward B. Payne’s birthday, July 25, 1847.
Sorry that I haven’t been posting much due to real life, which sometimes interferes with genealogy. 😉
I have also recently had an article about Edward B. Payne (fondly known as EBP in our house) published in The Russian River Recorder, Spring 2014, Issue 124, which is the journal of the Healdsburg Museum & Historical Society, Sonoma County, California. The article took a lot of time to write, mostly because I was supposed to distill this complex man and his long life into 1200 words. I just couldn’t do it. I was so happy that they expanded the issue and I was able to use 1500 words. I will be posting the article soon.
The Healdsburg Museum and Historical Society currently has a wonderful exhibit called “Visionaries, Believers, Seekers, and Schemers: 19th Century Utopian Communities of Sonoma County.” The community founded by Edward B. Payne, “Altruria,” although short-lived, was “… a glorious failure” according to some writers. The Russian River Recorder has four articles about Altruria, plus numerous articles about the other three Utopian communities founded in Sonoma in the late 1800s. They are a very interesting read.
There were no known images of Altruria, as far as my research or that of others, until I contacted the Huntington Museum a couple of years ago. In some of Charmian London’s scrapbooks, the archivist found two images of Altruria. I requested a copy of the whole page, to get the images in context, and was surprised to see that there was also one image torn from the page- I would love to know more about that missing image! (I would be matching up the torn back of any loose photos with the remains in the scrapbook, but alas, the archivist states there are no loose photos.) These images too will get posted here on the blog, but I do need to get permission from the Huntington first; they did give their kind permission to publish in the journal above. It has been exciting to email back and forth with curators, archivists, and librarians for this research. They are all unsung heroes in my mind.
Edward B. Payne lecture advertisement. Possibly c1920, October 9. (Click to enlarge.)
When Edward B. Payne could no longer preach due to his ‘pulmonary affliction’ (he acquired tuberculosis when he lived in New England), he earned a little income from lectures he provided throughout the Bay Area of California.
Lots more to come on EBP.
Notes, Sources, and References:
1) The Healdsburg Museum has a wonderful exhibit of the four Sonoma County Utopian communities through Aug. 3, 2014, plus their June 2014 The Russian River Recorder details these communities. See http://www.healdsburgmuseum.org for more information. They are planning an online video tour of the exhibit, so watch for that soon.
2) Images from family photo archives.
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Copyright 2013-2014 by Heritage Ramblings Blog and pmm.
We would love to read your thoughts and comments about this post, and thank you for your time! All comments are moderated, however, due to the high intelligence and persistence of spammers/hackers who really should be putting their smarts to use for the public good instead of spamming our little blog.
Images and documents with multiple persons can be challenging to file- which name should be used as the file name? I tend to use the oldest or most prominent or most important-to-me persons in the photo or document, and one can then create a note to go into other folders referencing where the document or image has been placed. I am hoping to convert to using Lightroom (LR) soon- just wish it could use .pdfs. With LR, you can leave your images in the file hierarchy you like and have the program just point to its location. It also allows you to tag multiple people, so it will help with this dilemma.
My file folders are arranged differently than those of many genealogists. My family moved around a lot, so listing files by place just doesn’t work for me- I prefer to have everything about one person pretty much together. This is a problem though, with things like censuses, since you will find a census entry for a person as a child in their family, and then with a family of their own. I have decided to deal with this by keeping a person in their birth family until they were off on their own as an adult, which usually coincides with marriage and a family of their own. My folders thus have a name like McMURRAY_W-PAYNE_L, for Will McMurray and Lynette Payne, who were the parents of Dr. E. A. McMurray, and his documents and images would appear in their folder until he married. The next folder he would appear in chronologically would be the McMURRAY-ROBERTS folder, where documents about his life with his first wife and son would reside. McMURRAY-KENNER would be the last folder I would put his documents in, for his life with his wife of 61 years and their beautiful family. If you use this method, choose which name to put first and be consistent- either husband or wife first.
Since I am one of those uppity women and a feminist, and it is still Women’s History Month (ahhh, the irony of a Women’s “HIStory” Month…), I use the maiden names of women throughout their lives. That helps me tell “HERstory.” Plus, it helps to separate out Hannah Ford from Hanna Marple who married father and son so both became Hannah Benjamin. (And the confusion continues, since father and son are both Jonathans.)
If you decide to try any new system, start small, maybe with just one family, to see if the system works well for you. There will always be items that could be filed in various ways- just try to find what you can be consistent with and use it. Change it to how it will best work for your mind to work with it easily- after all, the idea is for your brain to be analyzing, not filing. Remember, too, that you don’t have to change everything at once- that would be a daunting task, and quite a problem if you decide you don’t like the system or it doesn’t work for you. So that it’s not overwhelming, start with your new files as you create them, and change older ones out when you have a few minutes here or there, such as while waiting on hold for 30 minutes with the cable company. I still have a lot of cleanup to do on my files since I started on this system even though it has been many years that I have used it. Changing to another computer has also thrown my system off, but further work on this system will be an enjoyable project filled with rediscovered gems as I get my filing system well organized.
Notes, Sources, and References:
1) Family photo archives.
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Copyright 2013-2014 by Heritage Ramblings Blog and pmm.
We would love to read your thoughts and comments about this post, and thank you for your time! All comments are moderated, however, due to the high intelligence and persistence of spammers/hackers who really should be putting their smarts to use for the public good instead of spamming our little blog.
Hannah Melissa Benjamin with her great-grandson, Edward A. McMurray, Jr., taken about 1926.
The above photo was in with McMurray family pictures that I have seen all my life. My family thought that the youngster was Edward A. McMurray, Jr., but he was not sure who the woman was with him. He always said, “I can’t remember that far back.”
In the last decade of his life, we went through the photos another time. He looked at this one intently, again puzzled as to who the woman was. For years I had been intrigued with his great-grandmother, Hannah Melissa Benjamin- I had never seen a picture of her, but had been born 100 years and two months after her, and just loved her name. Knowing the year that the picture was probably taken due to Ed’s age, I combed through the possibilities of who it could be; Hannah Melissa (Benjamin) McMurray was the best possibility. I asked, “Do you think it could be your great-grandmother, Hannah Melissa (Benjamin) McMurray?” He looked up, surprised, and replied that it was indeed her, and he remembered that she was very, very stern. Melissa, as she was known, died when he was just eight, so that was the only thing he could remember about her.
Hannah Melissa Benjamin, possibly circa 1910? She was 56 in 1910.
Hannah Melissa Benjamin was born to Sylvanus Rufus Benjamin and Sarah Ann Palmer on 03 Aug 1854 in Burlington, Licking County, Ohio. Licking County was a big transportation center at that time, especially after the Ohio Canal had been completed.
In 1865 or 1866 the family moved to Jasper County, Iowa. They lived on a farm about four miles northeast of Newton. In 1870, her father owned a large amount of land- he had the highest real estate value of any other household listed on the census page.
Melissa married Frederick Asbury “F. A.” McMurray in Jasper County, Iowa, on 18 September 1873. FA was an auctioneer who cried sales throughout the area. They had five children: William E. (1874-1957, marr Lynette Payne, had 3 children); Harry James (1876-1962, marr. Emma Tripp, no children); Addie Belle (1879-1958, marr. Forest Gillespie, no children); Roy (1884-1973, marr. Emma Hotger, no children); and Ray (1886-1979, marr. Elizabeth “Bessie” Catherine Blackwell, no children), all born in Jasper County.
Hannah Melissa (Benjamin) McMurray, possibly 1915 or 1920?
F. A. McMurray died on 12 Dec 1929, leaving Melissa alone for almost three years. Melissa may be found in the 1930 US Federal Census, age 76, and living at 310 E. 4th St. N in Newton. She had a housekeeper and two lodgers living with her, and her home was worth $8,000.
Headstone of Hannah Melissa (Benjamin) McMurray in Newton Union Cemetery, Newton, Jasper County, Iowa.
Melissa (Benjamin) McMurray died on 09 Nov 1932 in Newton. She is buried in Newton Union Cemetery, along with her husband and many other Benjamins.
Benjamin Family Headstone Grouping in Newton Union Cemetery, Newton, Jasper County, Iowa.
[NOTE: Post edited 3/21/14 to add death dates for William, Roy, and Ray McMurray.]
Notes, Sources, and References:
1) 1870 US Federal Census for Sylvanus R. Benjamin, head of household: Source Citation: Year: 1870; Census Place: Newton, Jasper, Iowa; Roll: M593_398; Page: 370A; Image: 380; Family History Library Film: 545897.
2) John Benjamin Obituary: The Newton Record, Thursday, May 24, 1900 Page 1, Column 2.
3) My Find A Grave Memorial #28154269 for Hannah Melissa (Benjamin) McMurray: http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=28154269
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Copyright 2013-2014 by Heritage Ramblings Blog and pmm.
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