Ye Olde Ferncroft Inn, Middleton, Massachusetts

My friend Irene Savory sent me this image of a framed photograph that she recently acquired, asking for an approximate date.

We found the picture at a yard sale in Portsmouth, New Hampshire. They said the items were part of their great aunt's estate. The woman on the right is our grandmother. We are 98% sure unless she had a twin. The Ye Olde Ferncroft Inn was in Danvers, Massachusetts we think. Our grandmother lived in Lynn, Massachusetts. Danvers from Lynn is about 10 miles and probably 25 miles or so due south ... From all other photos of our grandmother, it certainly looks like the same person ... Can you tell us anything about when it was taken?

Responding to some questions about nature and dimensions of the frame and print, Irene sent a more detailed scan, and provided the following:

The frame is metal, even the back and the stand. It is 92 mm wide and 83 mm high to the top of the curve. If you measure along the straight side, it is 76 mm. The photo is 70 mm square. I think it is paper, rather than card. It has started to curl.

She also sent a couple of photographs of her grandmother, and some information about her life.

[My grandmother] Irene A. Lennon was born on 15 August 1891 in Lynn, Massachusetts to James F. Lennon and Mary Elizbeth Cunningham. She had three older sisters, all born in Lynn. [with whom she is shown in the photograph above, presumably taken in the late 1890s] They were Mildred M., born 8 February 1886; Lizzie, born 5 December 1887; and Mary Bridget, born 23 March 1890. Their mother died of acute fever on 7 August 1892, just a week before Irene's first birthday. James remarried and the girls were sent to convent school.

This photograph was taken in 1918, when Irene was aged 27.

Irene worked as an operative in the shoe industry, as did many members of her family and at least half of the city of Lynn. On 12 April 1913 she married Lionel Percy Pope in Lynn, where they resided until my mother was about two. They had three children, but only my mother survived. Paul died at age four of diptheria, Mary was stillborn, and my mother, who was born in 1925. They moved to Bradford/Haverhill when she was very young. Irene had rheumatoid arthritis which was so bad that she opted to have nerves cut to relieve the pain. From that point on she was totally bedridden.

My parents married during WWII, and my mother continued to live with her parents. After the war they moved to Kittery, Maine, where my father was working, taking Irene and Lionel with them. Irene died there in 1946.

I managed to track Irene through Federal Census records, using the indexed images available on the Ancestry subscription service. In 1900, she was with her sisters Mary and Elizabeth, wards of the City Orphan Asylum in Lafayette Street, Salem City, Massachusetts. I was unable to locate her in 1910, but in 1920, Lionel and Irene were in a lodging house at 26 Ireson Street, Lynn, and in 1930, they were living at 131 Colby Street, Haverhill - Irene, her husband Lionel, four year old daughter were there, together with Irene's unmarried sister Mary.

Back to the framed photograph. The frame itself is very definitely in the art deco style, which developed partly as a response to the forced austerity imposed by the Great War, and is unlikely to have been manufactured and sold prior to the 1920s.


The Ferncroft (or Fern Croft) Inn appears to have been in existence from the early 1900s until well after the Second World War, on a location where the Radisson Ferncroft hotel is now. I found images of several pre-Great War postcards itemised on eBay, ranging in date of use from 1906 to 1910.

It also turns out that the inn was a favourite watering hole for Boston politicians prior to the First World War, mentioned in relation to an event that happened in 1913 in this article from the Marshfield Mariner. An extract from The Lowell Sun dated 9 January 1915 (in the Newspaper Archive)describes one Henry K. Mansfield as the proprietor of the Ferncroft Inn. The book "Hidden History of the Boston Irish" by Peter F. Stevens (GoogleBooks) refers to the not so salubrious reputation of the Ferncroft during that era as "a saloon and gambling den on the Newburyport Turnpike. Cards, booze, sex - all could be had at the Ferncroft." On 9 May 1922, the New York Times reported the sale of the "famous New Croft Inn, on the Boston Post Road, New Rochelle," to a James Colville.

Of course, the photograph does not have to be contemporary with the frame, and could easily have been inserted by a previous owner at any time. My impression, however, is that it could easily have been taken in the 1920s or 1930s. The vertical stripes on the skirt of the young woman would also fit with this period between the wars. The style of the wooden building in the background, does not really fit with the photographs that I have seen of the Ferncroft Inn, and I suspect it is not the same one.


With regard to the likeness between the young woman in the Ferncroft Inn portrait and Irene Lennon Pope, I am always a little wary of such comparisons. I agree that their faces are very similar indeed, but if the Ferncroft Inn portrait was taken in the 1920s at the earliest, as I have suggested, Irene would then have been in her thirties. Although the image is not very clear, the young woman in the striped skirt, however, looks to me to be in her late teens.


Although I hesitate to provide a definitive answer on the date of the Ferncroft Inn photograph, my feeling is that it is from the 1920s, and that it is unlikely to include Irene's grandmother.

H.O. Seaman of Bristol, Birmingham & Weston-super-Mare

Last month I featured several portraits by the Seaman family of photographers who, although starting the business in Chesterfield in the mid- to late 1870s, eventually operated a number of branches from Blackpool to Brighton.


This cabinet card was an eBay purchase and there is unfortunately no indication as to who the attractive, fashionably dressed and elegantly coiffured young woman might have been. The card mount has square corners and an flowery border in the art nouveau style. These two features, together with the young woman's pose, clothing and hair style, all suggest to me that the photograph was taken in the first decade of the Twentieth Century.


Herbert Oscar Seaman was a son of the firm's founder, Alfred Seaman (1844-1910) by his third wife Martha Ann Else. He was born in Chesterfield in late 1884, at a time when Alfred was establishing a firm reputation in that town. As a young boy he would have seen several of his older half-brothers first working in the main studio in Chesterfield, and then opening and running new branches in Ilkeston, Alfreton, Sheffield and Leeds. In 1901 - at the age of 16 - he, Alfred William and Harold John (the brothers who were closest in age to him) were employed in the High Street studio in Chesterfield as photographer's assistants/apprentices.

By the time he was married at Bristol two years later, in late 1903, he was almost ready to start out on his own, and the first listing of him with his own studio is in Bristol (Somerset) in 1905 with premises at 27 Castle Street (Vaughan). The last entry for him at this address is for 1908, but it is not clear what he did after this date. The reverse of the card mount, shown above, indicates that he also operated a studio at 74 City Arcade in Birmingham (Warwickshire) at some stage. A small gem-type portrait mounted in an easel-back cardmoard frame currently listed on eBay is described as having the following addresses stamped on the reverse:

- 27 Castle St. Bristol;
- 74, City Arcade, and 15 1/2 High Street (Bull Ring), Birmingham;
- and at 3, Macfarlane Buildings, Regent St., Weston-Super-Mare

The large hat worn by the woman in that portrait suggests to me a similar date, i.e. 1905 to 1908.

It is also possible that H.O. Seaman lived in Norwich (Norfolk) from 1912 to 1919, although I don't have evidence that a studio was ever operated there.

References

Bristol Photographers, U.K., 1852-1972, by Roger Vaughan

War Memorial Service in Melbourne, Derbyshire, c.1926

Diane Hicklin recently purchased this photographic postcard and kindly sent me a scan. Given the recent 90th anniversary of the end of the First World War on Remembrance Day, I thought an article featuring this photograph would be appropriate.


It shows a large group of people gathered around what looks like a circular, stone folly or memorial, and has the name "W. MAYELL MELBOURNE" blind stamped in the lower right corner. The pole in the middle ground may be a flag pole.

The original eBay listing describes it as a "Breedon on the Hill War Memorial Service, circa 1919," and includes a more modern photograph of the memorial. A photograph of the Breedon memorial, situated on the village green, is also included in the Wikipedia areticle on the village. A planning document from the North-West Leicestershire District Council (Breedon on the Hill Conservation Area Appraisal & Study, April 2001) states that the War Memorial was erected in 1926, while a recent meeting of the Breedon parish council (Minutes, 6 Oct 2008) noted that the "memorial needs sign writing renovation."

I suspect that Diane's postcard photo was probably taken on the occasion of the unveiling of the memorial. The clothing worn by the men and women attending the event seems appropriate for the mid-1920s.


Breedon on the Hill Green & War Memorial
© Michael Patterson, courtesy of Geograph and licensed for reuse under this Creative Commons Licence.
This excellent photograph by Michael Patterson, from the very useful web site Geograph, shows the memorial on the village green, with the commemmorative list of names clearly visible.


The reverse of the postcard is unfortunately of a standard design, revealing no further details of either the photographer or the event/location. What is not clear is whether "W. Mayell" actually took the photograph or merely published and/or sold it. Diane's father told her that Mayell had a general store in Melbourne's High Street in the mid-1930s, which he remembered going into as a small boy, but he had no recollection of any photographic business.

Examination of trade directories of the period reveals a little more:

1926-1927 : Mayell's Cafe, restaurant, High Street, Melbourne
1932 : Mayel Walt. refreshment rooms, High Street, Melbourne
1935 : Mayell Walter, confectioner, High Street, Melbourne

While I don't yet have a definitive answer in relation to whether Walter Mayell took the photograph or not, it appears that he probably arrived in the village between the end of the Great War and the mid-1920s, where he opened a shop on the High Street. He may have taken photographs and published them as postcards - he almost certainly sold such postcards in his shop.

Many thanks, Diane, for the opportunity to use this interesting photograph. From what I have read, I have the impression that the mid-1920s saw a great number of memorials to those who fell during the war built around the country. However, I know of no work which gives any kind of summary. It would be an interesting project.

References

Anon (1926-1927) Midland Counties of England Trades' Directory, republ. on microfiche by Derbyshire Family History Society
Anon (1932) Kelly's Trade Directory, republ. on microfiche by Derbyshire Family History Society
Anon (1935) Whipple's Trade Directory, republ. on microfiche by Derbyshire Family History Society

Levi Cartwright of Hillstown, Scarcliffe, near Bolsover

This cabinet card showing a young couple was sent to me by Valerie Bailey. The couple are William David Cartwright and Annie Cartwright née Hobson - he was born in 1883, and married Annie in 1906. The style of clothing suggests to me that they sat for this portrait at about the time of their marriage.


The plain buff coloured card mount is stamped on the reverse with the photographer's name, enlarged below: "L. Cartwright, Art Photographer, Victoria Cross, Hillstown, Bolsover."


Levi Cartwright was, in fact, an older brother of the subject of the portrait. He was born in 1867 at Fegg Hayes, near Chell and Norton-in-the-Moors in Staffordshire, the son of a coal miner William Cartwright and his wife Hannah née Knight. The family moved to Eckington, Derbyshire in late 1880 or early 1881, and by census night that April, at the age of only 13, Levi was already working as a coal miner. His brother William David was born two years later, by which time they had moved again, to Hasland near Chesterfield. After a brief spell in Langwith, they then settled in Hillstown, near Scarcliffe by April 1891; Levi and his father were still employed as coal miners.

Levi Cartwright married Sarah Ann Hall at Mansfield in 1892. They settled in Hillstown too and by 1901, when they were living in Victoria Street with two children, Levi had become a postman and shopkeeper. It seems likely that he was working for, or took over from, Matthew Cowley and Cowley & Sons, respectively shown as sub-postmaster and shopkeepers in the 1899 edition of Kelly's trade directory. By this time, his brother William David, still living with his father (his mother had died in 1895) and work as a pony driver in the coal mines.

Levi may have worked as photographer in the mid-1900s, although the fact that he has used an inked stamp on the reverse of a plain card mount suggests to me that his foray into this occupation was probably brief.

Levi and his family emigrated to Canada in 1911, arriving at Portland, Maine on 3 April on board the ship Southwark. They settled first in Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan, and then on a farm near Swift Current, where both Levi and his son Cressy Fortesque Cartwright were granted land. Sarah Ann Cartwright died in Vancouver, British Columbia, on 18 June 1944, aged 75, while Levi Cartwright died in the same location on 27 December 1947 aged 80.

Charlie Smith in the Machine Gun Corps

Some time ago Nigel Aspdin sent me this postcard photograph of a family member, Charles Sydney Smith, who served in the Machine Gun Corps (British/Imperial, rather than Canadian) during the Great War. Charlie was born in 1890 in Nottingham, son of a bank clerk John Bywater Smith (1847-1897) and Mary Ann Woolley. After his father died in 1897, they moved to Derby, where he married Beatrice Slater in 1915. In the outdoors portrait, he is shown in the uniform of a British officer, the cap badge identifying him as a member of the Machine Gun Corps, and mounted on a horse. The lower margin of the photograph is annotated, "France. May 1916," while the reverse, shown below, has a lengthier message to his wife.

17/5/16
Darling little girlie,
What do you think of this photo, it is not very good as my horse won't keep still. Hope the measles are OK. We move up into the trenches to-day. Weather is A.1. Want a letter from you and can't get one. Will write if possible to-night, hope to get leave after this spell in the trenches, but will let you know in plenty of time.
All my love
Charlie

This would be an interesting photograph to research on its own, and it was sitting in my "to do" file, waiting for a suitable moment. However, yesterday, while browsing photographs for sale on eBay, I came across a listing of a postcard which seemed rather familiar:


It seems an extraordinary coincidence, but this photograph was taken at exactly the same spot as the one of Charlie Smith, albeit that the shutter on the window has been raised and a woman stands in the previously empty doorway. The eBay listing states that it is inscribed on the reverse, "Dick 21.6.16," so it appears to have been taken just over a month later. Unfortunately, my meagre funds allowed for eBay purchases won't stretch to this one. I presume the photographer's studio was located in the vicinity of the yard.

The Commonwealth War Graves Commission web site and database show that Major Charles Sydney Smith of the Machine Gun Corps, and husband of Beatrice Smith of 3 Wheeldon Avenue, Derby, died on 28 November 1918 at the age of 28, and was buried at the Nottingham Road Cemetery in Derby (Grave/Memorial Ref. 3872 (C.)). It also states that he was awarded the Military Cross, and was mentioned in dispatches. The Nottingham Road Cemetery, which featured in a recent article, "contains 193 First World War burials and 134 from the Second World War. There is a small war graves plot of about 40 burials from both wars, the rest of the graves are scattered throughout the cemetery."


His medal card shows that he arrived in France on 11 March 1916, but there is sadly little else to show what he was doing between then and his death in November 1918, shortly after the war had ended.