Do you have an ancestor whose career tells the history of an industry?

Charles E. Barnhart (1913-2004) poses for a photo at the Neiman-Marcus store in Dallas, Texas, on October 4, 1958. Charles was married to Velma Moree Pierce (1913-1993), daughter of N.B. "Bonie" and Julia Moody Pierce.

Charles had apparently been in town for a football game. On the back of the photo the score was recorded as "SMU 6 vs ND 14." Charles worked football games as part of his job as a sound engineer with CBS radio.

Charles led an interesting career working for WBBM radio, the CBS station in Chicago. He began his career in the early days of commercial radio in 1931 and joined WBBM 10 years later. Below is an article about Charles written by Jay Grelen in The Mobile Press Register in February 1996.

Do you have an ancestor whose career tells the history of an industry?

Pumps, Tires and Automobiles Kept Our Ancestors' Lives Rolling

I'm fascinated by how many of my ancestors were connected with gasoline service stations or other auto service businesses. The industry provided them good livings or got them started in life.

The above photo of N.B. "Bonie" Pierce's new gas station and convenience store in Mobile, Ala., was probably taken shortly after it opened in 1940. Bonie called his business The Reservoir Inn because it was located across the street from the historic Bienville Reservoir, actually not more than a raised pond used for water storage.

The store on the north side of Moffett Road near Forest Hill Drive sold Sinclair gasoline. The little sign on the right pump warns that Sinclair HC contains lead. The pump on the left must have pumped unleaded gas.

On the front of the Inn are signs for Opaline motor oil, a Sinclair product. Barely visible on the right side of the photo is a sign for Quaker State Motor Oil.

With the U.S. entry into World War II on Dec. 7, 1941, service stations such as this one would feel the effects of a shortage of rubber and gasoline. The federal government ordered nationwide gas rationing to begin on Dec. 1, 1942.

The Reservoir Inn survived the war and for many years afterward.

Do you have ancestors who were connected with the auto service industry?

Handsome Couple: Gladys and Wilson Burton

Above are Gladys Pierce and Wilson Burton.

According to Debbie Kelly, their great niece, Wilson was a photographer at the Blue Light Studio in Mobile. He later became the photographer for Hammel’s Department Store and remained there for years. The Mobile Press Register published a feature article about him on June 22, 2008. You can also view some of his photos on the newspaper's website. His camera’s were donated to the University of South Alabama.

Gladys is not one of N.B. "Bonie" Pierce's children, but is obviously related to his family because this photo was in their collection.

A Lesson in Searching a Photo for Clues as to its Date

The above photo of the Poore family provides a lesson in how to find clues in a photo as to its date.

First the identifications. From left on the front row, Clarice Poore (1932-2013), Ezra A. Poore (1882-1963) and Billy R. Poore (1930-1966). Back row from left, Niola Geiger Poore (1889-1983), Bernice Poore (1912-1974), Ralph E. Poore (1918-1976) and Dick A. Poore (1922-1988).

Not pictured is Ezra's and Niola's oldest daughter Selma Poore (1910-2003). In 1931, she had married Richmond Chet Hosey and during World War II they lived in Mobile.

Now for the date clues. The first clue is the corporal stripes on Ralph's shirt sleeve. According to his military records, Ralph was promoted to corporal on April 3, 1942. So the photo had to have been taken after that date.

The second clue comes from the fact that Dick isn't wearing a uniform. According to his military records, Dick was inducted in to the Army on Oct. 19 and entered active service at Camp Shelby on Nov. 2.

So this photo had to have been taken between April 3 and Nov. 2 in 1942. Given the short-sleeve, light clothing on the children and the leaves on the tree in the background, the photo was probably taken in late spring or early summer. Since there were no written clues, that is pretty close dating just from the checking the contents of the photo against known facts.

According to the 1940 census, the Poore family was living on Bush Dairy Road in Jones County, Mississippi. Ezra, Ralph and Dick had all worked at Bush Dairy. So the probable location of the photo is at the Poore house on Bush Dairy Road.

Have you searched your undated photos for possible clues as to when they were taken?

Did your ancestor belong to a fraternal group?

This is the most interesting image among the Pierce photos I own. For many years it was a puzzle to me. For some time the only thing I was fairly certain about was that the man on right was my grandfather Napoleon Bonaparte "Bonie" Pierce (1880-1964). I believe the other two men are Bonie's older brothers, Cornelius "Neal" Pierce (b. 1874) on the left and Charles Pierce (b. 1876) in the center.

What I couldn't figure out was what kind of uniform Bonie was wearing and why. At first I thought it was a military uniform. The coat has a dark stripe down center and the trousers have a light stripe down the pants legs. The military-style cap also has a light stripe piping. But there was no record that Bonie ever served in any military unit.

Then I thought Bonie might be wearing a police uniform. But the small farming community of Wilmer was not an incorporated town and had no police force.

To try to place the time of the photo I researched the photo itself, which is a tintype. A tintype is a photo made on a sheet of metal, which is not tin. This one is badly damaged from rust. The above image has been digitally restored.

Tintypes were popular for a long time, from about 1856 to around 1938, but they were especially popular in the 1890s. Bonie is probably around 20 making the date of the photo about 1900 or sometime after.

One thing to keep in mind is that tintype images come out laterally reversed (as you see yourself in a mirror).

I got the clue I needed to identify this picture while going through the Pierce family Bible. I had looked through the Bible before but this time I decided to go through it page by page. Tucked between two of the pages of the large Bible I found a receipt I hadn't seen before.

The Woodmen Circle receipt was written to Julia Pierce on June 1, 1922, for assessment number 5 of $1.02 and Grove dues of 10 cents. Julia paid the money to Post Oak Grove number 95. Olivia Lang, clerk, signed the receipt.

I could hardly believe what a great family history fact I had found. My grandmother was a member of the women's auxiliary Woodmen Circle and my grandfather was a member of the fraternal order Woodmen of the World and its drill team!

Woodmen drill team uniforms came in hundreds of styles. Each jurisdiction or lodge had its own style.

The one identifying mark of all uniforms is a "WOW" pin on the collar or shoulder. Sometimes the pin was simply a "WOW" other times it had crossed axes or a stump associated with it. This may be the symbol on Bonie's collar.

Drill team members were usually between the ages of 18 and 25. This would fit Bonie's age in the top photo.

The receipt from the Woodmen Circle, a women's auxiliary, to Julia shows that both she and Bonie were active in the Woodmen. The Woodmen Circle worked closely with the fraternal organization, providing insurance for women, and Woodmen members who wanted more than the $3,000 limit.

Circle members received the magazine Tidings. Many Woodmen camps and Circle groves held joint meetings. The groups met once a month. The Circle began selling insurance for children in 1922, which the Woodmen also did. The two organizations also provided programs for youth members.

Groves sponsored drill teams that competed at state and national conventions. These drill teams drew large crowds to watch their polished footwork. The teams carried off precision drills with shiny axes.

It was odd for me to think of my grandfather in a drill team, marching to and fro, and doing a manual of arms with a shiny axe, but the evidence was there.

Have you found photographic or artifact evidence that your ancestor belonged to a fraternal group? What story does the photo or artifact tell you about your ancestor?

Is this a photo of Julia Lavinia Moody?

This photo is believed to be of a young Julia Lavinia Moody (1886-1965) who married Napoleon Bonaparte "Bonie" Pierce (1880-1964) in 1902.

The backdrop appears to be the kind a traveling photographer would use. A photographer from Mobile probably spent a day or two in Wilmer, Alabama, to photograph those in the farming community who were unlikely to travel the 25 miles into the Port City.

Do you have any clues as to the date of the photo from the clothing and hair styles? Compare this photo with the others on this blog known to be of Julia (use the search feature). Could this be someone other than Julia?

How did open-range or stock laws affect your ancestors’ farming decisions?

Photo from An Overview and History of Pineywoods Cattle

Most people today associate the term “open range” with the great cattle ranches in the America west of the Mississippi River. But until the 20^th century, Mississippi and other Southern states also had an open range, and it played an important part in how farmers, including my Poore family ancestors, ran their farms.

 

The voters of each county decided if it had an open range.

Jasper County was among the state’s counties with an open range. Mississippi’s open-range law allowed animals to roam freely on unfenced land. The law required farmers to fence their crops if they wanted to protect them from any damage caused by someone else’s foraging animals.

In 1880, 41 of Mississippi’s 74 counties had open ranges like Jasper County. In the other 33 counties, the law required stockholders to keep their stock fenced. These are called stock-law counties. The stock law required the fencing of horses, mules, oxen, cattle, sheep and hogs, which were especially destructive of crops.

But in an open range county, if a row-crop farmer did not put up a fence, then he could not recover damages from the stockholder if the animals got into the farmer’s fields to munch on the crops.

Fences cost a good deal of time and money to keep up. By one estimate, out of every 10 working hours, a farmer spent one hour repairing fences. As for money, my Jasper County ancestor William B. Poore spent $12 building and repairing fences in 1879, according to the 1880 agricultural census.

In many ways Jasper County’s open range directed farmers’ choices more than the fertility of the soil. The open range amounted to weakly enforced property rights. The law allowed stockholders, whether they owned land or not, to benefit from using other people’s property freely to pasture and feed animals throughout the year. They turned the resources of the forests into farm income with hardly any cost.

Because of the costs to grow, protect and harvest a crop, the Poore family and others had little incentive to invest in improving their land. Nor did most other farmers in Jasper County. In the 1870s, 77 percent of all farmland remained unimproved.

In contrast, those who owned land and those who didn’t both had good financial reasons to keep larger herds than if they had to provide all the forage themselves.

The Poore family, too, focused more on raising livestock on the open range than on raising crops.

Did your ancestors live in an open-range county? How did that affect their farming decisions?