Sunday, October 16, 2016

c1900 Cabinet Photograph and Photo Album of the Charles Abbott Davis family of Dover, Maine; Bangor, Maine; and Winterport, Maine


c1900 Cabinet photograph and a small photograph album that I believe belonged to the Charles Abbot Davis family of Dover, Maine; Bangor, Maine; and Winterport, Maine.

The reverse of the photograph above contains several clues:
  • The photograph was taken at Dover, Maine.
  • The woman pictured is Beatrice's mother.
  • The family moved to Bangor, Maine where Beatrice' father had a music company.

Based on the clues, I believe that:
  • Mother was Mary Louise (Snow) Davis, "Louise", who was born about November 1875, possibly at Winterport, Maine, the daughter of Moses A. Snow and Martha A. (Ritchie) Snow
  • Father was Charles Abbott Davis, born February 12, 1873 at Winterport, Maine, son of Charles Henry Davis and Emma (Tainter) Davis.  The 1920 Census of Bangor notes that Charles sold pianos.
  • Beatrice, one of the children of Mary Louise (Snow) Davis and Charles Abbott Davis, was Beatrice Snow Davis, born October 29, 1900 at Belfast, Maine.  I think Beatrice married twice: 1) Percy Wilmer Howard - they would divorce; 2)  Joseph Simeon Eldridge.   Hopefully a reader will provide clarification.
The record of the Marriage of Charles Abbott Davis and Mary Louise Snow is confusing, until it becomes apparent that the front does not match the back.  This is the case on both Ancestry.com and FamilySearch.org, so it was apparently a mistake made at the time of the original scanning.

Charles Abbot Davis and Mary Louise (Snow) Davis are buried in the Oak Hill Cemetery at Winterport, Maine.

The photograph album measures approximately 7" by 5-1/2";  most pages are filled, the majority with one photograph and two pages with two each.  The photographs show:
  • a farmhouse, perhaps the exterior of the Dover, Maine, home shown in the cabinet photograph
  • family members - adults and children
  • an agreeable pony
  • the family dog
  • a trip to the ocean, possibly at Bar Harbor, Maine.



















2 comments:

  1. I've been waiting for a puzzle you haven't solved already.

    First off, the French message is
    "This card here is my friend Jean Baptiste Leclerc is my best friend"

    There must be some punctuation but I can't see it.

    Then I noticed the odd decorations that make up the stamp box and started Googling. The distinguishing mark is the AZO Logo with the circles in each corner. AZO cards can be dated by whether they have squares, triangles, diamonds, etc., in the corner etc. Only a few evidently had circles.

    At http://www.playle.com/realphoto/photoa.php, it says this about AZO postcards:

    AZO (British/Canadian)
    Circles in corners
    1908-1911 known

    At http://histclo.com/photo/pc/type/per/pct-perc.html it says pretty much the same,
    AZO* 1908-11K
    Circles in corners

    This site has a specific example of this type of card at http://histclo.com/country/can/fam/1910/cf-nbrud01.html

    The text on that page says:

    "This is an AZO postcard. That means the company who manufactured the postcard paper. Because of differences in the design of the back of the cards, it is often possible to date these cards--especially the stamp boxes. . . The AZO stamp boxes with circles at the corners are known to date from 1908-11. This was a mark used in Britain and Canada. These are the known dates, the actual year span could be wider. Thus we can safely say that this photograph was taken about 1910."

    The image being referred to is protected by a password, but the page says it was taken in New Brunswick.


    Searching at http://automatedgenealogy.com/census for the 1901 Census of Canada, looking for Soundex matches for Leclerc and a given name of Jean, a male, gets this:

    Leclair Jean B 35 QU LAPRAIRIE & NAPIERVILLE Saint-Michel-Archange j-1 3 43
    Leclair Jean B. 27 ON CORNWALL & STORMONT Cornwall (Township/Canton) b-1 14 11
    Leclerc Jean B. 4 QU RIMOUSKI Saint-Fabien r-2 7 33
    Leclaire Jean Baptice 3 QU QUÉBEC (City/Cité) (East/Est) Quebec (City/Cité) (East/Est) Saint-Sauveur (Ward/Quartier) c-1 17 12
    Leclerc Jean Baptiste 37 MB PROVENCHER St. Boniface (Town/Ville) i-2 6 27
    Leclerc Jean Baptiste 2 mois QU LOTBINIÈRE Sainte-Emilie i 9 7
    Leclerc Jean Baptiste 67 QU RICHELIEU Sorel (City/Cité) k-1 8 14
    Leclerc Jean Baptiste 34 QU RICHELIEU Sorel (City/Cité) k-1 8 16
    Leclerc Jean Batiste 19 QU LÉVIS Lévis (City/Cité) c-11 3 43
    Leclerc Jean Bte 17 QU MAISONNEUVE Maisonneuve (Town/Ville) c-6 12 16
    Leclerc Jean Bte. 72 QU DORCHESTER Saint-Édouard-de-Frampton e-2 9 32
    Leclaire Jean Bte. 9 QU JACQUES-CARTIER Lachine (Town/Ville) d-5 8 50
    Leclaire Jean Bte. 30 QU MONTRÉAL (City/Cité)/176 Montréal (City/Cité) Saint-Jacques (Ward/Quartier) b-54 6 36

    How old is the man in the photo, which was taken in 1908-1911? I can't tell. At least 16 and not more than 50 maybe?
    So maybe we are down to these men, ages as of 1901, 6 in Quebec 1 in Ontario, 1 in Manitoba:

    Leclair Jean B 35 QU LAPRAIRIE & NAPIERVILLE Saint-Michel-Archange j-1 3 43
    Leclair Jean B. 27 ON CORNWALL & STORMONT Cornwall (Township/Canton) b-1 14 11
    Leclerc Jean Baptiste 34 QU RICHELIEU Sorel (City/Cité) k-1 8 16
    Leclerc Jean Batiste 19 QU LÉVIS Lévis (City/Cité) c-11 3 43
    Leclerc Jean Bte 17 QU MAISONNEUVE Maisonneuve (Town/Ville) c-6 12 16
    Leclaire Jean Bte. 9 QU JACQUES-CARTIER Lachine (Town/Ville) d-5 8 50
    Leclaire Jean Bte. 30 QU MONTRÉAL (City/Cité)/176 Montréal (City/Cité) Saint-Jacques (Ward/Quartier) b-54 6 36
    Leclerc Jean Baptiste 37 MB PROVENCHER St. Boniface (Town/Ville) i-2 6 27

    We might eliminate the man in a Ward of Montréal also because of the horses, cart, and scenery.

    Can we eliminate the one result from Manitoba (MB) as being too far from Maine to have a best friend there?

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  2. I should add:
    There were more men listed as J Leclerc or Jean Leclerc. The ones I listed in the last comment were only the ones named Jean B or Jean Baptiste.

    And this is the breakdown by province for the surname Leclerc and soundex matches:

    BC (2) MB (29) NB (12) ON (55) PE (50) QU (2905) Territories (42)

    ReplyDelete