1901 Photograph of Maude Gerring Ballou of 56 Fairview Street, Winthrop, Massachusetts

1901 photograph of a teenage girl identified on the reverse as Maude Ballou of 56 Fairview Street, Winthrop, Massachusetts.

The photograph was taken at the Lundahl studio at 58 Winter Street, Boston, Massachusetts.  The identification does not give Maude's exact street address in Winthrop, but several of her school records do.

From brief online research, hopefully correct - corrections and additions requested:

Maude Gerring Ballou was born December 18, 1886 at Boston, Massachusetts, the daughter of bookkeeper John Sanford Ballou and Martha Parsons (Gerring) Ballou.

Martha Parsons (Gerring) Ballou was the daughter of George Gerring and Abbie Amanda (Crouse) Gerring Steward, whose photograph is featured in another post.

Maude attended the State Normal School at Bridgewater, Massachusetts in 1907 and 1908.  She sang First Alto with the Glee Club.  By 1909 she was teaching or student teaching at the Fairlawn School at Lincoln, Rhode Island.

Apparently Maude stayed in Rhode Island, as she appears on the 1925 Rhode Island Census and the 1930 and 1940 Federal Censuses as a resident of Providence.  I didn't find a marriage record for her or a death record until her maiden name.

Maude was involved in animal welfare in Rhode Island.  At the very beginning of her teaching career, she served with the "Helpers of the Helpless" at Fairlawn School, as noted in Animals, Volumes 41-42, published by the Massachusetts Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, published in 1908.

If you have corrections and/or additions to the information above, please leave a comment or contact me directly.

1896 Photograph of Abbie Amanda (Crouse) Gerring Steward of Massachusetts

Small photograph dated March 1896 of a woman identified on the reverse as Abbie Amanda (Crouse) Gerring Steward.  The photograph was taken at the Imperial Photo Studio at 22 Tremont Street, Boston, Massachusetts.

From brief online research, hopefully correct - corrections and additions requested:

Abbie Amanda Crouse was born about 1842 in Nova Scotia , the daughter of Jacob Crouse and Abbie (Bangs) Crouse.   Abbie (Bangs) Crouse was born at Plymouth, Massachusetts; I'm not sure where Jacob was born, but possibly at Crousetown, Nova Scotia.  Perhaps Abbie Amanda Crouse was also born at Crousetown or near there.

On April 2, 1862 at Boxford, Massachusetts, Abbie married fisherman George Gerring III, son of George Gerring and Elizabeth H. (Marston) Gerring.  Abbie and George III had, I think, two children, one of whom was Martha Parsons Gerring, who married John Sanford Ballou - the 1901 photograph of their daughter Maude Gerring Ballou is featured in another post.

I'm not sure if George III died - fishing was and is a dangerous profession - or they divorced, but Abbie married Joseph McLellan Steward at Boston, Massachusetts, on December 25, 1867.  Joseph was born August 11, 1842 at Boston, Massachusetts, the son of Charles Steward and Lucy (Albee) Steward, who were born in Nova Scotia and at Edgecomb, Maine, respectively.  Joseph was also involved in the fishing industry, but ashore.

Abbie and Joseph had, I believe, six children.   Abbie Amanda (Crouse) Gerring Steward died December 27, 1906 at Winthrop, Massachusetts; Joseph died in 1920.  They're buried in the Winthrop Cemetery at Winthrop, Massachusetts.

If you have corrections and/or additions to the information above, please leave a comment or contact me directly.

Photograph, perhaps a School Photograph, of young Ethel Yvonne Grant, possibly of Connecticut

Small photograph, perhaps a photograph taken at school, of a girl identified on the reverse as Ethel Yvonne Grant.

She may have been the Ethel Yvonne Grant born in Connecticut in 1895, daughter of William D. and Jennie Lois (Simons) Grant.  That Ethel would marry mechanic William Lester Martin, born in 1901, the son of Frank W. Martin and Marcia J. (Hunt) Martin.   I believe Ethel and William had at least one child.  William died in 1965.  Ethel and William and other family members are buried in the New Willimantic Cemetery at Willimantic, Connecticut.

If you recognize this girl from your family photographs and can confirm that she is the Ethel Yvonne Grant of Willimantic, Connecticut, or another Ethel, please leave a comment for the benefit of other researchers.

Cabinet Photograph of Heaton Binns (1867-1945) of Lowell, Massachusetts & Palmer, Massachusetts

Cabinet photograph of a young man identified on the reverse as H. Binns of Lowell, Massachusetts - assuming I'm reading the surname correctly.   The photograph was taken by the Woodhead studio of Palmer,  Massachusetts.

A reader has left an interesting comment that Heaton's sister Bertha married the photographer Byram Woodhead in 1903.

Since I found a Heaton Binns who once lived at Lowell, Massachusetts and later moved to Palmer, Massachusetts, I'm assuming the man in the photograph is Heaton Binns.

From brief online research, hopefully correct - corrections and additions requested:

Heaton Binns was born March 17, 1867 at Tariffville in the town of Simsbury, Connecticut, the son of Henry Binns and Lois (Dunford) Binns, who had immigrated to New England from England.   Heaton graduated from Lowell Technical Institute at Lowell, Massachusetts, in 1899 and worked in the textile industry at Lowell, Massachusetts and in New York and Pennsylvania.

From Textile World magazine, Volume 32, published in 1907, comes the excerpt below, which notes that Heaton had moved to the Shuttleworth Bros. Carpet Company at Amsterdam, New York:

On April 15, 1914 at Lowell, Massachusetts, Heaton married Gertrude Simms, daughter of Dr. William Cawley Simms and Juliana Smith (Hayward) Simms of Newfoundland.  Gertrude was born at St. Johns, Newfoundland, on July 29, 1877.   At the time of their marriage, Heaton was living at Amsterdam, New York, and working as the foreman in a carpet warehouse; Gertrude was a nurse, boarding at Lowell, Massachusetts.

Gertrude's father had died in 1888, which presumably left the family in reduced circumstances.  Gertrude may have been part of the wave of women from Atlantic Canada who moved to Massachusetts for work, as portrayed in the book Obligation and Opportunity: Single Maritime Women in Boston 1870-1930, written by Betsey Beattie and published by McGill-Queen's University Press in 2000.  The link offers a free download.

Heaton and Gertrude had, I believe, two children, a son and a daughter, born during the period when Heaton worked at a textile mill in Pennsylvania.   It appears that Heaton spent the latter part of his career at a mill at Worcester, Massachusetts.  He died at Palmer, Massachusetts, in 1945; Gertrude died at Waterbury, Connecticut, in 1965.

If you have corrections and/or additions to the information above, please leave a comment or contact me directly.

Cabinet Photograph of George F. McKay of Brewer, Maine; Photo by the Weston Studio of Bangor, Maine

Cabinet photograph of a young man identified on the reverse as George F. McKay, son of George W. McKay.  The photograph was taken at the Weston studio, 2 Smith Block, Bangor, Maine.

From brief online research, hopefully correct - corrections and additions requested:

George Fellows McKay was born February 18, 1873, the son of George W. McKay and Amelia E. (Nash) McKay.  On June 18, 1899, George Fellows McKay married Lillian May Peasley, daughter of Charles Alfred Peasley.  I can't read Lillian's mother's name from the marriage record.

Lillian was born about 1881 at St. Paul, Minnesota, where her father, a native of Woodstock, New Brunswick, had apparently moved his family as a result of his work on the railroad.

George Fellows McKay worked as a barber with his father and then as a typewriter salesman.  He died in 1929 and is buried with his parents in Oak Hill Cemetery at Brewer, Maine.  Lillian married widower Eugene B. Gordon in 1930.

If you have corrections and/or additions to the information above, please leave a comment or contact me directly.

CDV of Mrs. Quimby of Bangor, Maine; by a Belfast, Maine Studio - Possibly Annie (Brown) Quimby

Carte de Visite of a woman identified on the reverse as Mrs. Quimby of Bangor, presumably Bangor, Maine.  The photograph was taken by the studio of W. C. Tuttle of Belfast, Maine.

For some reason, someone crossed out the studio imprint, as you can see below.  Perhaps Tuttle had a Bangor location.

From brief online research, hopefully correct - corrections and additions requested:

Some of the possibilities:

• Annie (Brown) Quimby, wife - or by then the widow - of Dexter B. Quimby.  If so, the CDV must have been produced shortly before her death in 1881.  Annie Brown was born about 1834, possibly at Harmony, Maine.  I haven't found her parents, and I don't know if Brown was her maiden surname. She married Dexter B. Quimby on August 15, 1857 at Bangor, Maine.  Annie and Dexter had several children, before Dexter died in 1870.  Annie married John Cram in 1875; he may be the John C. Cram who died in 1880 and is buried at Mount Hope Cemetery at Bangor, Maine.  Also buried at Mount Hope Cemetery are Annie T. (Brown) Cram, who died in 1881; her first husband Dexter B. Quimby and other family members. 
• Mary E. (Perry) Quimby, born about 1836, wife of Andrew E. Quimby, son of James and Abbie (Furbush or variant) Quimby and a brother of Dexter B. Quimby.  Mary was born about 1836, possibly the daughter of John H. Perry of Bangor, Maine, and died in 1889.
• Delia W. (Gilbert) Quimby, wife of Elijah D. Quimby, a farmer at Bangor, Maine.  Delia died in 1892 and is buried at Maple Grove Cemetery at Bangor, Maine, as are Elijah and three of their children, who died young.
• Helen M. (Gilman) Quimby, wife of Edwin Somerfield Quinby or Quimby.  Helen was Helen Maria Gilman, born in 1829, daughter of Stephen and Lydia Osborn (Kendrick) Gilman.
• Margaret Quimby, born in New York about 1839 but living at Bangor, Maine in 1880
• Emma A. (Dillingham) Quimby, wife of Herbert Quimby and presumably the daughter of Frederick Dillingham.  Emma was born about December 1843.
• and more!

If you recognize Mrs. Quimby from your family photographs or research, please leave a comment or contact me directly.

Photograph of Jean Agnes Simpson at age 5, by the Studio of John M. Flint of London, England

Photograph of a girl identified as the reverse as Jean Agnes Simpson at the age of 5 years.  The photograph was taken by the studio of John M. Flint of 331 Stanstead Road, Catford, S.E., London, England.

Not much comes up online when searching "Jean Agnes Simpson" in quotes.  There's a Jean Agnes Simpson buried in the Rookwood Catholic Cemetery at Rookwood, New South Wales, Australia, who died in 1992 at the age of 76.  Her stone mentions "Sister & Sister-in-Law of Doug & May".

If you have a theory as to the identity of Jean Agnes Simpson, please leave a comment or contact me directly.