Effie Bowker Forbes

Found Photo: Effie Bowker Forbes of Massachusetts

Name(s): Effie Bowker
Date: Unknown.  Likely before 1896.
Location: Greenfield, Massachusetts / Bernardston, Massachusetts


The photographer is Albert E. Dunklee, who had studios in Athol and Greenfield, Massachusetts in the late 1800s and early 1900s.

Details about Effie's life can be found in "History of the town of Bernardston, Franklin county, Massachusetts. 1736-1900."  Effie Louise Bouker was born in 1869, the daughter of Charles Bowker and Harriet Dawes.  As a young woman, she was a school teacher in her hometown of Bernardston, per the town's annual report in 1890.  In 1896, she married Theodore Charles Forbes.  They settled in Greenfield, Massachusetts and had two sons, Charles Samuel Forbes and Willett Vivian Forbes.  Effie's father-in-law, Charles Pinkney Forbes, was a jeweler and silversmith in Greenfield.  It appears that Effie and her husband Theodore took over his business at a certain point.

Effie's father, Charles, was a medical doctor in Bernardston.  He served as an assistant surgeon  for the Union Army during the Civil War.  Effie had five siblings and half-siblings: Delcet, Alphonzo, Samuel, Arthur and Rose.

Effie died in 1962 at the age of 93.  She is buried in Greenfield, Massachusetts.

Helen Goddard

Found Photo: Helen Goddard of Phillipston, Massachusetts

Name(s): Helen Goddard
Date: unknown
Location: Phillipston, Massachusetts

The photographer is Albert E. Dunklee, who had a studio in Athol, Massachusetts in the late 1800s and early 1900s.  

The child shown in this photo may be the Helen Goddard who was born March 23, 1899 in Phillipston, very near Athol.  She was the daughter of William C. Goddard and Lestina Moody. Helen had five younger siblings: Howard, Dorothy & Donald (twins), John and Rosalyn.  Her name was sometimes spelled Hellen Lestina Goddard in official records.  Helen married Emery Hamlin and moved to New York, where she had two sons.  She died in 1986. 

Arthur F. Wells and Anna Leeds Wells

Found Photo: Arthur F. Wells and Anna Leeds Wells

Name(s): Arthur F. Wells "Father Wells" and Mrs. Arthur F. Wells
Date: unknown
Location: Greenfield, Massachusetts

Benjamin F. Popkins was a studio photographer who worked in Greenfield in the 1860s through the 1890s.  His shop was at the corner of Main and Federal streets in Greenfield.

There was an Arthur F. Wells living in Greenfield in the late 1800s and early 1900s.  There was possibly another living in nearby Deerfield.  However, the key to identifying the people in these photos is the word Bernardston, found on Mrs. Wells' photo.  

This Arthur F. Wells was a deacon in the congregational church in Bernardston, Massachusetts, which is about a 15-minute drive north of Greenfield on today's highways.  He was born around 1836.  He died on March 10, 1918 at the age of 82.  His wife was Anna Leeds.  They had no biological children. Deacon Wells' obituary, posted in the "The Congregationalist and Advance" on April 25, 1918, stated that he and his wife had two foster children, Daniel Murray of Waltham and Olivia, wife of Preston Crowell of Medway.  In addition to acting as deacon of the church, Arthur may have owned a farm in Bernardston.  He may have been the son of Elisha Wells of Leyden.

Isabella Kirkup Burnand

Found Photo: Isa Kirkup Burnand of England

Name(s): Isa Kirkup Burnand
Date: Unknown
Location: England

This photo is labeled with the following information:

Jessie's Mother
Isa Burnand (nee Kirkup)
Daughter of Isabella Eleana and Robert Kirkup

These details lead me to believe that the subject is from the Kirkup family of Sunderland, Durham, England.  Robert Kirkup was born in 1840 in Boldon, Durham, England.  He married Isabella McNeice, who was born in 1845 in Sunderland, Durham, England.  They had nine children, including a daughter named Isabella, who was born in 1874.

Isabella Kirkup married Henry Burnand in 1898 in Sunderland.  Henry was born in Durham in 1872. Together, they had a daughter named Jessie Kirkup Burnand.  She was born on April 4, 1899 in Sunderland and died in November 1985 in Sunderland.  Jessie married Peter McGinty, also of Sunderland, and they had two children.

William W. Steuson of England

Found Photo: William W. Steuson of Cheltenham, England

Name(s): William W. Steuson
Date: July 1881
Location: Cheltenham, England

This is a studio portrait of boy named William W. Steuson. William was photographed by R. Dighton at Weston Villa in Cheltenham, England. At the time of his sitting, in July 1881, William was three years and eight months old. This means he was born in December 1878.

There is also a possibility that the surname could be Stenson.

Bertha Davis of England

Found Photo: Bertha Davis, Brighton, England

Name(s): Bertha Davis
Date: July 1873
Location: Brighton, England

This is a studio portrait of an 11-year old girl named Bertha Davis.  Bertha was photographed by C. Hawkins at 32 & 38 Preston Street in Brighton, England.  This was the Brighton School of Photography.  At the time of her sitting, in July 1873, Bertha was eleven years old.  This puts her date of birth at about 1862.

Brighton is located in Sussex, on the southern coast of England.  It was a popular vacation destination for English families, and thus, Bertha Davis may have been from elsewhere in England and had her photo taken while on holiday.

C. Hawkins appears to have been a popular studio photographer in the 1870s, taking many portraits like those seen here.

George Anthony Haynes

Found Photo: George Anthony Haynes, Confederate Soldier

Name(s): Geo Anthony Haynes
Date: N/A
Description: Civil War-era photo, possibly a tintype
Location: N/A

This is a studio portrait of a Virginia Confederate volunteer named George Anthony Haynes. He enlisted at Richmond, Virginia as a private on April 21, 1861 at the age of 20.  He was promoted to 2nd Corporal on April 22, 1862, and later appointed Ordnance Sergeant on August 17, 1863. The 21st Virginia Infantry participated in General R. E. Lee's Cheat Mountain Campaign, and also participated in General T.J. "Stonewall" Jackson's Valley Campaigns. Haynes was paroled at Appomattox Court House on April 9, 1865.

In 1873, George married a woman named Emily Anderson, who was from Caroline County, Virginia. They settled in Richmond.  George Haynes died in 1904.  He is buried in Hollywood Cemetery.