Dating Three CDVs

The Images

At an antique show some years back, I found three intriguing cartes de visite in a box of loose pictures. Two are of Sarah Sacket, and the third of her daughter, Hannah Sacket Brigham. The similarity of Sarah's photos are what first caught my eye: the same woman, in the same dress, holding spectacles in the same hand, seated in the same chair, but shot at a slightly different angle.  I fished Sarah's picture out of my short-list pile (ie, everything in the box that looked vaguely 1860s) when I saw the related names and back marks.

Sarah Sacket, Windsor Ohio

Sarah Sacket

Hanna [sic] Sacket Brigham

While there's no background visible, I find it interesting that both Hannah and Sarah seem to be sitting in the same chair (note the curved arm-rest with fringe under the right arm). Sarah's position in the chair differs slightly between her two photos, with more of the armrest visible in the "Windsor" photo. In both, she hold a pair of spectacles in her right hand, her left hand in her lap. Hannah is angled further to the right, with her lower arm resting on the chair. Sarah's photographs are labelled in the same hand (I believe her own) in ink; Hannah's is written in a different hand in pencil.

The Sitters

Some genealogical sleuthing found that Hannah Ruaney Sackett was born in Ashtabula County, Ohio on October 3, 1831, the eldest child of Sarah Gladding (August 7, 1811- November 1, 1882) and Chauncey Sackett (1798-1863). The Sacketts of Ohio (1880) lists Chauncey Sackett as a joiner/carpenter and farmer, who was also an active abolitionist and allegedly participated in the Underground Railroad. The 1850 census gives Chauncey's occupation as farmer in Windsor, Ashtabula County, Ohio.  

Sarah "Sally" Gladding married Chauncey Sackett on October 23, 1828. The couple had seven children: Hannah Ruaney (October 3, 1831-March 18, 1889), Orsemus M. (1833-1882), Mary A. (1840-1915), Lucy M (1845-1922), Frederick "Fred" G. (1847-1923), Emma "Emily" F. (1849-1927), and Francis "Frank" John (1856-1922). 

Hannah married Albert Crawford Brigham (1830-1910), a farmer, on October 4, 1855. They had two children: Frederick Irwin Brigham (October 10 1856-193?) and Henry Albert Brigham (September 10 1861 - October 31, 1875). The 1870 census shows the widowed Sarah keeping house with three of her younger children (Lucy, Emily and Francis) in Windsor township; Hannah is living with her husband and two boys in Trumbull township. In the 1880 census Sarah is living in Trumbull township with her daughter Hannah, son-in-law Albert, and grandson Frederick. Both women are listed as 'keeping house', while Albert is a farmer, and Frederick a teacher. Sarah died in 1882 in Trumbull, and was buried in Windsor beside her husband. A narrative attached to Sarah's entry on Find-A-Grave suggests that she stayed in her Windsor house until 1873, then lived with Mary's family for a year (Harpersfield, OH) before moving in with Hannah in 1874. Hannah died in 1889, the same year her surviving son married. The 1900 and 1910 census show Albert living in Ashtabula with Frederick, daughter-in-law Hattie, and their children. Frederick owned a poultry farm later in life, and lived with his daughter Mamie after Hattie's death in 1926. He was still alive at the 1930 census, and probably died between 1933-1937.

The Back Marks and Inscriptions

The backs of Hanna's prints read "A. Malin // Photographer // Geneva, O." and "G. W. Malin // Photographer // Ashtabula, O." with "Geneva" written in below the crossed-out "Ashtabula". The handwritten is different from that on the other two images. The same fonts are used on each, with only the names and city different.  On Hannah's image, a different serif font with large extenders on the capitols is used for the initial line "G. W. Malin", while the second line says "Photographer" in the same Old English script (now with less space between the letters), and a new sans serif font spells out "Geneva, O." Along the bottom of all three is the notice: "Negatives preserved. Old pictures copied and enlarged and colored in Ink, Water Colors, and Oil." This text is cut off on Sarah's un-inscribed second photo, with only the top of the first line present.

Back of Hannah's photo.

Back of Sarah's second photo.

Back of Sarah's "Windsor" photo.

The handwritten note on Hannah's photo reads "Hannah Sacket Brigham wife of Bert Brigham". This is written in steady black ink, I suspect from a fountain pen. The handwriting is not the same as the pencil inscription on the front of the image. Sarah's "Windsor" photo is written on the back in the same hand as on the front, seemingly with a dip pen, and appears to be by her. It reads:

Dear Child

Whene'er this shadow you shall see

Remember this heart yearns for thee

Your Mother

The Places

Ashtabula and Geneva are two towns in Ashtabula County, Ohio, situated about ten miles apart on the shore of Lake Erie; Geneva is just under 50 miles from Cleveland. Ashtabula seems to have been the larger town in the 1860s. Harpersfield Township (home of Mary Sacket Gray and family) borders Geneva to the south, with the Brigham's Trumbull Township immediately south of Harpersfield. Windsor is the second township south of Trumbull. The center of Windsor Township lies 20 miles from Geneva.

The Photographers

The different back marks and their alterations suggest that two persons surnamed Malin were in the photography business in coastal Ohio at this time, with G.W. moving from Ashtabula to Geneva, possibly to join or succeed to A. Malin's business there. By the photograph backs, the Malin studio moved from Ashtabula to Geneva around the time Sarah Sacket had her picture taken--considering that she's in the same dress, and sitting in a similar pose in the same chair in each, it's not a reach to suppose that both prints are different "takes" from the same sitting. The crossed out "Ashtabula" backmark suggests that the photographer was using up some old pre-printed stock, and that Sarah's image was made in Geneva shortly after G.W. Malin started working in that town.

I've not been able to find anything about "A. Malin", and when he or she entered the photography business. Langdon's List of 19th and Early 20th Century Photographers names G. W. Malin as a photographer active in Geneva, OH in the 1860s, who offered CDVs as well as copying/enlarging/coloring older pictures. The only contemporary reference I've found to the Malin photographers is from 1867, in the Ashtabula Weekly Telegraph. It reports that G.W. Malin has recently set up shop in Ashtabula, in the rooms of the former firm Howey & Blaksley: 

G.W. Malin announces new photography studio in
Ashtabula, Ohio. October 12, 1867.

Even if G.W. quit Ashtabula for Geneva very soon after opening the studio there, he or she can hardly have opened the Geneva studio much before 1868.

The Medium

These are American-made cartes de visite, and so date no earlier than 1859. CDVs were very popular in the 1860s, but were superseded by other formats during the 1870s and 1880s. There are no tax stamps on these ones, so (if the law was followed), these photographs cannot have been made between June 30, 1864 and August 1, 1866. Assuming G.W. Malin wasn't regularly bouncing between Ashtabula and Geneva, the pictures were probably taken no sooner than 1868. More information about the Malin photographers' careers would allow more precise dating of the images.

The Clothes

Both dresses have dropped arm scythes, small standing white collars, moderately narrow coat sleeves, and skirts that appear to be pleated all the way around. Hannah's dress is a solid color (possibly a wool from the way it falls), with 12 buttons down the center front, narrow trim across the bust and shoulders, and along the sleeve edge; she wears closed white undersleeves, and a brooch at her neck.  Sarah's dress is made of a small check material, with three bands of flat trim making making chevrons at the wrists and shoulders of the sleeves and nine buttons down the center front; the skirt has a prominent box pleat just off the center front with knife pleats to either side (possibly a re-made dress?). She wears striped bow at the center of her white collar, with no cuffs or undersleeves visible. Both women have their hair smoothed close to the side of the head at front, covering the tops of the ears and massed behind the head. 

The women's dress and hair details suggest the mid to late 1860s. If earlier than 1862/3, I'd expect larger sleeves, wider collars, and more voluminous side-hair; getting past 1870, I'd expect flatter skirts, higher waistlines and eventually taller hairstyles. 

The Dates

The "Windsor, Ohio" written on one of Sarah's pictures suggests it was taken before the spring of 1873 when she left the house in Windsor. The inscription may indicate that Sarah's picture was meant for one of her children who moving or travelling. Hannah and Mary are both settled nearby by the mid-1860s (Hannah married in 1855, Mary in 1865). Census records show Lucy living in Windsor or Trumbull Township through 1880 (she married Leroy Simmons in 1878); Emma married Henry J. Knapp in 1872; the 1870-1920 censuses show her living in Windsor or Geneva. Orsemus married Harriet Zielie in 1855; they were living in Ashtabula in 1860, but had permanently relocated to Pennsylvania by 1870. Frederick left for California in 1869, and in 1871 was working as a wheelwright in San Francisco; Fred returned east in 1876 and married Ida Hess in 1877. Francis, who seems to have used both "Frank" and "John", was still living with his mother and sisters in 1870; he married Maud Achor in Chicago in 1905, and also later lived in Cleveland and Cincinnati. 

Taken all together, Sarah's images cannot have been taken earlier than 1868 or later than the spring of 1873. Hannah's was possibly taken at the same time; at the very least, hers was taken in the same town, by a related photographer, and appears to use the same chair. If the images were made when one of Sarah's children left home, the most likely associated events are:

• Orsemus and his family moving to Pennsylvania, 1868 (accepted into Erie Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church, served at Putneyville, Summerville, Clarion, Callensburg, Salem, Shippenville)
• Frederick moving to California, 1869
• Emma's wedding, 1872
• Taken after Orsemus and/or Frederick left Ohio, the photo to be mailed

As Emma remained close to home, I think the most likely scenario is that these pictures were taken c.1868-1869, with at least one of Sarah's prints intended for either Orsemus or Frederick to take with him out of state. 

Bonus Math

Because this is the sort of incidental thing I notice when trawling census data, let's look at the ages at which these family members married.

Year	Bride's Age	Groom's Age
1828 (Sarah and Chauncey)	17	30
1855 (Hannah)	24	25
1855 (Orsemus)	24	22
1865 (Mary)	25	26
1872 (Emma)	23	26
1877 (Fred)	22	33
1879 (Lucy)	33	41*
1905 (Frank)	34	49

*Leroy Simmons (Lucy's husband) married his first wife, Eugenia Town, in 1861; he was 24, she was 18. Eugenia died of consumption in 1878, leaving one surviving child.

The youngest that any of Sarah and Chauncey's children married was age 22 and the oldest 49. The daughters averaged 26.3 years (24 years if excluding Lucy); the sons averaged 34.6. Including their spouses, the average age for a first-time bride was 26.4 years; for a groom 29.3 years (26.1 excluding Frank).