Welcome to my Personal Photograph Collection.
Richard Alan Wood
These original photographs are NOT for sale.


Do you need 'one time use' of Alaska historical photographs for your research or publication?
For a fee I will provide access (like a stock photo agency) to the images in my extensive private collection, which is particularly strong in Alaska photographs from the 1870's through the 1880's.
Many of these important images have been acquired over a lifetime of intensive collecting, and can be found nowhere else.
The fee depends on what you need the image for or the nature of the publication.

As time permits I will add the titles of images in my collection. I have especially strong holdings of Brodeck, Ingersoll, Partridge, Davidson, McIntyre, Broadbent, Continent Stereoscopic, etc.

Daguerreotypes
We have been a member of the Daguerreian Society for 27 years.


Sixth plate Daguerreotype portrait (2 3/4 by 3 1/4 inches) of Uri S. Gilbert, of Troy, N. Y. At the age of fifteen (about 1824) he came to Troy and was apprenticed to the trade of carriage making with Orsamus Eaton, and in 1830 they became partners, "Eaton & Gilbert". They built mail stagecoaches for use in the south, out west, and in Mexico. They also built
carriages and railroad parlor cars. Uri Gilbert was later mayor of Troy.

Two Daguerreotype portraits of William H. Seward. A 6th plate, and a quarter plate (one of the earliest, possibly the earliest, known photographs of Seward, and maybe the only one of him wearing a chinstrap beard). The quarter plate is by the early Daguerreian artist (and case and plate maker) Edward White. Seward House Museum in Auburn, N.Y., has a daguerreotype that they claim is the earliest known photograph of William H. Seward. I believe that this daguerreotype is actually of his younger brother George Washington Seward, as the image is of a young man who looks much younger than Seward was in 1840 when the first commercial daguerreotype portraits were taken. Seward was born in 1801 and would have been about 40 years old when this portrait, circa 1841, owned by the Seward House, was taken. His brother, George Washington Seward, was 8 years his junior. Further research is needed on that image.
 
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Sixth plate Daguerreotype portrait (2 3/4 by 3 1/4 inches) of Benjamin Cheever Howard wearing his top hat. Howard, from Salem, Mass., was clerk and later first mate on his uncle Benjamin Howard's clipper ships (Witchcraft; Golden Fleece; Rising Son, Benjamin Howard) to China, then to San Francisco in 1849. He became an important San Francisco businessman owning docks and warehouses, and died at the young age of 39. His father was a sail maker. What makes this fine Daguerreotype even more important is the fact that 25 of his very interesting letters, many written on the clipper ships and mailed from ports around the world, survive. One letter was written, while sitting on his sea chest, during the famous race between the Witchcraft and the Game Cock, in which both clippers were dis-masted, and Howard tells us why his ship, the Witchcraft, dis-masted. Witchcraft won the race. This Daguerreotype is a fabulous survivor from the clipper ship age.
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Sixth plate Daguerreotype portrait (2 3/4 by 3 1/4 inches) of Nicholas T. Jones, born 28 Aug 1833, Nova Scotia, Canada; died 17 Mar 1874, in the Sea of Japan, when the steamship Manchu foundered.  After being tossed around in a swamped lifeboat for many hours, he gave up, as others did, and jumped overboard and was not seen again. He had earlier refused the offer to captain the ship and was serving as first mate at the time of the ship sinking and his drowning. He wears an anchor pin in his tie in this Daguerreotype.
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Sixth plate Daguerreotype portrait (2 3/4 by 3 1/4 inches) of Isaac Baldwin, Jr of Hillsborough, New Hampshire (born 1771). He was 4 yrs and 4 months old when his father “Captain Isaac Baldwin, Sr., was killed at Breed's Hill (the Battle of Bunker Hill) in 1775. Less than 4 weeks later his mother gave birth to his brother Robert.
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Sixth plate Daguerreotype portrait (2 3/4 by 3 1/4 inches) of George Belcher Gaston, and his wife Maria Cummings Gaston, who went west as a missionary (and later as a government farmer) to the Pawnee Indians, in 1840. This Daguerreotype of the couple was taken in 1848.

Quarter plate Daguerreotype portrait of gunmaker Zebulon Sheetz (1793-1868). Zebulon Sheetz was from the famous Sheetz gunsmithing family. Zebulon Sheetz was born near Shepherdstown, Va., one of 10 children. He became a gunsmith and a farmer. He lived in Bethel Valley near Cold Stream Post Office, Va. (now West Virginia), made flintlock rifles for the Virginia Militia and served as a Lieutenant in the War of 1812. By 1834 Zebulon Sheetz moved to the Indiana frontier near the Tippecanoe River. His grandfather, Johan Friderich Schütz, came to Philadelphia in 1732. At least 3 of Schütz's sons, Philip, Henry and Adam, were gunsmiths. Henry, who made rifles for George Washington's army, was the father of gunmaker Zebulon Sheetz, the subject of the Daguerreotype.

Sixth plate Daguerreotype portrait (2 3/4 by 3 1/4 inches) of pioneering railroad engineer Mahlon Huff Mercer (a.k.a. Mahlon H. Mercer, or Mahlon Mercer) with his friend Benjamin Ravenson. This Daguerreotype was taken circa 1850-1855. Mahlon Huff Mercer was an early railroad engineer from the Lancaster Pennsylvania area. He was born in 1810. He helped build the Columbia and Philadelphia Railroad as a road engineer, and upon its completion was one of its locomotive engineers in 1839. He was one of the first to build a cab onto his engine, a controversial move as engineers feared being trapped in the cab during an emergency, such as a derailment, fire, or explosion. And he was the first to put a light on the front of his engine for night running. He designed a light using mirrors and candles ("small mirrors set at different angles to concentrate the light of candles") that illuminated the tracks ahead for about 50 yards (this was before the days of coal oil or gas). An important Daguerreotype for early American railway history.

Sixth plate Daguerreotype portrait (2 3/4 by 3 1/4 inches) of Job Taylor of East Hamburg, N.Y. (now called Orchard Park). Job Taylor held a number of patents in the fruit canning business. Daguerreotype, described as "youngest picture before marriage" by McDonell & Co. Artists, Buffalo, N.Y.


A collection of Daguerreotype and ambrotype portraits of the Wright & Christenson families of California. John Wright was born Oct. 19, 1822 in Weakley County, Tennessee. He died Jan. 18, 1888 in San Francisco. John Wright established a foundry that made iron tools (pick axes) in Sacramento in 1850, for the California gold rush. He married Amelia Alzara Manville on Oct. 31, 1855 in Sacramento. Amelia was the daughter of Isaac Manville and Mary Smith.


Sixth plate Daguerreotype portrait (2 3/4 by 3 1/4 inches) of  Charles Fisher Lincoln of North Sherburne, Vermont, where he was the postmaster in 1855. The Daguerreotype was taken Feb 20, 1855 while he was postmaster. He later moved to Woodstock Vermont and became a farmer. He and his wife Eliza Arabel Avery Lincoln had 8 children.		 1855 postage stamp


Sixth plate Daguerreotype portraits of Edwin Hillyer (1825-1908), his father Daniel Hillyer (1786-1866), and Henry L. Palmer Hillyer (1854-1946), Edwin's son. Edwin Hillyer went to the California Gold Rush in 1849. The Daguerreotype of Edwin Hillyer, as a young man, was probably taken in Waupun as he was leaving for the Gold Rush, or maybe in Ohio when he left his wife with her parents, then went on to California. At any rate, they would have wanted a Daguerreotype of him in case they never saw him again.

See the paper "From Waupun to Sacramento in 1849: the gold rush journal of Edwin Hillyer", Wisconsin History, Volume 49. A brief narrative of the history of the California Gold Rush of 1849 and its impact on profit seekers introduces the journal of Edwin Hillyer (1825-1908), a storekeeper from Waupun, Wisconsin. His journal begins at the outset of his journey west in 1849, and details at some length the difficulties of frontier travel, tenuous relations with Native Americans (one man was killed in an Indian attack) and his traveling companions, and his work experience throughout the journey to California. He was made Colonel of his wagon train. The journal ends once Hillyer reaches Sacramento, but the article offers a brief biography of Hillyer after his return to Wisconsin in 1851 until his death in 1908.

Edwin Hillyer served in the civil war. He was a captain in Company K, 10th Wisconsin Volunteers, from October 1861 - April 1862.

Sixth plate Daguerreotype portrait of then 26 year old O. W. Pollock (Otis Wheeler Pollock) of Erie Pennsylvania. This Daguerreotype of Pollock was taken in 1859. Otis W. Pollock was born at Erie, Pa., August 7, 1833. He studied surveying and civil engineering, and at age 18 he was employed in the construction of the Lake Shore Railroad between Erie and the Ohio State line, and before he was twenty years of age he was an assistant engineer on the Ohio and Mississippi Railroad, and in charge of a subdivision of the construction. Subsequently he was engaged upon the preliminary surveys of the Minneapolis and Cedar Valley Railroad in Minnesota. In the spring of 1861, while engaged in surveying on the little Kanawha river, in what is now West Virginia, the Civil War broke out, and he at once entered the service. By that fall he was made a Lieutenant in the Sixty-third Ohio Infantry. Pollock was made Regimental Adjutant. Captain Pollock was transferred to the staff of General Veatch. Pollock took part in the battles of Janesborough, Resaca, New Hope Church, Dallas, Kenesaw Mountain, and Atlanta. He barely escaped the fate of General McPherson. Not more than ten minutes before the general was killed Captain Pollock was on the same spot, having, without knowing it, run into the Confederate line, but managed to get away.  He took command of the Sixty-third Ohio Infantry regiment until the arrival of Sherman's army in March, 1865. In 1866 he was assigned to the Fourteenth Infantry, and later the Twenty-third. His subsequent life is that of an army officer on the frontier, undergoing arduous trials, subjected to constant changes; at one time conducting recruits to distant stations, at another establishing military posts and often pursuing hostile Indians. In 1867-68 he was with General Crook in the Snake and Pi-Ute Indian wars. Pollock proceeded to Fort Boise and returned January 1868 with twenty-six Indians by crossing the Snake River and the Blue mountains in the middle of an unusually cold winter. He succeeded in bringing the party through without losing a man or an animal after a continuous struggle for existence of three weeks duration. From there he saw service in Kentucky, and later Fort Vancouver (via San Francisco), being with the first body of troops that ever crossed the continent on the Pacific Railroad. Then Camp Warren, and Portland, Oregon. In November and December, 1870, he was in Sitka Alaska. Then back to Fort Vancouver, and later Fort Yuma, where he proceeded up the Colorado River to Ehrensburg, and thence by wagon to Prestcott, a distance of about one hundred and seventy miles, and there reported to General Crook. He was given command of Company "C" at Camp McDowell until July, 1874, when the regiment was transferred from the Department of Arizona to the Department of the Platte, with headquarters at Omaha Barracks. Captain Pollock, with his company, arrived at Omaha Barracks on September 4, 1874. In May 1876 he was ordered to Sidney Barracks, on the Union Pacific Railroad, east of Cheyenne. He had charge of forwarding supplies to the troops in the field under command of General Crook, who was pursuing the hostile Sioux. He received orders to Fort Fetterman under General Crook. He proceeded by rail with two companies to Medicine Bow, where they marched on to Fort Fetterman. Here what was known as the Powder Run expedition was organized. The expedition proceeded to Crazy Woman's Fork of the Powder river, via the cantonment Reno. General Mackenzie, with his cavalry, attacked a Northern Cheyenne camp. As a result of the campaign, the Northern Cheyennes shortly afterwards came in and surrendered, and Crazy Horse, the Sioux chief, did the same, and the war was thus ended. The campaign was made in the coldest winter weather. The troops were constantly on the march, and in tents when the mercury was freezing and the animals were perishing from the cold. Captain Pollock proceeded to Fort Leavenworth. Railroad riots caused the President to order eight companies of the Twenty-third, under command of Gen. Jefferson C. Davis, then its colonel, to St. Louis, including Captain Pollock & his company. In July 1878 he took his company to Fort Hayes, Kansas. In the fall of that year the Northern Cheyennes, who, after their surrender, had been located by the military authorities in the Indian Territory, near Fort Reno, became dissatisfied and broke loose from the authority of their Indian agent, and attempted to return to their old home in the North. During their progress through Kansas they committed many outrages, stealing horses and murdering the inhabitants. Captain Pollock's company was ordered from Fort Hayes in conjunction with other troops, to proceed to a point on the Kansas Pacific Railroad, where it was hoped that they might be intercepted in their attempt to cross to the northward. Not-withstanding the watchfulness of the troops, the Indians succeeded in crossing the railroad unobstructed. After long and fatiguing forced marches on their trail in pursuit, and when they had passed into the Department of the Platte, and were being pursued by fresh troops. Captain Pollock returned to Fort Hayes. In the winter of 1879 the Twenty-third was transferred from Kansas to the Indian Territory. This was for the purpose of having more troops on hand in case of another attempt on the part of the Indians to break out as the Cheyennes had done. Captain Pollock's company marched to the Canadian Civer near Sheridan's Roost. After 6 months leave he was ordered to Colorado for the purpose of keeping quiet the Ute Indians in the vicinity of Los Pines Agency, who had been restless, and restore confidence to the settlers. This was the summer of the "Ute Commission." Captain Pollock's company was detailed to be their escort. He left Los Pinos Agency with the commission, having four six-horse wagons loaded with forage, rations and camp equipage, and two four-mule light wagons. They crossed the San Juan range at an altitude of twelve thousand feet to Silverton, encountering great hazard of losing the wagons, owing to the difficulty of preventing them from running off the beaten track along the edge of the mountains, which was narrow and crooked, into the canon hundreds of feet below. From Silverton the route was down the Animas River to Animas City, thence across the Florida River to the agency situated on the Pine River, which they reached August 15th. From here the commission, accompanied by Captain Pollock, made a reconnoissance in search of a suitable place in which to locate the Utes after their removal, and, after following the La Platte to its confluence with the San Juan River, returned to the agency. Having completed negotiations with the Indians, the commission was escorted to Alamosa, and upon arriving at that place Captain Pollock separated from them and returned with his company and transportation by another route to the cantonment, located during his absence on the Uncompahgre River, about four miles below the Los Pinos Agency. He reached Klein's ranch on the Cimmaron River, about twenty-two miles from the cantonment, the day following the killing of Johnson, a Ute Indian, son of one of the prominent chiefs (Chavanaux), by a freighter named Jackson, who was subsequently forcibly taken by the Indians from the civilian escort, who were conveying him to Gunnison City for trial, and killed. This resulted in the most intense excitement among the white population, and open war between the whites and Indians became imminent. The report of the affair made by Captain Pollock to the War Department, showing it to have been a wanton murder on the part of Jackson, and that his fate was nothing more than a case of lynching, which was published in the papers throughout the country, no doubt had the effect of quieting the excitement and preventing an outbreak. Back at the cantonment, he was Superintendent and Chief Operator of the telegraph line which had been constructed by the troops to Gunnison City, receiving and transmitting all the messages passing between Generals Pope and Mackenzie relating to the final arrangements for conveying the Utes from Colorado to Utah, which, though a delicate affair, was successfully and peaceably accomplished. In the fall of 1881 his regiment was ordered to the District of New Mexico, Captain Pollock with his company going to Fort Bliss, about a mile above El Paso, on the Rio Grande. In June, 1884, the regiment was transferred to the Department of the East, and occupied the posts at Fort Porter, Buffalo; Fort Brady, Sault-ste-Marie, and Fort Mackinac. Captain Pollock's company was stationed at Fort Porter, where it still remains. Otis Wheeler Pollock retired with the rank of Lieut. Colonel. See the book “The Deadliest Indian War in the West: The Snake Conflict, 1864-1868” By Gregory Michno.
Sixth plate Daguerreotype portrait (2 3/4 by 3 1/4 inches) portrait of Revolutionary War soldier Silas Bemis of Haverhill, New Hampshire, taken around 1847. Silas Bemis was born in 1761 in Winchendon, Massachusetts. He mustered in at Worcester County, Massachusetts, for service in Captain Boynton's Company, Colonel Grout's Regiment, and also had service in Captain Thomas Fish's Company, Colonel Nathan Tyler's Regiment. Silas Bemis died in Haverhill, New Hampshire, in 1850 at age 89. He was buried in Center Haverhill Cemetery in Haverhill, New Hampshire.
Sixth plate Daguerreotype portrait (2 3/4 by 3 1/4 inches) of Revolutionary War soldier Jonathan Smith. He was 14 when he joined the American Revolution, Massachusetts militia, in 1776. He signed up for more duty, off and on, throughout the war, and was at the Battle of Rhode Island. In a Boston "push-button" case.

Quarter plate Daguerreotype portrait, by Henry E. Insley, of Revolutionary War soldier John Battin who was born in 1752. This Daguerreotype was probably taken on the occasion of his 100th birthday. The drawing at right was taken from this very Daguerreotype (Lossing Vol 2, page 621 or 827 depending on edition). From Benson J. Lossing's Pictorial Field Book Of The Revolution, volume 2, chapter 23: "Of all the gallant men who battled there on that day [the Battle of Fort Washington, November 16, 1776], not one is known among the living [published in 1859]. Probably the last survivor of them all, and the last living relic of the British army in America, was the venerable JOHN BATTIN, who died at his residence in Greenwich Street, in the city of New York, on the twenty-ninth of June, 1852, at the age of one hundred years and four months. His body is entombed in Trinity Cemetery, upon the very ground where he fought for his king seventy-six years before.... Mr. Battin came to America with the British army in 1776, and was engaged in the battles near Brooklyn, at White Plains, and Fort Washington. After the British went into winter quarters in New York, and Cornwallis’s division (to which he was attached), returned from Trenton and Princeton, he took lessons in horsemanship in the Middle Dutch church (now the city post-office), then converted into a circus for a riding-school. He then joined the cavalry regiment of Colonel Birch, in which he held the offices of orderly sergeant and cornet. He was in New York during the "hard winter" of 1779-80, and assisted in dragging British cannons over the frozen bay from Fort George to Staten Island. He was always averse to fighting the Americans, yet, as in duty bound, he was faithful to his king. While Prince William Henry, afterward William the Fourth, was here, he was one of his body-guard. Twice he was sent to England by Sir Henry Clinton with dispatches, and being one of the most active men in the corps, he was frequently employed by the commander-in-chief in important services. With hundreds more, he remained in New York when the British army departed in 1783, resolved to make America his future home. He married soon after the war, and at the time of his death had lived with his wife (now aged eighty-three) sixty-five years. For more than fifty years, he walked every morning upon first the old, and then the new, or present Battery, unmindful of inclement weather. He always enjoyed remarkable health. He continued exercise in the street near his dwelling until within a few days of his death, though with increasing feebleness of step. The gay young men of half a century ago (now gray-haired old men) remember his well-conducted house of refreshment, corner of John and Nassau Streets [lower Manhattan], where they enjoyed oyster suppers and good liquors. The preceding sketch of his person is from a Daguerreotype by Insley, made a few months before his departure."
See also: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Fort_Washington
"Mr. Brower was married at New York city, in May, 1850, to Anna C., youngest daughter of John Battin, a soldier of the British army, who came to this country during the War of the Revolution, with Admiral Lord Howe, who appointed him, with others, as body guard to Prince William Henry, afterwards King William IVth, who was then a midshipman in the British navy, and on a visit to this country. He served during the war, and when the British troops evacuated, he had become so infatuated with America, that he was not found amongst the soldiers that returned home. He lived to the remarkable age of 100 years, and up to the last year of his life, clung to the old-fashioned costume of white stockings, and knee breeches." (from: History of Crawford and Richland Counties, Wisconsin. Union Publishing Company, Springfield, IL. 1884. By Consul Willshire Butterfield.)
I also have one of John Battin's diamond-encrusted knee buckles that he used to keep his socks attached to his knee breeches. See photo on right.

The Museum of the American Revolution borrowed this image from me and told me that it’s the only known daguerreotype of a British soldier who fought in the American revolution. 		image


Sixth plate Daguerreotype portrait (2 3/4 by 3 1/4 inches) by Daguerreotypist James P. Weston, 192 Broadway, New York City, of Captain William Sheffield of Stonington & New Haven, Connecticut. Captain William Sheffield was born in Stonington on July 6, 1785. He comes from a long line of sea captains, and a long line of William Sheffields (his father and son and grandson were all named William Sheffield). His mother was Elizabeth Eells, and he married Keziah Gillette.

Sixth plate Daguerreotype portrait (2 3/4 by 3 1/4 inches), in a very nice Union Case, of General Micah Brooks, who was born May 14, 1775, on his father’s estate in Cheshire, Conn. Micah Brooks gave from his own recollection, a very interesting account of the period immediately following the Revolutionary War, and it was published in History of the pioneer settlement of Phelps and Gorham's purchase... by O. Turner.  In 1796 in common with many sons of New England, he explored the regions of the west, visited the Mohawk, Susquehannah. Seneca, and the Genesee, and saw many pioneers in their lonely cabins, suffering privations but full of hope. In the fall of 1797 he lived in East Bloomfield (New York) as a school teacher. He became a surveyor. In the fall of 1798 he made a tour, on foot to Niagara Falls, following the Indian trails and stopping overnight with Poudry and his Indian wife at Tonawanda. In 1799 he purchased a farm in East Bloomfield. In the militia he rose through successive gradations to the rank of Major General. In 1806 he was elected Justice of the Peace, in 1808 assistant Justice of the County, the same year was elected to the Legislature from Ontario County, and in the War of 1812 he served in three campaigns as a Lieut. Colonel. He was elected to Congress in 1814, representing a very large territory and serving on important committees. For twenty years he was a Judge of Ontario county courts. While a member of Congress he presented to that body a petition drawn by DeWitt Clinton, asking the national government to aid in the construction of the Erie Canal. On February 1, 1839, delegates from several counties assembled at Cuba, Allegany County, to forward the completion of the New York and Erie Railroad, which had been chartered seven years before, but which, owing to the great commercial revulsion of 1837, and the magnitude of the undertaking, had not been completed. Gen. Brooks was chosen president of the convention. In 1823 he moved to his new residence known as Brook’s Grove. In 1833 he bought 6,382 acres in Caneadea, Allegany Co. He died on July 7, 1857.

Sixth plate Daguerreotype portrait (2 3/4 by 3 1/4 inches) of Charles N. Wallis, of Beverly, Mass, taken circa 1850. Charles N. Wallis was a carriage maker and a wheelwright. He died in 1873.



Sixth plate Daguerreotype portrait (2 3/4 by 3 1/4 inches) of 9 year old Lyman Eckford Post (Jr.) of Westbrook, Ct. He became a farmer. The family farm was on the Westbrook shore. His father was Capt. Lyman Eckford Post also of Westbrook. The dag is dated Sept 15, 1849. In 1897 there was a notice in the Connecticut Quarterly that the articles made from the famous Charter Oak Tree, that were exhibited at the Centennial Exposition in 1876, were at the home of Lyman Eckford Post, and were to be sold. In the Aug 24, 1911, Springfield Republican newspaper was the notice that "W.F. Heins went on a fishing trip last week just off of Southwest Reef. He went with Lyman Post in the latter's 30 foot launch. A fine string of 14 blackfish were brought in weighing between three and seven pounds." (I used to fish Southwest Reef myself, for bluefish on 4 pound test line, in my Brockway high-sided rowboat with 10hp Mercury, in the 1960's). It's a small world.
 		The Connecticut Charter Oak and the Lyman Eckford Post family of Westbrook, Ct.



Early 1840s sixth plate daguerreotype portrait of a man holding what appears to be a gilt pencil, and displaying a bound volume of The Ladies Companion, volume XII & XIII.  The daguerreotype is by Thomas S. Walsh, New York City. In original period case with WALSH imprint on brass mat and imprint on case pad reading "Walsh 136 Spring Street, N.Y." The daguerreotypist Walsh is documented at 136 Spring Street during 1845 and 1846, according to Craig's Daguerreian Registry. However the image may well be somewhat earlier; its plate bears the early "HS" platemark which Rinhart dates 1843-45, and the numbers of the Ladies Companion which the sitter holds were published 1839-1840. This is presumably a portrait of William W. Snowden, the publisher of the Ladies Companion, who died January 12, 1845. Both Thomas S. Walsh and William W. Snowden had offices in lower Manhattan, only a mile apart. William W. Snowden knew Edgar Allan Poe and published one of his stories. "The Mystery of Marie Rogêt", often subtitled A Sequel to "The Murders in the Rue Morgue." Poe wrote the piece in 1842. This is the first murder mystery based on the details of a real crime. It first appeared in William W. Snowden's "Ladies' Companion" in three installments, November and December 1842 and February 1843. In 1844, Millett v. Snowden became the earliest music copyright lawsuit in the United States. Snowden published “The Cot Beneath the Hill”, without permission, in his Ladies Companion, and had to pay $625 to the owner of the song.

Sixth plate daguerreotype portrait (2 3/4 by 3 1/4 inches) of Olive Gurley Goodell, who was born during the Revolutionary War and turned 6 years old about 3 weeks before the war ended in 1783. A note with the daguerreotype states "Olive Gurley, wife of Levi Goodell father of Abner Gooddell, born 1777." Olive was born August 6, 1777. Olive was the daughter of Jonathan Gurley who was born in 1744 in Mansfield Ct.  Her mother was Jerusha Bennet, daughter of Joseph Bennet of the same town. They married in 1764. Olive's siblings included, Ephraim, Roger, Jonathan, Anna, Jerusha, Esther, Rebecca, Flavel, an infant brother and Harriet. Olive's father, Jonathan Gurley, resided in the neighborhood of the Gurley burying ground. He was a Captain of a Military Company and a member of the Congregational Church. Olive married Levi Goodell, son of David and Hannah Abbott Goodell. Levi was born in 1772 in Woodstock Ct. At some point the Goodell's moved to Westminster, Windham Co, Vt, where Levi died in 1813. Their family included: Azuba b 1796; Harriet b 1798; Horace b 1800; Eliza born 1802; Jerusha b abt 1803 married Calvin Phippen; Abner b 1805 (appearing to be the child whose family owned the daguerreotype); Clarissa b 1807; Orvilla Electa b 1809; and Mary Paine b 1811.

Sixth plate daguerreotype portrait (2 3/4 by 3 1/4 inches) of Colonel Drury Fairbank (a.k.a. Drury Fairbanks) of Sudbury, Massachusetts, and his wife Mary. Drury Fairbank was born July 22, 1793. His father was Jonathan Fairbank, who was born in Holliston, Mass, lived in Sudbury, and marched to Lexington at the start of the Revolutionary War. The father enlisted April 19, 1775 for the "alarm at Lexington."
Colonel Drury Fairbank was born in Sudbury, July 17, 1793. He lived for five years in Boston, and worked for Blake & Jackson, soap and candle chandlers. He settled in Sudbury in Oct. 1820, on a farm, and lived there until his death. He was colonel of militia, justice of the peace, held various town offices, and took an active part in politics and parish affairs.
He was an active promoter of measures for the erection of a monument in Sudbury, to the memory of Capt. Wadsworth and his men, twenty-seven in number, who were killed in King Philip's War, Apr. 18, 1676.  He died very suddenly of heart disease, May 25, 1864, aged 70 yrs. 10 mos. 8 days. His children were all born in Sudbury, except Nelson.
He married Mary Spring, of Hubbardston, Mass., Oct. 26, 1817. She died Feb. 15, 1864, aged 67 yrs. 7 mos.

Sixth plate daguerreotype portrait (2 3/4 by 3 1/4 inches) of Edward Newton Wills, of Newburyport, Mass. He was one of the 12 children of Captain John Wills, Jr., and Sarah Newman. Edward Newton Wills' father died in 1835 when he was about 11 years old. Edward Newton Wills (Edward N. Wills) was born in 1824 and died in Calcutta, India, on Sept. 1, 1846, of rapid consumption. He was 22 1/2 years old. I know that he made at least two trips to Calcutta from Newburyport. He arrived back in Newburyport on October 2, 1845, on the ship Arno, from Calcutta. He made another trip to Calcutta and died there. I'm researching the Wills family of Newburyport, and I must say that they are a very confusing family, genealogically speaking. If anyone has sorted them out, I'd love to hear form you!
Sixth plate daguerreotype portrait (2 3/4 by 3 1/4 inches) of Risley
Quarter plate Daguerreotype portrait ( 3 1/4 by 4 1/4 inches) Gushee, Frederick A.
Sixth plate Daguerreotype portrait (2 3/4 by 3 1/4 inches) of George Beatty who was born in Bally-Keel Ednagonnell, county Down, Ireland, in 1781. In the summer of 1784 his parents brought him to America where they settled in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. George Beatty received a regular school education, and later worked with his brother-in-law, Samuel Hill, from whom he learned clock and watch making. Referred to as an "ingenious mechanician," George Beatty is remembered for his clocks of "peculiar and rare invention." It was presumably this business in which he was active for more than 40 years. He was also known to be a silversmith. James Biser Whisker in his book Pennsylvania Silversmiths, Goldsmiths and Pewterers, 1684-1900 has a short paragraph on George Beatty (1781-1862). Mr. Beatty served in the War of 1812 as a sergeant in Captain Thomas Walker’s volunteer militia. This daguerreotype came in a collection of daguerreotypes from his daughter and son-in-law, Immanuel Meister Kelker.
Stunning sixth plate daguerreotype portrait (2 3/4 by 3 1/4 inches) of Almira Dickens, who lived at Watch Hill Point, Rhode Island, in the 1850's. This daguerreotype was taken about 1850. Almira Dickens was the daughter of Captain Henry Dickens of Stonington & Watch Hill Point, and Nancy Nash, the daughter of Captain Jonathan Nash, also of Watch Hill Point.


Sixth plate daguerreotype portrait (2 3/4 by 3 1/4 inches) of Harrison Gray Blake, born 1788, famous as the husband of Lucy Blake who perished on Green Mountain, in Vermont, on Dec. 20, 1821, known as the Stratton Mountain Tragedy. Lucy Blake was able to protect her 18 month old daughter by wrapping her in coats. The baby survived and Harrison Gray Blake suffered severe frostbite and lost 4 toes. The poem, "A Mother’s Sacrifice", by Seba Smith, became very popular and inspired the 1843 song "The Snow Storm" which itself became famous and was performed at the concerts of the Hutchinson Family: "Oh, God she cried in accents wild, if I must perish, save my child." Harrison Gray Blake's father, James Blake, worked in his father's tinsmith shop in Boston before the Revolutionary War. James and his father, Increase Blake, participated in the Boston Tea Party, and James stuffed his overgrown shoes (he was wearing his father's shoes) with tea for his mother, which became very scarce when the fighting began. Increase Blake and James Blake, grandfather and father of Harrison Gray Blake, the subject of the daguerreotype, made canteens and cartridge boxes for the patriots during the Revolutionary War.

The Snow Storm, A Ballad

 Poetry by Seba Smith, Music by L. Heath
 (Boston: Oliver Ditson, 1843)
The cold wind swept the mountain's height,
 And pathless was the dreary wild,
 And mid the cheerless hours of night
 A mother wandered with her child.
As through the drifted snows she pressed,
 The babe was sleeping on her breast,
 The babe was sleeping on her breast.
And colder still the winds did blow,
 And darker hours of night came on,
 And deeper grew the drifts of snow--
 Her limbs were chilled, her strength was gone.
"O God!" she cried, in accents wild,
 "If I must perish, save my child,
 "If I must perish save my child."
She stript her mantle from her breast,
 And bared her bosom to the storm;
 As round the child she wrapped the vest,
 She smiled to think that it was warm.
With one cold kiss, one tear she shed,
 And sunk upon a snowy bed,
 And sunk upon a snowy bed.
At dawn, a traveller passed by,
 And saw her 'neath a snowy veil--
 The frost of death was in her eye,
 Her cheek was cold, and hard and pale--
He moved the robe from off the child;
 The babe looked up, and sweetly smiled,
 The babe looked up, and sweetly smiled.		 The Snow Storm by Seba Smith & L. Heath.

Ninth plate daguerreotype portrait (2 by 2.5 inches) of Matthew Clarkson, Jr. (1796-1883), who was a prominent resident of Flatbush, Long Island, N.Y.
The dag is marked "Taken By Root Broadway NY 1853." His father, Matthew Clarkson Sr. (1758-1825) was an American military officer during the American Revolution and lived in New York City.
Plan of the Grounds of Matthew Clarkson, Esq. Flatbush Long Island.
Plan of the Grounds of Matthew Clarkson, Esq. Flatbush Long Island
Medium: Ink and watercolor on paper
Dates: September 1858
courtesy of the Brooklyn Museum Collection

Sixth plate Daguerreotype portrait (2 3/4 by 3 1/4 inches) of an older man identified inside the case as Ebenezer Turner of Quincy, Illinois. Ebenezer Turner was in the Black Hawk war of 1832. He was a private in Colonel Fry's Second Regiment, Captain William Flood's company, from Adams County.

Sixth plate Daguerreotype portrait (2 3/4 by 3 1/4 inches) of Joseph H. Burgess who went overland to the California gold rush in 1849 (he claimed to be one of the first overlanders to arrive at Sacramento, Sutter's Fort, etc), and later drove cattle north from Texas. I also have a later ninth plate ambrotype of him. Joseph H. Burgess married Helen J. Woodward in circa 1839. See the article "Grandfather Burgess Was a Forty-Niner" at page 404 in Journal of the Illinois State Historical Society, Vol. 53, No. 4, (Winter 1960).
https://dig.lib.niu.edu/ISHS/ishs-1960winter/ishs-1960winter-toc.pdf
 Joseph H. Burgess had a "Distinguished Service" for the Union in the Civil War. He enlisted in Company I, 11th Illinois Infantry Regiment on 20 September 1861. Discharged Company I, 11th Infantry Regiment Illinois on 02 May 1862.

Sixth plate Daguerreotype portrait (2 3/4 by 3 1/4 inches) of Jonas Baker and his wife Phebe Baker (Phebe Goodell). They lived at Warren's Corners, Lockport, N.Y.  They "adopted" Joel B. Baker. The son was in the Civil War; his letters were published in 1996 under the title "Letters Home, Joel B. Baker: A collection of letters home from the Civil War written by Colonel Joel B. Baker and compiled by his great-grandaug​hter, Naomi B. Baker."


Compelling Sixth plate Daguerreotype portrait (2 3/4 by 3 1/4 inches) of George C. Bain holding his four month old son Patterson Bain, taken in 1850 in St Louis. This collection includes four other daguerreotypes from the Bain family of St. Louis and Lexington, Kentucky. ‪ George C. Bain was nursed/raised by his family's slave, Harriet Bell, who ran away in 1844 with her husband Lewis Hayden, never to be seen by the Bains again. About 45 years later George C. Bain placed a notice in the newspaper stating that he wanted to contact Harriet. Here are some newspaper clippings pertaining to this:
‪https://alaskawanted.com/daguerreotypes/BainClippings.jpg
see also:
‪https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lewis_Hayden
Not surprisingly George C. Bain fought for the south in the civil war as a Lieutenant and later a Captain in the Department & Army of Tennessee.
Harriet Hayden's grave: ‪https://tinyurl.com/k74huln
‪More on the story of Lewis and Harriet Hayden: https://tinyurl.com/o5pqeo4

Captain George C. Bain's Confederate Cipher Reader:
https://www.civilwarmo.org/gallery/item/CWMO-16?nojs=1

At right is half of the daguerreotype case showing the silk pad that is opposite the daguerreotype of George C. Bain holding his four month old son Patterson Bain.
 The identification of Patterson Bain on the pillow of the daguerreotype case lid.


Sixth plate Daguerreotype portrait (2 3/4 by 3 1/4 inches) of Abishai Miller of Middleboro, Mass. In 1853 Mr. Miller, with several other enterprising mechanics, organized the Atlantic Works, and obtained a charter from the Legislature. They put into this venture all their savings, and began the difficult task of making a place for their company in the business world. They purchased land in East Boston and erected buildings thereon for machine, blacksmith and boiler shops, and purchased tools for these several departments. Mr. Miller became superintendent of construction, and, by dint of hard work, self-sacrifice and the utmost economy, soon succeeded in establishing a reputation, the business and facilities steadily increasing. About 1859 Mr. Miller retired from active business and went to Middleboro to take a much needed rest. At this time he erected a fine residence on the old homestead at Fall Brook, and here his friends found him happy and contented. When the Civil war broke out the Atlantic Works secured a contract for building one of the now famous "monitors," and at the earnest solicitation of his associates in the business he returned to his old place as superintendent, and during the four years following a busier man could hardly be found in Boston. Under his direction were built the monitors "Casco" and "Nantucket," the turrets for the monitors "Monadnock," "Agamenticus," "Passaconaway" and "Shackamakon," and the machinery for the gunboats "Sagamore," "Canandaigua," "Sassacus," and "Osceola"; also for the U. S. man of war "Nyphon." At the close of the war Mr. Miller again retired, although remaining on the board of directors of the company until 1876, when, upon the death of the president, he was elected, to that office, a position he filled until his death, in East Boston, Jan. 30, 1883. He was buried in Green cemetery in Middleboro, where several generations of the family have been interred.
Two Quarter plate Daguerreotype portraits ( 3 1/4 by 4 1/4 inches) of Eden Marcellus Seeley and his wife Almeda Harris Seeley. Eden Marcellus Seeley was a sea captain and later a very prosperous farmer in Maryland. Almeda Harris Seeley kept a diary during the civil war, 1859-1865, that is in the Maryland Historical Society collection.
Quarter plate Daguerreotype portrait ( 3 1/4 by 4 1/4 inches) of Charles Hunnewell and his wife Ruth Hunnewell. They were born about 1790. They lived in Dedham and Cambridge, Mass. Charles Hunnewell is listed as a carriage maker and a chaise maker.
Ninth plate daguerreotype portrait (2 by 2.5 inches) of Elmira Hain Seltzer, born Nov 17, 1841, in Pennsylvania, died Nov 8, 1902, in Redlands, California. She married Captain William G. Moore. Daguerreotype of her as a teenager, maybe 15 years old. A very lovely portrait of Elmira Seltzer in a fancy dress.
Sixth plate Daguerreotype portrait (2 3/4 by 3 1/4 inches) of John Houghton Clarke as a lad. He went to Harvard (class of 1867) and had a number of patents, including a photographic patent for a developing tray rocker. His comments to his Harvard classmates in the newsletters years later indicate that he was quite a character. "Though I haven't accomplished much of value, I've kept out of jail these 40 years, which perhaps is something, especially nowadays when so many are either going in or coming out, and I haven't been hung, though perhaps I ought to have been. Whether these are positive or negative gains is hard to say. To me they seem positive gains, so perhaps, when a man is hung, he attains a greater elevation then in most other ways, but I won't take up anymore of your valuable time with my moral reflections or psychological deductions (which are they?). In a later newsletter he reported that he "Changed his address from Salem Street to Badger Road, Framingham, Mass. Says he has been nowhere, and done nothing worth mentioning. In June 1916 he became a member of Gen. J. G. Foster Post No. 163, Grand Army of the Republic, indicating that he served in the Civil War.




Sixth plate Daguerreotype portrait (2 3/4 by 3 1/4 inches) of Frederick Rammelsberg, famed furniture maker and partner of the firm Mitchell & Rammelsberg of Cincinnati, which were the largest furniture manufacturers in the world at one time. Identified by a type-written note "Frederick Rammelsberg b. 1814 Germany."		 Mitchell & Rammelsberg furniture factory

Sixth plate double daguerreotype portraits (each is 2 3/4 by 3 1/4 inches) of Nathaniel Seely III & his wife Lucy Kelsey Seely.  Nathaniel Seely III was born on Nov. 20, 1788 (or October 20) at Southport, Chemung County, New York. His parents were Nathaniel Seely, Jr. and Elizabeth. He died on Oct. 15, 1866, in Osceola, Tioga County, Pennsylvania. Lucy Kelsey Seely was born Aug. 31, 1791. Her parents were Abner Kelsey and Ann.  Lucy Kelsey Seely died  Sep. 15, 1873.
See: https://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=11484016
https://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=11484046
Sixth plate Daguerreotype portrait (2 3/4 by 3 1/4 inches) of Edward Samuel Ritchie (and wife). Ritchie was a manufacturer of scientific instruments and nautical instruments such as the first successful liquid filled compass, ship's binnacles, etc. He has been described as "the most innovative instrument maker in nineteenth-century America, making important contributions to both science and navigation.“ He held many patents for his inventions.
Quarter plate Daguerreotype portrait ( 3 1/4 by 4 1/4 inches) of the Bartley children. Nora Bartley, John Bartley, and George Bartley.  The parents were William T. Bartley and Hannah M. Downing of Louisville Kentucky. William T. Bartley was born in Scotland and arrived in America on May 28, 1832. He became a commission merchant (had a retail goods store) in Louisville, and later owned a successful whiskey distillery, Bartley, Johnson & Company. In this stunning daguerreotype, which was taken circa 1847, Nora is about 9 years old and is flanked by her brothers John (about 7) and George (about 5). George may have died young as I don't see him listed in later records. This daguerreotype was exhibited in 1929 at the J. B. Speed Memorial Museum in Louisville, Kentucky, where it is listed in the daguerreotype exhibition catalog as "Nora, John and George Bartley" and loaned by Miss Lillie Kent. The parents of the three children in the daguerreotype, William T. Bartley & Hannah M. Downing of Louisville Kentucky, owned two slaves according to the 1850 slave schedule. They were females age 25 and 32, but they had run away during the year. Hannah died in 1850 and William remarried in 1854. William and his second wife owned six slaves according to the 1860 slave schedule. They were all females, ages 5, 7, 15, 18, 27, and 37. This info, being slave owners, is in sharp contrast to the charming and appealing daguerreotype.
Sixth plate Daguerreotype portrait (2 3/4 by 3 1/4 inches) of James Adams who was the son of Chester Adams and . He was born in Charlestown, Mass, in 1810. Early on he owned a hardware business with his brother,  and was the third mayor of Charlestown. For 25 years he was president of the Warren Institution for Savings, and a director of the Bunker Hill Bank, county treasurer, etc. He owned a factory on the Mystic River that manufactured kerosene and other oils. He owned the firm James Adams & Co. In 1835 he married Pamelia W. Skilton.
Sixth plate Daguerreotype portrait (2 3/4 by 3 1/4 inches) of Daniel Carney who was born in Pownalborough, Maine, November 25, 1765, and died March 11, 1852. As a teenager, he was in Boston during the Revolutionary War. In 1781, at the age of 15, he and his father served on board a privateer, capturing British ships. His father was captured and died a POW. There is about 20 pages of detailed information on the life of Daniel Carney in the book Genealogy of the Carney Family: Descendants of Mark Carney and Suzanne Goux His Wife of Pownalboro, Maine.
Sixth plate Daguerreotype portrait (2 3/4 by 3 1/4 inches) of Malcolm Alonzo Lermond of Warren, Maine, in a Mathew Brady case, circa 1843-1845. In 1843 Malcolm Lermond and (possibly) Alonzo Clark traveled to New Orleans seeking information on Malcom's missing cousin, William James Lermond, age 30. William James Lermond was captain of the brig Amanda which disappeared in March 1843 after leaving New Orleans. In the daguerreotype Malcolm is on the left with an unidentified man, about the same age, who could be this Alonzo Clark, or he could be a relative, or someone else. Malcolm was the son of Captain David Lermond and Nancy Malcolm. Both of his parents' families were involved in shipbuilding or mastering vessels.
 

Sixth plate Daguerreotype portrait (2 3/4 by 3 1/4 inches) of Captain John Campbell (1779-1853) of Waitsfield, Vermont, who commanded a company of Peck's 4th regiment of the Vermont Militia at the Battle of Plattsburgh, War of 1812. The
daguerreotype came from the Connecticut estate of one of his descendants.
 Captain John Campbell (1779-1853) of Waitsfield, Vermont.

Quarter plate Daguerreotype portrait ( 3 1/4 by 4 1/4 inches) of Horatio Justus Perry. His obituary in the Boston Evening Transcript, Feb 26, 1891. “Mr. Horatio Justus Perry, who died in Lisbon, Portugal, on the 23rd inst., was born in Keene, New Hampshire, January 23, 1824, and graduated at Harvard College in 1844. During the Mexican war he became volunteer aide-de-camp on the staff of General Shields and soon after was appointed secretary of legation at Madrid [Spain]. The latter position he held from 1849 until 1869, excepting a period of five or six years, when he was engaged in telegraphic construction. During the war of the rebellion he also performed the duties of chargé d’affairs. His wife has been widely known in Spain as one of the first of national lyric poets.” He was instrumental in keeping Spain out of the American civil war. Many of his papers and letters exist, including a series of letters to and from Secretary of State William H. Seward. Horatio J. Perry is quite handsome and dashing in this fine daguerreotype, taken circa 1848-1850. Also included in this family collection are two ambrotypes of young women, perhaps his sisters, one being especially lovely. His wife, Carolina Coronado, has been the subject of books and a PhD dissertation.
Quarter plate Daguerreotype portrait ( 3 1/4 by 4 1/4 inches) of Oliver Ames (1831-1895, son of Oakes Ames), Governor of Massachusetts, capitalist, and part owner of the Ames Tools Company. A stunning profile portrait, taken circa 1852-1853, of a young Oliver Ames, in his early twenties, in a Boston push-button case. The founder of the Ames Tools Company, Captain John Ames, supplied shovels to George Washington's army which were used to build the fortifications on Bunker Hill (Breed's Hill); "Prescott and his men, using Gridley's outline, began digging a square fortification about 130 feet (40 m) on a side with ditches and earthen walls. The walls of the redoubt were about 6 feet (1.8 m) high, with a wooden platform inside on which men could stand and fire over the walls." By 1845 the Oliver Ames & Sons company was making a quarter of a million shovels annually. The company also sold most of the shovels and picks used in the California gold rush: "1849 – At this same time, the Gold Rush was taking place in California. Ames Shovels were so valuable there that they were used as currency." Ames shovels and picks were certainly used in Russian America by the Western Union Telegraph Expedition work parties. Ames shovels were used by the Union Army during the American civil war (at Lincoln's request). They were the primary shovel used to build the Trans-Alaska pipeline (I know that for a fact as I spent a couple thousand hours on the end of Ames' shovels while working on the pipeline).
Ninth plate daguerreotype portrait (2 by 2.5 inches) of a man who may be a member of the Coomer family. This daguerreotype came with an ambrotype of members of the Jonathan Coomer family of Newfane Ohio, identified on the back of the ambrotype as B. G. Coomer, David Coomer, G. M. Coomer (or J. M. Coomer), A. H. Coomer, and Sabra D. Coomer.
Ninth plate daguerreotype portrait (2 by 2.5 inches) of two brothers, Lloyd Glover & D. Lloyd Glover, who were engravers in New York City in the 1850's. Lloyd Glover was born in DeRuyter, Madison Co., N. Y. in July, 1825: he was living in 1859. He was the son of Daniel Glover, and the brother of D. Lloyd Glover, also an engraver. Lloyd Glover was taught to engrave under a Boston master and for several years he was the head of the New England branch of the Bank Note Engraving firm of Danforth, Wright & Co. of New York. He finally abandoned engraving for commercial pursuits and was the New England agent and then a director in the American Guano Co. residing at Lynn. Mass. He was said to be a man of decided literary and artistic attainments. His brother D. Lloyd Glover was born in DeRuyter, Madison Co., N. Y. the eldest son of Daniel and Rhoda (Gage) Glover. No details of his life are known other than that he was a good engraver of portraits and subject plates, working in New York in 1850-55.
Quarter plate Daguerreotype portrait ( 3 1/4 by 4 1/4 inches) of a young, well dressed, man. He is sporting a closely trimmed beard. In the back of the case is written what appears to read "No 11" and "G. Gorse." The G. Gorse could stand for George Gorse, Gilbert Gorse, Gabriel Gorse, Granvill Gorse, Gideon Gorse, or Green Gorse (those are the most common given names of the period that start with "G" as found in census records).

Edwin Henry Fitler daguerreotype
 Quarter plate Daguerreotype portrait ( 3 1/4 by 4 1/4 inches) of  Edwin Henry Fitler, who was mayor of Philadelphia from 1887-1891. But more importantly, he was one of the major producers of rope in America during the second half of the 19th century. Ships carried his ropes and rigging all over the world, from the clipper ship era through the north pacific whaling era. In 1846, after studying law briefly, Fitler entered the cordage factory of George J. Weaver. In two years time he became so knowledgeable that he was invited into the business as a full partner, the firm changing its name to George J. Weaver & Co. An 1857 advertisement had this to say about Fitler’s establishment: Messrs. Weaver, Fitler & Co. are proprietors of the Fairhill Steam Cordage Works, manufacturing every style of Manilla, Tarred and Italian Ropes, Tow Lines for canal boats, all the various styles of Carpet and seine Twine, &c. They have constantly on hand, a full assortment of Ropes, &c; Anchors and Chains of all Sizes; American, Italian and Russian Hemp Ropes of any size or description made to order on short notice.
In 1859, Fitler bought out Weaver and changed the company’s name to Edwin H. Fitler & Co. About 1880 the old works at 10th & Germantown was seen as inadequate and a new works was built in Bridesburg. His success continued, and his company eventually became one of the largest cordage manufacturers in the United States. Recognized as a leader in his industry, Fitler served as president of the American Cordage Manufacturers Association. Fitler was also active in other businesses, including board of directors member of the National Bank of the Northern Liberties. Fitler also served as president of the board of trustees of the Thomas Jefferson Medical College, a member of the board of managers of the Edwin Forrest Home, and a board of directors member of the North Pennsylvania Railroad.
 Edwin Henry Fitler daguerreotype

Sixth plate Daguerreotype portrait (2 3/4 by 3 1/4 inches) of Henry Walworth Smith. Born in Groton, Conn., January 6, 1827; passed freshman year ill at Williams College; began roaming the seas: took a voyage to Antarctic Ocean, and another to the West Indies; three years in California, 1849-53; passed sophomore year at Rochester University, N. Y., 1853-4; in 1857 engaged in sub-marine operations as the occupation of his life; expended two years in searching for the almost fabulous wealth of the San Pedro de Alcantara, sunk in sixty-five feet of water, in the Bay of Cumana, coast of Venezuela, South America; suffered shipwreck and entire loss'of Brig Monagas, on Cohasset Shoals, Cape Cod (while in command of Brig), terminating the ill-starred expedition fitted out by the Boston Sub-Marine and Wrecking Company; in i860 raised a man-of-war, sunk near Callao, Peru, for the Peruvian government. In 1861, recovered much of the treasure of the ship Leo cadia, sunk in 1801 off coast of Ecquador; also engaged in large operations on the pearl banks of Ecquador; in 1863 entered United States Army as second lieutenant 4th Massachusetts Cavalry; served with the regiment throughout war; mustered out as captain; in 1867 commissioned second lieutenant in Seventh Cavalry United States Army; served under General Custer in his campaign against the Wichita Indians; left the army as first lieutenant, 1871; since then occupied in sub-marine operations on the Mississippi; married April 14, 1864; two sons.
Slightly smaller than a sixth plate, this daguerreotype portrait of Rev. David Perry (1822-1859) of South Thomaston, Maine, is housed in an oval wall frame, 2-1/2" wide by  3" tall. Case is 4-1/2" wide by 5-1/2" tall.
Sixth plate Daguerreotype portrait (2 3/4 by 3 1/4 inches) of Henry S. Mann. He was born on Nantucket, but became a resident of Dartmouth, Massachusetts, from whence in the time of the "gold fever" he journeyed with the "Forty-niners" to far away California. After his return, he again settled in Dartmouth, where for many years he was local representative of the Howe Sewing Machine Company. Henry Mann married Mary E. Gifford (I also have a sixth plate daguerreotype of Mary Gifford), daughter of John Gifford and Mary Easton. Also an ambrotype of Mary E. Gifford's father John Gifford (born 1785) taken in New Bedford in 1860. Also a ninth plate daguerreotype of Mary Elizabeth Burliem wife of John Easton Gifford. They married in Providence in 1850 and she died in 1855. Also a sixth plate daguerreotype of an unknown couple, probably related to the Giffords or the Mann's. There was one "Henry S. Mann" who was master of the whale ship Barclay which sailed from New Bedford on July 20, 1844 for the Pacific whaling grounds. This is probably the same Henry S. Mann. Some of these people may have been involved in whaling. More research is needed.



A Pioneer Family
of Grand Rapids Michigan


Double sixth plate Daguerreotype portrait (2 3/4 by 3 1/4 inches each side) of the Simeon Sargent Stewart family of Grand Rapids Michigan. The daguerreotype shows Simeon Stewart with his oldest son on the left plate, and his wife and younger son and daughter on the right plate. "The first settler within the present limits of the township [of Grand Rapids Michigan] was Ezekiel Davis, who located on section thirty-four in 1834. He also erected the first house. During the same summer Lewis Reed, Ezra Reed, Porter Reed, David S. Leavitt, Robert M. Barr, settled in the township. James McCrath, George Young, and Simeon Stewart settled in the year 1836. Robert Thompson, John W. Fisk, and Mathew Taylor settled in the year 1837. Mr. Fisk erected the first hotel, now known as the Lake House."		 Daguerreotype of the Simeon Sargent Stewart family of Grand Rapids Michigan.

Ninth plate daguerreotype portrait (2 by 2.5 inches) of Captain Benjamin Leach Allen, 1803-1865. "The seafaring Allen men faced abbreviated lives because fully a third of them perished on board ship; more than 25 were “lost at sea” before 1780. This terrible risk women did not run, with one matronly exception: Hannah Lee Foster Allen (1805-1900) accompanied her husband Benjamin on his voyages (her one and only child died a toddler)."
Sixth plate Daguerreotype portrait (2 3/4 by 3 1/4 inches) of Hiram Hill and his wife Mary Fowler Hill, in a double union case. He began his career as a carpenter specializing in circular staircases. Hiram Hill was a prominent lumber importer of mahogany and other tropical hardwoods, in Providence, Rhode Island. See pages 53-65 of "The Human Tradition in Antebellum America" by Michael A. Morrison. Hiram Hill was among the first directors of the Atlantic Bank. His house, the Hiram Hill house, still stands to this day.
Quarter plate Daguerreotype portrait ( 3 1/4 by 4 1/4 inches) of  Col. George Church (1826-1903). "Col. George Church was a son of Leman Church, (a prominent member of the Litchfield county bar, and a nephew of Samuel Church, Chief Justice of the State of Connecticut). Early in life Col. George Church learned the business of smelting pig-iron and became connected with the Richmond Iron Works at Van Deusenville, Mass. Eventually he became one of the best known experts in the manufacture of charcoal pig-iron in the country, and associated with John H. and George Coffing, he became an owner in the company for whom he had been acting as agent. In 1861 Col. Church became identified with the Monument Cotton Mills at Housatonic which, largely through his management and business ability, became the largest manufacturers of bed quilts in the United States. His association in this industry was with Mr. John H. Coffing, and Mr. John M. Seeley. It was after he joined the firm that the business began to grow in importance. In 1867, he, with Messrs. J. H. Coffing, George Coffing and Charles J. Taylor, established the Lenox Iron Furnace. His next enterprise was the incorporation of the Ramapo Wheel Foundry Co., and the Ramapo Iron Works at Hillbum, N. Y., of both of which he took the presidency and treasurership, his associates being Messrs. George and John H. Coffing. Both of these concerns prospered. During the last twenty years of his life he conducted also the business of the Berkshire Glass Sand Company, of which he was president and treasurer. In addition to these industrial offices, Col. George Church was a director in the Stanley Instrument Co., the National Mahaiwe Bank, the Berkshire Railroad Co., and president of the Great Barrington Savings Bank.
Sixth plate Daguerreotype portrait (2 3/4 by 3 1/4 inches) of William Ashley Hovey wearing his sergeant's uniform jacket during the Mexican War. This daguerreotype was probably taken in New Orleans in 1846 or 1847 when he was discharged as a 3rd sergeant. He served in Capt. Sneed's Company G, 1st. Regiment Tennessee Cavalry. William A. Hovey was from Thetford Vermont and lived in Centre, Wisconsin, after the war. By 1851 he was living in Yreka California where he spent the rest of his long life. He was a wheelwright, wagon maker, and undertaker. William Ashley Hovey received a pension for his service in the Mexican War. His son Eugene was killed in the Modoc War.
Sixth plate Daguerreotype portrait (2 3/4 by 3 1/4 inches) of a bearded California gold miner wearing a blue-tinted miner's shirt, taken in 1854 by daguerreotypist James M. Ford. Housed in its original Ford's Daguerreian Gallery imprinted case. "Ford's Daguerrean Gallery Clay St., San Francisco, and J St. Sacramento City" imprinted on the beautiful red velvet pillow. The image may be dated by the fact that Ford’s Gallery was established in the late spring of 1854 and the by the end of that year the Sacramento studio had been sold. This very fine daguerreotype was found in the state of Maine.
Ninth plate daguerreotype portrait (2 by 2.5 inches) of Farmersville Texas resident John Henderson Douglas (b. Feb. 18, 1832, d. Sep. 28, 1915). In a rare hand-painted daguerreotype case. John H. Douglas was a farmer and served in the confederate army:

"JOHN H. DOUGLAS. Farmersville, Texas— Born near Columbia, Tenn., Feb. 18, 1832. Enlisted in the Confederate Army in 1862. I belonged to Voorheis'(sic) Regiment. Was captured at Fort Donelson, and afterwards those who escaped were formed into a new regiment under Col. Nixon, and I joined Howard's Company (Company B), Forty-Eighth Tennessee Regiment. Was never taken prisoner nor wounded. Was at Port Hudson when the Federals sent that fleet up the river. Was also at Jackson, Miss., after the fall of Vicksburg. From there we went to Dalton, Ga., after the battle of Missionary Ridge, and was in the Atlanta campaign under Johnston, and from there went with Hood into Tennessee.
Aleck and Will Spain were in the same company, and George, another brother, went to Port Hudson to enlist, was taken sick and died there. In the Mississippi campaign between Big Black and Jackson I became over-heated and lost my voice, which has never been fully regained. For several months I could not speak above a whisper.
I thought I was gone one time. I was sent out on picket and was to find my post by some broken limbs, the leaves of which were dead. I missed my way, but found some limbs as described, but found it already occupied by a Yankee picket. It is hardly necessary to say that I did not occupy that post." from Reminiscences of the Boys in Gray, 1861-1865. page 195.
 Ninth plate daguerreotype portrait of Farmersville Texas resident John Henderson Douglas, who was a confederate soldier..

Sixth plate Daguerreotype portrait (2 3/4 by 3 1/4 inches) of John Milton Goetchius, Sr, a New York City chemicals manufacturer (of dye stuffs, dye woods, and acids) at 47 Fulton Street (the James L. Morgan & Company, where he was the managing director for decades). John M. Goetchius was born in 1834 in N. Y. City. He is photographed with another unidentified man.
Sixth plate Daguerreotype portrait (2 3/4 by 3 1/4 inches) of Lewis M. Alverson was born in 1807 in New York, he was married in St. Louis, Missouri in 1832, and went to San Francisco during the Gold Rush as a mine agent. Identified on a slip of paper "L.M. Alverson / taken in Dubuque  / Iowa in 1849".
Sixth plate Daguerreotype portrait (2 3/4 by 3 1/4 inches) identified as Anson Wood - Stepfather of Olin (or Olive?) Carpenter (hard to read). He may have been the Anson Wood of the Spy Battalion, 3rd Brigade, Illinois Mounted Volunteers, Black Hawk War of 1832. I'm not sure.
Three sixth plate Daguerreotype portraits (2 3/4 by 3 1/4 inches), taken in 1847, of Alexander Hopkins, his wife Jerusha Wise Hopkins, and their daughter Amelia Barber Hopkins (born 10 Nov 1843). Amelia is about 4 years old in her Daguerreotype, which shows her holding the actual Daguerreotype of her father. Captain Alexander Hopkins (1804-1872) was a long-time Boston policeman and constable, and also a tax collector. When he was a young man he assaulted his first wife, Catherine Ellis Veazie ( 1806-1836), nearly killing her with a flat-iron, and spent some years in state prison for attempted murder. For the rest of his life he was a well respected Boston citizen and lawman. He died of tuberculosis in 1872 at age 67.




A very interesting ninth plate daguerreotype portrait (2 by 2.5 inches) of a sailor in uniform holding a straw hat at his side with the logo similar to the later U.S. Life-saving Service logo of the crossed oar & boat hook, but with his logo having the initials "F.S.S." below the crossed oar & boat hook (centered over the letter "O"). The sailor's name is William E. Schenck, brother of Caroline A. Schenck. The Daguerreotype, in a union case, was taken circa 1856-1859. If anyone knows what this F.S.S. on his hat stands for, please contact me. Thanks!
 Daguerreotype of sailor William E. Schenck with straw hat F.S.S. logo, circa 1856-1859.

Sixth plate Daguerreotype portrait (2 3/4 by 3 1/4 inches) identified as John Milton Goetchius and a friend. John Milton Goetchius was born in 1834 and died in 1904. He was married to Sarah Gilbert Kellogg.
Sixth plate Daguerreotype portrait (2 3/4 by 3 1/4 inches) of Lewis M. Alverson, "taken in Dubuque Iowa in 1849." He was born in 1807 in New York, and was married in St. Louis, Missouri, in 1832. He went to San Francisco during the Gold Rush as a mine agent. His daughter, Elizabeth  married James Stebbins, a Senator from Yuba County, California.

Ninth plate oval daguerreotype portrait (approx 2 by 2.5 inches) of U.S. Army surgeon DeWitt Clinton Peters who was Kit Carson's friend and first biographer. Dewitt C. Peters sat for this daguerreotype in New York City in 1856, according to the note that's attached to the daguerreotype. In this same year Kit Carson started dictating his life story for DeWitt Peters to have published, finishing in 1857.

Peters was stationed at Taos during the years 1854-56 when Kit Carson was the local Indian Agent. They participated in Colonel T. T. Fauntleroy's campaign against the Utes.

For more info see the DeWitt Clinton Peters Papers, Bancroft Library.
 Daguerreotyoe of DeWitt Clinton Peters, biographer of Kit Carson.

Daguerreotype locket showing a daguerreotype portrait of a young man who has a large gilt star on his cravat. I don't know what this star represents. The other image in the locket is a tintype of a woman.
Sixth plate Daguerreotype portrait (2 3/4 by 3 1/4 inches) of Captain Joshua Hopkins (1806-1886) of Orrington, Maine, Hampden, Maine, and Bucksport, Maine. He was a sea captain of schooners making trading voyages to Haiti, Antigua, and other Caribbean countries. The schooners included the Maria A. Hopkins (named for his wife), the Orcutt, and the Mississippi. Two of his schooners were lost in famous shipwrecks.
Quarter plate Daguerreotype portrait ( 3 1/4 by 4 1/4 inches) of Jasper Raymond Rand (1801-1869). He is pictured with his two daughters. From one of Jasper Rand’s obituaries in 1869. “When Jasper R. Rand established his whip factory at Westfield [Massachusetts] in 1833, whip manufacture was a slow business; these gentle stimulants were made almost exclusively by hand — machinery being used only for braiding the thread. Now that factory has grown to mammoth proportions, and under the management of its present proprietors, Rand, Lewis & Rand, whip manufacture has become a fine art. They have in operation 25 braiders, run by water power, each of which turns off 25 times as much work as the wooden machines formally in use. They make whips of all imaginable kinds and styles, from buggy whips worth 85 cents per dozen, to elegant ivory-handled, gold mounted articles worth $600 per dozen. If all the whips made by them in a year, were placed together, they would reach from Boston to Albany and back.” Jasper Raymond Rand's sons were part owners of the famous firm of Ingersoll-Rand.


Sixth plate Daguerreotype portrait (2 3/4 by 3 1/4 inches) of John M. Goring by the daguerreotypist Insley, Broadway, New York. Goring came to America from England around 1836, and engaged in the art of engraving in copper for calico printing. I wonder if Goring was the first engraver in calico printing in America? Calico printing was invented in England: "John Potts (1791–1841) was the inventor of a method of calico printing by the use of copper rollers onto which patterns had been engraved. He was born in Manchester, he moved to New Mills, Derbyshire in 1820. He founded the firm of engravers to calico printers known as Potts, Oliver and Potts"(Wiki). John M. Goring lived in Wappingers Falls, N.Y.		 A Calico Printing Machine that John M. Goring engraved for.

Sixth plate Daguerreotype portrait (2 3/4 by 3 1/4 inches) of Abner Haven Wenzel (a.k.a. Abner Haven Wenzell) 1833-1871. Abner Wenzel committed suicide at age 37 after rumors were spread about him. He shot himself 10 times, 6 times in the chest, one to the ribs, and the last 3 shots to the head, but didn’t die and was happy to be recovering when he died 2 weeks later. He was a lawyer in Marlboro Mass, and a graduate of Amherst College, class of 1853. The daguerreotype portrait was taken in 1849 when he was 16 years old.
Sixth plate Daguerreotype portrait (2 3/4 by 3 1/4 inches) of a young Edward Huntington Merrell. This daguerreotype was taken around 1855 when he was about 20 years old. Perhaps a graduation photograph before he entered Oberlin College. He became a philosophy & Greek (and ancient languages) professor at Ripon College in 1862. Later we was president of Ripon College for 16 years. He was the author of two books: "John Scott Horner: A Biographical Sketch", (Madison, State Historical Society of Wisconsin, 1906), and "Ripon College: A historical sketch." He died in 1910. His papers were donated to the Wisconsin State Historical Society.
Sixth plate Daguerreotype portrait (2 3/4 by 3 1/4 inches) of George Henry Ayton (1791–1865). He was born August 21, 1791 in London, England, to William and Mary Ayton. He served on HMS Victorious in Chesapeake Bay during the War of 1812, part of Rear Admiral Sir George Cockburn's fleet. HMS Victorious participated in the blockade of the Elizabeth River, keeping the USS Constellation at her berth in Norfolk during the conflict.

George Henry Ayton joined the Royal Navy December 3, 1807. He first served on the HMS Royal William as Landman; HMS Daphne as Midshipman; HMS Victorious as Midshipman (Walcheren Expedition); on the HMS Victorious as Master's Mate (wounded in the Action of Feb 16, 1812). In 1814 he passed the Lieutenant's Examination. In 1814 he was on the HMS Victorious as Acting Lieutenant, then on the HMS Rosario as Acting Lieutenant. On March 4, 1815, he was promoted to the rank of Lieutenant, at the age of 23. He married Harriette Smith. They lived in Macclesfield, Cheshire, England.

Sixth plate portrait Daguerreotype (2 3/4 by 3 1/4 inches) of Robert Sears of Canada and New York City. The daguerreotype shows Sears displaying one of his books: "Sears' Pictorial Description of the United States." Robert Sears was a publisher and printer in New York City. He was also the printer, publisher, and writer, for the second African-American newspaper ever published in America, the Weekly Advocate. "Created / Published: New-York [N.Y.] : Robert Sears, 1837."
After publishing eight issues, Sears changed the name of the newspaper (I assume with the permission of the owners/editors) to "Colored American" which ran until 1842. According to Garland Penn, author of "The Afro-American Press and its Editors", 1891, page 32, "It [the Weekly Advocate] was published by Mr. Robert Sears, of Toronto, Canada, a warm friend to the race."

Robert Sears' obituary from The Publishers' Weekly, February 27, 1892:
Robert Sears, a publisher and at one time a prominent printer in New York City, died in Toronto on the 17th inst. He was born at St. John,, New Brunswick, on June 28, 1810, his father being Thatcher Sears, one of the loyalists of the Revolution. Mr. Sears served an apprenticeship in the printing business at St. John, and in 1832 he came to New York City where he opened a small printing office in Park Row. In 1839 he removed to 181 William Street, and began the publication of illustrated works, which were sold almost entirely by subscription. He was a liberal patron and friend of the earlier wood-engravers, and he did much to develop their art, then in its infancy. He was one of the earliest pioneers in arousing and fostering that taste for pictorial representation which has since grown to such large dimensions. He was also one of the first to recognize the value of judicious advertising. He expended many thousands of dollars in making his publications known throughout the United States, and in 1847 he procured an extensive recognition of the merits of American wood-engraving from the British public by presenting a complete set of his publication to Queen Victoria, for which he received her personal thanks. Among his publications are "Illustrations of the Bible" (1840), "Bible Biography" (1843), "Wonders of the World" (1847), "Pictorial History of the United States" (1847), his most important work, and "Description of the Russian Empire" (1854).
Books written and/or published by Robert Sears include: Bible Biography; Bible Quadrupeds: the natural history of the animals mentioned in scripture; Family Instructor, or Digest of general knowledge; Fireman's Gazette; Illustrated history of the Holy Bible; Largest and best assortment of wood cuts and stereotype casts of English wood engravings, ever offered to the trade; New Pictorial and Illustrated Family Magazine; Pictorial History of China and India; Pictorial Sunday book; Remarkable Adventures of Celebrated Persons; Scenes and Sketches in Continental Europe; Sears' Monthly Advertiser; Sears' Monthly Messenger; Sears' New Pictorial Family Magazine; Wonders of the World; Illustrated History of the Holy Bible; Illustrated Description of the Russian Empire; Pictorial Description of the United States; Pictorial History of the American Revolution; Sears' Illustrated Russia, new edition, thoroughly revised and enlarged; Sears' New Family Receipt Book: containing the most valuable receipts for the various branches of cookery....; Two Hundred Pictorial Illustrations of the Holy Bible; and, Wonders of the World.

Robert Sears was a descendant of Richard Sares (Sears) of Yarmouth, Massachusetts, 1638. Robert Sears' father, Thatcher Sears, was a fur trader in the Mohawk country and, being a loyalist, fled the revolution to Canada where he worked as a furrier and hatter. Robert Sears' grandfather Nathaniel died at age 27 in Norwalk, Connecticut, in the same year that his son, Thatcher Sears, was born.
 Robert Sears publisher 1810-1892.

Sixth plate portrait Daguerreotype portrait (2 3/4 by 3 1/4 inches) of John I. Schenck 1778-1857. His middle name was probably Isaac (a family name). He was a farmer in Penn’s Neck, New Jersey. His father, Captain John Roelofse G. Schenck, fought in the Revolutionary War (not to be confused with another Captain John Schenck of New Jersey, probably a relative, who was 10 years younger and fought in most of the major battles of the War in New Jersey and Pennsylvania).
John I. Schenck 1778-1857, married Elizabeth Thomas and had 8 children.





Daguerreotype
Locket
The case is engraved "M.A. Blackburn, Worcester, Mass" and contains three portrait daguerreotypes and one empty compartment.

I believe this is the family of William Blackburn, Lucy S. Blackburn, John W. Blackburn, and Mary A. Blackburn. I think the 3 daguerreotypes are of William Blackburn, Lucy S. Blackburn, and John W. Blackburn.

William Blackburn was a hatter and owned a hat and bonnet store on Main Street where he also sold fur robes.
 Daguerreotype locket of the Blackburn family of Worcester, Mass.

Sixth plate Daguerreotype portrait (2 3/4 by 3 1/4 inches) of Ralph Hart Ensign, the owner of Ensign-Bickford. His company is still in business today and is involved in the future moon landing.
Sixth plate Daguerreotype portrait (2 3/4 by 3 1/4 inches) of Thomas Carleton Cheney. He was first a beltmaker (I assume this means the large leather belts that used water power to drive machinery), then he was a mechanic, a machinist, and later in life a letter-carrier.

Info on him from the University of New Hampshire Library, Durham, NH:
"Thomas C. Cheney was born in Derry, New Hampshire on September 11, 1831 to Sally and Lyman King Cheney. For many years he lived in Manchester (N.H.), and it was there at the age of 25 that he became an active member of the First Free Baptist Church. He married twice (Rachel Tomkins, on May 4, 1853, and Jennie Ham) and had two children, Frederick and Clinton.

In 1861, at the age of 28, Cheney enlisted as a private in the First N.H. Volunteer Light Battery commanded by Captain George A. Gerrish. The company at the time consisted of a six-gun battery of rifled brass pieces, 155 men, and 115 horses, “finely equipped with uniforms and great provisions.” Throughout the Civil War Cheney’s unit was combined with others, and consequently it came under the command of many different officers. Cheney’s unit was in virtually every major battle of the Army of the Potomac – Fredericksburg, Gettysburg, and the Virginia Campaign of 1864. He received a slight flesh wound in May 1864 at Po River, Virginia and mustered out September 25 that same year.

In 1879, he set up residence in Dorchester, Massachusetts, working as a machinist and spending his non-working hours at the Free Baptist Church in Boston. He died in Dorchester on May 30, 1900, aged 68.

The Thomas Carleton Cheney collection consists of 55 letters written between 1851-1885, with the bulk of them being between 1861 and 1664, four diaries from 1861 to 1864, a small number of photographs, Cheney’s mess kit, and several small items Cheney made to pass the time, such as wooden rings and several pairs of wooden pliers, some of them carved at the front. Also among the items in the collection is a scale model brass cannon, which Cheney made after the war, and a knife that he carried in his backpack, which bears the unmistakable imprint of a spent musket ball. This knife probably saved his life." University of New Hampshire Library, Durham, NH.

Excellent daguerreotype in fine condition, taken when he was 19 years old.

Sixth plate Daguerreotype portrait (2 3/4 by 3 1/4 inches) of William Murray of Little Falls, New York. He was born in 1815 in Neverstowey, England, and died in Little Falls in 1888. He married Caroline Shepard. William Murray is listed in the 1855 NY census as a currier (a currier is a specialist in the leather processing industry. After the tanning process, the currier applies techniques of dressing, finishing and colouring to the tanned hide to make it strong, flexible and waterproof). In the 1865 NY census he is listed as a Tanner. He and his wife had 9 children.
Sixth plate Daguerreotype portrait (2 3/4 by 3 1/4 inches) of  Charles McLaughlin and his wife Sally Chadwick McLaughlin (daughter of James and Rhoda Chadwick of Falmouth, Mass). James Chadwick served in the Revolutionary War.
Charles McLaughlin was born on August 2, 1771, and died on Sept. 8, 1860, in Corinth, Maine. Sarah (Sally) Chadwick was born May 17, 1780, and died in Corinth, Maine, on June 22, 1858. Charles was a farmer. His parents were George McLaughlin (1736-1815) and Lois Sands (1743-1831). They were married in 1763 and had fourteen children. George McLaughlin was born at Coleraine, Ireland. At the age of eleven, he joined the crew of a ship and was dismissed in Maine with little or no money. At the age of twenty-one, he was pressed to join the British army and served in the French and Indian Wars, where he was severely wounded. After the war, he went to Georgetown on the Kennebec River.  The family moved to Harlem (now China) in Kennebec County, Maine, in 1776, when Charles was 4 years old. Charles McLaughlin (1771-1860), lived in Maine, Massachusetts, New York, and elsewhere. For more info, see the manuscript "George McLaughlin, 1735-1815, of China, Maine, and some of his descendants", by Lillian Rich McLaughlin Gilligan.
Sixth plate Daguerreotype portrait (2 3/4 by 3 1/4 inches) of  Elias Kirkpatrick of Newark and Plainfield New Jersey. Elias Kirkpatrick was born in 1808 and died in 1871. He was a postmaster, Justice of the peace, police justice, and a judge. He also held a patent for a railroad tracks cleaner. He married Jane Squier and they had 5 children.
Sixth plate Daguerreotype portrait (2 3/4 by 3 1/4 inches) of Reuben Porter. I believe this is the Reuben Porter of Heath, Massachusetts, who was born 16 Dec 1779 and died 13 Feb 1868. He was a farmer. He was married to Sally Sabin, Eliza Maynard, and Persis Sears. His children were Barnabas Sabin Porter, Sally Arms Porter Coates Bates, Elizabeth Porter Buck, Lydia Maynard Porter Wood, Rufus Porter, Almira Porter Hawks, and Lucinda Porter Hawks.
Sixth plate Daguerreotype portrait (2 3/4 by 3 1/4 inches) of Charles Waite Mason, born 1780, died 1868. Wonderful portrait daguerreotype of a man who was born during the Revolutionary War. He appears to be in his early eighties, and his blue eyes sparkle of a life well lived. I suppose that he was a farmer, but I was unable to learn of his profession. His father was taken captive at the time of General Braddock's defeat by the Indians while on his way to carry provisions to his own father [Charles’ grandfather] in the army, and Charles' father was sold to a French officer for a bottle of gin. Charles' father was taken to Canada, and when grown up, returned to his native land, bringing with him this piece of gold, which he loaned to the congregation to pay for the land that the local Lutheran church was built on.
Sixth plate Daguerreotype portrait (2 3/4 by 3 1/4 inches) of the famous Maine woodsman Jonathan "Jock" Darling, of Enfield and Lowell Maine. This highly important, very fine daguerreotype portrait of Jock Darling was taken in 1855, when he was 25 years old, likely in Bangor. He is dressed in his best clothes (he was known to be "neatly dressed" when not in the woods). In addition to his hunting, fishing, and trapping skills, he was a builder of Maine birch bark canoes. "Mr. Jonathan Darling of Lowell, Me, proposes to be present [at the Lake George canoe congress] with some of his birch-bark canoes, and intends to bring along some Penobscot Indians as experts [Portland Daily Press, 1880]." Jock Darling owned hunting camps at Nicatous Lake and Seboeis Lake. Jock was known as "the King of Nicatous." Jock's lodge at Nicatous was the first hunting lodge in Maine history. For more info see: <https://digitalcommons.library.umaine.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1171&context=mainehistoryjournal>.
A pair of Sixth plate Daguerreotype portraits (2 3/4 by 3 1/4 inches) of very old people. The daguerreotypes were probably taken between 1846 and 1850. I believe that these folks were born in the mid to late 1700's. A small piece of paper found inside reads "Azubah Barber Shepard." She was born too late to have been the old lady in the daguerreotype. Azubah Barber, 1816-1893, married Luther Shepard, 1791-1858. I haven't been able to identify these people, but they are probably related to Azubah Barber Shepard, who I assume was given the dags. Perhaps they are her grandparents or other relatives. One set of her grandparents died before the invention of photography.
 Unidentified daguerreotypes related to Azubah Barber Shepard.


Quarter plate Daguerreotype portrait of Alfred Brewster Ely (1817-1872), and his wife Lucy Cooley Ely (1831-1856), of Newton, Massachusetts. Lucy Cooley Ely died in 1856 at age 25. The booklet "A Memento of the Last Sickness and Death of Mrs. Lucy C. Ely" was published in 1856. See: https://archive.org/details/amementolastsic00coolgoog/page/n6/mode/2up.

See also: Alfred B. Ely, "American Liberty: Its Sources, Its Dangers, and the Means of its Preservation," an oration given at the Broadway Tabernacle in New York on February 22, 1850 by a member of the Order of United Americans (New York: B's Seaman & Dunham Printers, 1850), 24.

(Not to be confused with the Alfred B. Ely who was a prisoner of war at Richmond and published a diary; different guy).
 Alfred Brewster Ely 1872




A pair of Sixth plate Daguerreotype portraits (2 3/4 by 3 1/4 inches) of Samuel Olmstead Bancroft (1796-1888) and his wife Mary Polly Brace Bancroft (1798-1863). The daguerreotypes were probably taken around 1850. Samuel Olmstead Bancroft (I believe he went by "Olmstead Bancroft") was born in Fort Edwards, N.Y. They lived in Chagrin Falls, Ohio. After his wife's death he lived in Janesville, Wisc, and Milwaukee.

Samuel Olmstead Bancroft owned a grist mill in Chagrin Falls for many years.

I am not finding a record of him having served in the War of 1812. Perhaps I will find it mentioned in a newspaper.
Samuel Olmstead Bancroft daguerreotype.


Sixth plate Daguerreotype portrait (2 3/4 by 3 1/4 inches) of Joshua Husband Morris of Philadelphia. He was the founder of the Title Insurance Industry. Joshua H. Morris helped form the Philadelphia Conveyancers' Association.
 


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