History Through the Lens of the Camera
The Breckenridge History archives recently acquired an ambrotype of a local mining camp. Originally gifted to the Montana Historical Society, Photo Archives Manager Jeff Malcomson researched the one-of-a-kind photograph and discovered that the location did not match either of the two French Gulch locations in Montana. Upon further investigation, he was able to confirm that the image actually matched French Gulch in Breckenridge. Read more here.
This post identifies studio photographers active in Greeley in the 1890s. See my earlier posts for photographers working in the 1870s, early 1880s, and late 1880s. Did I miss any photographers? Can you provide any additional biographical details?
1890
Harry G. Townend (1862-1928) was born in Ohio to British immigrants Henry Townend and Christiana Garthwaite Townend. By 1870, the Townend family lived in western Massachusetts. In 1884, H. G. Townend began his professional career as a Fitchburg (MA) National bank teller. Townend resigned from the bank in 1889 and moved to Greeley, Colorado to improve his health. A mount credited to Townend features a portrait of Greeley high school class of 1890, one of his only extant photographs. Townend and his wife, Susan Amelia Upton Townend, returned to Massachusetts in June 1890. He resumed his banking career, ultimately becoming a bank president. Townend died on December 24, 1928, after a long illness. His remains rest in Fitchburg’s Forest Hill Cemetery.
Frank Knapp (1862-1894) Born in in Tompkins County, New York, Knapp learned photography in Ithaca, New York with William Frear. After a brief time working in a New York City gallery, Knapp took a position at J. W. Taylor’s studio in Rochester. In 1889, he opened his own business at 138 East Main Street. His business struggled and Knapp pursued a photography position with John C. H. Grabill in South Dakota.
Grabill advanced travel expenses to Knapp, but he never arrived. Instead, Knapp spent a couple of months working for M. E. Chase in Greeley. When it became known that Knapp had failed to show up at the Grabill studio, Grabill received a flurry of letters from Knapp’s former employers describing his poor work habits. M. E. Chase reported that Knapp was the first person he had ever fired, claiming that Knapp took every opportunity to avoid working.
Knapp walked more than 300 miles from Greeley to Deadwood, South Dakota, supposedly to honor his commitment to Grabill. However, after working for a week, Knapp requested an advance on his salary. After receiving $15.00, he announced to his co-workers his intention to quit. When Knapp failed to show up for work on Monday, Grabill had him arrested for obtaining money under false pretenses.
A few months later, Knapp found employment with O. D. Kirkland in Cheyenne, Wyoming. In 1892, he was working in Denver for H. S. Bellsmith.
On March 15, 1894, Frank Knapp passed away at the age of 31 in Riverside, California due to tuberculosis. He was buried at Riverside’s Evergreen Cemetery.
Lewis E. Imes (1860-1932) learned photography in Chicago from Edward F. Hartley in 1880. He worked as a photographer in several western towns, including with William Henry Jackson, in Denver, Colorado. In May 1890, Imes (The Greeley Sun reported his name as Ives) managed Morton E. Chase’s Greeley gallery while Chase was away on a business trip. In the 1890s, as a salesman for the American Aristotype Paper Company, he traveled to every state in the nation. Imes settled in Lansing, Michigan in 1899, continuing to work in the photography field for three decades.
1891
Erik Borklund was born in Sweden where he learned photography. In 1891 and 1892, he worked in Greeley, Colorado at B. F. Marsh’s former location. He may have moved to Chicago in 1892.
Sadie E. Potter is listed as a photographer in the 1891 Denver City Directory, one year before working for William Henry Jackson as a clerk. In February and March of 1891, she rented Benjamin F. Marsh’s Greeley studio offering cabinet photographs for sale.
Daisy Clark (1874-1960) worked for three weeks in M. E. Chase’s gallery.
Frank E. Baker was Greeley’s most prominent photographer in the 1890s.
Circa 1893-1900
Ammon Noah Weikert was born in Pennsylvania on December 29, 1857, to Noah P. Weikert and Matilda Beck Weikert. The 1880 census lists him as a farmer in Morton, Iowa. In the 1880s, he worked as a photographer in College Springs, Iowa. In 1887, he relocated to Indianola, Nebraska. Around 1891, Weikert settled in Greely, Colorado. He was employed in the F. E. Baker studio for many years and was also associated with the Opera House. Around 1910, he moved to Los Angeles, finding employment as an electrician. Ammon N. Weikert died at his Inglewood, Califonia home on January 11, 1932.
1897-1898
Greeley Art Studio H. S. Lipshitz and his wife ran a photo-enlarging business under the name Greeley Art Studio.
1898
Harry Arthur Orendorf (1877-1901) was born in Oakland Center, Wisconsin. He grew up in Hebron, Nebraska. Orendorf worked for Morton E. Chase in Greeley during the summer of 1898. He died on April 3, 1901 of typhoid pneumonia. At the time of his death, he was employed as a clerk in Pueblo, Colorado. Orendorf was buried at Mountain View Cemetery in Pueblo.
1899
Mathias Forsdahl was born in Scandinavia around 1848. By 1875 Forsdahl worked as an upholsterer in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Around 1886, he moved to Colorado Springs, Colorado, selling second-hand goods and continuing to work in the upholstering trade. In 1888, Forsdahl was listed in the Colorado Springs city directory as a photographer. He relocated to Greeley, Colorado by 1895, first as a second-hand goods dealer, then between 1899 and 1900, as a photographer. Forsdahl died on August 30, 1904 after a short illness. He was buried at Greeley’s Linn Grove Cemetery.
Thank you to Beverly Brannan for proofreading this post. Miranda Todd at the Greeley Museum provided research assistance.
Frank E. Baker was born in Wisconsin in September 1849 to Garrett H. Baker and Elmina Clapp. His mother retained her maiden name. Active as social reformers, the family joined the Wisconsin Phalanx commune in Fond du Lac County in the late 1840s. Based on the ideas of French philosopher Charles Fourier, the members lived together in longhouses and ate communal meals. They raised potatoes, buckwheat, turnips, and winter wheat. The community grew to nearly 200 people before dissolving in the early 1850s.
In 1858, the Garrett Baker family settled in Cobden, Illinois, and established a profitable fruit farm. They supported the Underground Railroad, aiding southern slaves to relocate to free states in the North, despite opposition from many Southern sympathizers in their community. Frank’s sister Kate taught wood carving at Hampton Institute, established in 1868 to provide skills to Black people after the Civil War.
Frank E. Baker claimed to have worked on Ferdinand Vandeveer Hayden’s 1871 expedition, but I have not been able to confirm this. He married Harriet Davis on September 1, 1872, at her sister’s home, the Kilbourn ranch, near Loveland, Colorado. They spent their first winter in Greeley, Colorado before making a home outside Champaign, Illinois. The Bakers pursued horticulture, growing apples, grapes, plums, and other fruits. In 1877, Mrs. Baker exhibited canned and preserved fruits at the county fair. Frank Baker exhibited apples and wine grapes at the Illinois State Fair a few years later. In 1883, as a commission agent, he shipped nearly 1,000 bushels of apples to Chicago and Eastern markets.
The Bakers often summered in Estes Park, Colorado with Mrs. Baker’s family and Baker often opened a temporary photo studio in the mountains. He regularly hiked, even summiting the highest peak in the area— Long’s Peak, with an elevation of 14,259 feet. When he returned home, Frank Baker presented magic lantern slide shows of Rocky Mountain scenery at local schools, perhaps from his photographs.
By 1891, the Bakers made Greeley, Colorado their permanent home. In addition to his Greeley studio, he opened a branch gallery in Loveland. The following year, Baker, working under Greeley photographer Morton E. Chase, ran a gallery in Fort Morgan, Colorado, visiting several times a year to make portraits.
In March 1893, Baker bought out M. E. Chase. He secured a contract to photograph students graduating from the State Normal School in Greeley, (now the University of Northern Colorado), after administrators compared Baker’s work to several Denver studios and believed he could deliver better work at a cheaper price.
In April 1897, Baker traveled to Chicago to acquire supplies for his gallery. He purchased new backgrounds for the studio and brought back a full line of amateur cameras.
In 1902, Baker sold his business to the Stewart Brothers and began a career in real estate. Frank E. Baker passed away on November 10, 1939 and was laid to rest in Loveland, Colorado’s Lakeside Cemetery. Surprisingly, no obituary was published in the local newspapers.
Thank you to collector W. G. Eloe and Jessica Michak, Curator of Collections, Estes Park Museum for providing digital images. Miranda Todd at the Greeley Museum provided research assistance. Beverly Brannan kindly proofread this blog post.
This post identifies studio photographers active in Greeley between 1886 and 1889. See my earlier posts for photographers working in the 1870s and early 1880s. Did I miss any photographers? Can you provide any additional biographical details?
1886-1888
Webster Bros. A partnership of Harry D. Webster and Frederick A. Webster.
Harry Dorr Webster (1852-1927) was born on a farm in Hadley Township, Michigan to Edwin Baldwin Webster and Anna White Webster, the first of at least eleven children. In the early 1870s, he apprenticed to a Michigan photographer before studying under George F. Maitland of Buffalo, New York.
Harry worked briefly in Flint, Michigan before moving to Lapeer, Michigan to work for Charles A. Kelley. Webster purchased Kelley’s gallery in 1879 and would continue to operate a studio in Lapeer until 1886 when he moved West. He opened Webster Bros. studio with his brother Frederic Arthur Webster in Laramie, Wyoming, before taking over Koonz’s studio in Greeley. The firm dissolved in January 1889. Frederic moved further west and H. D. continued to work in Laramie until 1896.
In January 1897, Harry Webster sold his studio and moved to Cripple Creek, Colorado. He and E. A. Yelton, worked together as Webster & Yelton through September 1897 at Cripple Creek. Webster then worked on his own through 1904 and ran a floral business from his home.
By 1907, Webster had relocated to Wilbur, Oregon, and in 1910 to West Pomeroy, Washington working as a photographer at both locations. In 1914 he took over Miss Edith Robinson’s studio in Burley, Idaho. Seven years later, in 1921, he placed an advertisement in the Burley Herald offering his studio for sale. He died on June 11, 1927, at Burley. He was buried in the Avondale Cemetery in Flint, Michigan.
1886-1888
Frederick Arthur Webster (1860-1933) was born in Lapeer, Michigan. He learned photography at fifteen from his older brother Harry Webster. They worked together in Lapeer and later F. A. Webster worked in St Johns, Michigan. Between 1886-1888, the two brothers ran the Greeley branch of the Webster Bros. studio.
In 1889, Webster moved to Oakland, CA where he would maintain a photography studio for over four decades. He published a booklet of his photographs of the 1906 San Francisco earthquake. Throughout his career, Webster was active in professional associations. In 1918, his work was profiled in the Photographic Journal of America. The work included a portrait of Webster and several photographs by him. He died on April 26, 1933 in Oakland, CA. His wife and one son survived him.
1889-1893
Morton Ellsworth Chase (b.c. 1861-1929) was born in Dearborn County, Indiana to Anthony Chase and Sarah Tufts Butterfield Chase. In 1866, the family moved to Urbana, Illinois. Anthony Chase died before Morton was ten years old. After Anthony’s death, Sarah Chase ran a boarding house in Urbana.
Morton E. Chase attended the Illinois Industrial University, now known as the University of Illinois Urbana- Champaign. In 1881, he taught painting at the school and there he met his first wife, Mary McNeil. Mary was also an artist, skilled in crayon work and painting. They were married on September 5, 1882.
Chase’s photography career began in Urbana with Jacob Scoggins. In 1884, Chase purchased a studio in his hometown. His photographic work won prizes at the county fair and the university hired him to make the senior class portraits, a contract usually given to a Chicago studio. Sadly, Chase’s wife died of consumption in the fall of 1885.
Leaving his gallery in charge of G. R. Gamble, Chase traveled west, landing a position at C. C. Wright’s Central City, Colorado studio. He promised to return to Urbana by April 1, 1886, where he would offer new styles of photographs, but shortly after his return, Chase put his possessions up for auction and in early September headed back to Colorado in a covered buggy with his friend William Goodspeed. By March 1887, Chase had opened a studio at the corner of 15th and Larimer in Denver, offering locket-sized photographs to life-sized portraits. In June, he married Mary Annette “Nettie” Beymer (1864-1949). After a year in Denver, Chase returned to Illinois, taking charge of Thomas Naughton’s studio in Champaign. Soon, however, the Chase’s returned to Colorado, this time settling at Greeley.
Chase documented the rural community of Greeley, making portraits and photographing the agricultural riches of the area, especially its large potato crops. He also traveled around with his tent studio, including a trip to Erie, Colorado to photograph its coal mines. During the summer of 1890, Chase spent two months in the mountains near Breckenridge, Colorado. After he returned to Greeley he set out in his photo car for towns in northern Colorado, including Berthoud and Lyons.
Early in 1892, Chase hired photographer F. E. Baker, who managed Chase’s new branch gallery on the eastern plains in Fort Morgan. The town had never had a resident photographer and relied upon itinerants, so they were excited about having a local photographer.
In the fall of 1892, Chase ran out of photo paper. It took six weeks to replenish his stock which interfered with business before the Christmas holidays. The following March, Chase sold his business to F. E. Baker and left Greeley under a dark cloud. Unsubstantiated rumors circulated that he was romantically involved with a young girl who worked in his studio, causing Mrs. Chase to suffer a relapse of typhoid fever.
The Chases moved to Manitou, Colorado in 1897. The following year Chase bought Dalgleish’s Ouray, Colorado studio. In March 1901, Chase took Harvey Lewis as a partner, with Chase behind the camera and Lewis managing the business. In the fall, Chase partnered with H. E. Lutes. Their views were sold at book and stationery stores in the area and were popular with tourists. They had a photo car that traveled to mountain towns. In March 1902, their partnership was dissolved with Lutes taking over. Chase continued to work in the photo business from his home.
In August 1902, Chase accepted a position in Brumfield’s Silverton studio. He later worked in several cities throughout the state as a photographer and house painter. Morton Ellsworth Chase died on January 17, 1939 in Los Angeles, California.
1889
Phil Bevis (1865-1948) studied architecture at the University of Illinois at Champaign, but poor health prevented him from completing his studies. He worked in the university’s blueprint room before moving to Greeley to assist photographer, Morton E. Chase. Later, he served as general secretary of the Y.M.C.A. for several decades.
Thank you to Beverly W. Brannan for editing this post. Miranda Todd at the Greeley Museum provided research assistance and scans.
This post identifies studio photographers active in Greeley between 1880 and 1887. See my earlier post for photographers working in the 1870s. This post shows how quickly some studios changed hands. Did I miss any photographers? Can you provide any additional biographical details?
1880
Orlando D. Shields (b. c. 1851-1935) was born in Mahoning County, Ohio. The 1880 census lists Shields as a photographer living in Greeley, Colorado, although no examples of his work have been found. For many years he operated a nursery business, selling fruit, shade and ornamental trees from his farm in Larimer County. Shields died on April 3, 1935, while visiting family in Long Beach, California.
George Wallace Wright (b. c. 1855-1931) was born in Maine. His older brother, Charles C. Wright, was also a photographer. Wright worked as a photographer in Chariton, Iowa, until June 1880, moving to Greeley, for his health. The town board permitted Wright to set up a temporary gallery in August. Later, he moved to Loveland, Colorado, and continued his trade. A tintype from this time notes that Wright ran a railroad picture car in Colorado and Wyoming.
For the next decade or so, Wright lived a peripatetic life, moving to Portland, Maine; Holyoke, Massachusetts; and Bath, New York. He settled in New London, Connecticut for several years before finishing his career in Laconia, New Hampshire. Wright died on December 9, 1931, in Tilton, New Hampshire.
1880, 1885-1886, 1891-1908 Clark M. Marsh (1833-1910) and his twin brother, Benjamin, were born on December 26, 1833, to Belorman Marsh and Mary Heller Marsh on a farm in Southport, New York.
Marsh, an early practitioner of photography, began making ambrotypes in Elmira, New York as early as 1856. On July 11, 1860 he married Charlotte E. Kellogg. By 1860 he moved his studio to Canandaigua, New York, offering photographs in lockets or pins for as little as 25 cents. He specialized in copying and enlarging daguerreotypes. In 1866 he updated his gallery with a new skylight. Marsh acquired the exclusive right to use Wing’s Patent Gem Camera, designed by Simon Wing. This camera used multiple lenses to produce tiny gem tintypes measuring approximately 1” by 1-1/4”.
In December 1866, Marsh took E. B. Lewis as a partner. Marsh & Lewis added a music store to the photo gallery. They sold organs, violins, pianos, sheet music and other musical merchandise. However, the partnership dissolved in May 1867. In January 1868, a fire damaged Marsh’s photography gallery. He quickly set up a new gallery on Canandaigua’s Main Street and became an agent for Grover & Baker Sewing Machines. But later that year, Marsh announced that he planned to move West and scheduled an auction to sell his household goods, including five mattresses, one marble-topped table, three good carpets, and three swarms of bees. He lived briefly in Painesville, Ohio, but returned to Canandaigua by the winter of 1869.
In March 1870 Marsh took J. C. Bushfield as a partner. They worked together for about five months. Shortly after that, Marsh relocated to Havana, New York, where his output included stereoviews of the local scenery, showing rocks, bridges, tunnels, cascades, and gorges.
It was not until 1891 that Clark Marsh set up a permanent gallery in Greeley, purchasing goods for the studio in Denver. During the Christmas season, he took 65 baby pictures for free, which resulted in 400 portrait orders. In August 1895, Marsh offered free portraits to every potato farmer and planned to exhibit them on Greeley’s Potato Day. Two years later, he expanded his studio with a brick addition and added four new backdrops. By 1901, his son, Charles, “Chub” had joined the business. They offered Kodak cameras and supplies.
In October 1908, Marsh sold his photography business to E. Wallace. Shortly afterward, Marsh spent six months in San Diego, California visiting his daughter. Clark M. Marsh died on May 19, 1910, at the age of 76, due to heart failure while visiting family in Boise, Idaho. His body was returned to Greeley and he was buried at Linn Grove Cemetery. Clark M. Marsh was survived by four daughters and a son.
1882
Charles C. Wright (b. c. 1840-1887) Wright came to Colorado in 1882 from Indiana. His Greeley studio was located near the depot. In October 1882, he opened another studio in Denver over Reithmann’s Drug Store, at the corner of Fifteenth and Larimer streets. In early 1883, he turned over his Greeley studio to John R. King.
1882-1883
John R. King (b. c. 1853-1927) began his photographic career in Elmira, New York in the late 1870s. During the 1880s, he worked in photography studios throughout Colorado, including Denver, Central City, Boulder and Greeley, where he was often associated with C. C. Wright. In 1882, he managed Wright’s Greeley gallery, which specialized in photographing homes. King took possession of the gallery in January 1883, planning to only stay in Greeley for a couple of weeks, but demand for his services kept him in town until early February. Later that year he moved his photographic operations to Boulder. By 1891, King had returned to Elmira and worked various jobs, including bookkeeper and bartender.
1883-1885
E. W. Pierce (or Peirce) (b. c. 1836-1888) Born in Troy, New York, Pierce arrived in Greeley in September 1883, leasing Benjamin F. Marsh‘s studio. He published an accordion-style souvenir booklet of Greeley illustrated with nine photographs. In 1886, he relocated his gallery to Los Angeles, California.
1885-1886
Marsh Bros. Benjamin Franklin Marsh and his twin brother Clark M. Marsh worked together between the fall of 1885 and April 1886.
1885-1887
John Luther Koonz (1838-1890) was born in New York to Isaac Koonz and Roxana Jennings Koonz. J. L. Koonz married Catharine Mary “Kate” Dickerson on January 27, 1866, in Outagamie County, Wisconsin and they welcomed their first and only child, James, in July 1867.
By 1868, Koonz had opened a photography gallery in the rapidly growing town of Appleton, Wisconsin, on the Fox River. After 17 years in Appleton, the Koonz family moved to Greeley, Colorado In 1885. Initially, John operated the studio independently, but a year later, his son James A. Koonz (1867-1917) joined him.
In the late 1880s, the family moved to Herkimer, New York. Unfortunately, John L. Koonz died of cancer on July 19, 1890. His remains rest at Prospect Hill Cemetery in Gloversville, New York.
Thank you to Miranda Todd, Archives Assistant, Greeley Museum, for research assistance and providing scans and to Beverly W. Brannan for proofreading this post.
Arthur J. Stephens was born in Juneau, Wisconsin around 1867 to Isham Stephens and Susan H. Rowland Stephens. In the 1870s, the family moved to Iowa, where Arthur attended college. In 1890, he settled in Paonia, Colorado and married Lela Minniette Wade later that year. Stephens operated a photography gallery in Montrose, Colorado in 1891. He continued business in Paonia, Colorado until 1896, when he moved to Pomona, California.
Stephens continued to operate photography studios in southern California for his entire life, with studios in Pomona, San Diego, and Los Angeles. He also wrote poetry and published poems in local newspapers. In 1924 he released a collection of poems called The Bells of San Gabriel. Arthur J. Stephens died in January 1930 and is buried in Forest Lawn Memorial Park in Glendale, California.
The Pageant by A. J. Stephens The Glory of Nature beneath a California sun,
And flowers and beauty combined with the strength
Of young,lusty manhood all welded into one,
Made a pageant of wonder many miles in length,
While the blue sky above looked benignly down
On the radiant splendor perched high on youth’s crown.
There were maids that stood for ripened wheat;
Others that swayed like the swell of the ocean;
Some that danced like nymphs on tireless feet;
While hundreds waved garlands in a wave of motion,
Weaving and circling in lines true and long,
All vibrant with life and–six thousand strong.
The far frozen north and the hills of old Spain
With the East and the West were mated and blended,
Till by magic formation was born a rare strain
Only found in California–may it never be ended.
O this land of romance, of flowers and gold,
Fires the heart with a thrill that never grows old!
Sweet maids of summer, young men and strong!
Your day of real effort is yet to dawn;
Here’s hoping success to your labor and song
While the pageant of life sweeps on and on.
Poem reproduced in the Los Angeles Evening Express, June 8, 1915, page 14, column 6
Thank you to Elena Jones, Digitization Assistant, History Colorado for providing the scan for this post.
The Union Colony of Colorado was founded in 1869 by Nathan C. Meeker as a utopian agricultural community. The town’s name was changed to Greeley in honor of New York newspaper editor, Horace Greeley, one of the town’s financial backers. Photographers arrived in Greeley shortly after its establishment. This is the first of three blog posts discussing Greeley’s 19th-century photographers.
1870 John Wilkinson (bc 1840) is listed as a photographer in the 1870 federal census for Greeley.
J. M. (or I. M.) Johnson opened the first photography studio in Greeley, working briefly between November 1870 and February 1871. His gallery was known as the Pioneer Photographic Gallery as well as Johnson’s Rocky Mountain Gallery of Art. He sold stereoscopic views of Greeley and the Rocky Mountains.
1871-1891 Benjamin Franklin Marsh and his twin brother, Clark, were born on December 26, 1833, in Southport, New York to Belorman Marsh and Mary Heller Marsh. The Marsh family lived on a farm seven miles from Elmira. On December 27, 1859, Benjamin married Sarah S. Smith in Southport.
Between 1864 and 1870, Marsh worked as a photographer outside Cleveland, Ohio, in Painesville, on the Grand River. In 1870, B. F. Marsh moved west and became one of the original residents of the Union Colony, an experimental utopian farming community now known as Greeley, Colorado. His family arrived the following year. Marsh set up the town’s first permanent photo studio in Nichols’ Block, on Main Street, purchasing supplies from E. and H. T. Anthony of New York City, the country’s largest manufacturer of photographic goods. The Rio Grande Railway commissioned Marsh to make stereoviews in the Pike’s Peak region.
In addition to running the photo studio, where he also sold ice cream, Marsh served as Greeley’s town clerk, recorder and treasurer. In June 1883, B. F. Marsh’s daughter, Kitty, spent three weeks in Denver learning the finer points of retouching photographs. In the fall of that year, while Marsh traveled back to Ohio and New York to visit friends, he leased his studio to E. W. Pierce.
Marsh did not resume work in the studio until May 1884. That summer he erected a new gallery with modern improvements. Later that year, his twin brother joined the business, forming the Marsh Brothers. They worked together until April 1886.
In addition to making portraits and views of Greeley and the surrounding area, Marsh photographed the only known lynching in Greeley. On December 29, 1888, Wilbur D. French was arrested for the suspected murder of a mill merchant. French was reviled in the community as a cattle rustler. It was also assumed that he had killed his wife a year earlier. Since no one witnessed the murder of the mill merchant, residents feared French would not be convicted, so they took matters into their own hands. Marsh produced a cabinet card photograph of the lynching. (The same photograph, published on a C. M. Clark cabinet card mount, was probably printed later.)
In 1891, Marsh took a position in Greeley’s assessor’s office and shuttered his photography business shortly thereafter. Benjamin Franklin Marsh died on July 10, 1900 of Bright’s disease. Survivors included his wife and eight children. Marsh was laid to rest at Linn Cemetery in Greeley.
1874 Frederick Christopher Warnky was born at Malchow, Germany, on August 27, 1838. At nine years of age, he emigrated to the United States to live with family in Milwaukee. At age fifteen, Frederick joined a wagon train heading for California in St. Joseph, Missouri. He met his future wife, Mary Jane Brownell, in 1865 outside Stockton, California. They married on December 19, 1865 in Benton County, Oregon. The following year Frederick and his wife farmed in California’s San Joaquin Valley.
While in California, Frederick attended lectures by members of the Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (RLDS) and decided to join the church. He would continue to be an active member of the church throughout his life.
The Warnky family moved to Colorado Territory in the fall of 1874 as the first missionaries for the RLDS church in Colorado. Warnky, who had learned photography by this time, traveled around the Territory with a horse and wagon and his photography tent, taking pictures during the day and preaching in the evenings. They spent five years in Colorado, living in Greeley, Golden, Fairplay, Lake City, and Leadville.
While working in southern Colorado, Warnky met photographer Charles L. Abbott. They would partner as Warnke & Abbott in Garland and Alamosa, Colorado, and in Abiquiu, New Mexico. In November 1879, Warnky’s wife and four children moved to Independence, Missouri, headquarters of the RLDS, while Frederick pursued business opportunities in New Mexico.
After working several months in New Mexico, Warnky established a photography studio at 214 West Lexington St., Independence, Missouri, until 1891, when he relocated his business to Argentine, Kansas. Mr. Warnky advertised his work at this new gallery as a portrait and landscape photographer. When his daughter joined his business, she taught painting “of different kinds” and also fancy work. Warnky maintained a photography studio until 1900 when R. E. Lauck advertised his studio at Warnky’s old stand.
Frederick C. Warnky died in Independence, Missouri on December 24, 1920. He is buried at Woodlawn Cemetery in Independence.
1876-1877 Mrs. E. A. Masters moved to Greeley, Colorado by the summer of 1876, offering portraits, cartes de visite, large photographs and views of residences. She claimed she made a specialty of portraits of babies. A couple of months later, she advertised her photographic work under the surname of her first husband, Mrs. E. A. Hammatt.
1878 David Clinton Broadwell was born just south of the Canadian border in Fort Covington, New York around 1855. He learned photography as a teen. The 1870 federal census for Deerfield, Michigan lists Broadwell as a photographic artist, only fifteen years old. Between 1873 and 1876, he operated a studio in Lansing, Michigan, described as the “only gallery in the city situated entirely on the ground floor.” His time in Lansing included a short partnership as Broadwell & Wood. Broadwell relocated to Milwaukee, Wisconsin in 1877. Health issues led him to Greeley, Colorado a year later, where he set up a tent gallery across from the drug store. Sadly, D. C. Broadwell succumbed to consumption on February 27, 1879, in Windsor, Michigan. He was just 24 years old. Broadwell left a wife and a young son.
Thank you to Miranda Todd, Archives Assistant at the Greeley Museum for research assistance and to Beverly W. Brannan for proofreading.
James M. Goins was born circa 1850 in Ohio. In 1869 he opened a photography gallery in Chicago, Illinois with J. G. Johnson. Goins remained in Chicago for nearly a decade, offering cartes de visite and opal miniatures. He also made enlargements from old and faded photographs and photographs colored on oil, India Ink, or watercolor.
In 1879, he moved to St. Paul, Minnesota, but he left that city owing money to creditors. In 1881, Goins continued the photographic trade in Denver, remaining in town for only one year.
By 1887 he had relocated his business to Cincinnati, Ohio, where he stayed for a few years. For about a decade, Goins’ whereabouts are unknown. The 1900 Chicago city directory places him back in that city as a photographer. In the 1920 federal census, Goins is listed as a patient in Chicago’s Oak Forest Institution, a home for poor and elderly citizens. He likely remained in the Chicago area for the rest of his life.
If anyone has seen Goins’ work from Denver, please let me know.
Last fall I attended the annual Daguerreian Society meeting in Boston, Massachusetts. I was on the lookout for photographs by Colorado photographers at the trade fair. An image made by Cronyn & Hibbs of a woman with a guitar caught my attention. I thought the name Cronyn was in my database, so I hustled up to my hotel room to check. (Note to self: Always ask the dealer to hold the photograph, rather than assume the photo will still be available when you return.)
My database included a William Cronyn, but no one named Hibbs. I liked the image and it provided information about Cronyn’s career trajectory, so I decided it would be a good purchase. I returned to the dealer’s table and the Cronyn photograph was in another collector’s hands. What should I do? I hung around as the woman contemplated her purchases, and exhaled a sigh of relief when she placed the Cronyn & Hibbs photograph in her reject pile. I immediately picked it up and asked the collector if she was sure she was willing to let this one go. We had a good chuckle about my predicament.
Cronyn’s biography is confusing. Canadian census data suggests that William Cronyn was born around 1850 in Ontario, Canada to David Cronyn and Anna Hawthorne Cronyn, but other records state his birthplace as New York. His personal life was messy. He married at least four times. Perhaps because of this, he moved frequently and his professional life showed plenty of challenges.
By 1879, William Cronyn lived in New York City. The 1880 census lists his occupation as a photographer and his wife’s name as Josephine. A year later, in March 1881, Cronyn married Etta Wright, in Omaha, Nebraska. They would remain married until the early 1890s. In the mid-1880s Cronyn was employed in the Pittsburgh area as an artist. Later in the decade, he opened a studio in Omaha, but ownership of the gallery ended up in court. Cronyn moved out of the gallery, taking all the apparatus and furniture, leaving broken negatives on the gallery floor.
In November 1887, Cronyn arrived in Pueblo, Colorado. The Colorado Daily Chieftain reported that Cronyn had “spent thirteen years…in the operating rooms of [Napoleon] Sarony’s famous photograph gallery in New York City.” Likely this is an exaggeration, as there is no record that Cronyn spent that length of time in New York.
He seemed to hit his stride in Pueblo. His wife assisted with studio sittings and ran the business when Cronyn traveled. She was also a talented artist, producing “point crayon” portraits. The point crayon portrait was executed by hand using only the point of the crayon, rather than the standard crayon portrait where shadows were created by rubbing the medium into the paper.
Cronyn claimed his studio had the largest skylight in Colorado, enabling him to make portraits even on cloudy days. The skylight aided him with his specialty for fancy lighting. He won first premium and a diploma for best photographic collection at the 1888 Colorado State Fair, held in Pueblo. Locally, his work could be seen in the windows of Pueblo’s Wick’s Shoe store.
Early on the morning of August 1, 1890, a newspaper carrier noticed a fire in Cronyn’s studio. An electric light left burning all night had ignited studio scenery. The firefighters saved the building but losses included the skylight, valuable backgrounds and studio apparatus valued at almost $2,500. The losses were fully covered by insurance and the studio was repaired quickly.
Less than a year later, another fire broke out in the back of the Cronyn studio, probably caused by the explosion of an oil stove. The studio suffered smoke damage and a few panes of the skylight broke. A week later Cronyn put the studio up for sale, including his cameras, chemicals, furniture, books and other supplies. Lydia McCloskey purchased the studio. Cronyn remained in Pueblo, working for photographer, Wesley S. Howard.
By late May 1891, E. E. Powers took over Cronyn’s former studio from McCloskey, with the operating room under the direction of Cronyn. The press referred to the business as the “Cronyn gallery.” Meanwhile, Mrs. Cronyn moved to Denver with their baby for her health. Cronyn joined his wife briefly in Denver, but news reports cited his interest in moving to Los Angeles, California or Missouri.
In June 1892, Cronyn secured a position with W. H. Caman in Wellington, Kansas, leaving his wife in Denver. A year later, Cronyn was on the road again. In 1896, he acquired a photo railroad car which he operated in North Dakota with someone named McGlachlin.
Cronyn’s third marriage took place in September 1898 in Minneapolis, Minnesota to Helen Gould, a young woman thirty years his junior. They divorced less than two years later due to Cronyn’s affection for another woman.
In 1899, Cronyn operated a rail car in Minnesota with Charles Hibbs. On July 5, 1900, misfortune struck Cronyn’s photo car. His assistant, who lived in the car, came home from a dance and accidentally tipped over a lamp, quickly igniting the entire car. The fire destroyed the car and all of its contents, valued at $6,000. Cronyn held only $2,000 insurance.
The 1900 federal census adds confusion to Cronyn’s biography. The census places Cronyn in Aiken, Minnesota, married to Margaret “Maggie” Whitney, also a photographer. The census data states that they have been married for 10 years. William Cronyn died of heart disease in February 1903 in Tracy, Minnesota.
Thank you to Dr. Marcel Safier, of Brisbane, Australia for researching Cronyn’s death date. Beverly W. Brannan, former curator of photography at the Library of Congress edited this post. Jori Johnson, Collections Access Coordinator and Keegan Martin, Digital Imaging Technician, History Colorado also assisted.
The Longmont Museum (Longmont, Colorado) is presenting a program featuring early photographs of Longmont on Thursday, February 29 at 7 pm in the Museum’s Stewart Auditorium. Director Erik Mason and the museum’s new Curator of History Elizabeth Beaudoin will show images selected from the Museum’s photo archive.
The program is presented in conjunction with the Museum’s “Picturing the West” exhibition. The show comprises 48 images from the collection of Michael Mattis and Julia Hochberg– mostly albumen prints, including mammoth, double-mammoth, and even triple-mammoth plates. They are some of the most sumptuous photographs to survive from the Era of Exploration and provide a rare opportunity to compare the photographers’ approaches to capturing the “sublime” in the unspoiled Western landscape.
Featured are nineteen photographs by Carleton E. Watkins, eight by William H. Jackson, and four by Eadweard Muybridge. Other artists include William Bell, Henry Hamilton Bennett, Frank Jay Haynes, John Hillers, Thomas Johnson, Timothy O’Sullivan, William Rau, and Charles Savage. Andrew J. Russell’s rare album The Great West is also on display.