Week 4 2022: Curious #52Ancestors — Making Sense of it All

Mary Elizabeth (Elliott) Baty was my husband’s second great-grandmother. Born in 1829 in Covington, Kentucky, she moved with her parents and siblings in the mid-1840’s to Illinois where they established the village of Elliottstown in Effingham County. Mary married George Washington Baty on 4 May 1846.[1] George and his family had come to Effingham from Ohio at about the same time. George, Mary and their children moved from Elliottstown to Ozark, Missouri in the late 1860’s and then to Neosho County, Kansas in 1874 where they settled for the rest of their lives (living in and around Chanute and Earlton).[2]

This photo of Mary was published on Ancestry by Mary’s third great-granddaughter who has the original. The digital copy she shared with me appears to be a “Cabinet Card” and the embossed imprint identifies the photographer as “W.T. Dole” of Kansas City, Missouri.[3] I’ve been intrigued by this photo ever since I saw it five years ago.

In trying to determine when photographs were taken, the guru in this field is Maureen A. Taylor, from Providence, Rhode Island. Maureen’s book Family Photo Detective provides guidance on how to date photographs by looking at certain clues such as the photographer’s name and address, clothing and jewelry worn for the photo, etc. Unfortunately, Mary’s dress offers few clues. As an elderly woman living in rural Kansas, she would likely not be dressed in the latest fashions. A bonnet of the type she is wearing likely dates to the mid-1850’s but the records show she was still living in Illinois at that time.[4] I imagine, as a frugal farmer’s wife, Mary would find no need to replace a perfectly good bonnet, no matter how out of style it might have become.

An investigation of the photographer provides a better set of facts with which to date this photo. Combing through the city directories for Kansas City and the surrounding communities identifies this photographer as having plied his trade in Kansas City from about 1887 to 1908. While a twenty-year span is not especially helpful to date the photo, this photographer used various names during his career which helps narrow it down.

William T. “Dole” was born in Ireland in 1856 and he and his (likely) brother Samuel emigrated to the United States in about 1880.[5] William and Samuel regularly used both “Dole” and “D’Ole” as surnames. I can’t say I have ever seen an Irish name of “D’Ole” and I haven’t had any luck finding others with that name. Even John Grenham’s website, one of the be-all-end-all websites for Irish research, doesn’t record the name of D’Ole or Dole or even Doole. I strongly suspect “Dole” and “D’Ole” are made-up names, but figuring that out will have to be someone else’s job.

As with many genealogy projects, a chart is useful to organize the information you have. My chart (posted below) begins with the first year William and/or Samuel are recorded and also includes William’s first wife Jennie, also a photographer during some of the applicable time-frame.[6]

The directories show that William practiced his profession under the Dole name between 1896-1900 and 1903-1908. During both those time-frames, Mary lived in Chanute, Kansas, about 120 miles from downtown Kansas City. [7] However, newspaper clippings from Chanute recount how she went to Kansas City at the end of May 1898 to visit her daughter and stayed until mid-June.[8] Since her daughter Celia (Baty) Sloane was the only one to live in Kansas City, I know that is who she visited. So, did Mary make her way to William Dole during this visit and why him? By researching the Sloane family, the connection between Mary and William became clear.

Celia, her husband James, and children had been living in Kansas City for about seven years before Mary’s visit.[9] Thankfully, I had done a deep-dive into Celia and James for a post I wrote last year. As luck would have it, I had tagged the 1891 Kansas City city directory for James, the first Kansas City directory listing him.[10] Looking at it again, I was delighted to see that their daughter Lucy was working as a bookkeeper for J. M. D’Ole. Yup, that J. M. D’Ole. Hot on the trail, I looked at the 1898 city directory and found Lucy (now Lucy O’Rear) listed as working for “W. T. Dole.”[11] Sweet.

Does this “prove” that William photographed Mary in 1898 when she visited Celia in Kansas City? Perhaps not completely, but it is a pretty good indication. At that time, small town papers such as The Chanute Times would report on the miniscule details of the residents in the community. I would expect that if Mary went to Kansas City at any other time, it would have been reported by the paper. While the lack of a news article doesn’t prove she didn’t visit Celia at another time, it is more evidence that the photo was likely taken in 1898.[12] If the photograph was during that trip, it shows us sixty-eight years old Mary. A widow since George died in 1890, she sold the family farm in 1902.[13] At the time of her death in 1909, she was living with her oldest child, Martha (Baty) Knowles and her husband, Thomas in Earlton, Kansas.[14] She left eight children (out of eleven), thirty-nine grandchildren and forty-one great grandchildren.[15] Quite the legacy.

———————————————-

[1] Effingham County, Illinois, County Clerk, Register of Marriage Licenses, vol. A-B, 1839-1877, p. 73, no. 61 (1846) Baty-Elliott, 4 May 1846; digital image, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:939J-KS95-JW?i=41&cc=1803970&cat=267606 : accessed 17 July 2017), FHL microfilm 1,010,047, image 42 of 210.

[2] "Obituary," The Chanute (Kansas) Weekly Times, 20 March 1890, p. 5, col. 3; digital image, Newspapers.com (http://newspapers.com : accessed 27 August 2018).

[3] Maureen A. Taylor, Family Photo Detective (Cincinnati, OH: Family Tree Books, 2013), 46.

[4] Taylor, 107. "Earlton Etchings," Chanute (Kansas) Weekly Times, 30 August 1877, p. 3, col. 3; digital image, Newspapers.com (http://newspapers.com : accessed 27 Aug 2018). 1860 U.S. census, Effingham County, Illinois, population schedule, Township 6, Range 6E, p. 1115 (penned), dwelling note noted, family 1201, George Beaty; digital image, Ancestry (http://www.ancestry.com : accessed 2 February 2022); citing National Archives microfilm publication M653, roll 176.

[5] 1900 U.S. census, Jackson County, Missouri, population schedule, Kansas City, Ward 3, enumeration district 27, sheet 4A, William T. Dole; digital image, Ancestry (http://www.ancestry.com : accessed 2 February 2022); citing National Archives microfilm publication T623, roll not noted.

[6] They divorced in 1890. “Fond of Photographers, Already Divorced From One, Mrs. D’Ole Seeks Separation From Another,” The Kansas City (Missouri) Times, 10 September 1890, p. 5, col. 5. Hoye Directory Company, compiler, City Directory of Kansas City, Mo., (Kansas City, Missouri: Hoye Directory Co., 1887), 210; also subsequent years by the same title: (1888) 215, (1889) 208, (1890) 878, (1891) 200, (1892) 195, (1893) 175, (1894) 187, (1895) 204, (1896) 212, (1897) 208, (1898) 224, (1899) 249, (1900) 290, (1901) 302, (1902) 323, (1903) 346, (1904) 338, (1905)306-7, (1906) 423, (1907) 428; digital images, Ancestry (http://www.ancestry.com : accessed January 2022). Gould Directory Company, compiler, Kansas City Directory (Kansas City, Missouri: Gould Directory Co., 1908), 386; digital images, Ancestry (http://www.ancestry.com : accessed January 2022). Gate City Directory Company, compiler, Kansas City Directory (Kansas City, Missouri: Gate City Directory Co., 1910), 450; also subsequent year by the same title: (1911) 468; digital images, Ancestry (http://www.ancestry.com : accessed January 2022).

[7] Willaim D’Ole had a photo studio in Fort Scott Kansas from about February of 1890 to May of 1891. Ft. Scott is much closer to Chanute than Kansas City. However, it appears that his cabinet cards from that location used the Ft. Scott address and the “D’Ole” name. “W. T. D’Ole, The New Photographer, Proprietor of the Tresslar Gallery,” The Fort Scott (Kansas) Daily Monitor, 28 February 1890, p. 8, col. 3. “Local News,” The Fort Scott (Kansas) Daily Tribune, 7 May 1891, p. 5, col. 1. See also the only D’Ole photos from Fort Scott I could locate included in Lot #349 of items sold by University Archives of Wilton, CT; digital images, University Archives (https://auction.universityarchives.com/auction-catalog/rare-autographs-manuscripts-books_DYNQJOGPIA?keywords=train%2Brobbers : accessed 30 January 2022).

[8] “Turkey Creek,” The Chanute (Kansas) Times, 27 May 1898, p. 1, col. 4. “Turkey Creek,” The Chanute (Kansas) Times, 17 June 1898, p. 1, col. 3. Turkey Creek was a community south of Chanute.

[9] Because her husband was a Civil War veteran, he was enumerated in the 1890 census of surviving soldiers, sailors, marines and widows. 1890 U.S. Census, Jackson County, Missouri, “Special Schedule: Surviving Soldiers, Sailors, Marines and Widows,” Kansas City, ED 185, p. 3 James E. Sloan; digital images, Ancestry (http://www.ancestry.com : accessed 2 February 2022).

[10] Hoye, City Directory of Kansas City, Mo., (1891) 584. When I put the chart together, I threw Jennie in for grins.

[11] Hoye, City Directory of Kansas City, Mo., (1898) 573.

[12] Way too many negatives in that sentence.

[13] Neosho County, Kansas, Deed Book 56: 537, Mary E. Baty, et al., to John Golobay, 14 November 1902; Office of the Register of Deeds, Erie, Kansas.

[14] Mrs. Mary Beatty Dead," Chanute (Kansas) Daily Tribune, 3 November 1909, p. 4, col. 4. Her actual obituary spells her name correctly. "Obituary," The Chanute (Kansas) Times, 12 November 1909, p. 5, col. 4. Of course, as we all know, spelling is irrelevant. We all know that, don’t we?

[15] "Obituary," The Chanute (Kansas) Times.