I’ve been wondering about this 5X7″ photo, taken by J. Warner Studio, Omaha. The woman on the left in my great grandmother, Laura Arminta Goff. I don’t know the other woman but both are wearing corsages.
It looks like Laura may have been getting an award, especially since it’s a studio photo. Great Grandmother was active in the Rebekah Lodge even when she lived in Omaha, but she’s not dressed for a Rebekahs event.
Born in an Iowa log cabin three years after President Abraham Lincoln was assassinated, Laura married Sherd Goff and had eleven children, ten of whom lived well into their 80s and 90s. Sherd and Laura moved dozens of times, twice out of state.
They moved to the little town of Dexter after losing a daughter and a daughter-in-law, to be near their oldest daughter, Leora Wilson, and her flock of youngsters. Laura was widowed there in 1930. Two adult sons lived with her, along with two grandchildren. During the Depression the sons had taken out a loan for a couple of gravel trucks but they couldn’t keep up with the payments. Laura’s Dexter house was their collateral. Another son, a bachelor in Omaha, invited them to move in with him and gave both brothers jobs in his cooling and heating business. That was 1936, right during the Depression.
Laura lived in Omaha until after WWII, after her daughter Leora lost three sons in the war and was widowed. Mother and daughter moved to Guthrie Center in early 1948. Trying to date the photo, it was probably taken in late 1947. Great Grandma Laura was about the age I am now!
I think she looks older than I do, but it could be how she’s dressed. And I didn’t bear eleven children and have to move so many times, or live without electricity. But I did inherit her flat feet. (So did my mother.) The ladies dresses are interesting, but I wish I could see their shoes. Those flat straw hats, and handbags with two handles.
I’ve always thought a similar white handbag was her daughter Leora’s, and that she probably carried it to Rebekah meetings. I became the keeper of it and dolled it up with a rose, Grandma’s pearls, and a crocheted doily. Sometimes it’s draped on a doorknob, sometimes on a bedpost. The pocketbook is made of some kind of painted metal links. But did it originally belong to her mother Laura? Is it the handbag in the photo?
Have any old photographs sent you on a rabbit trail?
This is intriguing. I think it could be the same handbag! I have many old pictures that send me down a rabbit hole. The problem is that so many people who might know the answers are no longer with us.
I’m the oldest on both sides of my family, so I it’s a good thing I enjoy following as many hints I can. Thanks, Darlene!
It’s like a puzzle. Piecing together family heirlooms with photographs. What fun 💙
Thank you, Robbie. I’m the oldest person (matriarch?) on both sides of the family, so I can no longer ask anyone. Yes, I’m having fun!
A great rabbit hole, Joy. Was fun to read.
Thanks, John. The perks of being the matriarch on both sides of the family!
Those rabbit holes are always fun, aren’t they? I wrote about the same activity today. Love the photos and the ladies in their dresses. It’s interesting that she’s only gripping the handles with a couple of fingers. There must no have been much in that purse!
Maybe a hanky! Thank you, Linda. I’m the matriarch on both sides, so no one else around to ask, so it’s a good thing I like following cluse!
I noticed the couple of fingers grip on the handbag as well.
Maybe a lace edged hanky inside?
Undoubtedly!
Yes, it does look like the same handbag! Old photographs have sent me down many a rabbit hole!
Hurrah for old photos!
There are so many stories I would never have written without old photos!