Tuesday, July 2, 2013

Some Old St. Louis Photographs: Mr. & Mrs. Wm. Dooley

I came across some very old photographs recently.  Fortunately, two of them identified the subjects, relatives though not direct ancestors.  I'm trying to figure who these folks are.  All of the photos were taken in St. Louis, home of our Hogan ancestors and Dooley relatives.  Here's what I know so far.

 These first two are identified.  They are of Mr. and Mrs. William Dooley.  William Dooley was a successful grocer in St. Louis.  He immigrated in about 1850, and in 1863 married 25 year old Elizabeth Martin, also an Irish immigrant.  William Dooley was the brother of Catherine Dooley LaBrune, my great great grandmother.  Elizabeth Martin Dooley was the sister of Anastasia Martin Hogan, another great great grand-mother.  So they are not direct ancestors, but close relatives.

When were these photos taken?  Elizabeth died in 1881, so hers was taken earlier than that. Since they are no longer here to be offended by my guesses at their ages, my guess from the photos is that she was about 40 years old, and he 45.  From their dates of birth in 1838 and 1827, respectively, the photographs might have been taken in about 1878 and 1872.  Since the two photos are sequentially numbered, they were probably taken at the same time.

For more information, I googled  Scholten Photography in St. Louis and found two lists of historic photographers with helpful information. Early St. Louis Photographers lists photographers in St. Louis and their known dates of operation at given addresses. Their information places these photos between about 1863 and 1875. Langdon's List of 19th & Early 20th Century Photographers was not precise for these two photos.

Putting all of this information together, I'm guessing these photos were taken in about 1872, when Elizabeth and William were 34 and 45 years old, respectively.

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