The Photos on
The Past Matters

Born in 1891 in Big Cabin, Oklahoma, Lydia was the fourth of six children born to Elijah Green Steely, Jr. and Mary Amelia Starling. Her mother died of tuberculosis when she was six years old, and her father died of black lung disease when she was fourteen. She was raised by her mother’s sisters, Alice and Annie Starling, and her father’s sister, Susanna Caroline Steely. Lydia had two daughters by her first husband, Clayton Phillips, and by all accounts from those who remember Lydia, she was a kind, gentle and loving woman.

Based on the style of her “Armistice” blouse and her hat, this photo was probably taken about 1914, which would have been around the time that she married her second husband, Peter Monor Bennett.

Herman Heinrich Von Demfange (known as Henry) left Cincinnati, where he was born, to come to Kansas City, Jackson Co., Missouri in 1880 when he was 27 years old. There he met and married Martha Elizabeth Thompson (known as Betty), the daughter of one of Jackson County Missouri’s pioneer families. They married when Henry was 31 and Betty was 34, and they had two sons, Henry, Jr., and Harold. Betty Thompson Von Demfange, who lived all of her life in the Kansas City area, was 8 years old when her mother died of cholera in 1858. She was 12 years old when her father was forced off of their family farm during the Civil War in Jackson County for being a Confederate sympathizer. Her family was given three days to leave Jackson County, and her father had no choice but to sell the farm. He sold it to their next door neighbor, Solomon Young, who is best known for being President Harry S. Truman’s grandfather. The Thompson farm would become the Truman family farm where President Truman lived as a young man with his parents. The site of the Thompson home is now part of the Truman Family Farm National Historic Site in Grandview, Missouri.  Henry died in 1900, when he was 47 years old. Betty never remarried and lived to be 89 years old.

Based on their clothing, Betty’s hairstyle and the apparent age of their sons, this photo was taken in 1891.

Known to everyone as Annie, she was the eldest child of Edwin Starling and Eunice Amelia Campbell, both of whom had migrated from New York to Wisconsin and then to Kansas. Annie was born in Wisconsin in 1855, and was the first of six children. Her parents divorced in Kansas in 1869 and her father died in a farming accident a few weeks after the divorce was final. Annie then came to Arkansas with her mother and stepfather before traveling to St. Louis prior to 1880, where she worked in a hotel as a cook. She later returned to Eureka Springs, Carroll Co., Arkansas where her mother lived and married William M. Wilkerson in 1884. Annie and her husband had two children, a son who lived only ten days and a daughter named Gladys.

This photo can be dated to 1884 based on her high bustle-style dress (which, incidentally, is identical to the dress her sister, Mary Amelia Starling, is wearing in the portrait below), her hairstyle (the bangs are typical of this period) and the style of the photographer’s prop chair.

Anton Magdic emigrated to the United States through Ellis Island just prior to World War I, and settled on Strawberry Hill, the Croatian community in Kansas City, Wyandotte Co., Kansas. His two brothers, their wives, and his mother (center front in the photo) remained in his family’s home town of Ogulin, Croatia. His mother lived to be more than 100 years old, and never left the village of Ogulin.

Clothing and hairstyles are of limited use in dating this photo, but based on the apparent age of Anton’s brothers and the type of paper used to produce the photo, it was taken in the mid-1950’s.

This photo is particularly fascinating and unusual because both people are holding items for the camera that one can assume were important to them. The woman is holding a book (perhaps a family Bible?) and the gentleman seems to be holding a certificate of some kind (possibly a marriage license?). Analysis of a scanned image of the back of this photo enabled us to uncover a street address and the word Joplin. We know that the word Joplin probably refers to a town in Jasper Co., Missouri, where they may have been living at the time this photo was taken. We know from experience that there are two main reasons why people write a name and address on the back of a photo. One is because the writer is recording information about who is in the photo, and the other is that the writer is recording information about who owns the photo.

The simplicity of the clothing and their home make dating this photo challenging, but the style of the photo and the chair that is visible on the porch in the full version of this photo both help, and we can date this photo to about 1895. This would have also been the year when Martha and Elijah would have celebrated their 40th wedding anniversary, so perhaps that was the reason for this photo. Our next steps will now include looking at source records for Joplin, Missouri, to see if we can make a match on the street address during this time period.

This photo was unlabeled and no information was known about it other than it was in an envelope marked as containing ancestor photos. We were able to date the photo based on her clothes, jewelry and hair as having been taken between 1854 and 1857. We also noticed that the photographer had used gold paint to highlight the ring on her finger. Although it appears this ring is on her right hand, tintype images are reversed, so this ring is actually on her left hand. This told us that the photo was probably her wedding photo. We then researched the ancestors of the couple to whom the photo had belonged and found that they were both descended from a woman named Martha Louise Daniel, who was born in 1837 and married Elijah Green Steely, Sr., in 1855. No other ancestor of the couple fit the date range of the photo, and so we were able to definitively identify her as Martha Louise Daniel and the date as 1855.

These are the surviving children of Elijah Green Steely, Jr., and Mary Amelia Josephine Starling.  Clockwise from the top, they are Lydia Ann Steely, David Perry Steely, Louellen Steely and Elijah Green Steely III. Notice that David Perry is barefoot in the photo – this is an indication as to the time of year when this photo was taken. We also know that their father had a homestead in Madison Co., Arkansas, so this photo was probably taken in Arkansas.

In addition to clothing styles, the fact that the eldest daughter is wearing her hair up tells us that she was probably at least 15 years old. Given that fact plus the apparent ages of the other children, this photo can be dated between 1902 and 1903.

Born in about 1901, Fred was the second child of Elijah Green Steely, Jr., and his second wife, Sarah Jane Womack. His father moved to Kansas and filed for divorce in 1905, but died of black lung disease before the divorce was finalized. Fred’s life after his father’s death is shrouded in mystery and family legend that we at The Past Matters are still researching.

It was typical in the 1800’s and early 1900’s for boys to wear skirts as long as they were still in diapers. The indicators that tell us this is a little boy are his short hair and the dark color of his skirt. Based on his apparent age in the photo, it can be dated to about 1903 or 1904.

Rollie Rupe, who was known as “Boog", was the only child of Harley Rupe and Louellen Steely, and his mother died the same day he was born. Boog was born in Weir, Cherokee Co., Kansas in 1905 and would eventually have 8 half-brothers and –sisters from his father’s second marriage. Boog lived nearly all of his life in Oklahoma, and died there in 1966, the same year that his father died. He was also a World War II veteran, and he never married.

The clothing, the type of photo and Boog’s apparent age allow us to date this photo to around 1930.

Susie, as she was known, was the daughter of Martha Louise Daniel and Elijah Green Steely. She was born in 1872 in Oklahoma Indian Territory, and lived there until after her marriage to William Henry “Billy” Charlton in 1892. Susie and Billy had two children that lived past infancy, and she was the first of his wives. Susie and Billy Charlton divorced in 1914. Susie remarried in 1919 to Thomas T. Williams, a man almost ten years younger than herself but also a man whom her children liked and respected. She spent all of her adult life living in the Ozark region of Missouri, Arkansas, and Oklahoma. She died of kidney failure in 1931.

The style of her shirtwaist, her hair and the length of her skirt allow us to date this photo to about 1912.

Wiley Steely is the son of Martha Louise Daniel and Elijah Green Steely and was born in the Missouri Ozarks in 1869. He was named for his maternal grandfather, Wiley Blunt Daniel and, like his brothers, was known for his charm and good looks. His first wife was Mildred Sula Sidwell, whom he divorced in 1903. His second wife was Lena Pearl Tackett, whom he married in 1906, when he was 37 years old. He seems to have settled down with Pearl, as she was known, and they were together until he died in 1939. Only three of his seven children lived past childhood, and he worked over the years as a blacksmith, a miner and a mill operator. He was a middle child and he seems to have been very loyal to his brothers Elijah, Samuel, and David, providing each of them with assistance and a place to live at different times in their lives.

This is a studio photo and comparison with other family photos, combined with Wiley’s apparent age and clothing, place this photo at Colvin’s Photography Studio in Galena, Cherokee Co., Kansas in about 1895.

Clint Charlton, as he was called, was the only son of William Henry Charlton and Susanna Caroline Steely to survive infancy. He was married three times, first to Grace Manson in 1914, then to Lena R. Chandler in 1920, and finally to Ethel E. Winkler in 1935.  He had two children, a son and a daughter, but only his daughter lived past childhood. His son died at the age of five in 1942, when he tragically fell down a well. Clint outlived his third wife Ethel and died at the age of 81 in 1974.

The setting suggests that this photo was probably taken at a State or County Fair in Missouri, Kansas or Oklahoma. Based on the setting, the clothing and the apparent age of Clint Charlton, this photo was probably taken in about 1915.

Joe Hayes was born in Indiana in 1866, but spent most of his life in Joplin, Missouri. He married Alice Alvina Starling Brener Tarpley in 1890. Joe was a miner and died of black lung disease when he was 57 years old. His nephew Walter was born in 1880 and was the son of Joe Hayes’ sister Molly and her husband William Rakes.

Uniform styles and Walter Rakes’ apparent age date this photo to the Spanish-American War in 1898.

Mary Starling was the sixth and last child of Eunice Amelia Campbell and her first husband, Edwin Starling. Unfortunately, Mary’s birth occurred just seven and one-half months after her father returned home to Kansas from the Civil War, and her father filed for divorce in 1869 on the grounds that Mary was not his child. The deposition given by the midwife describes in detail the physical characteristics that she felt proved Mary was a full-term baby. However, the midwife’s credibility was probably reduced when it was disclosed that Edwin Starling had been living with the midwife and her husband since he filed for divorce. After hearing additional testimony from the doctor in attendance at Mary’s birth as well as other witnesses, the judge granted the divorce but ruled that Mary was indeed Edwin’s child. Mary came to Arkansas with her family in the 1870’s and married Elijah Green Steely, Jr. in Eureka Springs, Arkansas, in 1884. It was a double wedding with her brother, Harold Eugene Starling, who married Sina Knight. Mary and Elijah Steely had six children, four of whom survived childhood, and she died of tuberculosis in 1897.

This painting was done from a tintype photo of Mary, which means it was almost certainly done after Mary died. Since her husband married within a year of her death, it is likely that this painting was done or commissioned by one of Mary’s children rather than her husband. Therefore, the date of this painting is probably 15-20 years later than the date of the tintype from which it was drawn. As for the date of the original tintype, based on the style of her dress and the fact that it is identical to the dress her sister Julia Ann is wearing in the photo above (which was taken in about 1884), the original tintype photo was probably taken at the time of Mary’s marriage in 1884

Eunice Amelia Campbell migrated with her parents from New York to Wisconsin in the 1840’s. There she met and married a fellow native New Yorker, Edwin Starling in 1854. About two years later they migrated to Kansas with her husband’s maternal uncle, John Hudson. Edwin joined a cavalry unit of the Union Army during the Civil War while Eunice and his uncle managed their farm in southern Kansas. Eunice and Edwin had six children and divorced in 1869, just a few weeks before Edwin was killed in a farming accident, and his uncle John Hudson died about a month later. This left Eunice alone on their farm with six young children. She married a neighbor, R. B. Beardsley, and moved to Metalton, Arkansas. She lived the rest of her life in Metalton and died in 1907.

This photo was taken in Metalton, Arkansas and her age and dress date this photo to about 1905-1906.

Rosa (born 1890) and Ellen (born 1883) were the two youngest daughters of Rebecca Elizabeth Hale and Jesse M. Shane Charlton. Their parents had both come to Missouri from Indiana as children, and had met and married in Harrison County, Missouri soon after Jesse returned from the Civil War. Jesse and Rebecca came to Hickory County, Missouri shortly after their marriage, where they stayed for the rest of their lives. Ellen Charlton married Stephen Lamar in 1902, and later married James T. Pippin. Rose married Charles Hazelton in 1912 and, although she never had any children of her own, she raised her sister Cecelia’s three children, Elmer, Sylvert and Hazen from the time that their mother died in the Spanish influenza of 1919.

Their oversized hats and classic white Edwardian tea dresses date this photo to between 1905 and 1910, but it is the style of the Franklin one cent stamp on the back of this postcard that allows us to refine the date of the photo to between 1908 and 1909.

Annie Starling, as she was known, married William H. Wilkerson in Eureka Springs, Arkansas in 1884. Their daughter Gladys, born in 1891, married David Jones, the son of Effalanda Ball and Henry Hankins Jones, in 1909. Gladys and David had five children before Gladys died in 1918, just three weeks before her youngest child also died. Her four surviving children are shown in this photo, and are, left to right: Delbert, Della May, Iola and Royal Eugene Jones.

The children’s clothing and apparent ages date this photo to a year or two after their mother Gladys’ death in 1918.  And although Annie Starling Wilkerson Jones’ clothing dates from about 1908, the ages of these children prevail in dating this photo. Annie may have worn this dress because it was her best dress, even though it is more than a decade out of fashion.

Wiley Steely is the son of Martha Louise Daniel and Elijah Green Steely and was born in the Missouri Ozarks in 1869. He was named for his maternal grandfather, Wiley Blunt Daniel and, like his brothers, was known for his charm and good looks. His first wife was Mildred Sula Sidwell, whom he divorced in 1903. His second wife was Lena Pearl Tackett, whom he married in 1906, when he was 37 years old. He seems to have settled down with Pearl, as she was known, and they were together until he died in 1939. Only three of his seven children lived past childhood, and he worked over the years as a blacksmith, a miner and a mill operator. He was a middle child and he seems to have been very loyal to his brothers Elijah, Samuel, and David, providing each of them with assistance and a place to live at different times in their lives.

Based on his clothing and apparent age, this photo was taken about 1920, or twenty-five years after the photo of Wiley that is shown above. That makes him about fifty years old in this photo, but he is still even more strikingly handsome than in the photo above of him as a young man.

Billie Charlton, as he was known, went to Indian Territory in what is now Oklahoma in the 1880’s with his father, Jesse M. Shane Charlton. There he met and married Susanna Caroline Steely in January of 1892. This photo is of Billie and Susie with their first child, William Clinton Charlton, who was born in December of 1892.

The apparent age of William Clinton Charlton and his mother’s clothing date this tintype to 1893.

In about 1901, Billie Charlton purchased the General Store in Kenoma, Missouri, a business he would run for the next thirty-five years. He was married to his first wife, Susanna Caroline Steely, at the time he bought the store, and they would live in nearby Golden City, Missouri, until their divorce in 1914. Billie Charlton would marry at least five times during his life, a propensity that once led the local paper to say, “Bill is a good ole boy and has a lot of friends. He likes to get married now and then, but we're all pulling for a happy and prosperous life for him and his new wife”.

Documentation on Kenoma, Missouri, says that the town put in sidewalks in 1912, so this photo can be dated to 1911, shortly before the sidewalks were added. The man on the right in this photo is Billie Charlton.

According to Wiley Blunt Daniel’s granddaughter, Wiley had a lunch room in Baxter Springs, Kansas. She also remembers that this photo is of the booth he had every year at the Cherokee County Kansas Annual Pioneer Days celebration. The photo shows Wiley Blunt Daniel, standing fourth from the right, with his family. The woman on the far left is his second wife, Lena Pearl Tackett (the daughter of Laura Etta Homan and Martin Van Buren Tackett), who was known as Pearl. Next to Pearl is Thelma, born in 1913, and third from the left is Pearl Louise, born 1898, the daughter of Wiley Blunt and his first wife, Mildred Sula Sidwell. None of the other people in this photo have yet been identified.

Based on Lena Pearl Tackett Steely’s clothes and the apparent age of Thelma Steely, this photo was taken in about 1918.

Alice Starling was the third child of Edwin Starling and Eunice Amelia Campbell, both of whom had migrated from New York to Wisconsin and then to Kansas. Alice was born in Kansas in 1861, and married her first husband, George Brener, when she was sixteen. Alice married her second husband, J. M. Tarpley, in 1881, and her third husband, Joseph H. Hayes, in 1890. Alice had no children, but helped raise her niece Lydia Ann Steely after Lydia’s mother died in 1897. Family tradition tells us that this photo was taken at a boarding house in Chicago where Alice worked. Her great-grand-niece still owns the pressed glass pitcher she was given when she left her job at this boarding house. As to why she chose to go to all the way to Chicago, we do not know. We do know that her husband, Joseph, died in 1923, and we can guess that she went because she could find work there. She would later retire to the I.O.O.F. (International Order of Odd Fellows) Home for the Aged in Liberty, Missouri, where she died in 1935.

Most of the clothing in this photograph is difficult to date, but there is one exception. The wide headband and shorter skirt on the young woman standing fifth from the right allow us to date this photo to about 1920. Research in the city directories for Chicago may allow us to put a more specific date on this photo.

Billie Charlton, as he was known, went to Indian Territory in what is now Oklahoma in the 1880’s with his father, Jesse M. Shane Charlton. There he met and married Susanna Caroline Steely in January of 1892. This photo is of Billie and Susie with their two surviving children, William Clinton Charlton, who was born in December of 1892, and Cora May Charlton, born in 1896, in front of their home in Golden City, Missouri.

The apparent ages of the children and Susanna Caroline Steely’s clothes date this photo to about 1902.

Joseph Hayes is second from the right in the back row. This is a photo of a mine in Joplin, Jasper County, Missouri.

The photograph is imprinted at the bottom with the location and a date of March, 1902.

Wiley Blunt Steely, son of Martha Louise Daniel and Elijah Green Steely, was born in 1869 in Missouri. He worked at hard labor all of his life, and died in 1939. Wiley is listed twice in the 1930 Federal Census, once at his home in Galena, Kansas, and once as a zinc mine blacksmith in Picher, Oklahoma. Like many men during the Great Depression, he went to wherever he could find work.

This photo was taken in Fort Worth, Texas, and, based on the apparent age of Wiley Blunt Steely and the type of mining equipment that is visible, this photograph was taken in the early 1930s.

Cora May Charlton, daughter of Susanna Caroline Steely and William Henry Charlton is third from the right in the back row of this picture. This photo was taken in Kenoma, Missouri, where Cora attended school until 1913, when she moved to Kansas with her mother. She would then elope back to Missouri in 1914 to marry Elijah Green Steely III.

The clothing, in particular the ubiquitous big bows in the hair of most of the girls, dates this photograph to 1911.

Elijah Green Steely III, eldest son of Elijah Green Steely, Jr., and Mary Amelia Starling, was born in Oklahoma Indian Territory in 1889. His family moved to Madison County, Arkansas, before 1900, and this photo was taken near Metalton, Carroll County, Arkansas. The name of the teacher is Carson Roberts, and Elijah is the boy in the dark vest that is standing just to the right of the teacher with his hand on the teacher’s shoulder. His siblings are to the right of Elijah.

Comparison of this photo to other photos of Elijah Green Steely and his siblings that were taken between 1901 and 1905 allows us to date this photo to about 1898. The 1900 Federal Census does show one Carson Roberts, schoolteacher, living near the Steely family in Metalton, Arkansas, so we can also assume this photo is taken in Arkansas.