[Bracketed info was changed/inserted by Jerry Specht.]
June 22, 2013
Dear Mr. Gerald R. Specht:
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I knew that these were people in my mother’s mother’s family, but was not sure who they were.
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The photo was taken by Solem Brothers Photographers in Little Falls, Minn, [written on its back] about 1902.
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I emailed my 2nd cousin, who has become the Vaughn/Brown family genealogist; it was she who identified the people in the picture…
“Elizabeth Brown Murphy and James Garrett Murphy were the only Browns to live anywhere near Little Falls, MN. The adult male has the same hairline as a photo of Dr. James Garrett Murphy that was printed in 1895. The face is fuller, but it would seem to make sense that he would lose weight as he became ill. In 1905, three years after the photo was taken, Amesta Agatha Murphy was recorded in the Felton, Clay County census, and so was Albert Specht. [Note from JS: J. Garrett Murphy died in 1905.] In 1900 Irene Murphy was serving as a maid and was recorded in the St. Paul, MN, census. I suspect that Mignonette was also boarding out but can’t locate her. James Garrett Murphy and Elizabeth Murphy, Cleveland, Sarah, and Clement were the only family members recorded in the Blue Earth County, MN, census. None of the older girls [including Amesta Agatha] are with the other family members. At the time this photo was taken, Cleveland would have been 12, Sarah, 9, and Clement, 6.
“Amesta was a teacher (in Felton) at that time. The Murphy family property was located in Pontoria, Minnesota, which is about 90 minutes north of Little Falls, MN. I have a copy of a picture taken of Elizabeth in 1930 that I think resembles the mother in the picture.
[from a later email:]
“The story /plot gets even deeper and confusing. I did finally locate Mignonette, Irene, and Amesta Murphy in the Garden City, MN, census for 1900. They were written on another page in the household of someone else. There was a note next to them that stated that they belonged on another page (the one listing their parents). Were they temporarily out of the home? Did the census taker make a mistake? How? I also believe that James Garrett Murphy had a closer relationship with his daughter Adelaide (from his marriage to Mary Jane Wright), than the family had indicated. Adelaide married Wallace Close in Minnesota. In the 1880 census for Garden City, Minnesota, young Wallace is living with his parents near James Garrett and Elizabeth Murphy. Is that how he and Adelaide met? Perhaps when she was visiting her father? In the 1900 census, Wallace Close’s niece Adela and her daughter Sadie are listed right below Garrett, Elizabeth, Sarah, Cleveland, and Clement. It says her occupation is “rest” and daughter Sadie is in school. I also located James Garrett’s [first] wife (Mary Jane Wright), with her second husband, Daniel Sheehan, and daughter Adelaide Murphy in the 1880 Josephine Oregon census. Per the 1900 census, Adelaide and Wallace Close lived in East Grand Forks with their son Haydn Murphy Close born in 1892. That’s who I believe the third boy (standing at the table on the left side of the photo) is – James Garrett’s grandson Haydn. He would have been ten years old in 1902.”
[Thus, the people pictured in the photo are, from left to right, Haydn Murphy Close(?), Elizabeth Brown Murphy, Sarah Murphy, Cleveland Murphy, James Garrett Murphy, and Clement Murphy.]
Sincerely,
Janet M. Van Gelder
8750 South Spartan Drive
Sandy, UT