Smallwood & Ball were listed as photographers in the 1876 Denver City Directory. Although no views were published under their combined names, the same stereoviews were often published under both Smallwood’s and Ball’s names.
William John Smallwood was born in St. Joseph, Missouri to William Jackson Smallwood and Mary “Polly” Fox Smallwood.In 1850, his father traveled to the Lake Tahoe area of California in search of gold. He appeared in California’s 1852 census and supposedly died shortly thereafter.
William Smallwood grew up in Knox County, Missouri.In the 1870 census, he is listed as a photographic artist.By 1873, Smallwood had moved to Denver, Colorado, where he worked as a dyer.In 1876, he formed a partnership with photographer George Ball. He made photographs south and west of Denver.
William Smallwood, photographer. Balanced Rock, Garden of the Gods, Colorado Springs, Colorado, circa 1876. Albumen silver stereograph. History Colorado, accession number 84.192.690
A few years later, Smallwood returned to Knox County, Missouri.He married Anna Amanda Roberts on June 4, 1882.They spent their married life on a farm, raising six children to adulthood.William Smallwood died on January 7, 1912, and is buried in Knox County’s Baker Cemetery.
George E. Ball was born in Ross, Herefordshire, England, around 1848. He worked as a photographer in England before immigrating to the United States in November 1874, where he settled in the Denver area. He was the junior partner in the photographic firm of Smallwood & Ball. In 1876, he opened his own gallery in Golden, Colorado, specializing in stereoviews. He exhibited his views at Boulder’s Mineral and Agricultural Fair of 1877.
George Ball, photographer. Green Lake, Georgetown, Colorado, circa 1876. Albumen silver stereoview. History Colorado, accession number 84.192.8.
By 1878, he was a popular resident of Golden, operating a lunch stand at the railroad depot.He organized a shooting club in the city and served as its president.Ball spent four months on a survey party for the southern portion of the Denver & Rio Grande railroad.
On January 18, 1881, the desirable bachelor married Miss J. M. A. Pearlburg in Golden.In July 1882, he sold his lunch counter and moved to a ranch in Middle Park, Colorado with his wife.The couple often wintered in Golden. However, in the summer of 1886, George Ball’s life took an unexpected turn. Word from England revealed that while George had been living as a single man in the United States, he had a wife and three children in England.After George stopped writing home, his British wife assumed he had died in the United States. She took action to find him. In early 1886, an affidavit taken before a United States consul in Leeds, England, made by Elizabeth Ball, provided the details of their marriage.
The press reported that he could be arrested for bigamy or have a divorce brought against him by one or both of his wives. But, about two years later, George Ball surfaced in Alameda, California, as a photographer. He made portraits and a rare series of stereoviews with the mount “The New Series of Pacific Coast Views.”
In the fall of 1897, he left the Bay Area and headed to Sawyer’s Bay in Siskiyou County, California, where he had a placer claim. Further details about his life have not been uncovered.
Thank you to: W. G. Eloe; Krista N. Hanley; Jori Johnston and Aaron Marcus, History Colorado; and Beverly W. Brannan.
Fred Park Stevens was born on July 19, 1872, near Spinney, Park County, Colorado, to H. Hoyt Stevens and Adee Euphosene Fillebrown Steven.In 1876, the family moved to Colorado Springs.He attended the St. Louis Manual Training School at Washington University in St. Louis, Missouri, graduating fourth in a class of sixty-one students. In 1892, he entered Cornell University in Ithaca, New York, majoring in mechanical engineering.To earn money for college, Fred made blueprints for students. In 1896, after graduation, he returned home to Colorado Springs and resided in the Alta Vista Hotel, managed by his father.
In 1897, Stevens took his photography skills to the next level by partnering with Wilbur E. McChristie, founder of the Nonpareil Portrait and Publishing Company, based in Ohio.McChristie, ill with tuberculosis, had relocated to Colorado Springs for his health.
Later that year, Stevens hiked up iconic Pike’s Peak (14,115 feet above sea level) and spent a week at the summit, waiting for the perfect moment to capture the sunrise in a photograph. His image from the mountaintop, an exposure of a fiftieth of a second, received immense praise and gained widespread attention. Harper’s Weekly published the picture in its December 11, 1897, issue.
F. P. Stevens, photographer. Sunrise From Pike’s Peak, 1897, hand-colored photograph. Courtesy L. Tom Perry Special Collections, Harold B. Lee Library, Brigham Young University, Provo, UT 84602
This accomplishment was followed by a companion photograph, “Sunset behind Pike’s Peak.”In less than four years, more than 60,000 copies of these two photographs have been sold, wholesale and retail, either as black and white prints or hand-colored with watercolors.
F. P. Stevens, photographer. Sunset Behind Pike’s Peak, hand-colored photograph. Courtesy, L. Tom Perry Special Collections, Harold B. Lee Library, Brigham Young University, Provo, UT 84602.
Having bought out his partner in the spring of 1898, Stevens moved into a new ground-floor studio, calling his business Stevens Fotograferie. The operator hired to oversee portraiture had previously worked at Napoleon Sarony’s prestigious gallery. Stevens’ firm specialized in Colorado views, interiors, and portraits of animals, hand-colored or black and white.They produced lantern slides, provided photocopying and enlarging services, and developed and printed photographs by amateurs.
In 1899, the Lackawana Railroad Company commissioned Stevens to photograph their route. In February 1900, he made views of Pueblo, Colorado, including a group portrait by flashlight of the Brotherhood of Locomotive Firemen ball at the Colorado Mineral Palace.
Stevens Views. The Man that Made Colorado Famous. Booklet by Foltz & Hardy, circa 1900. Collection of the author.
In August 1900, Foltz and Hardy, Colorado Springs’ new book and stationery store, became the general agents for Steven’s sunrise and sunset photographs, selling them at 50 cents a pair.The contract called for the delivery of photographs amounting to $4,500 retail, at the rate of 5,000 photos per week if required.This large number of prints could only be offered because Stevens had invented an automatic, electric printing machine capable of printing 900 prints an hour.
In 1902, Stevens’ photographs were featured in Denver theComing City: A Collection of Forty Instantaneous Photographs of Life in Denver, published by F. S. Thayer in a limited edition of 1,000 numbered copies.Later that year his work was included in a souvenir viewbook of Colorado Springs published by Critic Publishing.The booklet of twenty-four photographs included “Pike’s Peak at Sunset,” the first time this popular photograph appeared in a book.
Under advice from his physician, Stevens decided to move to a lower elevation.Stevens sold his photographic business to L. A. Hatch of Orange, New York, in December 1902.He also sold all rights to his famous Sunset and Sunrise views to the Foltz and Hardy bookstore. Stevens had married Elsie Slayback on June 19, 1901. When they left Denver in the next year, they planned to visit tourist attractions in the Eastern states before resuming his photographic business, perhaps in California.
In December 1902, Stevens began work for the Louisiana Purchase Exposition, to be held in St. Louis, Missouri, in 1904.The Fair planned to issue photographic admission passes.To efficiently accomplish this, Stevens invented an automatic electric printing machine capable of printing 600 prints an hour. He received a patent for his invention.An average of 1,200 people were photographed daily, setting a world record. The entire process including taking the picture, developing and pasting it into the passport took approximately an hour.
In 1905, Stevens brought his printing technology to the Lewis & Clark Exposition held in Portland, Oregon.In December 1908, Stevens was appointed the official photographer of the Alaska-Yukon-Pacific Exposition held in Seattle the following year.
Stevens moved to Vancouver, British Columbia, in 1913 where he managed the commercial photography firm, Canadian Photo Company.
Stevens died on December 1, 1915, at the age of forty-three, in Vancouver, leaving his wife a widow.Stevens was buried in Evergreen Cemetery in Colorado Springs.
Thank you to Beverly W. Brannan for proofreading this post. Brigham Young University kindly provided scans of Stevens’ sunset and sunrise photographs.
I visited Sterling, the largest city on Colorado’s Eastern Plains, and went to the Overland Trail Museum. During my visit, I discovered a couple of new photographers from early Colorado to add to my list of camera artists. Please let me know if I have missed any.
Gustaf Robert Appelblad was born on March 27, 1863, in Jönköping, Sweden. He learned photography from his brother Ture Appleblad.In 1882 Gustaf immigrated to the United States and shortened his name to Appel.He settled in Minneapolis, Minnesota.Three years later, Appel established himself in Central City, Colorado, working as a retoucher.In May 1886, he purchased B. A. Lindquist’s studio.He claimed to make about 200 portraits a month and to produce roughly 2,000 prints.
G. A. Appel, photographer. Wm. Gleason and second wife; Overland Trail Museum, section 14, No. 61
On June 4, 1887, Appel married Anna C. Johnson in Central City.The couple moved to Sterling in August 1889.The following year, he set up a tent gallery in Idaho Springs.In June 1891, Appel purchased a large photography studio at 1527 Larimer St., Denver, Colorado. During his seventeen years in Denver, he advertised extensively in the Swedish newspaper Svensk-Amerikanska Western.He also participated in local politics, running for office as a socialist.
In May 1908, Appel sold his studio to Leroy Kellog and took up residence in Eaton, Colorado. Gustaf R. Appel died on November 22, 1911, at the age of 48. His remains rest in Denver’s Fairmount Cemetery.
Boston R. R. Photo Car, Unidentified woman, History Colorado, Accession # 2014.137.43
Boston Railroad Photo Car Active in Sterling in March 1889. Operated by J. S. Legerton. (See below)
Denver Travelling Photograph Gallery Based on a small group of cabinet cards held by the Overland Trail Museum, it appears that the Denver Travelling Photograph Gallery may have visited Sterling. The photographs all show signs of fading, likely due to poor chemical processing, possibly as a result of a quick turnaround time. I have been unable to find any additional information about this studio.
I. N. Ford, photographer. Portrait of Howard? McConley. From the collection of Karen E Hendrix.
Isaac Newton Ford was born in Illinois on October 26, 1850, to Aquilla Ford and Nancy Galbreath Ford.He spent his childhood on a farm in Linn County, Kansas.The 1880 federal census lists Ford as a miner in Fairplay, Colorado.He settled in Iliff, Colorado, marrying Harriet Louise Miers Monroe on December 2, 1884.
In the 1890s, Ford had learned photography. On May 31, 1910, Ford was thrown from his horse-drawn wagon and died from his injuries, leaving behind a wife and four sons. Ford is buried in Sterling’s Riverside Cemetery.
L. F. Active in Sterling in March 1889. I was not able to identify this photographer.
John S. Legerton, photographer. Portrait of Robert D. Sanders. Overland Trail Museum, Section 14, No. 98.
John S. Legerton was born in England in 1862.At the age of twenty, he arrived in the United States.Legerton worked as a traveling photographer visiting towns in Nebraska, Kansas, Colorado, California, and Montana, often for only a few days at a time.His businesses and partnerships changed throughout the years, including Chidester & Legerton, Legerton View and Photograph Co., Legerton & Moorehead, Legerton & Gregory Photo Co., and Boston Railway Photo Car.
Between 1886 and 1890 Legerton’s home base was Iliff, Colorado.He spent the latter decades of his life in the Los Angeles, California area as a dealer in second-hand bottles.John S. Legerton died on August 29, 1955 in Los Angeles.
E. F. Phillips was a photographer and sign painter in Sterling, CO, between 1890-1896.
E. F. Phillips, photographer. Columbus Day, Oct. 21st, 1892, Sterling, Logan County, Colorado. Overland Trail Museum, Section 3A, #29
Orion U. Roberts was born in August 1869 in Rush County, Indiana to James Harrison Roberts and Augusta Green Roberts.Orion’s mother passed away when he was four years old, and ten months later, his father married his sister-in-law, Winifred Marillas Green.Orion attended school in Indianapolis.
On July 2, 1892, Orion married Mary Foster in Cook County, Illinois.By 1897, they were living in Colorado, where Orion practiced photography.He set up a temporary studio in Castle Rock, before moving to Sterling, Colorado, where he stayed for several months.In 1900, he had a studio at 710 Santa Fe in Denver.The 1910 census places the couple in Seattle, Washington, with Orion working as a carpenter.Orion Roberts died on April 3, 1933, in Washington, Oregon.He was survived by his wife.
O. U. Roberts, photographer. Portrait of Michael V. Propst (1822-1900) and Jane S. White (1827-1910) Overland Trail Museum, Section 14, No. 48.John C. Sanders, photographer. Portrait of Allen H. Sanders and Eliza Sanders. Overland Trail Museum, Section 14, #77.
John C. Sanders was a traveling landscape and portrait photographer in Iliff, Colorado, c. 1887. He also represented the firm of Legerton & Gregory Photo Co., taking orders for photographs.
Frank Stewart was born on December 1, 1859 in Cambridge, Ohio to John Stewart and Elizabeth Stiles Stewart.He married Hepzibah Rae Reynolds on February 12, 1890, in Dallas, Iowa.He may have been active as a photographer in Scranton City, Iowa in the mid-1890s.By 1899 the Stewarts had relocated to Sterling, CO,where they built a six-room residence. Frank ran a photo gallery there, producing local views and portraits. Notably, six of his baby portraits were featured in the Denver Times baby contest. In May 1900, he established a branch gallery in Brush, Colorado managed byH. M. Vredenburg.A few years later, the Stewarts moved just south of Sterling to Atwood, where they operated a dairy farm. Frank Stewart died on January 3, 1937. He is buried in Las Animas Cemetery, Las Animas, CO.
Thank you to Brian Jesteadt, Museum Assistant, at Overland Trail Museum, for his expertise and assistance during my visit. Karen Hendrix kindly supplied a scan to illustrate I. N. Ford’s work.
Wedding portraits from the 19th century are quite common, but photographs of wedding ceremonies are rare. A penciled caption on the back of this photograph states that Will Prentiss is the groom. But, according to marriage records and newspaper accounts, this photograph documents the wedding of George Prentiss and Gertrude McKissick. The photograph was taken on September 27, 1897, under the bell on the porch of the Hot Springs Hotel in Canon City, Colorado. After the ceremony, the couple traveled to Denver by train for their honeymoon.
Photographer George Christian Fricke was born on January 27, 1867 in Germany.He immigrated to the United States in 1884, likely bringing along his photographic skills. In 1888, Fricke owned a photography business with Bretzman in Pueblo, Colorado. By 1892, he was working as a photographer in Canon City, Colorado, and running a branch gallery in Westcliffe, Colorado.Fricke’s photographs illustrated the July 25, 1901, special edition of the Canon City Record, dedicated to the growth of the city and its influential business and civic leaders.
In November 1901, Fricke sold his gallery to the Mills Sisters, photographers from Chicago.In March 1902, the Fricke family left Canon City, living briefly in Salt Lake City, Utah, and Seattle, Washington, before settling in Vancouver, British Columbia.He partnered with photographer George W. Schenck.The firm traveled to the suburbs of Vancouver, setting up temporary galleries.
By 1920, Fricke was living in Aberdeen, Washington, working as a logger.George C. Fricke died on May 23, 1947 in Aberdeen, Washington.He was buried in that city’s Fern Hill Cemetery.
Thank you to History Colorado staff, Jori Johnson, Collections Access Coordinator, and Aaron Marcus, Digital Imaging Studio Manager.
Anna M. Tweed was born in Kansas circa 1864 to William Wilson and Eliza A. Thompson Tweed.The Tweed family lived in Wakarusa, about seven miles south of Lawrence, Kansas.They moved to Colorado Springs around 1878 where Anna’s father was the director of a mining company.
Glen Cove with Addie and Anna Tweed and Dad. Courtesy of the Colorado Springs Pioneers Museum.
In the mid-1890s, Anna pursued photography, with a studio at her brother’s property, Glen Cove, on Pike’s Peak Carriage Road in Colorado Springs. She specialized in local scenery printed on boudoir card mounts. In 1900, she worked for photographer Fred P. Stevens.
That fall, Anna accepted a position with Foltz and Hardy’s new book, stationery, and art store in the Exchange National Bank block.According to an article in the Colorado Springs Gazette, “her natural talents as an artist, and pleasing manners with customers, proved materially instrumental in the upbuilding of that popular firm.”She was employed there for five years before taking a similar position at Kendrick’s bookstore in Denver.In 1905, Anna’s landscape photographs were published in At the Foot of Pike’s Peak a collection of poems by Colorado Springs authorMrs. Lelah Palmer Morath.
Anna M. Tweed, photographer. Group on top of Colorado Midland railroad car, albumen print on boudoir card mount. Collection of the author.
After a brief time in Denver, Anna returned to Colorado Springs.In the years that followed, she traveled extensively, visiting Hot Springs, Arkansas; Las Vegas, New Mexico; Phoenix, Arizona; Los Angeles, California; San Francisco, California and Tacoma, Washington.
In 1913, Ms. Tweed moved to New York City where she represented Wallace Nutting, a New England landscape photographer.While on vacation in Colorado Springs during the summer of 1913, she brought 600 Nutting photographs with her and displayed them at Harding’s art store.She lived in New York City for several years, but by 1923 she had moved to Los Angeles, where she resided until her death on December 21, 1945.She is buried at Forest Lawn Memorial Park in Glendale, CA.
For more information about female photographers who worked in Colorado Springs see Searching for the Early Women Photographers of the Pikes Peak Region by Nancy Bathke and Brenda Hawley in Film & Photography on the Front Range, Pikes Peak Library District, 2012.
Thank you to Hillary Mannion, Archivist, Colorado Springs Pioneers Museum for assistance with acquiring the scan of the Tweed family and to Beverly W. Brannan for proofreading this post.
The Breckenridge History archives recently acquired an ambrotype of a local mining camp. Originally gifted to the Montana Historical Society, Photo Archives Manager Jeff Malcomson researched the one-of-a-kind photograph and discovered that the location did not match either of the two French Gulch locations in Montana. Upon further investigation, he was able to confirm that the image actually matched French Gulch in Breckenridge. Read more here.
Ambrotype of French Gulch mining camp, Breckenridge, Colorado
This post identifies studio photographers active in Greeley in the 1890s. See my earlier posts for photographers working in the 1870s, early 1880s, and late 1880s. Did I miss any photographers? Can you provide any additional biographical details?
1890
Harry G. Townend (1862-1928) was born in Ohio to British immigrants Henry Townend and Christiana Garthwaite Townend.By 1870, the Townend family lived in western Massachusetts. In 1884, H. G. Townend began his professional career as a Fitchburg (MA) National bank teller.Townend resigned from the bank in 1889 and moved to Greeley, Colorado to improve his health. A mount credited to Townend features a portrait of Greeley high school class of 1890, one of his only extant photographs.Townend and his wife, Susan Amelia Upton Townend, returned to Massachusetts in June 1890.He resumed his banking career, ultimately becoming a bank president.Townend died on December 24, 1928, after a long illness.His remains rest in Fitchburg’s Forest Hill Cemetery.
H. G. Townend, photographer. High school class, 1890, City of Greeley Museums, Permanent Collection, AI-2440.
Frank Knapp (1862-1894) Born in in Tompkins County, New York, Knapp learned photography in Ithaca, New York with William Frear. After a brief time working in a New York City gallery, Knapp took a position at J. W. Taylor’s studio in Rochester. In 1889, he opened his own business at 138 East Main Street. His business struggled and Knapp pursued a photography position with John C. H. Grabill in South Dakota.
Grabill advanced travel expenses to Knapp, but he never arrived. Instead, Knapp spent a couple of months working for M. E. Chase in Greeley. When it became known that Knapp had failed to show up at the Grabill studio, Grabill received a flurry of letters from Knapp’s former employers describing his poor work habits. M. E. Chase reported that Knapp was the first person he had ever fired, claiming that Knapp took every opportunity to avoid working.
Knapp walked more than 300 miles from Greeley to Deadwood, South Dakota, supposedly to honor his commitment to Grabill. However, after working for a week, Knapp requested an advance on his salary. After receiving $15.00, he announced to his co-workers his intention to quit. When Knapp failed to show up for work on Monday, Grabill had him arrested for obtaining money under false pretenses.
A few months later, Knapp found employment with O. D. Kirkland in Cheyenne, Wyoming. In 1892, he was working in Denver for H. S. Bellsmith.
On March 15, 1894, Frank Knapp passed away at the age of 31 in Riverside, California due to tuberculosis. He was buried at Riverside’s Evergreen Cemetery.
Portrait of Lewis E. Imes. The Lansing Journal, April 10, 1907, page 1
Lewis E. Imes (1860-1932) learned photography in Chicago from Edward F. Hartley in 1880. He worked as a photographer in several western towns, including with William Henry Jackson, in Denver, Colorado.In May 1890, Imes (The Greeley Sun reported his name as Ives) managed Morton E. Chase’s Greeley gallery while Chase was away on a business trip.In the 1890s, as a salesman for the American Aristotype Paper Company, he traveled to every state in the nation.Imes settled in Lansing, Michigan in 1899, continuing to work in the photography field for three decades.
Erik Borklund, photographer. Unidentified man. https://tinyurl.com/ywajjc46
1891
Erik Borklund was born in Sweden where he learned photography.In 1891 and 1892, he worked in Greeley, Colorado at B. F. Marsh’s former location.He may have moved to Chicago in 1892.
Sadie E. Potter is listed as a photographer in the 1891 Denver City Directory, one year before working for William Henry Jackson as a clerk. In February and March of 1891, she rented Benjamin F. Marsh’s Greeley studio offering cabinet photographs for sale.
Daisy Clark (1874-1960) worked for three weeks in M. E. Chase’s gallery.
Frank E. Baker was Greeley’s most prominent photographer in the 1890s.
Circa 1893-1900
Ammon Noah Weikert was born in Pennsylvania on December 29, 1857, to Noah P. Weikert and Matilda Beck Weikert.The 1880 census lists him as a farmer in Morton, Iowa.In the 1880s, he worked as a photographer in College Springs, Iowa.In 1887, he relocated to Indianola, Nebraska.Around 1891, Weikert settled in Greely, Colorado.He was employed in the F. E. Baker studio for many years and was also associated with the Opera House. Around 1910, hemoved to Los Angeles, finding employment as an electrician.Ammon N. Weikert died at his Inglewood, Califonia home on January 11, 1932.
1897-1898
Greeley Art Studio H. S. Lipshitz and his wife ran a photo-enlarging business under the name Greeley Art Studio.
1898
Harry Arthur Orendorf (1877-1901) was born in Oakland Center, Wisconsin.He grew up in Hebron, Nebraska.Orendorf worked for Morton E. Chase in Greeley during the summer of 1898. He died on April 3, 1901 of typhoid pneumonia. At the time of his death, he was employed as a clerk in Pueblo, Colorado.Orendorf was buried at Mountain View Cemetery in Pueblo.
1899
Mathias Forsdahl was born in Scandinavia around 1848. By 1875 Forsdahl worked as an upholsterer in Minneapolis, Minnesota.Around 1886, he moved to Colorado Springs, Colorado, selling second-hand goods and continuing to work in the upholstering trade.In 1888, Forsdahl was listed in the Colorado Springs city directory as a photographer.He relocated to Greeley, Colorado by 1895, first as a second-hand goods dealer, then between 1899 and 1900, as a photographer.Forsdahl died on August 30, 1904 after a short illness.He was buried at Greeley’s Linn Grove Cemetery.
Thank you to Beverly Brannan for proofreading this post. Miranda Todd at the Greeley Museum provided research assistance.
Frank E. Baker was born in Wisconsin in September 1849 to Garrett H. Baker and Elmina Clapp.His mother retained her maiden name.Active as social reformers, the family joined the Wisconsin Phalanx commune in Fond du Lac County in the late 1840s.Based on the ideas of French philosopher Charles Fourier, the members lived together in longhouses and ate communal meals.They raised potatoes, buckwheat, turnips, and winter wheat.The community grew to nearly 200 people before dissolving in the early 1850s.
In 1858, the Garrett Baker family settled in Cobden, Illinois, and established a profitable fruit farm. They supported the Underground Railroad, aiding southern slaves to relocate to free states in the North, despite opposition from many Southern sympathizers in their community. Frank’s sister Kate taught wood carving at Hampton Institute, established in 1868 to provide skills to Black people after the Civil War.
Frank E. Baker claimed to have worked on Ferdinand Vandeveer Hayden’s 1871 expedition, but I have not been able to confirm this. He married Harriet Davis on September 1, 1872, at her sister’s home, the Kilbourn ranch, near Loveland, Colorado.They spent their first winter in Greeley, Colorado before making a home outside Champaign, Illinois. The Bakers pursued horticulture, growing apples, grapes, plums, and other fruits.In 1877, Mrs. Baker exhibited canned and preserved fruits at the county fair.Frank Baker exhibited apples and wine grapes at the Illinois State Fair a few years later.In 1883, as a commission agent, he shipped nearly 1,000 bushels of apples to Chicago and Eastern markets.
F. E. Baker, photographer. Eleanor Estes James riding sidesaddle on her favorite horse Patsey. Courtesy Estes Park Museum, 1985.063.055a.
The Bakers often summered in Estes Park, Colorado with Mrs. Baker’s family and Baker often opened a temporary photo studio in the mountains.He regularly hiked, even summiting the highest peak in the area— Long’s Peak, with an elevation of 14,259 feet.When he returned home, Frank Baker presented magic lantern slide shows of Rocky Mountain scenery at local schools, perhaps from his photographs.
F. E. Baker, photographer. The Entre Nous Club, POP print. W. G. Elle Collection.
By 1891, the Bakers made Greeley, Colorado their permanent home.In addition to his Greeley studio, he opened a branch gallery in Loveland.The following year, Baker, working under Greeley photographer Morton E. Chase, ran a gallery in Fort Morgan, Colorado, visiting several times a year to make portraits.
In March 1893, Baker bought out M. E. Chase.He secured a contract to photograph students graduating from the State Normal School in Greeley, (now the University of Northern Colorado), after administrators compared Baker’s work to several Denver studios and believed he could deliver better work at a cheaper price.
In April 1897, Baker traveled to Chicago to acquire supplies for his gallery.He purchased new backgrounds for the studio and brought back a full line of amateur cameras.
In 1902, Baker sold his business to the Stewart Brothers and began a career in real estate. Frank E. Baker passed away on November 10, 1939 and was laid to rest in Loveland, Colorado’s Lakeside Cemetery. Surprisingly, no obituary was published in the local newspapers.
Thank you to collector W. G. Eloe and Jessica Michak, Curator of Collections, Estes Park Museum for providing digital images. Miranda Todd at the Greeley Museum provided research assistance. Beverly Brannan kindly proofread this blog post.
This post identifies studio photographers active in Greeley between 1886 and 1889. See my earlier posts for photographers working in the 1870s and early 1880s. Did I miss any photographers? Can you provide any additional biographical details?
1886-1888
Webster Bros., photographer. Mary Hawes and her dog, June 1889. City of Greeley Museums, Permanent Collection, AI-4700, .
Webster Bros. A partnership of Harry D. Webster and Frederick A. Webster.
Harry Dorr Webster (1852-1927) was born on a farm in Hadley Township, Michigan to Edwin Baldwin Webster and Anna White Webster, the first of at least eleven children. In the early 1870s, he apprenticed to a Michigan photographer before studying under George F. Maitland of Buffalo, New York.
Harry worked briefly in Flint, Michigan before moving to Lapeer, Michigan to work for Charles A. Kelley.Webster purchased Kelley’s gallery in 1879 and would continue to operate a studio in Lapeer until 1886 when he moved West. He opened Webster Bros. studio with his brother Frederic Arthur Webster in Laramie, Wyoming, before taking over Koonz’s studio in Greeley. The firm dissolved in January 1889. Frederic moved further west and H. D. continued to work in Laramie until 1896.
H. D. Webster, photographer. Court House, Greeley, Colorado., 1886. City of Greeley Museums, Permanent Collection, AI-0058.
In January 1897, Harry Webster sold his studio and moved to Cripple Creek, Colorado. He and E. A. Yelton, worked together as Webster & Yelton through September 1897 at Cripple Creek. Webster then worked on his own through 1904 and ran a floral business from his home.
By 1907, Webster had relocated to Wilbur, Oregon, and in 1910 to West Pomeroy, Washington working as a photographer at both locations.In 1914 he took over Miss Edith Robinson’s studio in Burley, Idaho. Seven years later, in 1921, he placed an advertisement in the Burley Herald offering his studio for sale. He died on June 11, 1927, at Burley. He was buried in the Avondale Cemetery in Flint, Michigan.
1886-1888
Frederick Arthur Webster (1860-1933) was born in Lapeer, Michigan.He learned photography at fifteen from his older brother Harry Webster.They worked together in Lapeer and later F. A. Webster worked in St Johns, Michigan. Between 1886-1888, the two brothers ran the Greeley branch of the Webster Bros. studio.
In 1889, Webster moved to Oakland, CA where he would maintain a photography studio for over four decades.He published a booklet of his photographs of the 1906 San Francisco earthquake.Throughout his career, Webster was active in professional associations. In 1918, his work was profiled in the Photographic Journal of America. The work included a portrait of Webster and several photographs by him. He died on April 26, 1933 in Oakland, CA.His wife and one son survived him.
1889-1893
Morton Ellsworth Chase (b.c. 1861-1929) was born in Dearborn County, Indiana to Anthony Chase and Sarah Tufts Butterfield Chase.In 1866, the family moved to Urbana, Illinois.Anthony Chase died before Morton was ten years old.After Anthony’s death, Sarah Chase ran a boarding house in Urbana.
Morton E. Chase attended the Illinois Industrial University, now known as the University of Illinois Urbana- Champaign.In 1881, he taught painting at the school and there he met his first wife, Mary McNeil. Mary was also an artist, skilled in crayon work and painting.They were married on September 5, 1882.
Chase’s photography career began in Urbana with Jacob Scoggins.In 1884, Chase purchased a studio in his hometown.His photographic work won prizes at the county fair and the university hired him to make the senior class portraits, a contract usually given to a Chicago studio.Sadly, Chase’s wife died of consumption in the fall of 1885.
Leaving his gallery in charge of G. R. Gamble, Chase traveled west, landing a position at C. C. Wright’s Central City, Colorado studio.He promised to return to Urbana by April 1, 1886, where he would offer new styles of photographs, but shortly after his return, Chase put his possessions up for auction and in early September headed back to Colorado in a covered buggy with his friend William Goodspeed.By March 1887, Chase had opened a studio at the corner of 15th and Larimer in Denver, offering locket-sized photographs to life-sized portraits.In June, he married Mary Annette “Nettie” Beymer (1864-1949). After a year in Denver, Chase returned to Illinois, taking charge of Thomas Naughton’s studio in Champaign. Soon, however, the Chase’s returned to Colorado, this time settling at Greeley.
Chase documented the rural community of Greeley, making portraits and photographing the agricultural riches of the area, especially its large potato crops.He also traveled around with his tent studio, including a trip to Erie, Colorado to photograph its coal mines.During the summer of 1890, Chase spent two months in the mountains near Breckenridge, Colorado.After he returned to Greeley he set out in his photo car for towns in northern Colorado, including Berthoud and Lyons.
M. E. Chase & Co., photographer. Unidentified child and dog. Collection of the author.
Early in 1892, Chase hired photographer F. E. Baker, who managed Chase’s new branch gallery on the eastern plains in Fort Morgan.The town had never had a resident photographer and relied upon itinerants, so they were excited about having a local photographer.
In the fall of 1892, Chase ran out of photo paper.It took six weeks to replenish his stock which interfered with business before the Christmas holidays.The following March, Chase sold his business to F. E. Baker and left Greeley under a dark cloud.Unsubstantiated rumors circulated that he was romantically involved with a young girl who worked in his studio, causing Mrs. Chase to suffer a relapse of typhoid fever.
The Chases moved to Manitou, Colorado in 1897.The following year Chase bought Dalgleish’s Ouray, Colorado studio.In March 1901, Chase took Harvey Lewis as a partner, with Chase behind the camera and Lewis managing the business. In the fall, Chase partnered with H. E. Lutes.Their views were sold at book and stationery stores in the area and were popular with tourists.They had a photo car that traveled to mountain towns.In March 1902, their partnership was dissolved with Lutes taking over.Chase continued to work in the photo business from his home.
In August 1902, Chase accepted a position in Brumfield’s Silverton studio.He later worked in several cities throughout the state as a photographer and house painter.Morton Ellsworth Chase died on January 17, 1939 in Los Angeles, California.
1889
Phil Bevis (1865-1948) studied architecture at the University of Illinois at Champaign, but poor health prevented him from completing his studies. He worked in the university’s blueprint room before moving to Greeley to assist photographer, Morton E. Chase. Later, he served as general secretary of the Y.M.C.A. for several decades.
Thank you to Beverly W. Brannan for editing this post. Miranda Todd at the Greeley Museum provided research assistance and scans.
This post identifies studio photographers active in Greeley between 1880 and 1887. See my earlier post for photographers working in the 1870s. This post shows how quickly some studios changed hands. Did I miss any photographers? Can you provide any additional biographical details?
1880 Orlando D.Shields (b. c. 1851-1935) was born in Mahoning County, Ohio. The 1880 census lists Shields as a photographer living in Greeley, Colorado, although no examples of his work have been found. For many years he operated a nursery business, selling fruit, shade and ornamental trees from his farm in Larimer County.Shields died on April 3, 1935, while visiting family in Long Beach, California.
George Wallace Wright (b. c. 1855-1931) was born in Maine. His older brother, Charles C. Wright, was also a photographer. Wright worked as a photographer in Chariton, Iowa, until June 1880, moving to Greeley, for his health. The town board permitted Wright to set up a temporary gallery in August. Later, he moved to Loveland, Colorado, and continued his trade. A tintype from this time notes that Wright ran a railroad picture car in Colorado and Wyoming.
For the next decade or so, Wright lived a peripatetic life, moving to Portland, Maine; Holyoke, Massachusetts; and Bath, New York.He settled in New London, Connecticut for several years before finishing his career in Laconia, New Hampshire.Wright died on December 9, 1931, in Tilton, New Hampshire.
1880, 1885-1886, 1891-1908Clark M. Marsh (1833-1910) and his twin brother, Benjamin, were born on December 26, 1833, to Belorman Marsh and Mary Heller Marsh on a farm in Southport, New York.
Marsh, an early practitioner of photography, began making ambrotypes in Elmira, New York as early as 1856.On July 11, 1860 he married Charlotte E. Kellogg.By 1860he moved his studio to Canandaigua, New York, offering photographs in lockets or pins for as little as 25 cents.He specialized in copying and enlarging daguerreotypes.In 1866 he updated his gallery with a new skylight.Marsh acquired the exclusive right to use Wing’s Patent Gem Camera, designed by Simon Wing. This camera used multiple lenses to produce tiny gem tintypes measuring approximately 1” by 1-1/4”.
In December 1866, Marsh took E. B. Lewis as a partner. Marsh & Lewis added a music store to the photo gallery.They sold organs, violins, pianos, sheet music and other musical merchandise.However, the partnership dissolved in May 1867.In January 1868, a fire damaged Marsh’s photography gallery.He quickly set up a new gallery on Canandaigua’s Main Street and became an agent for Grover & Baker Sewing Machines.But later that year, Marsh announced that he planned to move West and scheduled an auction to sell his household goods, including five mattresses, one marble-topped table, three good carpets, and three swarms of bees.He lived briefly in Painesville, Ohio, but returned to Canandaigua by the winter of 1869.
In March 1870 Marsh took J. C. Bushfield as a partner.They worked together for about five months.Shortly after that, Marsh relocated to Havana, New York, where his output included stereoviews of the local scenery, showing rocks, bridges, tunnels, cascades, and gorges.
B. F. Marsh, photographer. “Eagle Cliff Falls, [Havana, NY]” The New York Public Library Digital Collections. The Miriam and Ira D. Wallach Division of Art, Prints and Photographs.A year later, Marsh spent six months in Greeley to improve his health and started selling ice cream from his photography gallery.In the fall of 1885 Clark Marsh was back in Greeley working with his brother Benjamin as the Marsh Bros. Their partnership lasted until April 1886.
Clark M. Marsh, photographer. Dr. Jesse Hawes wearing his antiseptic suit for contagious diseases, ca. 1899. City of Greeley Museums, Permanent Collection, 1974.25.0022.
It was not until 1891 that Clark Marsh set up a permanent gallery in Greeley, purchasing goods for the studio in Denver. During the Christmas season, he took 65 baby pictures for free, which resulted in 400 portrait orders.In August 1895, Marsh offered free portraits to every potato farmer and planned to exhibit them on Greeley’s Potato Day.Two years later, he expanded his studio with a brick addition and added four new backdrops.By 1901, his son, Charles, “Chub” had joined the business.They offered Kodak cameras and supplies.
In October 1908, Marsh sold his photography business to E. Wallace.Shortly afterward, Marsh spent six months in San Diego, California visiting his daughter.Clark M. Marsh died on May 19, 1910, at the age of 76, due to heart failure while visiting family in Boise, Idaho.His body was returned to Greeley and he was buried at Linn Grove Cemetery. Clark M. Marsh was survived by four daughters and a son.
Verso of C. C. Wright carte de visite with the date of 1882 printed on the card. Scan from ebay.
1882 Charles C. Wright (b. c. 1840-1887) Wright came to Colorado in 1882 from Indiana. His Greeley studio was located near the depot. In October 1882, he opened another studio in Denver over Reithmann’s Drug Store, at the corner of Fifteenth and Larimer streets.In early 1883, he turned over his Greeley studio to John R. King.
1882-1883
John R. King (b. c. 1853-1927) began his photographic career in Elmira, New York in the late 1870s. During the 1880s, he worked in photography studios throughout Colorado, including Denver, Central City, Boulder and Greeley, where he was often associated with C. C. Wright.In 1882, he managed Wright’s Greeley gallery, which specialized in photographing homes. King took possession of the gallery in January 1883, planning to only stay in Greeley for a couple of weeks, but demand for his services kept him in town until early February. Later that year he moved his photographic operations to Boulder. By 1891, King had returned to Elmira and worked various jobs, including bookkeeper and bartender.
1883-1885 E. W. Pierce(or Peirce) (b. c. 1836-1888) Born in Troy, New York, Pierce arrived in Greeley in September 1883, leasing Benjamin F. Marsh‘s studio. He published an accordion-style souvenir booklet of Greeley illustrated with nine photographs. In 1886, he relocated his gallery to Los Angeles, California.
1885-1886
Marsh Bros. Benjamin Franklin Marsh and his twin brother Clark M. Marsh worked together between the fall of 1885 and April 1886.
1885-1887
Koontz & Son, photographers. Three unidentified children on cabinet card mount. Collection of the author.
John Luther Koonz (1838-1890) was born in New York to Isaac Koonz and Roxana Jennings Koonz. J. L. Koonz married Catharine Mary “Kate” Dickerson on January 27, 1866, in Outagamie County, Wisconsin and they welcomed their first and only child, James, in July 1867.
By 1868, Koonz had opened a photography gallery in the rapidly growing town of Appleton, Wisconsin, on the Fox River. After 17 years in Appleton, the Koonz family moved to Greeley, Colorado In 1885. Initially, John operated the studio independently, but a year later, his son James A. Koonz (1867-1917) joined him.
In the late 1880s, the family moved to Herkimer, New York. Unfortunately, John L. Koonz died of cancer on July 19, 1890.His remains rest at Prospect Hill Cemetery in Gloversville, New York.
Thank you to Miranda Todd, Archives Assistant, Greeley Museum, for research assistance and providing scans and to Beverly W. Brannan for proofreading this post.
