John C. H. Grabill Captures the End of the Wild West

Little
John C. H. Grabill, photographer. “Little,” the instigator of Indian Revolt at Pine Ridge, 1890, Library of Congress, Prints & Photographs Division, LOT 3076-2, no. 3607.

Many 19th century photographers combined their careers with mining activities, moving West with the dream of finding gold.  John C. H. Grabill (c.1850-1903) followed this pattern.  Grabill was born around  1850 at Donnelsville, Ohio, to David and Catharine Kee Grabill.   One decade later, the census shows the Grabills living in Champagne, Illinois.

By late 1880 John Grabill was mining near Aspen, Colorado, later expanding his holdings to mines in Chaffee and Gunnison counties.  He purchased an assaying outfit from Chicago that allowed him to distinguish the properties and value of his finds.  Grabill opened an assay office in Buena Vista, Colorado, that was known as one of the best in the state (Buena Vista Democrat, March 15, 1883, p3, c3).  A fire on March 9, 1883, likely caused by a defective flue, destroyed  the entire business block that housed Grabill’s office  (Gunnison Review-Press,  March 9, 1883, p1, c2).  Later that month he opened a new brick office, continuing to offer his indispensable services to the miners.  He also provided electroplating services for cutlery and jewelry.

Mining Exchange
J. C. H. Grabill’s Mining Exchange and photograph gallery, 1886, Buena Vista, Colorado, Library of Congress, Prints & Photographs Division, LOT 3076-6, no. 1449.

In December 1885 Grabill announced that he would open a photography studio in Buena Vista, Colorado.  The studio, located on San Juan Avenue, opened in March 1886, next door to his assay office.  One of his early photos shows both of his businesses (see left).  

Grabill moved his studio to the wild west town of Sturgis, Dakota Territory, in the fall of 1886.  His photographs capture the day-to-day life of the area– a street crowded with ox teams and rounding up cattle on the Belle Fourche River.  In 1888, Grabill added another studio, about fifteen miles west of Sturgis in Deadwood, splitting his time between the two locations.  The new studio was an elegant space in the Nye building, at the corner of Gold and Main streets.   He photographed historical landmarks, such as the famous Deadwood Stage Coach’s last trip before being superseded by the railway, the recently completed Deadwood Central Railroad, and Deadwood’s July 4th celebration.

Deadwood’s holiday festivities included events for the Chinese immigrants who came to the city in the mid-1870s in numbers large enough to form their own Chinatown neighborhood.  The immigrants supported the town’s mining industry, running businesses like restaurants and laundries.  Two Chinese fire hose teams, both from Deadwood,  competed in the world’s first Hub-and-Hub race by Chinese teams.  The teams, outfitted in fancy uniforms,  ran a 300-yard dash, pulling their equipment.  The  team under the direction of Hi Kee, a Chinatown merchant, was the first to couple their hoses and pump water, winning the contest.  This race was followed by eight White hose teams with a purse of $500.00

Hose Team
John C. H. Grabill, photographer. Hose team. The champion Chinese Hose Team of America, who won the great Hub-and-Hub race at Deadwood, Dak., July 4th, 1888, Library of Congress, Prints & Photographs Division, LOT 3076-18, no. 1204.

In the early 1890s, Grabill produced extensive documentation of Native Americans, including views made at Pine Ridge in January 1891, just weeks  after the Battle of Wounded Knee and the death of Sitting Bull.  

Grabill incorporated The Grabill Portrait and View Company in 1891 with studios planned for Baltimore, Boston, Chicago, New York, and Omaha  (The Black Hills Daily Times, April 4, 1891, p4, c5).  But the company was soon bankrupt and Grabill’s pictures were auctioned off to cover a $340.43 debt (The Daily Deadwood Pioneer-Times,  March 8, 1892, p3, c2).  The firm of Locke & McBride took over Grabill’s Deadwood studio. 

In 1901, Grabill lived in St. Louis and worked as a salesman for a mining supply company.  His mental health deteriorated and by early 1903 he was a resident at the St. Louis City Insane Asylum.  Grabill died there on August 23, 1903.  He is buried at Saint Matthew Cemetery in St. Louis.

Devils Tower
John C. H. Grabill, photographer. Devil’s Tower or Bear Lodge (Mato [i.e. Mateo] Tepee of the Indians), on the Belle Fourche, Library of Congress, Prints & Photographs Division, LOT 3076-14, no. 343.
Grabill submitted more than 180 photographs for copyright protection to the Library of Congress.  In addition to his photographs, perhaps Grabill’s lasting legacy is his work to protect Devil’s Tower in northeastern Wyoming.  He collected signatures for a petition asking congress to establish Devil’s Tower as a National Landmark  (The Sundance Gazette,  November 7, 1890, p1, c3). Unfortunately, Grabill died a few years before the creation of the park in 1906.

 

 

 

The Library of Congress collection of Grabill photographs. https://www.loc.gov/pictures/collection/grabill/

Additional biographical information:  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_C._H._Grabill

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Everett Van Epps, Kansas Photographer and Publisher, Moves to Alma, Colorado

With this post, we are going to cross over to the 20th century, to look at the work of Everett Van Epps (1858-1935), a photographer active in Alma, Colorado, in the late 1890s until his death.  The Pikes Peak Library District in Colorado Springs has a small archive of modern prints made from Epps’ original negatives.

photo car
E. E. Van Epps Photo Gallery, probably in Hoxie, Kansas, 1888, Pikes Peak Library District

Everett E. Van Epps was born on a farm in Fremont, Iowa, on April 28, 1858, to Evert and Janett Van Epps.  Everett pursued many professional careers during his long life, but his interest in photography never wavered. He began his photographic career in 1879 working out of a railroad car in Scandia, Kansas.

In 1884 he opened a studio in a brand new building in Hanover, KS.   Everett traveled to New Orleans in January 1885,  studying photography at the  World’s Industrial and Cotton Centennial Exposition.  (Grit, February 27, 1885, p6, c1)

Everett moved his operation to Oberlin, KS, in 1886 and opened a series of studios in northwestern part of the state.  He juggled as many as four studios at a time, including locations in Atwood, Colby, Hoxie, and Sharon Springs. He also traveled with his outfit to several other cities in the state.

Girls in newspaper
E. E. van Epps, Cabinet Card, circa 1888, Courtesy of Worthpoint

During the early 1890s Van Epps published The Selden Times, The Colby News and The Dresden Star,  while maintaining his photo business.  In September 1890 he traveled with other Kansas newspapers editors to Colorado.  From Colorado Springs, they took a special Pullman car on the Colorado Midland to the Continental Divide, and then to Glenwood Springs and Denver before taking the Rock Island back to Kansas.

In 1892 Van Epps began working a mining claim near Colorado’s Cripple Creek, while maintaining is home in Kansas.  The following year, Van Epps worked in the photography department at the World’s Columbian Exposition in Chicago, where he printed a record 1260 pictures in a single day.  (The Pittsburg Daily Headlight, September 12, 1896, p4, c7)

Van Epps moved permanently to Alma, Colorado, in 1898. He opened a photo gallery and also worked the Wood Chuck mine on Mt. Democrat for molybdenum.  (The Colby Tribune,  January 26, 1899, p8, c3)

In the 1920s,  Van Epps used a panoramic camera to photograph mining camps in Park County, Colorado.  Copy photographs from Van Epps’s original negatives can be viewed here: http://digitalcollections.ppld.org/digital/collection/p15981coll11

Van Epps Mine
E. E. Van Epps. Van Epps Placer Claim, circa 1925. Pikes Peak Library.

Van Epps died on August 30,1935 from an accidental powder blast at his placer mine.  He is buried in Buckskin Cemetery at Alma, CO.  

Aspen Photographers Scam Patrons

In May 1891, after operating a photography studio in Aspen, Colorado, for nearly a year, Opie & Kerr quietly left town. Many customers had sat for portraits and paid for work without receiving their finished cabinet cards.    

Cabinet card
Opie & Kerr, photographers.  Cabinet card portrait of Lillie Warner, Cassie Warner and Mahlon Warner, History Colorado, 95.200.163.

About a week before leaving  town, Opie & Kerr advertised elegant cabinet photographs for the very low price of $1.00 per dozen, $2.00 less than usual  (Rocky Mountain Sun, May 9, 1891, p2, c3).  Since they expected a rush of customers, the photographers stated that it would take them two weeks to complete the work. True to form, customers flocked to their studio.

But on Saturday night, May 16th, Opie & Kerr boarded a northbound Denver & Rio Grande train, presumably headed for a brief trip to Glenwood Springs. Witnesses saw the pair purchasing tickets at Glenwood Springs to continue their trip. When the men did not return to Aspen, their apartments were searched, and all of their belongings and most of their mortgaged studio equipment was gone. Later, it was determined that Opie & Kerr had sent several packages to Telluride weeks earlier, proving their departure was premeditated. And while news reports suggested that the men would be chased down and returned to Aspen, Anna Scott, archivist at the Aspen Historical Society, could not find any records to substantiate this.  

Who were Opie & Kerr and what happened to them after they left Aspen?          

Studio
Front exterior view of William Opie’s original Ely, MN,  photography studio, 1891?, Iron Range Research Center.

William Ross Opie (1864-1917) was born in England in February 1864, the oldest of thirteen siblings.  Opie immigrated to the United States in 1886, where he was employed as a miner at Tombstone, Arizona Territory.  Opie arrived in Aspen in the spring of 1890, taking over the studio of M. L. Cutler with S. T. Kerr, operating as Opie & Kerr.  After leaving Aspen, Opie ran photography studios in Ohio, Minnesota and North Dakota.  Opie died on June 7, 1917, in Langdon, N. D.

Samuel T. Kerr (1868-1929)  immigrated to the United States from Canada in 1884.  By 1889, he had arrived in Aspen, where he partnered with photographer M. L. Cutler, as Cutler & Kerr.  A few months later, Kerr purchased, on a credit of $190, Cutler’s photograph outfit and set up shop on Hyman Avenue with William Ross Opie.  As the date for the payment neared, the team devised the plan to offer low cost photographs to their customers and also asked for a couple extra days in order to pay their bill in full.  After fleeing Aspen with Opie and their mortgaged photography equipment, they left disappointed customers waiting for their portraits.  They also fleeced their landlord and left several bills unpaid.  

Nevertheless, Kerr returned to Aspen in 1892, working for photographer    L. C. Newby.  The Newby studio claimed to have Opie & Kerr’s old negatives (Aspen Daily Times, September 15, 1891, p4, c2).  In 1895, Kerr worked for Aspen photographer, Mrs. Drenkel.   

In the early 1900s Kerr moved to West Virginia to be closer to family.  He drowned on October 27, 1929, when his car drove off a road into a stream.  Kerr was sixty years old.  

 

Who Worked in William Henry Jackson’s Denver Studio? (Part 1)

WHJacksonportrait
William Henry Jackson, 1870, History Colorado

William Henry Jackson is arguably the  most famous  19th century landscape photographer.  After nearly a decade photographing the West for the Hayden Survey, in 1879 Jackson opened a studio in Denver.  I had a number of questions about his business:  Who worked for him?  Did any of his employees go on to have careers of their own?  How many women worked for the firm and what they do?

Luckily, the Denver Public Library has digitized many of the Denver City Directories, and with  key word searching, I was able to begin to answer some of these questions.  Historic newspapers helped fill in some of the gaps.

Jackson’s Denver operation first appears in the 1880 city directory.  The list below provides Jackson’s entries from the city directories or newspapers (April 1880), followed by a list of his employees and their roles in the firm, with the dates of their employment. I have included all the names associated with Jackson’s photo studio.

1879-1880   W. H. Jackson, photographer, 413 Larimer St. 

Miss Sadie Crisp, reception lady     (1880)                                           Miss Sadie Crisp worked for Jackson for about a year before joining Denver  photographer, A. E. Rinehart in 1881.  In December 1882, Sadie Crisp attended the Colorado State Teachers’ Institute in Pueblo. (The Colorado Daily Chieftain, December 28, 1882, p4, c3)

Frederick D. Jackson, photographer, operator, printer (1880, 1885-89, 1891, 1893-94)                                                                              Fred was one of Jackson’s younger brothers.His photographic career began in Omaha, Nebraska, in the late 1860s with the Jackson Bros. firm, and continued off and on for the Denver studio in the 1880s and 1890s. He worked for A. E. Rinehart in 1881.

William Henry Jackson. The 1874 photographic division, on the way to Los Pinos and the Mesa Verde. Left to right: Smart, Anthony, Mitchell, Whan, Ernest Ingersoll, and Charley, cook. Dolly, the mule, stands between Charley and Ingersoll, National Archives

R. M. Mitchell, operator  (1880) Probably Robert Mitchell, a packer working under W. H. Jackson on Hayden’s 1874 survey team.

Frank T. Smart, photographic printer (1880)
Smart [circa 1857-91] was Jackson’s general assistant during the 1874 Hayden Survey.  Smart worked for the U. S. Geological Survey, from 1884 until his death from consumption in 1891.

April 1880     Jackson & Rinehart, 413 Larimer St.                                                                                                   

Jackson & Rinehart
Jackson & Rinehart, Unidentified portrait, History Colorado

Jackson formed a partnership with prominent portrait photographer, Alfred E. Rinehart.  Rinehart (1851-1915) began his photographic career in Denver in 1876.  He worked in the city until his death in 1915.  

 

 

1881 W. H. Jackson, Landscape Photographer, 18th, cor Wazee
The January 1, 1881 Denver Post reported that Jackson had retired, with Rinehart taking over his studio.  But Jackson had received a major commission from the Denver & Rio Grande Railroad, which kept him away from the Denver studio.

1882   W. H. Jackson & Co., Landscape Photographers                                                                                                        Lester J. Bennett, photographer (1882)

Samuel Atkinson Grigg, photographer (1882)                                Grigg [b. circa 1851]  attended the Episcopal High School of Virginia, near Alexandria, where he excelled in German. (Alexandria Gazette, July 17, 1867, p3, c1)  He worked as a photographer in Alexandria between 1876 and 1881, before moving to Denver and working under Jackson.  Grigg is listed as an artist in the 1883 Denver City Directory.  He remained in Denver for decades, working as a bookkeeper.

Andrew McKirahan, photographer  (1882)

Frank L. Mortimer, photographer  (1882)                                               Mortimer is also  listed as a photographer in the Leadville City Directory published in June 1882.

1883   W. H. Jackson & Co., landscape photographers, 414 Larimer                                    
William H. Brown, printer (1883)

Walter A. Chamberlain, printer (1883-86, 1888-92)                         W. A. Chamberlain (1859-1916) learned photography from his father, William G. Chamberlain, one of Denver’s earliest and most prolific  photographers.  After his photographic career, W. A. worked with his brother in the W. J. Chamberlain Ore Company.

As you can see, biographical information for many of Jackson’s employees is scarce.  If you have information about these individuals that you would like to share, please let me know and I will update the post.  I  will cover later dates in future posts.

 

 

Where Was Gold Hill?

 

Acme Mine
Edward F. Bunn, photographer. Acme Mine, Gold Hill, Wyoming, albumen silver print, 1891, Denver Public Library, western History Collection, X-61518.

It seems like every western mining region has an area named Gold Hill.  For years, researchers have assumed that Edward F. Bunn’s 1891 photographs of Gold Hill were made in Boulder County, Colorado.  Today, a drive up the steep, unpaved road to Boulder’s Gold Hill reveals a landscape quite different from that seen in Bunn’s photographs.  And with a little digging (pun intended), we can now prove that Bunn’s Gold Hill photographs were not made in Colorado, but in southern Wyoming.  

Edward F. Bunn, circa 1900, Fort Collins History Connection.

Edward F. Bunn was born in July 1855, in Muskingum County, Ohio, to Elnathan  Raymond Bunn, Sr. (1817-1908) and his wife Dorcas Crumrin Bunn (1823-1882).  He was the fourth of six children, born into a farming family, an occupation that Edward himself would pursue in Missouri.  Edward even patented a cultivator in 1884. 

Edward married Mary Ann Dyer (1856-1940) in 1877 in Missouri.  The couple visited northern Colorado in March 1885, before moving to Fort Collins that June (Rocky Mountain News, March 13, 1885, p3, c1). Mary Ann’s mother and step-father, William T. Campton, and their two sons also lived in Fort Collins. 

It is not known when Edward Bunn learned photography.  In 1890 he and Stephen H. Seckner formed a  short-lived photography partnership.  The following year, Bunn worked alone, out of the old  stand he formerly shared with Seckner, as well as his horse-drawn photographic wagon.  While he did make portraits, Bunn enjoyed working outdoors and specialized in landscape views.  He also offered “one chance in a lifetime” to learn photography. (Loveland Reporter, February 26, 1891, p1,c2)

Edward F. Bunn, photographer. Edward F. Bunn’s photography wagon and tent, albumen silver print, 1891, Denver Public Library, Western History Collection, Z-3084.

Health concerns led Bunn to visit Wyoming’s rugged Medicine Bow Mountains in July 1891.  The timing was fortuitous, as gold had been discovered in the mountains the previous summer, but too late in the season to fairly assess the prospects.  Bunn arrived on the scene and found the miners at work.  He could not pass up the opportunity to make photographs, and  accepted an assignment from the Board of Trade to photograph the Gold Hill Camp and Battle Lake (The Saratoga Sun, July 14, 1891, page 3, column 2). 

The blog’s lead photograph shows a group of well-dressed men standing behind a pile of egg-sized ore nuggets from the Acme Mine and a log structure under under construction.  The mine operated double shifts, with plans to ship the ore to Omaha, Nebraska.  (The Wyoming Commonwealth, August 9, 1891, p2, c2)

The Saratoga region had seen brief bursts of activity briefly before.  Back in 1868, the area supplied railroad ties for the Union Pacific Railroad.  Bunn photographed one of the abandoned camps.

Edward F. Bunn, photographer. Coe & Carter’s Tie Camp, albumen silver print, 1891, Denver Public Library, Western History Collection, Z-5449.

Bunn planned on staying in the Saratoga area for about three weeks, but he spent at least an additional three weeks in the region.  He set up a temporary studio on the west side of town in late July and early August, making portraits of local citizens, charging $4.00 for popular cabinet-size portraits. (The Saratoga Sun, July 28, 1891, page 4, column 5). These portraits measured 4 x 5-1/2” and were mounted on heavy card stock.

The Platte Valley Lyre reported on July 30, 1891:  “E. F. Bunn, a photographer from Fort Collins, has taken a number of fine views of the Battle Lake country during the past week.  He has fifteen views in all, giving one a very clear idea of the beauty of this lake on the summit of the Sierra Madres and the magnificent scenery surrounding it.  We have seen quite a number of views of the lake, but none of them equaled those taken by Mr. Bunn.  He also visited Gold Hill, securing as many photos in that region, but his plates were accidentally injured.  He will therefore visit the camp again soon…” 

By the late 1890s, the Wyoming gold camps had petered out, as did Bunn’s photographic career.   The 1900 federal census lists Edward Bunn as a photographer at St. Cloud, north of Fort Collins.  A few years later, he moved to Collbran, Colorado, in Mesa County, where he had success as a dry farmer.  Over the years he grew wheat, Concord grapes and sweet corn.  He also did carpentry work, enlarging the photo studio of R. C. Phipps (The Plateau Voice, June 2, 1916, page 1, column 1).

Edward F. Bunn died on May 6, 1947.  He is buried in Denver’s Fairmount Cemetery. 

Additional photographs by E. F. Bunn are available at the Denver Pubic Library’s website: https://digital.denverlibrary.org/digital/

An earlier version of this post appeared in Annuals of Wyoming: The Wyoming History Journal, v84, no. 4 (2014), p20-26.