Last week’s topic was about love and I shared several photos taken at Noah and Allie Sutton’s farm. Did anyone notice that I didn’t post the family photo that many of us are well acquainted with? That’s because of this week’s prompt so I am actually going to share two family photos that are near and dear to the family. One family photo is one in which we could identify as our great-grandparents with their children and one unknown family photo.
Have I already mentioned that my fascination with the family tree began when I walked into my great-grandparent’s old farmhouse and looked into the faces that hung in antique frames? Well if so, I am saying it again! I was in awe of these old photos and wanted to know who these people were and find out more about their lives.
My favorite family photo is the one I would gaze at time and time again. I would discover that it was my great-grandparents, Noah Sutton and Allie Jane Epperson, with (left to right) daughters, Laura, Malissa and baby Jessie, and my grandfather, Lewis Henry Sutton. The photo was taken at a studio located in Bonham, Texas in 1901 as that was the year that Jessie Lorn Sutton was born. In 1901, Noah was 36 and Allie was 32 years of age. Their daughters, Malissa Jane and Laura Emaline were 14 and 7 years old, and son, Lewis Henry was 10 years old. Their youngest son, Alva Leonard “Jack” Sutton would not be born until five years later in 1906. By that time, Malissa Jane had married Clarence Henderson and given birth to her first daughter, Zola Mae. It is amazing to think that Allie was a grandmother at age 36!
Laura Emiline Sutton would marry twice -- Paul Jones Helton in 1911 and William Ray Todd in 1933. My grandfather, Lewis, would marry Trentie Alice Leonard in 1916. Jessie Lorn Sutton would marry James Chester Kelley in 1923. Alva Leonard “Jack” Sutton would remain a bachelor despite his good looks.
My father, Paul, would take a picture of the photograph, as he was worried it would disappear after his uncle Jack’s death. It was too big and fragile to remove from the wall in hopes of obtaining a copy. Little did he know that it would be in safe keeping with his aunt Jessie followed by her granddaughter, Susan Clarke nee Kelley. This photo has been key in helping me meet my second cousin, Susie, after I added it to my family tree on Ancestry.com. Susie would share many more photos with me from her grandmother’s collection and also from the collection of our great-aunt, Laura Todd nee Sutton. This was appreciated as many of the photos from Lewis and Trentie’s years together had been destroyed in fires. Oh and not only did she share these photos but she gifted me a large print of the family photo and that is on display in my office. I also made a trip to see her in her beautiful mountain home in Colorado.
Many of the photos inherited by Susie did not identify the individuals so she hoped that we could work together to identify the unknowns. It has been a slow process but we have been able to identify many. Thank goodness for FamilyTree.DNA as that is where I connected to my third cousin, Pam Epperson. I almost overlooked her because our shared centiMorgans were low but my sister pointed out the surnames listed in her FTDNA account were a match to our tree so I decided to send her a message. We began exchanging information about her line and guess what? It turns out that she descends from George Washington Epperson who was Allie’s older brother! In fact, George and his wife, Rhoda Greene, raised his younger siblings – Mary, James, Allie, Charley, and Nelson after the tragic death of their parents in 1878. Pam sent me a photo of George and Rhoda and I realized this couple looked very much like a couple in one of the unknowns that I mistakenly identified as a Sutton family photo--long story but never mind! The point was we could now be sure of the family’s identity. It was George Washington Epperson and Rhoda Greene and several of their children.
Pam and I were able to meet this past year in Thorn Hill, Tennessee and we had a great adventure in search of our 2x's great-grandparents graves which we located. We had a great visit with the woman who now owns the land where they are buried.
I was so happy to learn that Noah and Allie had stayed in touch with some of the family back in Tennessee. Now it would be great to find more family photos such as these from the family lines. You just never know what will be found when you connect with kin.
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