I’m catching up on Sepia Saturday after having been on vacation, so bear with me! No theme this week which means it’s time to celebrate with something completely different! Usually the prompts for Sepia Saturday are informal, candid style photos, so I’m going with a more posed, formal photo with a very exact date this time. The handwriting is pretty clear, but the back of the photo reads
Eula F. Patrick’s Birthday Party
July 10th 1891
8 years old
Eula F Patrick was born Eula Frances Patrick on 10 July 1883. I haven’t been able to find out much about her mother – the only record I could find in my haste was a census from 1910 that says her mother was born in Massachusetts. Her father was John C Patrick (6 Jul 1848 – 25 Dec 1918) who was a travelling photographer with a base in Coalport, Pennsylvania, but he lived primarily in South Carolina. My family definitely utilized his photographic services over the years, and he apparently shared a photo of Eula’s 10th birthday with my great-great grandmother. John was also from England which may be why my great-great grandparents, also from England, patronized his services over other local photographers. Unfortunately I haven’t been able to find out much else about the Patrick Family. Eula married Julius Sinclair Burch, and John’s death certificate lists his mother’s surname as Hardesty.
In the photo above, I have no idea which child is Eula! The majority seem to be girls with one boy sitting in the front. In the back, there’s a child with a shaved head, but it’ shard to tell if the child is a boy or a girl based on clothing alone. I don’t think any of my great grandmother’s siblings are in the photo. My great great grandmother Jessie Battin married Alfred Powis on 19 Feb 1891, so it’s possible they became fast friends after having gotten to know eachother when John Patrick took their wedding photo. Now that I look at the two photos together, the background is the exact same background between the wedding photo and the birthday photo, so it’s possible Jessie and Alfred attended the party as adult guests! I can’t find any hard evidence to support that, but it would make sense given that they have a photo of the children at the party.
And with that wrapping up a birthday photo, I wish a very happy 300th birthday of sorts to Sepia Saturday! 300 prompts old and still going.
