Notes |
Married:
- Notes about the picture of Isaac and Phidora (Knapp)Sprague:
I bought the Cabinet Card photograph of an elderly coupleon ebay. It was taken by a photographer named Fisher inHinsdale, N. H. I have another Cabinet Card photo of afamily member taken by the same photographer. Anyway. thisphoto was taken sometime between 1860's to the 1900's basedon the characteristics of the Cabinet Cards iephotographer's name printed on the bottom front, no propitems in the photo, sepia color, size of the photo andlarger ½ inch margin in the bottom with Photographer's nameand address (Typically 1866 to 1895). In addition, the goldbeveled edges are reflective of the 1885 to 1892 period.The names of this couple are not written on the back of thephoto, but in older cursive writing there is written thefollowing: "Father & Mother Sprague. Picture to Eva andWallace". After searching the Guild database, I found thecouple Eva P. Sprague I114049, who was married to WallaceDavidson. This large family was from Vermont, New Hampshireand Mass. The parents appear to have settled mostly inStratton, Windham County, Vermont. Hinsdale N. H. sits inthe very south west corner of the state only a couple ofmiles from both Vermont and Mass. The distance between thetwo villages is 38.4 miles, so it is conceivable that ifthe parents, Isaac and Phidora, didn't live in Hinsdale atone time, they could easily have traveled there and hadtheir picture taken there for their daughter, Eva P.Sprague Davidson, who did live there.
There is no doubt who Eva I114094 and Wallace I22543 are aswritten on the back of the photo. I would think that thisis a photo of Eva Sprague's parents Isaac I114004 andPhidora I22542 Sprague and that the parents wrote the noteon the back and sent it to Eva and Wallace Davidson. (Eva's Grandfather James Sprague died in 1853 and is thustoo old to be in the photo.) Or, perhaps whoever wrote thenote on the back, came into possession of the photo afterthe passing of Eva and Wallace. That person was probably achild of Eva or a brother and sister and they wrote thenotation "Father and Mother Sprague Picture to Eva andWallace" on the back because he/she knew the identity ofthe people of the photo and they knew who the photo wasgiven to. So the photo seems to me to be that of theparents of Eva. P. Sprague Wallace. The timeline of thephoto would match the age of the parents. In addition, Ialso purchased a photo of Eva's brother Alfred IsaacSprague and his wife Elizabeth "Libbie" Bell Johnson whichwas taken by Fisher of Hinsdale, N. H. I know that two oftheir kids, Raye Osborne Sprague and Nellie ElizabethSprague, were in fact born in Hinsdale, N. H. [4]
|