Fun Pictures

 

I am making a push to clear out the pile of "stuff" that is piled to my immediate right blocking direct access to my filing cabinets. All the stuff came out of the old farm house and I am working to digitize it to share with my family and preserve it in some way for future generations. Most of it are photos and documents that previous people found worthy of saving. Most of it is known to me but occasionally I come across some unknown objects that I never knew existed. Most of the time those are physical 3D objects but on rare occasions, they are pictures. This post is about four such pictures that I just found and never knew they existed.

Above is Roy E. Rice according to the script written on the back of the picture. It also says that the picture was taken in 1894 when Roy Rice was two. If you call, it was only recently I was pondering if he was even a legitimate son of Martin and Amanda Rice. It turns out he was. But doesn't this picture look very female to you? The dress doesn't bother me as that was common enough back then but the hair does. On the back in different script is also written "youngest brother of Grandma"  that looks very much like my great grandmother Grace's script. She was probably writing it for the benefit of her son, my grandfather, which is why she used the term "grandma" when Grace's mom would be the brother of Roy. 

This picture is also labeled as Roy Rice and is a very rare photo. To my knowledge, this is the only photo of the 100+ really old photos I own where the subject isn't standing and staring stoically at the camera trying hard not to move. This one exudes happiness and movement. I had to put it in a photo editor to bring out some of the background details as it is quite badly faded and in the process, it is a bit heavy on the sepia color. Not my finest work for sure but at least I have a digital copy of it now that won't get any worse.

Finally in the group, there is a picture labeled "Cornelius M. Rice" and the "Taken June, 1898".  It also says, "Mother's brother" written in pencil which means it was probably written by my great grandmother Grace as well. Judging from the content of this photo, Cornelius had just graduated perhaps college. I say college because he was listed as some sort of auditor, commissioner, accountant most of his life in the various records I have and he just looks older than a senior in high school. Cornelius was older brother to Roy and was a  younger brother to my 2nd great grandmother Annetta Rice.

Finally, unlike the previous three pictures, I couldn't really crop out the cardboard around the edge of the photo without losing a lot of detail so it is included. It is again of Cornelius Rice though I think a bit younger than the picture above. He certainly looks dapper in this photo and although his parents were poor and died in poverty, he seems to have been on the right track when this photo was taken. The only thing that puzzles me is the black object right above his waist. I'm not sure what to make of it. I'm guessing it was fashionable at the time as he is obviously showing whatever it is off. 

Anyway, it was fun to gaze upon these photos even if they aren't one of my direct ancestors.