Mea Culpa

 

While answering a question on my previous post, I realized I was wrong. Fortunately I said I was 99% certain the above picture was taken in the fancy house described in the newspaper article in my previous post. As it turned out, my 1% uncertainty should have been closer to 100%.

The question I was answering was about who took the photograph. I didn't know and still don't know who since the entire family group was in the picture but I wondered if it could have been a timer. The internet assured me that external triggers were around as early as 1910 and built in timers came around in the 1950's. Since my grandfather, the blurry boy on the left, was born in 1929, I figure this picture was taken somewhere near the mid 1930's and in the external trigger era. My great great grandfather on the right appears to be clutching something in his hands, perhaps a remote trigger.

That is when it hit me that this picture was taken in the mid 1930's, after my great great grandfather had his bankruptcy sale. After the sale, according to my chronologically ordered research notes, they moved to an apartment in Waterloo in 1926, three years before my grandfather was born. By 1940, they were living in a old four square building on a corner in neighboring Cedar Falls where they ran a grocery store out of an attached building behind it. I now suspect, that this picture was taken while in that house which is still standing today according to Google Streetview. Unfortunately, it now has a closed in front porch obscuring the front door and window for verification.

This new knowledge has took a bit of wind out of my sails. They still obviously had been able to retain some nice clothing and things after the bankruptcy, but this house, wasn't the one described in the previously posted article. I think I should paste a copy of the above photo in my research notes, in chronological order of course, so such a mistake doesn't happen again. 

Mea culpa.