Nothing But Pontification and Sleuthing

 

Clara Kuck's photo album seems to start with her time in Great Falls, Montana where she worked as a teacher of Latin, German, French and English as well as teaching dramatic arts. After her initial pages dedicated to seeing the local sights, she starts focusing more of her camera on things closer to home. I assume the above picture is of where she boarded during her initial time in Great Falls and local directories at the time seem to corroborate that. Clara is the center lady directly behind the girl on the swing. I ponder the use of the structure the swing is tied to as it seems overly built for a simple swing. Perhaps they used that as a older version of an engine hoist for working on vehicles since it spans the driveway? Maybe they were big hunters and skinned a lot of animals? Subsequent sleuthing however made that less likely.

On a whim, I uploaded the photo into Gemini A.I. and started asking questions and one of the things it reported back to me was that the house was built in 1914 according to records and then it mentioned who owned the property in 1910 before it was built. That got me to thinking about using my genealogy census record search knowhow to figure out who lived there when this photo was taken. I searched the 1920 census records for all properties with the number 908 and after a few minutes, found one for 3rd Ave North. According to the census, it was occupied by Samuel D. Largent who happened to be the superintendent for the school in town. I'm not sure if either or those others in the photo are him or his wife as they were 52 and 61 years old respectively around 1915 and nobody looks that old. Also, Samuel and wife Helen never had any children according to census records. I stopped searching there but upon flipping through the photo album, four pages later is a picture of a little girl in what looks like the exact same dress as above and it is labeled Dorothea Dodge. More genealogy research quickly confirmed she lived in Great Falls and that her parents were Royal Edwin Dodge who would have been 34 in 1915, wife Norah May Kinner aged 31 in 1915 and Dorothea would have been 8 in 1915. I think these are likely the three of the five people in the photo meaning the only unknown is the girl on the far right. I followed up with a quick check on ancestry and found in an 1916 Great Falls directory, the Dodges were listed as renting at 908 3rd Ave. North. 

Above is what the front of the house looks like now while the first picture was taken from the backside of the house which is accessed by an alleyway that Google hasn't mapped out to be visible with street view so I can't see if the object above holding the swing is still there or not. I know this because the house on the right of the modern picture has the same windows as the house on the left in the first picture though you can't see it with the above view from Google. If I index to the left one frame, I can see the pictures of the neighboring house on the right but the house at 908 is completely obscured by a tree. It makes me hope that someday with technical advances, we will be able to do virtual walk throughs of anywhere on the planet including in the alleyways. 

Above is taken on the sidewalk seen from the front of the house with someone named Julie on the left and Clara on the right. The Google modern view is more covered in trees though I can still make out the two houses behind them in it and they look much the same. 

Clara is always dressed what I think was likely considered highly fashionable for the time which isn't a real surprise even though she was only a teacher. Her father, my 3rd great grandfather, was a very wealthy man at the time and likely supplemented her income.

I noticed the pile of tree branches on the lawn behind the car above. It made me ponder if they had tree limb removal after storm events much like we still do today in many urban areas? 

Same place above but with three different friends. I have noticed in a lot of pictures in the album that Clara is often looking someplace else than directly at the camera. I also wonder if she took a tripod with her where ever she went or I suppose handed off her camera to someone else to work. I assume there were mechanical timers for cameras even back in those days. The only reason I suspect the above photo was taken by someone else is because of the below photo.

The two women on each side of the above photo are the same as the ones in the preceding photo with my 2nd great aunt Clara being the one that is second from the right. The center person was likely the one who snapped the preceding picture which leads me to the question, who snapped this one? Once again, Clara along with the unnamed newcomer are not looking directly at the camera while everyone else is. 

As a bonus, while I was in A.I. asking questions about the first photo, I asked it to restore and colorize the original photo in my great aunt's photo album. Here is that picture for your enjoyment:

A.I. restored and colorized photo