The Fort Wayne Smith's

I have this photo from Grandma Lillian and she gave me one clue. It says “Fort Wayne Smith’s”. For years I looked at this photo and wondered who all these people were. As I researched and scanned in family photo’s it became obvious to me that this photo is of Uncle William‘s Children, Aunt Della’s family and Aunt Dora’s family. We will work on identifying them.

At first I was able to identify a few people from other photos that Grandma and Grandpa had. I knew that Aunt Della was the lady on the right seated below the guy in the suit. Aunt Dora is the lady seated with the baby on her lap. I knew the man with the hat in his hand was Della’s husband from later photos and I know that it is not William Sparks (died 2/13/1931, he did not look like the man in the other family photo that we analyzed) so it must be her second husband, William Hart (married 10/13/1931). So the photo is from after 1931. I knew the man in the suit was Virgil Smith because I have a photo of him in a suit like the one he is wearing in this photo. I knew that the lady to the right of Virgil is Nora (Sparks) Patten she will be a key to the date. On Virgil’s left is his sister Della. Next to Della Smith is Vesta Jackson, Oscar’s wife. To the left of Dora (holding the baby) is her daughter Ruth (Jackson) and since it is after 1931 she has married her second husband Ralph Emrick(1927).

For many years the woman in the center remained unnamed. I had several photos of her with Oella. On the back of one of the photo, Grandma tried to give me another clue. It stated that she was Oella’s sister. This is a story for a future Blog so I will just identify her as Aunt Susan (Susanna). Oella is not in the photo, she died in 1925 which just helps to establish the date that the photo was taken.

Three woman seated in the center of the photo are L to R: Dora Jackson holding (probably) Marlene Emrick(1932), Aunt Susan (died 1933), Della Sparks.

The row standing behind: is likely Talmage(probably Talmage, the son), Lydia Sparks, Talmage’s wife, Ruth (Jackson)Emrick, Melba Jackson(1917, 15 years old), Vesta (Bowersock) Jackson, Della Smith, Virgil Smith, Nora(Sparks) Patten(died 2/24/1933), William Hart (Della's second husband married 10/13/1931)

Third row L to R: William Harvey Jackson (the man's profile), Ralph Emrick (over Ruth's shoulder to the right), Oscar Jackson(over Vesta's shoulder to the left) ,Alvin (1904, 26) or Virgil Sparks(1902, 28)standing by the tree in back of photo, the man behind Nora is Grover Patten, Nora’s husband.

Children seat in the front are no doubt Della and Dora's Grandchildren. I am making an educated guess here based in the ages that each of these children is known to been born according to census records which only go to 1930.

Front L to R: Walter Emrick(1927, 5 ), behind Walter and kneeling, Dora Jane Jackson(1926, 6), Marjorie Jackson, (1921, 11), Loydell(1923, 9), Loren Sparks (1921, 11), Bernard (1923, 9) behind and next to Della, Martena Sparks (1922, 10)

Since both Nora (Sparks) Patten (Feb 1933) and Aunt Susan (Dec. 1933) were both known to have died in 1933, we know that the photo was taken before 1933. It looks as though it is summer so it is probably 1932. Marlene Emrick was born on January 29, 1932 and Dora Jackson is her Grandmother who is holding her. Marlene provided me with her birth date.