Mother's Day

Rebekah Sharpe nee Hutton circa 1855. She looks glum but as Steve pointed out to me recently people were not told to say, "Cheese." Because the eye of the camera had to be open for several seconds to allow enough light, people were told to hold still. [I've decided that she spelled her Rebekah this way because that's the inscription on her grave marker. Her son years after her death spelled it Rebecca, but I'm going with Rebekah.] She gave birth to 12 children with at least four not making it to adulthood. It was the death of her youngest child that brought the family to homestead in Parkerville Kansas.



This is Betsy Walker nee Sharpe with Edna Jessie in 1895. Gussie remembered that this portrait which includes the whole family was taken on Thanksgiving Day because the pharmacy was closed for the holiday. Betsy gave birth to nine children and only seven lived to maturity. One child that died was Gussie's twin, but the other appears to have been hers and Edward's first born, a boy who possibly was named Thomas.


The third photograph is of Edna, Allan and Ethel taken circa 1917. Edna and EA were married in 1913 and they became parents with Allan's birth in November 1914. Ethel was born in January 1917. Helen followed in 1920 and Mary Grace in 1923.


Finally, the fourth photograph is of Mary Grace Morgan nee Burkhardt and Susan in May of 1950.

A century of mothers.