I've been having a
grand ole time (well, when I don't feel overwhelmed by it all) digging through
boxes and paper piles in my dad's office. I always find something
interesting. I don't know when I'll get
back to filing this mass of paper, but once in a while, I decide to go on a
quest. A couple of months ago, I picked a box to pick through. I was actually
looking for something else, but I found this photograph of my paternal
grandfather Albert Sidney Pendleton, Sr. taken with some of his friends.
This photo is not
the original but a copy that my dad made, and it was tucked into an envelope
with my dad's illegible handwriting on the outside as to who these young men
are.
Who's Who
Here's a translation
of my dad's handwriting as best as I can tell and some information about his friends in the photo: The top left is my paternal grandfather Albert Sidney Pendleton,
Sr. Next to him on the right is Kenyon Corner, the brother of Sue Corner who married my granddad's brother Philip Coleman Pendleton. I believe the young
man on the bottom left is Tom Stevens. At least it looks like that's what my
dad has written. Since I remembered reading about some parties in the Valdosta Times newspapers that my granddad
attended, I searched for these as they often listed the guests. Sure enough,
listed as one of the guests at these parties is Tom Stevens. On the bottom
right is William Edmund Pendleton, my granddad's first cousin and the son of my second great uncle Charles Rittenhouse
Pendleton (brother of my great grandfather Alexander Shaw Pendleton). Edmund,
as he was called, married my maternal grandmother Leona Roberts' sister Stella.
I don't know the context of this photo. It was probably taken in the early
1900s. The dates of the articles that I found with the party guest lists run
from 1905 to 1911. Were they members of some sort of young men's club? Were they at a party? What was
the purpose of the cigars in the photograph? To make them look worldly? Are the cigars lit? It looks like my granddad is about to singe Tom's ear. I chuckled when I noticed that my granddad's bow tie is crooked.
I never
thought about it before, but my oldest brother sure looks a lot like our
granddad. I love old photos!
This one reminds me that my granddad was a young man once upon a time. I also realized when I looked back at my first post about my granddad that the above photo and the photo on that post may have been taken around the same time. He's wearing that same crooked bow tie!
Catherine
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Resource used:
South Georgia
Historic Newspaper Archives http://sgnewspapers.galileo.usg.edu/sgnewspapers/search
This looks like one of those "poker-faced" pictures, where the joke is that they're all holding cigars, and they're all trying not to smile. At least, my family took some pictures like that, and I've learned to recognize the genre. These family men are all being successfully serious, except for Edmund, who has a whisper of a smile. They are all quite handsome. And they all look very English. I suppose "Pendleton" is quite an English name, or at least it sounds that way.
ReplyDeleteI have never known a bow tie that doesn't go crooked after a while!
My granddad was pretty good at having a poker face. At least that's how he looks in a lot of photos or with a very slight smile. I laughed when I saw this photo with these young men trying to be serious and my granddad with his crooked bow tie :) Love that! You're right, Pendleton is an English name.
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