Henry & Henrietta Stebbins, Dad and Aunt Tee

I’m back to scanning in old family photos and came across this really nice photo of Great Grandpa Henry Stebbins, Great Grandmother Henrietta Stebbins, my Dad as a little boy, and Aunt Tee – Helen Theona Fry – as a little girl.

I don’t know where this photo was taken, but I think it’s really nice.

 

When Photographers Used to Come to Your Home

So I finally finished the new album of Great Grammie Goodrich’s photos for Dad and brought it over to him. I pointed out three different 5×7 photos of my older brother to my Mom and commented on what a cute little boy he was. She told me that she had a contract with a photographer that came to her home every year to take photos of my brother, and when I came along, of me. The photographer used to set himself up in the living room. What a cool idea, huh? That way, the child is happiily in his own environment instead of being dragged off to a studio somewhere and feeling very scared about the whole ordeal. Here’s a small version of one of these photos of my brother:

Isn’t he a cutie?

Things are not like they used to be. I remember deliveries being made to the home, too. Mom used to have Charles Chips Potato Chips delivered every week – those were the best potato chips! She had a tin like the one shown on the website, and she actually still has that tin after all of these years. I also remember that when my younger brother came along she had a diaper service pick up the dirty diapers and drop off clean ones – cloth diapers, that is. There may have been other delivery men she had, but those are the two I remember. Back when things were less complicated than they are today.

 

Grammie Fry and my Mom identifying old photos

As I’m continuing to scan in photos (right now from Dad’s side of the family), I noticed that many of them have my Mom’s writing on the back of them. So I thanked her for her patience and taking her valuable time to do this so that I could reap the benefits. She told me that when Grammie Fry was in the hospital with cancer, Grammie had asked Mom to bring unmarked family photos so Grammie could id them for her. As Dad was working out of town, and I was living out of town, Mom was the only family member who visited Grammie everyday. This must have gone on for quite a while given the large amount of identified photos. Mom told me that Grammie’s last word to her before she slipped into incoherency was “pictures.” While the whole situation of Grammie starving to death due to colon/liver cancer saddened me to no end then and still does 23 years later this month, I am very grateful to her and my Mother for identifying and labelling all of these pictures. How many daughters-in-law do you know would spend time with their Mother-in-Law like my Mom did? Not too many these days that I know of. Now that’s sad. (Okay, I’m getting off my soapbox now).

Here’s an excellent example of what I’m talking about. These are my great-grandparents Henry and Henrietta Stebbins in 1908, their son Martin Stebbins and Grammie, Helen Stebbins, as a baby (Henry and Henrietta had just lost a daughter, Alice Stebbins, which I’ll post about later):

Henry Stebbins Family 1908 Hosted on Zooomr

Here’s the back of the photo with my Mom’s handwriting:

Henry Stebbins Family 1908 back Hosted on Zooomr

Zooomr is hosting these photos tonight as Flickr was temporarily down.

 

Engagement and Marriage of Helen Stebbins & Dalph Fry

The other day I mentioned that Grammie Perry and Grammie Fry had the exact same Wedding Album. Today I’m posting the Marriage Certificate page from Grammie Fry’s Wedding Album, along with her official Marriage Certificate, Wedding announcment, and engagement announcement. Here’s the page from the Wedding Album showing they were married in Rochester, PA on January 14, 1928:

Here’s the official Marriage Certificate:

Here’s a card from Rev. E. G. Lusk:

Here’s the Announcement of their Wedding:

Here’s their Engagement Announcement dated August 1, 1927 folded together:

And opened up:

 

Great Grandpa Henry Stebbins

With Henrietta’s photo albums still fresh on my mind, I thought I would post a couple of really nice photos of Great Grandpa Henry Stebbins with his daughter, my Grandmother, Helen Marion Stebbins Fry:

This one was taken at Watkins Glen in 1914:

I remember Grammie Fry saying that you could twist her hair around a finger and it would stay in a ringlet.

 

Grandpa Fry and Aunt Tee at 5 Months Old

I’m still scanning in Henry & Henrietta Stebbins’ photo albums, and there’s many photos I want to post here, but this one caught my eye today. It’s of Grandpa Fry and Aunt Tee (Helen Theona Fry) at 5 months old.

She is such a little sweetheart. More later!

 

Helen Stebbins Fry

Here's another photo I found in Henrietta's Red Album. This one is of Grammie Helen Stebbins Fry. There isn't a date on the photo, so I'm not sure when and where it was taken. Maybe it was taken when she was at Eastern Nazarene College.

Much more on Grammie later on!

 

Dalph Fry

I started scanning the photo albums of Henry & Henrietta Stebbins (my Great Grandparents), and found a photo of Grandpa Dalph Fry taken when he was at Eastern Nazarene College in a bunch of loose photos inside Henrietta's Red Album:

Much more to come later on Grandpa!