ANOTHER Year

I've been away from this site and my other site for a long time. The joy had left me. The joy had left almost everything in life as I struggled to be a full time caregiver to my father. In the end he lost the battle. I lost the battle. I am empty. I miss his laugh.

Being a caregiver full time means putting yourself on hold. There is little time for self. It's a good lesson, but a difficult one. You don't get paid for being a caregiver so money becomes an additional stress. I looked at photos on ebay, but I didn't buy. There was no time (or money) to go to antique stores, flea markets, or estate sales. But friends, good friends, and a stranger were very kind to me.

The photo below was from a very kind woman named Brenda. She sent it to me because of the Hartsook connection. For that reason I start up again by reposting my original Hartsook post that enabled her to find me.

I quite like this young man. Is he younger or older than he looks? Is he just on the cusp of being an adult and has the clothes he feels make him look older? Or is he someone who goes through life always looking younger than his years? I think he should have been very proud of his portrait.

You'll notice this shot was taken in Seattle, not San Francisco.

And thank you Brenda!

And now, the original Hartsook post from May 7, 2012

These images came from my friend Bert’s collection. I don’t know where he found them, but I think they’re quite a nice find.

This is Edward in 1920. That's all I know about this young man. This lock of hair was tucked in with the two photos. I have not found anything online about the Nelson Studio in Santa Rosa, California.


Click on image to see it larger.

This second photo was taken at a Hartsook studio.



Click on either image to see it larger.

The following information about the photographer Fred Hartsook is from Wikipedia.

Fred Hartsook (26 October 1876 – 30 September 1930) was an American photographer and owner of a California studio chain described as "the largest photographic business in the world" at the time,[1] who counted Henry Ford, Charles Lindbergh, Mary Pickford, and sitting President Woodrow Wilson among his celebrity clients. He later became the owner of the Hartsook Inn, a resort in Humboldt County, and two ranches in Southern California on which he reared prized Holstein cattle. Hartsook was married to Bess Hesby, queen of the San Francisco Pan-Pacific Exposition of 1915.

Fred Hartsook was born on 26 October 1876 in Marion, Indiana to John Hartsook and Abbie, née Gorham. He was born into a family of photographers and studio owners, his father and two uncles were all successful in the business and his grandfather had been the first photographer to open a studio in Virginia. According to a 1921 profile by John S. McGroarty, "the first Hartsooks [took] up the profession when it was in the infancy of development with the old daguerrotype and the first wet plate processes."

After graduating from high school at age sixteen Hartsook was apprenticed by his uncle as a civil engineer, but spent most of his time in his father's studio. He moved to Salt Lake City, Utah and married Florence Newcomb, 12 September 1901. Flossie came from a family of photographers. She operated her own studio in Vernal, Utah in 1906. Flossie served as Fred's assistant for their traveling photographic studio throughout the Utah territory. They had one daughter; Frances born 25 June 1902. Fred and family then set out to establish themselves in California, arriving sometime after 1906. Initially, Hartsook operated as an "itinerant shutterbug, [wandering] all over the state, his team of mules pulling a homemade darkroom." Later he opened two studios, in Santa Ana and Santa Barbara, but eventually closed them in order to open a studio on 636 South Broadway in Los Angeles.

Hartsook's success as a photographer and studio owner allowed him to expand into other cities along the Pacific Coast, including San Francisco and Oakland. In 1921, McGroarty gives the number of studios as 20 and describes it as the "largest photographic business in the world". Bill Robertson, director of the Los Angeles Bureau of Street Services, cited by KPCC in 2009, mentions 30 studios.

Even if the bulk of the business came from everyday studio portraiture, Hartsook gained prominence through his celebrity clients, which included silent era Hollywood actors such as Mary Pickford, Lillian Gish, and Carlyle Blackwell, other celebrities such as pilot Charles Lindbergh, entrepreneur Henry Ford, and opera singer Geraldine Farrar, and politicians like House leaders Champ Clark and Joseph Gurney Cannon. McGroarty describes a 40-minute sitting with President Woodrow Wilson in September 1919 as "the first formal sitting since Mr. Wilson became president." Also in 1919, Fred Hartsook married Bess Hesby, who in 1915 was "Miss Liberty" at the Panama-Pacific International Exposition in San Francisco. They honeymooned in a cabin six miles (10 km) south of Garberville in the redwood forest of Humboldt County, California. (SOURCE: Wikipedia)

The last incarnation of the Hartsook Inn is still standing and I stayed there a few times. It was a lovely place with nice little cabins. It’s been vacant for a long time and whenever I drive by I feel a little sad. It’s along a busy two lane section of Hwy 101. I imagine someday the road will be moved, changed into a 6 lane freeway, and bypass the Hartsook. It will be forgotten, just as Edward may be forgotten.

To see images of the Hartsook Inn click here to visit CardCow.

Click here to read a newspaper article about the Hartsook Inn in 1949.

Click here to read a nice blog post at Ernie's Place about the Inn.
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Tattered and Lost volumes 1 to 9 available at Amazon.

Ready for the EASTER PARADE

Well past this years Easter Parade, but definitely set for next years.


Click on image to see it larger.

One of these young ladies is Betty Schnabel's mother, Louise Bigelow Schnabel. I'm thinking the one on the right.

Surely makes my paper plate hat with the construction paper flowers look a little shabby.

The BIGELOW FAMILY lived here

912 Queen Anne Avenue in Seattle, Washington is where the Bigelow family lived. That's all the information I have about this lonely looking house with it's wintry trees. It appears that a trolley passed by on the tracks in the street.


Click on image to see it larger.

Does the house still exist? Sadly it doesn't. Type in the address in Google Maps and you'll see how boring the neighborhood looks. Nothing but large nondescript boring apartment buildings. The tracks in the street are also gone.

As to the Bigelow family? I have no idea. They were apparently friends of Betty Schnabel's mother since this image is from Betty's collection.

UPDATE:  Thanks to Mike Brubaker at TempoSenzaTempo we can now add a bit of life to the old house:

In 1901 it was listed for the first time as the residence of Mr. Isaac N. Bigelow, a builder and contractor, and later the president of Bigelow Investment Co. He lived there with his wife, Emmeline and daughter Clara. All born in Canada, Isaac in 1838, Emmeline in 1848, and Clara in 1870.

UPDATE: Thanks to reader Natalie K we have the following information:

According to the 1900 census, the family lived at 1509 Third Avenue. Isaac was listed as a banker and a dozen or so people roomed at the address. They had lived there for some time as they are listed there in the 1891 city directory and in the same general block in 1885, when Isaac is listed as a carpenter.

Also, he is profiled in a book of memoirs of pioneer of Seattle: "Isaac N. Bigelow, one of the builders of the city of Seattle, is a native of King county, Nova Scotia, born on the 15th of May, 1838... Came to Seattle in 1875.... He has erected many residences on his property and also built the Bigelow block on Pike Street and another large building on Second avenue and Union Streets. He married Emeline Davidson, of the same place and with whom he attended school. At the time it was written (not sure yet when), his son David was a mineral expert and assayer in Cedoras Isl. Mexico and E. Victor was a congregational ministor in Lowell, MA. Clara lived at home with her parents.

They had two other children, David Edward born about 1864 and Edwin Victor born about 1866. 

And click here to see a photo of the Counterbalance streetcar which appears to be going right by the Bigelow house. Great find Natalie! Thank you!

UPDATE: Mike and Natalie both spurred me on to do a little digging myself. Hoping to find a photo of Issac or family members, I was saddened to find no images, but did find the following information that I copied from the Lewis Publishing Company site. I haven't made corrections in the copy other than a few places where numerals had space around them in dates. I hope in the future someone finds a photo to contribute to this post.

ISAAC N. BIGELOW 

Isaac N. Bigelow, one of the builders of the city of Seattle, is a native of King county, Nova Scotia, born on the 15th of May, 1838. He represents one of the oldest families of this country, tracing his ancestry back to John Bigelow, who emigrated from Essex county, England, to Massachusetts, in 1630. He was a freeholder and a select man of Watertown, a member of  the Congregational church and died on the 14th of July, 1703, at the age of eighty-six years. His son, Samuel Bigelow, born in Watertown, in 1653, was proprietor of an inn and one of the influential men of the community. He serv'ed as a sergeant in the militia and represented his town in the general court. His will bears date 1720. His son, Isaac Bigelow, born in Watertown in 1691, held a commission from the governor as sergeant of the colonial militia and his death occurred in 1744. His son, Isaac Bigelow, Jr., the next in line of succession, was born in Colchester, Connecticut, on the 4th of May, 171 3, and removed to Nova Scotia, where he received land grants from the government for settling there, but later he returned to Colchester, Connecticut, and reared his family there. He died in 1792. His son, Amasa Bigelow, the great-grandfather of our subject, was born in Colchester, Connecticut, in 1755, was a ship carpenter and lost his life by accident in 1799. He married Roxana Cone and their son, Ebenezer Bigelow, was born in Cornwall, Nova Scotia, about the year 1779. The latter married Nancy Rand in 1804 and died in 1860. He was also a ship builder and became a very prominent representative of that department of industrial activity. His son, David Bigelow, the father of our subject, was born in 1813, married Martha Jane Weaver, and died in 1847, the age of thirty-four years. He had learned the ship-builder's trade under the direction of his father, carried on a large and successful business and was highly esteemed by all who knew him. His wife departed this life in the fifty-ninth year of her age. She was the mother of seven children, of whom four are living, three being residents of the Pacific coast, namely: H. Allen of Oakland, California; Rebecca, who is living in Seattle; and the subject of this review. 

Isaac N. Bigelow obtained his education in the public schools of his native town and in early life learned the carpenter's trade. Lor a number of  years he was engaged with his brother Benjamin in ship-building and remained in the east until 1875, at which time he came to Seattle, where he became identified with the business interests of the city as a contractor and builder. His marked skill in that vocation and his honorable business methods soon secured him an extensive patronage, whereby his labors became very profitable. As his financial resources increased he made extensive investments in real estate and purchased and platted what is known as Bigelow's addition to the city. He also platted Bigelow's second addition and the Lake Union addition, all of which have become greatly improved, being transformed into residence districts of the city. Both before and since the great fire in Seattle in 1889 Mr. Bigelow has been extensively engaged in building in this city, his labor in this direction, however, being largely the improvement of his own property. He built and owned one of the largest sawmills north of San Francisco but later, selling his interest in the property for thirty thousand dollars, he invested that amount in the Seattle Dime Savings Bank, of which he was the president and principal stockholder for four years. At the expiration of that time he was obliged to suspend, but he has the gratification of having paid one hundred cents on the dollar. Honesty has ever been one of the salient features of his character and no one can say aught that is detrimental concerning his business life. He has erected many residences on his property and also built the Bigelow block on Pike street and another large building on Second avenue and Union streets. He is now living retired with a good competency and makes his home in a nice residence at No. 912 Queen Ann avenue. He is an active and valued member of the Congregational church, in which he is serving as a trustee and deacon and also as superintendent of the Sunday-school. He takes an active and acceptable part in all church work and his labors in that behalf have been very effective. He has also contributed in large measure to the improvement and progress of Seattle and obtained the first street railway franchise. He also secured the paving of Pike street with brick and in many ways has contributed to the substantial improvement of the city. He is a Master Mason, having been made a member of the craft in Nova Scotia in 1863.

Li the same year Mr. Bigelow was married to Miss Emeline Davidson, also a native of King county, with wdiom in youth he attended the same school. Their union has been blessed with two sons and a claugliter : David E., a mineral expert and assayer now in Cedoras Island, Mexico; E. Victor, a Congregational minister, now serving as pastor of Elliott church, in Lowell, Massachusetts ; and Clara M., who is at home with her parents. Rev. Bigelow is a graduate of Washington University and also of Yale College and has taken a post-graduate course in Harvard College. Mrs. Bigelow, like her husband, is actively engaged in church work, and both are most highly respected by a host of friends in Seattle. His purpose has ever been commendable, his actions manly, his conduct sincere and above all his life has been influenced by a sense of conscientious obligation concerning his relations to his fellow men and his duties of citizenship. (Source: Lewis Publishing Company)

UPDATE: More wonderful information from Natalie!

I kept digging last night. I believe you said in an earlier post that Betty Schnabel's mother was Louise Bigelow Schnabel. Louise was the daughter of David E. Bigelow, who was the son of Isaac and Emeline Bigelow. So the house belonged to Betty's great grandparents and her great aunt Clara.

I couldn't fint any photos of Isaac and Emeline but did find one newspaper account that included a photo of Clara when she was older, in 1950. She never married and lived on that block the rest of her life.

(SOURCE: West Seattle Hearld. June 22, 1950)