When I got the cardboard box with what remained of my Great-Grandmother Blythe Stillwell's articles I was blessed that mounds of photos survived. I guess no one saw the value in these photos, but I did!I didn't know all the people in those photos but I knew enough [and had my Mother to ask about others]. Thus started my genealogical journey finding out about the family I never knew.
And while I was looking for the people I knew I kept the photos of those I didn't.
This is one of the photos I put aside for later. I'm glad I did because the writing on the back of this postcard turned out to be a clue to the identity of one of the fellows pictured!
It was written to John Hinkley, Great Grandma Nonnie's adoptive father. On the back it says, " April 19, 1910. Can you pick Guy out? This is his force of men. He is the foreman of NP freight house. He has seven men under him. He first had this taken today.
Angie
He wanted me to send you one."
I had some pictures of William and Angie Hinkley at verious times of their lives. William was John Hinkley's brother. At one point I followed them through the US census. When John T. and Sallie Delaney Hinkley moved from Missouri to Nebraska, his brother William along with Angie Phillips Hinkley and their kids moved up to Butte, Montana! So I looked through further census for them in Montana, and what do you know? Guy is their son! I got that box out and looked through to see where I had read that name before and there was the postcard.
The clothing Guy's crew is wearing tells me that NP is a railroad.
A lookup on Google for NP railroad revealed a Wikipedia listing of original Montana railroads and their successors. NP was the Northern Pacific & Montana Railroad.
Keep those old photos with the people you don't know, because if you look long enough, you will!
