From Daguerreotype to Digital: Dating and Preserving Family Photographs

Lew & Susan Wallace Descendants pose for a family photo.
Come to the Carriage House for a closer look!

Is your family photo album neatly organized with all the names, dates, and locations written on the back? Even more organized, is it in archival scrapbooks with appropriate labels in chronological order? Or is it more like mine--a few haphazard scrapbooks and albums with photos that may or may not be labelled, with the extra photos shoved in boxes that aren't organized by...much of any criteria?

Whatever the answer, you may be interested in popping in for our upcoming genealogy lecture. If you're uber-organized, you can sit there and feel smug. If you're like the rest of us, you can learn how best to preserve your family photographs. And if your photos are unlabeled, you can learn how to be a photographic detective and figure out a little bit more about those unlabeled, undated, unidentified photos!

Join us September 12 at 7 p.m. at the Carriage House for this free lecture. Joan Hostetler of Heritage Photo and Research Services will discuss photographic processes and formats from the 1840s to the present. She will share clues for dating photos and techniques for preserving them. Bring your own family photos to learn more about them!

The lecture is free, but we do like to have a head-count beforehand, as space is limited. Please RSVP by emailing us at study@ben-hur.com or calling us at 765-362-5769.

If you're unable to join us that night, you can always follow us on Twitter, where we livetweet tidbits from the lecture with the hashtag #genealogy.

The Wallaces & the Canbys

Off Wabash Avenue on the east side of Crawfordsville is Canby Avenue. It is one of the few local reminders of E.R.S. Canby, a local boy, friend of Lew Wallace, and one of Crawfordsville’s five Civil War generals. The Canby family settled in Crawfordsville in the 1830s and lived in a home that stood on the site of the old high school (now the Athena Center). Mr. Canby was in charge of the Federal Land Office. His son, Edward Richard Sprigg Canby (E.R.S.) grew up in Crawfordsville, attended Wabash College for one year and then was appointed to West Point. Upon graduating from West Point, E.R.S. returned to Crawfordsville and married a local girl, Louisa (Lou) Hawkins.
The Wallaces and the Canbys travelled in the same social circle and remained friends throughout their lives although their travels and careers often took the couples in different directions. Like the Lew and Susan Wallace, E.R.S. and Lou Canby had a strong marriage with each being a significant partner.

After graduating from West Point, Canby continued in military service seeing combat in Florida during the Second Seminole War in the late 1830s and early 1840s and in the Mexican-American War in the mid-1840s. Canby’s military service included posts in upstate New York, California, Wyoming, and Utah in the 1850s. By 1860, he was posted in New Mexico. Lou travelled to these postings with her husband and during these early years they had one child, Mary, who died young.

General E.R.S. Canby

When the Civil War broke out, Canby remained out west. He was promoted to colonel of the 19th U.S. Infantry on May 14, 1861 and less than a year later was promoted to Brigadier General in February of 1862. After some success in the west, particularly in Texas, Canby was posted to New York in the wake of the draft riots in 1863. Canby had a varied military career serving in both important administrative positions and active battle service.

While he was a gifted administrator, there were some in the army, including General Grant, who thought he was not aggressive enough in the field. In May of 1864 he was promoted to Major General, was posted to Louisiana for a time and then placed in command of the Military Division of Western Mississippi. He was wounded in November of 1864, but his wife nursed him back to health. When the Confederacy fell in April of 1865 he accepted the surrender of the Confederate forces west of the Mississippi. Immediately after the war, Canby was posted to Washington, D.C. where Grant came to hold Canby in great esteem for his knowledge and understanding of policy, law, and army regulations.

Like Lew Wallace, Canby’s family was divided during the War. At one time, his father had owned slaves and he had cousins who fought for the Confederacy. After the war other relatives became carpetbaggers in Louisiana where Canby had been posted as a military governor. These family members sought favors from Canby, who declined their requests for support.

After the war he had a number of postings around the country including his service as military governor in Louisiana. This was followed by his appointment as Commander of the Fifth Military District, comprising the states of Delaware, Maryland, Alexandria and Fairfax, Virginia, and Washington, D.C. Many of these areas had been under the jurisdiction of Lew Wallace just a couple of years earlier. Additional postings in the Reconstruction South followed in Texas, North and South Carolina. Although he was seldom a favorite of either Republicans or Democrats, whites or blacks, state or federal officials, he conducted his business in fairness and honesty and was generally well respected.


Captain Jack



In 1872, he was posted to the Pacific Northwest in the Oregon Territory in an effort by the U.S. government to address issues with the Modoc Indians. Relations between the Modoc tribe and the United States were tense after a series of failed negotiations and treaties over native lands. After a number of false starts, Canby was able to arrange a meeting with the leader of the Modoc tribe. Canby attended this meeting in April of 1873 unarmed, hopeful that he could relieve the building tension between the two sides. Although he understood the tension and knew that the Modoc were volatile, he arranged the meeting at a neutral site and went with a small group of men. During discussion when Canby indicated that he did not have the authority to grant the Modoc their ancestral lands, the leader of the Modoc tribe, Captain Jack, became enraged and attacked Canby. The general and the peace commissioner were killed and others in the party were injured.

There was a funeral service for Canby out west before the body was returned to Indianapolis for burial at Crown Hill. Civil War generals William Tecumseh Sherman, Phillip Sheridan, Irvin McDowell, and Lew Wallace were in attendance with McDowell and Wallace, his long-time friend, serving as pall bearers.

Just as Susan Wallace would, at times follow her husband, Lew, during his postings during the Civil War, Mrs. Canby followed her general. Like Susan, Lou was also a woman who admired her husband, respected him, and helped him in many ways. Like Susan, Lou was also her own person. However, unlike Susan, some of Lou’s activities complicated her husband’s life. To his credit, when Lou was involved in controversy, Canby stood steadfast in his support of her.

Lou and Susan were good friends, but Lew’s relationship with Mrs. Canby went much farther back. When Lew’s mother died, his father placed his three sons in the care of Mrs. John Hawkins where they lived until his father married Zerelda. Mrs. Hawkins had a son and three daughters, including young Louisa.

The affection shared by the families continued through the years and in the collections at Lane Place there is cream pot given by Lou to Susan as a token of esteem. In 1873, after General Canby’s death, Susan said of her friend that Louisa practiced charity, tending to give things away to the needy wherever she went in the South, endearing herself to the local populace, but at some cost to her household. "I can hardly keep anything, there is so much suffering about us," Louisa wrote Wallace from New Orleans. She sometimes pled the case of someone in need to her husband if she thought he might help. Mrs. Wallace also said that Louisa was far more sociable than her husband and that she, rather than he, would arrange for any gatherings at the Canby residence.

Louisa Hawkins Canby

Like Susan Wallace, Lou was a member of the Methodist Church. She was, however, a very forward thinking woman. At her husband’s funeral service in Portland she arranged for clergy from the three Protestant churches to conduct a joint service (a fourth clergyman bowed out) and at Crown Hill the service was conducted by both a Methodist and a Baptist minister.

Years earlier, Lou had demonstrated her openness with respect to religion. The Canbys followed William Tecumseh Sherman in a military posting in Monterey, California. Lieutenant Colonel Henry Stanton Burton, who was also posted in Monterey, caused a firestorm when he fell in love with Maria Amparo Ruiz, the granddaughter of the former governor of Baja, Mexico. The Roman Catholic Bishop of California condemned the marriage as Burton was Protestant and Ruiz was Catholic. Unable to marry in the church, Lou offered the Canby home for the ceremony which took place on July 7, 1849. Canby was away on official business when Lou extended this offer and upon his return, her husband was forced to publically explain that he had been away and that his wife, a civilian, had acted alone and out of compassion.

Both of the Canbys vigorously supported statehood for California in 1850. To help the cause Lou copied documents for the statehood convention and indexed Territorial records. Still out west when the Civil War broke out, the Canbys were stationed in New Mexico. While the Union troops were engaged in battle against the Confederates in distant parts of the territory, the cities of Albuquerque and Santa Fe fell to the southerners. Lou and several of the other officers’ wives made the bold decision to stay in Santa Fe instead of fleeing.

Although the confederates were soon forced out of Santa Fe, they left their sick and wounded behind. Winter was approaching and these men were left under-fed and ill housed. Lou went to visit these men and was so moved by their plight that she revealed a hidden store of blankets and food and turned her home into a hospital. She rounded up other wives to serve as nurses, went to out-lying areas to bring the wounded Confederates in for care or treated them in-situ if they couldn’t be moved. While she was given the name “the angel of Santa Fe” her actions were not without controversy. There were some who accused her of aiding and abetting the enemy by using Union supplies for wounded Confederates. Her actions also fed support to a whispering campaign against Canby, who had been born in Kentucky.

Lou continued to follow her husband wherever his military career took him. After his murder in 1872, the people of Portland rallied to her side. When they realized how small her widow’s pension would be, they raised $5,000 as a gift. While she accepted the money, she invested it and used only the interest generated. In her will, the full principal of $5,000 was returned to the people of Portland. She devoted the last sixteen years of her life to assuring that her husband would be remembered and was buried beside him in Crown Hill in 1889.

While she worked to keep the memory of her husband alive, Lou too was well remembered. In 1893, R.O. Fairs, a Confederate veteran, wrote the U.S. War Department looking to find Mrs. Canby. Not knowing that she had passed away in 1889, Fairs explained: "I wish to show her we still entertain kind remembrance and esteem for her, by inviting her to our reunion." While it’s not surprising that the two generals and life-long friends are remembered, it’s significant that both Susan Wallace and Lou Canby, who also remained friends for life, are remembered not only as devoted wives to their military husbands, they are also remembered for their individual contributions, kind hearts, and personal achievements.

Sources


Erin Gobel-research
Journal Review, June 1962, information in the article provided by Robert F. Wernle
Wikipedia for E.R.S. Canby, Louisa H. Canby
Shadow of Shiloh by Gail Stephens
Lew Wallace An Autobiography by Lew (& Susan) Wallace
American History Illustrated, August 1978, Article, “The Modoc Indian War” by Dave Wilkinson

The General Lew Wallace Study & Museum celebrates and renews belief in the power of the individual spirit to affect American history and culture.

Cordelia Wallace Butler

When Lew Wallace courted Susan Elston in the late 1840s and early 1850s, he was pursuing a daughter of one of the richest men in the State of Indiana. By all accounts, Susan adored Lew and was thrilled by his attention. Her very business-like father, however, was not so enamored. Lew had something of a reputation. He hadn’t embraced school, hadn’t been diligent about pursing a career that would provide a stable income, and loved to go off in pursuit of military excitement. Even the distinguished Calvin Fletcher weighed in on young Wallace commenting on Lew and his friends running around Indianapolis as rascals.



William Wallace



In the 1840s, Lew was not the only Wallace boy pursuing Hoosier heiresses. Lew’s older brother William caught the attention of Miss Cordelia Butler. Born in 1828, Cordelia (sometimes spelled Cordilia) was the oldest of Ovid and Cordelia Dyer Cole Butler’s six children. Her father, Ovid, moved to Shelbyville in 1817 and became an attorney. In 1836 he moved his family to Indianapolis where he opened his law practice with partners as prestigious as Calvin Fletcher. Butler was an accomplished orator who quickly gained a reputation for his business skill, for his politics and for his religious views. Butler was a vocal opponent of slavery and in 1849 he established a paper call Free Soil Banner in Indianapolis. Due to poor health and because of his financial successes, he also retired from his law practice about the same time. The Free Soil Banner continued until about 1854 and Lew Wallace, along with William B. Greer, is reported to have had some editorial input into the newspaper.

Although there were schools that had a founding based on Christian theology, there was no state university affiliated with the Disciples of Christ. In the 1840s, Butler and Fletcher became leading proponents for a Christian college in Indiana. In 1850, the State General Assembly authorized the formation of a school for the Christian Movement. The creation of this school became a driving force in Butler’s life and over the next five years he raised $75,000 for the school. In November of 1855 the North Western Christian University opened its doors. For the next sixteen years he served as the head of the Board of Directors and was then made Chancellor of the University. In 1877, the school received a new name, Butler University, in honor of his leadership.

As is common in research, women were much less recorded in historical documents than men. Available records detail much more about Cordelia’s husband and her father than they do about her. No images of Cordelia have come to light and all that we really know about her is that she was born on March 25, 1828 and during their marriage she had nine children. If the date of the birth of her first child is correct, she must have married William Wallace at or before the age of 17. The children of Cordelia and William were Esther (born 1845), Butler (born 1853), Zerelda (born 1854), Willie (born 1856), Lewis (born 1857), Ovid (born 1859), Anna (born 1859), Cordelia (born 1861), and William (born 1866). The birth of William on August 31, 1866 is particularly poignant because Cordelia died that same day at the age of 42.

Given the importance of her father, Cordelia Butler must have been considered one of the most eligible women in Indiana at the time of her courtship. With their limited means and their undoubted concerns about their eighteen year old son, Lew, David and Zerelda Wallace must have been pleased to see their oldest son happily wed to a woman of means with a strong Christian upbringing. As the daughter of Ovid Butler, the wife of successful attorney William Wallace, the daughter-in-law of Governor David Wallace, the sister-in-law to Lew and Susan Elston Wallace and with business associates like Calvin Fletcher and Benjamin Harrison, Cordelia travelled in powerful circles. She must have been a great contributor to the culture and society of Indianapolis during the pivotal years prior to and during the Civil War. While the relationships to the men she was surrounded by have assured that she is remembered to a degree, perhaps one day research will better define Cordelia Butler Wallace as a person in her own right rather just a reflection of those around her.

Tidbit extra: It is through the Butler family that the Wallaces can claim kinship with Booth Tarkington.


The General Lew Wallace Study & Museum celebrates and renews belief in the power of the individual spirit to affect American history and culture.





Friendship with the Wallaces Shapes a Young Man's Life

Helping with the care and maintenance of the grounds of the Lew Wallace property by incoming freshmen at Wabash College is not a recent phenomenon. These young men have been helping the museum for years and actually helped General and Mrs. Wallace in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.

One of the young Wabash men who worked for the Wallaces was Harry Wann. In September 1904, Harry was a seventeen year old freshman at Wabash. His older brother had attended Wabash and had worked for General and Mrs. Wallace at different times. As Harry was in need of money to support his education, he walked over to the Wallace home and introduced himself requesting an opportunity to work for Mrs. Wallace.

Some weeks after his meeting with Mrs. Wallace, she sent him a note asking that he bring all the students he could find to help rake leaves. As Wann recorded, the grounds were spacious and it was a real challenge to keep them neat and free of leaves. After this initial effort, Mrs. Wallace quickly came to depend on Harry for help and he was frequently at the home doing odd jobs.

By the fall of 1904, General Wallace’s health was declining. He often sat outdoors between the house and the Study to enjoy the fresh fall air. Ever curious Wallace would question Harry about his college studies, his ambitions, and even his eating habits! Harry didn’t have enough money for breakfast so he tended to skip that meal—Wallace grew concerned as he told Harry that breakfast was a very important meal. Although he was weak in body, Wallace continued to be strong in mind and he hired Harry to work in the Study. Wallace was still doing research and writing but it was too tiring to move about the Study pulling the books he needed from the shelves. To keep up with his research, he had the young man pull the desired volumes from the book shelves and bring them to the center desk.

As the autumn of 1904 turned cooler, Harry was hired to fire the furnaces in both the Wallace home and the Study. He also performed this same service for Susan’s brother Isaac who lived just up the street and Colonel Thompson who also lived nearby. Each evening Harry would stoke the furnaces and then at 5:30 the next morning he would make the same round to prepare the furnaces for the day.

When Harry was working at the Wallace home, the General would share stories of his experiences as Minister to Turkey as well as other episodes from a crowded life. Wallace’s health declined during the winter of 1904 and early in 1905 he took to his bed. Several times he sent for Harry to come to his bedroom to take dictation which Harry would write out in long-hand for the General to sign. Harry would post the letters the next morning.

On January 25, 1905 the General called for Harry to take dictation. The General dictated one letter regarding a typewriter he intended to purchase and a second letter to a nursery which included a list of plants and seeds for the spring planting. Harry completed the letters and prepared to leave. As he reached the front door, Mrs. Wallace detained him and asked Harry to refrain from sending the letter with the plant list as there was doubt as to her husband’s ability to garden come the spring. Harry headed back to Wabash College and laid the letter aside. He continued to come each evening and early each morning to tend the furnace, but he never saw the General again. Wallace’s health declined rapidly and he died on February 15.

After the General’s passing, Mrs. Wallace closed the house and she moved to Indianapolis for a time. A few months later, Harry received a note from Mrs. Wallace requesting him to retrieve her door key from Miss Millen (who was staying at Colonel Thompson’s home). In the note, Mrs. Wallace asked Harry to go to the Wallace house, and get two things for her. From the lowest drawer of her desk in the small (east) room, downstairs she wanted a manuscript of a play based on the Prince of India and then on the mantel was a letter from a friend. She asked Harry to add some Ben-Hur postcards from a local store; bundle it all together and send the package to her in Indianapolis via American Express.

As Harry wrote: “Needless to say, I was proud as a peacock, as a boy of seventeen, to be privileged to enter alone the privacy of the Wallace home to obtain, wrap and send to Mrs. Wallace the original MS. of the play “Prince of India.”

Harry Wann graduated from Wabash in 1908, taught German at Wabash for one year and then, perhaps remembering Wallace’s stories of the Middle East, he moved to Constantinople where he taught for three years. Wann returned to Wabash briefly in 1911 before moving on to teach at the University of Michigan. He pursued his doctorate and in 1917 was appointed head of the Romance Language Department at Indiana State University. Like Wallace, Harry Wann loved to learn. He participated in Community Theater, enjoyed singing in local choirs, and became a student once again when he enrolled at the Herron Art School in Indianapolis to learn the art of sculpting. As a sculptor he received a number of commissions.

In his 80s, as Wann reflected on his life and recorded his memories he continued to treasure the few months he worked for General and Mrs. Wallace. After a lifetime of accomplishment one of his prized possessions was the letter that was dictated to him and signed by General Lew Wallace on January 25, 1904 but never mailed.

Found: Letter to Bumpa

During a visit today from Nicholson Elementary second-graders, we showed a few artifacts relating to Lew Wallace's occupation as an author. One object was a notebook Wallace used to jot notes, keep accounts, and draft correspondence. Below we have included images and transcriptions as we read them (General Wallace's handwriting is not always easy to make out, and the spelling is at times inaccurate).


Wallace drafted this telegram to Mr. Howland in Indianapolis. As far as we can make out from Lew's hasty handwriting, it reads, "Capt W Wallace Presidio. S. F. Will be at meeting of GAR San Francisco. Have your acounts ready then. L.W." Notes on other pages refer to plantings and itemized accounts for labor and materials. Some, like the bottom page pictured in the photo, include dimensions for spaces ("7 ft + 9"" is pictured here) - perhaps Lew was planning gardens around his home and Study?

The General was not the only Lew Wallace to write in this notebook. June 14, 1903, a younger writer got a hold of notebook and pen and jotted "Lewis Wallace," and "General Wallace," "Lewis Wallace grand son of general Lew Wallace." Interestingly, the elder Wallace wrote consistently in pencil in this notebook, while the grandson Lew Wallace Jr. tried his hand at pen and ink.

A few years earlier, dated June 3, 1899, a child (we assume Lew Wallace Jr., who was born in 1892) began a letter to his grandfather: "Dear Bumpa We went out rideing yesterday an..." Our guess is that Bumpa, or Grandpa, interrupted the little writer and we will never know what happened during the riding excursion!

The Heroism of William Noble Wallace (1895-1918)

This bit of Wallace family history is in honor of Veterans Day. Lew and Susan Wallace had one son, Henry. Henry and his wife, Margaret Noble Wallace, had two sons. Their eldest was named Lew Jr. and their second son was named William Noble. Both grandsons would have made their grandfather proud with their service during World War I. If Lew Wallace was a hero in the Civil War, his grandson William should also be remembered for his valiant service.

Nicknamed “Tee,” William Noble was born in 1895 and attended Indianapolis Public Schools. A handsome and dynamic young man, he had a stronger scholastic aptitude than his famous grandfather as he ultimately graduated from The Hill School, an exclusive preparatory school in Pennsylvania. He then enrolled in and graduated from Yale where he was a member Hill School Club at Yale; the University Club, the university wrestling team; the Sword & Gun Club, Delta Kappa Epsilon and the Elihu Club.

A young man with spirit and drive he left Yale without graduating in 1916 to enlist in the American Field Ambulance Service with the French Army. He did this even though the United States had not yet entered the war. Serving as an ambulance driver for six months his unit received 3 citations, including the French Croix-de-Guerre with palm and the Fourragere for Souville-Tavanne. In December of 1916, he returned to Yale and finished his senior year, graduating in June of 1917. In July, he reenlisted and was commissioned as a 2^nd

lieutenant in the Marine Corps. He completed his training and in February of 1918 he sailed to France. In two different training classes, he graduated at the top of his class, again demonstrating a classroom aptitude foreign to his grandfather.

In June 1918, his command moved to Chateau Thierry and in the attack at Belleau Woods he led his platoon over the top of a hill in fighting as fierce as any Lew witnessed in the Civil War. Just a few weeks later in July, Tee took his platoon forward and was hit by piece of high explosive about noon while leading his men in the attack on Vierzy - the preliminary advance on Soissons. His regiment was cited by the French for this action and his company was awarded Croix-de-Guerre with Palm. Tee was evacuated to Base Hospital No. 43 where he recovered.

By September, he had been promoted to 1^st Lieutenant but, communications at the front being what they were, he never knew it! In Memorial Sketches in Yale in the World War, it says he actually received this rank July 1 and the next day had been made a provisional Captain. In October, he rejoined his command for the Meuse-Argonne offensive and was appointed Battalion Scout Officer. His company was withdrawn for replacement, but he was retained because of his sketching ability (perhaps an artistic trait inherited from Lew) he volunteered to map enemy positions on the front line with one other comrade. His mission was accomplished with great skill and daring, and as he was returning across open country to HQ on Blanc Mont ridge in the early dawn, he was struck by a shell and instantly killed. His partner survived. That night, with the aid of the regimental chaplain, he was buried by his men and a brother officer at the side of the road between Somme-Py and St.-Etienne. World War I ended just weeks later.

For his service, Tee was posthumously given the American Field Service Medal with letter from the French Ministry of War; a trophy was awarded in his memory by his friends at a track meet held by the Second Division Post, American Legion, in New York City; he received the Distinguished Service Cross for extraordinary heroism; and he was given the Navy Cross. After the War, Henry travelled to France and reclaimed his son’s body. William Noble Wallace is buried in Oak Hill Cemetery with the rest of his family.

A fellow officer said: In his last battle his company had lost 132 men in twenty minutes and was ordered to retire for replacement. But Lt. Wallace, “owing to his indifference to high explosive shell fire and skill in sketching, was ordered to remain and sketch the ground in advance. He had accomplished this special mission and was returning to deliver his map when struck by a shell. No nobler life has been laid on the altar of Liberty.”