Hannah Hill Romney Album: Men in Pompadours

Here are the next two pictures. With the Prince Albert coat, the fact that the picture was taken in London, the book in his hands (scriptures?), and the fact that the picture was found in Hannah Hill Romney's album this is probably a missionary. Which missionary would it be? It is someone close enough to make it into the family album.

 

The only reference I can find to G. Flower is a note about an ambrotype for sale. Westminster Bridge Road is just south/east of the Thames, and was the location of Astley's Theatre, as noted on the photograph.

This man is not Archibald Hill and it's not Samuel Hill. Is it Miles Park Romney? I've never seen a picture of him at any other age besides this:

It doesn't look like it. Miles Park was in England when he was 18-21 years old, and this man looks substantially older. Could it be his father, Miles Romney? I seem to remember that he served as a missionary; I don't know whether it was before he emigrated or afterwards.

Miles Romney, the father of Miles Park Romney.

Could the picture from the album be a Hill uncle? There are several possibilities there, but I don't know if any of them served a mission in England. I'll try and follow up on this detail another time.

And, another picture from the album, a young man perhaps also wearing his hair in a pompadour (see this link for a discussion of 1900s pompadours, which is the wrong time frame, but the same or a similar hairstyle):

The back side of this picture does not have a photographer's mark. Could this be Miles Park Romney? The picture looks like it was taken in the 1860-1870 time period, which would make this young man be the right age to be Miles Park. Perhaps someone in the extended Romney family has a known photograph of Miles Park at this age to compare.

Next in a Series of Guest Posts...

Life gets busy sometimes, and I've had just enough time to work on another in a long series of guest posts for Keepapitchinin. This one grew out of the last Eminent Women post on Isabell Romney Platt. 

The post is a brief biography of each of Mitt Romney's twelve ancestors who were involved in polygamous marriages. The subject is frequently discussed in the news and on news blogs across the internet, so this was an attempt to provide some accurate information, and point out that these are real people who lived real lives and should not be used as pawns in a political game.

So, here's a link to the post. "A Brief Guide to Mitt Romney's Polygamous Heritage."

And, one of these days I'll get back to posting more of Hannah Hill Romney's photo album, and finish the Tanner Daguerreotype project, and work on lots of other leads and loose ends in this vast, ongoing family history project.

Amazing New Find: The Hannah Hill Romney Photo Album

Several days ago, a distant cousin emailed with the news of an amazing find. Hannah Hood Hill Romney's photo album had been kept by her daughter-in-law, Ethel Call Romney, and she left this note with the album, which was found recently by one of her descendants.

In 1969 when Ethel Romney wrote this note, it would have been difficult to identify the photographs, but due to technological advances, we may be able to tell the identities of some or all of the people in the pictures.

A Few Notes About Hannah Hood Hill Romney and Her Family

Hannah Hood Hill (1842-1929) was the daughter of Archibald Newell Hill (1816-1900) and Isabella Hood Hill (1821-1847). Archibald and Isabella were Scottish immigrants to Canada. Two children were born, Hannah and her brother Samuel Hood Hill (1840-1903), before the family joined the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and moved to Nauvoo where Rebecca Hood Hill [Pettit] (1845-1922) was born. Hannah's mother Isabell died at Winter Quarters as the Saints were headed west.

In 1862, Hannah married Miles Park Romney (1843-1904) in Salt Lake City, Utah. Miles left almost immediately after their marriage for a three-year mission to England. After he returned, the Romney family moved several times, first to help build the town of St. George in southern Utah, then to help establish St. Johns in eastern Arizona, then to help found the Mormon Colonies in Mexico.

Hannah had eleven children. She told about her life in a touching and detailed autobiography which unfortunately is not available online.

After Miles Park Romney died in 1904, Hannah and his other wives, Catharine Cottam Romney (1855-1918) and Annie Woodbury Romney (1858-1930), sold the family ranch in Mexico. Hannah spent much of the rest of her life living with her children and her sister, Rebecca Hill Pettit.

Hannah was visiting family in the Colonies in Mexico when she died in 1929.

Some Pictures from the Photo Album

Please leave comments or send an email (see my email address on the sidebar) if you know the subject of any of the pictures posted today or subsequently or if you can tell us anything about  the details of the pictures or photographers.

Here is the first picture.

This picture was taken by Charles Outon in Landport, which is in England. The identification on the back of the picture says, "A. N. Hill & Son." It is written in Spencerian script, which means that the person who identified the picture was probably educated in the Nineteenth Century, so it may be an accurate identification. Here are known pictures of Archibald and Samuel to compare, and the identification looks correct.

Archibald Hill as a missionary. This picture is courtesy of Sharon Wilbur, and is not from the Hannah Hill Romney Album.

Back (left to right): Archibald Hill, Samuel Hill. Front: Hannah Hill Romney, Rebecca Hill Pettit. This picture is courtesy of Sharon Wilbur, and is not from the Hannah Hill Romney Album.

When was Archibald Hill in England? An anonymously-written family history notes:

Archibald served a mission in 1865 (2 years and 4 months) to Birmingham and Southampton and traveled 3,657 miles by foot; 7,631 miles by railroad; 8,786 miles by water; attended 318 public meetings; preached 253 sermons; and baptized 10 persons. He visited his place of birth and met with an uncle. On his way home was appointed charge over a steamship of Saints going to America. [Here is the record of the journey of the Manhattan, with Archibald Hill presiding over the Saints.]

Samuel Hood Hill was in England about the same time and he headed another company of Saints traveling to America on the ship Caroline a year before his father returned home. [Account of the journey.] The picture of Archibald and Samuel Hill may have been taken before Samuel left England on May 5, 1866.

Here is another picture from Hannah Romney's photo album.

The photographers, Charles R. Savage and George M. Ottinger, operated in Salt Lake City from December 1863 to 1872.

I think this is a picture of Miles Park and Hannah Romney's oldest daughter, Isabell Hill Romney Platt; first, because it looks like her, and second, because she is shown alone without any siblings.

Isabell's father left on a mission to England before she was born in 1863 and returned when she was three years old. Perhaps Hannah had this picture taken to send to Miles in England, since Isabell appears to be one or two years old.

Here is a later picture of Isabell to compare to the subject of this photograph, as well as a picture of Miles Park Romney since Isabell has a very strong resemblance to her father.

From Findagrave. This is a copy of a picture from Life Story of Miles Park Romney (Thomas C. Romney, Independence, Missouri, 1948), f310.

A close-up of the child in the picture in the Hannah Hill Romney photo album.

Miles Park Romney. From Findagrave. This may be a copy of a picture from Life Story of Miles Park Romney (Thomas C. Romney, Independence, Missouri, 1948), frontispiece.

The picture of Archibald and Samuel Hill and the picture of Isabell Romney Platt were the first photographs in the collection. We will be posting many more and hopefully with the help of online resources and descendants who see this blog, we will be able to identify many of the people in the photographs.

Henry Tanner and the Edmunds-Tucker Act

I've read that Henry Martin Tanner was never prosecuted for u.c. (unlawful cohabitation, or polygamy) under the Edmunds Anti-Polygamy Act 1882, or the Edmunds-Tucker Act of 1887, but I just found a copy of the Joseph Fish Journal online that says otherwise.

Fish, a resident of Snowflake, Arizona, noted that in 1905:

Senator DeBoise from Idaho has been working up a move against the Mormons and he had brought strong pressure on the officials in northern Arizona to prosecute the polygamists in this action. The officers were compelled to do something and a vast number of witnesses were procured from this section and St. Johns, my wife Adelaide being among the number. So we knew that something was being done and we all that were liable were looking for the office to come and arrest us, but there was but one from this district that left on this account, the others all decided to stay and meet the case, be it what it may. The result of this effort of Senator DeBoise was that there were ten of us arrested in this district.

A Field Trip to Manassa, Colorado

Don't miss Bessie's series at her blog, Ancestral Ties, about her springtime trip to Manassa, Colorado. 

Manassa and other towns in the San Luis Valley were settled by converts to the Southern States Mission. Mission president John Morgan helped the settlers establish their new homes, and he lived in the town from time to time with his wife, Annie Smith Morgan.

2012 Springtime Visit to Manassa, Colorado

The picture to the left is John Morgan with Annie Smith Morgan and three of their children.

The Tanner Family Daguerreotype: Woman in Center

And now, after a long break, we're back to the mystery of the Tanner Family Daguerreotype.

If you haven't read the previous chapters, links are at the bottom of this post.

The woman in the middle with the purple shawl (the picture was tinted by hand) is generally thought to be Elizabeth Beswick Tanner.

John Tanner was twice widowed when he asked for Elizabeth Beswick's hand in marriage in 1825. Elizabeth was 21 when she married 47-year-old John. It must have been difficult for her to adjust to life in the Tanner family: John had two sons older than Elizabeth, and one daughter slightly younger, but with the youngest just an infant and five other children in-between, the family needed a mother, and Elizabeth stepped right in to do the job.

Here is the picture from the daguerreotype:

Here is a picture from Elizabeth's later years. The identification looks correct.

Elizabeth's children were born in 1826 (Myron), 1828 (Seth), 1830 (Freeman), 1833 (Joseph), 1835 (Philomelia), 1838 (David Dan), 1840 (Sariah), and 1843 (Francis).

If this picture was taken in 1844, was she in mourning for Francis who died in June of that year? Is she wearing a mourning bonnet? (See links for pictures of 1840s mourning bonnets: here and here.) It looks like she's wearing a black mourning bonnet.

The only people she would wear mourning for were close family members. Since this picture seems to have been taken in the mid-1840s through the early 1850s, she could have worn mourning for the following deaths:

• Child Francis Tanner, died June 1844 in Iowa.
• Husband John Tanner, died April 1850 in Utah.
• Mother Anna Lamb Beswick, died September 1852 in New York. (It probably took Elizabeth a while to hear about her mother's death.)
• Child Sariah Tanner, died March 1853 in California.

That would place this picture within a year following one of those deaths. Was it taken in Nauvoo by Lucian Foster after Francis died? In Utah by Marsena Cannon, Sr., after John Tanner died? Or in California after Anna Beswick or Sariah Tanner died?

[Note, May 2012: Maria Tanner Lyman is also wearing a bonnet of a similar style but with a ruffle that has been hand-colored purple. She lost a daughter in 1848, her father in 1850, and a member of her husband's family in 1846. Oh! Is it possible that they were wearing mourning for Joseph and Hyrum Smith? The two of them died on June 27, 1844. The fact that the two of them are wearing mourning is inconclusive.]

San Bernardino

In 1851, the Tanners left for San Bernardino, California. They were there until late 1857. A handful of daguerreotypists operated in the area during the existence of the Mormon settlement, including:

• Carvalho (Solomon) — in Los Angeles for a month (August-September 1854) operating in partnership with A. M. Johnson
• Da Lee (Amon Gilbert) — rented Hallman's daguerreotype studio in Los Angeles in 1856.
• Hallman (A.) — had a portrait gallery in Los Angeles from about 1856-1857. He may have remained in the general area, since he was in San Diego in 1858.
• Hereford (T. S.) — in Los Angeles around 1853.
• Johnson (A. M.) — operated a daguerreotype gallery in Los Angeles.
• Lewis (J.) — operated a daguerreotype studio in Los Angeles around 1853.
• Osburn (William B.) and Searles (Moses) —  had a daguerreotype gallery in Los Angeles in 1851.
• Penelon (Henri C.) and Davoust (Adrien L.) — operated a photography studio in Los Angeles as early as 1853.
• Smith (William, later known as Amor De Cosmos) — a partner of Marsena Cannon in Salt Lake before he left for California where he was an itinerant daguerreotypist until he moved to Canada in 1857.

Reading through the possible daguerreotypists, and looking at Myron Tanner's age, it seems most likely that the daguerreotype was taken before the San Bernardino period, but there were a number of daguerreotypists who could have visited San Bernardino and taken a picture, or the Tanners could have traveled to Los Angeles and had their picture taken there.

To be continued...

Part 1: Introduction
Part 2: We Meet the Tanners
Part 3: What is a Daguerreotype?
Part 4: Technology Meets the Tanners
Part 5: Woman at Right
Part 6: Woman in Center
Part 7: Boy in Back — First Possibility
Part 7: Boy in Back — Additional Possibilities
Part 8: Man at Left — John Tanner?
Part 8: Man at Left — Options
Part 9: Summary

The picture of the daguerreotype is, as always, from Ancestry.com, courtesy of Claudia Rayl. The picture of Elizabeth Beswick Tanner is from John Tanner and His Family (George Tanner, 1974, 374). The information on the photographers is from the amazing book Pioneer Photographers of the Far West: A Biographical Dictionary, 1840-1865 (Peter E. Palmquist and Thomas R. Kailbourn, 2000).

Archibald Hill and Mary Howes

Archibald Hill had several wives. One of them, Mary House or Howes, was listed in NewFamilySearch with a birth date but not a death date. The Utah State Archives has death certificates, so I checked to see if she died in Utah, which she did. Here is her death certificate. She was 74 years old and died of "myocarditis acute" and "abscessed teeth." (Take good care of your teeth! If you don't, it can lead to or complicate heart problems.)

Mary's maiden name is spelled "House" on her death certificate but "Howes" on earlier records in England and "Howse" on her migration record, so I have used the earliest spelling, "Howes."

I added Mary's death and burial information to NewFamilySearch, complete with citation. The death certificate lists her father's name, which should help trace Mary and her family. She did not have any children, so her husband's descendants from his other wives should make sure that her immediate family's temple work is done.

(If someone wants to do the work, make sure you identify the correct family in England with the father Jervis or Jarvis Howes and a mother who died before Mary left England, and please document all the information you add to NewFamilySearch. Identifying her family is a bit of a challenge, but certainly not impossible.)

Another Guest Post: Eminent Women: Isabell Romney Platt and Charlotte von Schiller

The next post in the Eminent Women series is about Isabell Hill Romney Platt. Isabell was the daughter of Miles Park Romney and Hannah Hood Hill Romney.

Hannah Hood Hill Romney was the sister of Rebecca Hood Hill Pettit. The two sisters were close their entire lives and despite great distances, they were able to spend a good amount of time with each other. After Hannah left Mexico, she lived with Rebecca a couple of times. I wish we had their correspondence!

Isabell Hill Romney Platt was named after her grandmother, Isabell(a) Hood Hill. To connect her to our family line, Isabell was the first cousin of Mary Isabell Pettit Green. Isabell Romney Platt's children were second cousins to our great-grandmother, Lucile Green Glade.

And I'm sure by now everyone is dying to know, during this curious election season, how all these people are connected to the presumptive Republican nominee, Mitt Romney.

Miles Park Romney was a polygamist. He had five wives and thirty children. His first wife was Hannah Hood Hill. Isabell Hill Romney was Miles and Hannah's first child, born while Miles was in England on a mission. One of Isabell's younger brothers, Gaskell, also a son of Hannah Hill Romney, is Mitt Romney's grandfather. This makes Mitt Romney a third cousin of grandma Beverly. (And now you know.)

So, head over to Keepapitchinin to read about Isabell Hill Romney Platt, and the woman whose temple work she did.

Guest Posting Elsewhere Today: Marinda Redd Bankhead

While working on my Eminent Women series, I started on a tangent about some of the early black pioneers in Utah Territory. 

Today I'm guest posting on Keepapitchinin: the Mormon History Blog with a story called Marinda Redd Bankhead: A Slave in Zion. It's the story of a cross-country journey made by a woman who had no choice in the decision to go, but who, after being freed, made a pleasant life for herself and her family in Spanish Fork, Utah, and remained firm in the faith that she was baptized into as a young woman.

Come visit Keepa and leave a comment or ask a question!

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Happy Spring!

It's a warm and an early spring and we're starting to think about plans for Easter —

Awake, thou wintry earth—
  Fling off thy sadness!
Fair vernal flowers, laugh forth
  Your ancient gladness!
      Christ is risen.

        Thomas Blackburn—An Easter Hymn.

(The picture is of my front garden a year or two ago.)