This is Arthur McClain’s baby picture. As you can see, it has had a bit of a rough life (the photo, not Baby Arthur).
Grandpa Arthur was born October 6, 1884. This photo must have been taken very late in 1884 or early in 1885.
The photographer’s name is printed on the back of the mounting card in a very elaborate fashion:
It is significant that the photographer was in North Platte, Nebraska. (At least it is if you’re obsessed with chronology as I am.) Nathan and Mary McClain were married in Adams County, in far western Illinois. (Mary had been born there. Nathan was born in neighboring Pike County.) Their first children were born in Adams County. Around 1880 they moved to Cass County, in far eastern Nebraska. Basically they moved across the state of Iowa. Then sometime between 1884 when Arthur was born and 1886 when Frank was born, they moved to Paxton, toward the western side of Nebraska. North Platte is 30 miles from Paxton. So they evidently moved to Paxton shortly after Arthur was born—before this photo was taken.
As you can see, along with the photographer’s name there is the message, “Duplicates of this picture can be had at any time.” As nearly as I can tell, this claim is false. I asked for a duplicate and haven’t gotten it yet. ;–)
If you tap/click on Baby Arthur’s image above and zoom in on the eyes in the enlarged version, you will see that this photographer also employed the trick of darkening the limbal rings of Arthur’s eyes. In this case you can clearly see the pin pricks made in the negative to do this. Dan observed that Uncle Barney’s mouth had been darkened in the photo posted when this was first discussed. That appears to have been done in this photo also. I don’t know what Victorians had against seeing a baby’s tongue or gums.
I had forgotten that Grandpa Nathan and family settled in Paxton for a while. Mom, Dad and I visited Mom’s cousins Mary Rundback and Elmer McClain on the the Rundback Ranch near there in ’82. Now, how are they related? Any idea why they stayed back and Nathan & Co moved on?
Mary McClain Rundback and Elmer McClain were brother and sister (you probably knew that much), children of Grandpa Arthur’s older brother Jim (James Nathan). Jim did not come west with the family in 1901, but remained in Paxton. I don’t know why. He was 20 years old then, so did not have to remain with his parents. He married his wife Susan Knowles in 1906. It’s remotely possible they already had a relationship in 1901 and he didn’t want to leave her. Such things have been known to happen. ;–)
Whether the farm he had was the farm Nathan left, I don’t know. And whether Jim’s farm came down to Elmer or Mary, I don’t know. In other words, whether any of the land you were on while visiting Elmer or Mary was originally Great-grandpa Nathan’s—I wish I knew.
Mary was born the same year as Mom and she is the one having tea with Mom on an apple box in this photo.
I don’t have any details on this, but just based on birth events and locations, it appears that Jim’s family moved to Oregon for a few years after 1912 and before 1916. I say this on the basis that their sixth child, Earl, was born in Albany in 1913 (all the rest were born in Nebraska). The photo of Mom and Mary would have been taken during this 1912-1916 period.
Thank you for putting all these pieces together, Lloyd! It is VERY interesting! Thank you for pointing out those artificial limbal rings again! And the darkening of the mouth! As you say, “Why??”