I don’t know what circumstances prompted the creation of this photo of a group of neighbor children from Tallman. I also don’t know where it was taken. The rocks in the foreground and the hillside behind do not seem consistent with Tallman, so I presume the families were on some sort of outing.

I’m guessing the photo was taken about 1920. In back, from left, are Florence McClain, Audrey Hayes, and Mildred Hayes (who seems quite unhappy about something). In front are Bernard McClain (left) and Eldon McClain.

Eldon McClain was a cousin to Florence and Bernard. Their fathers were brothers (Arthur and Ellery McClain). I hadn’t realized that Ellery and family lived in Tallman, but they did from before 1920 until after 1930 at the very least. (I haven’t researched it beyond that.) Ellery had a farm.

Audrey and Mildred were the daughters of Thomas and Tillie Hayes, who also had a farm in Tallman. Audrey was the same age as Mom (Florence). Mildred was a year younger than Bernard. So if this photo was taken in 1920, the children’s ages would have been: Florence and Audrey 10, Mildred 7, Bernard 8 and Eldon 5.

I know the above image looks pretty bad. But lest you think I messed up a perfectly good photograph, this is what it looked like originally (actually, probably worse than this if you saw the actual print):

It’s a great photo. Such a shame the print is in this condition.