Old Photographs Saved From Trash Can ~ #16 Charles W. ROYALTY (1861-1922)

This is a spin-off of my 52 Ancestors: #14 Albert Spencer LILLIE (1848-1913) ~ Old Photographs Saved From Trash Can blogpost in which I featured a few photos from a collection of old photographs my 4C1R Joe Rooney shared with me. I asked Joe about using the photos and he kindly wrote, “Please use them at your will.  I feel it is keeping it in the family and don’t need credit.  If anything, I appreciate your evaluations, identifications and detective work.  I’m hopeful you and yours enjoy them.  On a blog, in a book, above a cloud.”

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Links to previous posts in this series may be found in Old Photographs

#16 Charles W. ROYALTY (1861-1922)

Tintype, a cheaper form of photography, were not produced from a negative. Images were reversed, as if looking in a mirror. Notice in the above Charles’ jacket is buttoned left on right and hair parted on the left while in the photo below the jacket is buttoned right on left and his hair is parted on the right.

Charles with his wife Lizzie M. WALTER and their son Alnie born in February 1888. Alnie appears to be about 5 which helps to date this photograph at around 1893-94.

Lizzie’s dress must have been made by a very experienced seamstress. I remember learning in my Home Ec sewing classes about placing patterns on the grain and marking patterns so plaids or stripes would match up. It seemed complicated at the time and plaids were usually avoided. The sleeves and bodice of Lizzie’s dress appear to have been bias cut to mould to the body.

On the 1900 census Charles was listed as a farmer and owned a mortgaged farm. By this time the family included a new member, daughter Fay who was born in 1897.

Charles with his horse “Kimball”

The photo (above) was labelled with the name of his horse Kimball on the back (below).

While researching the timeline of this family to date these photographs I learned Charles and Lizzie’s must have separated and divorced by 1910. Their daughter Fay ROYALTY age 12 was found with John B. and Elizabeth M. SCHULTE in Paducah, McCracken County, Kentucky. Fay was listed as stepdaughter of John who had married “Elizabeth” less than a year earlier. It was a second marriage for both of them.

Son Alnie was living in Monett, Barry County, Missouri, with his wife of 0 years, Theresa RICE. His father Charles has not been located in 1910 or 1920.

Charles (middle) with his son Alnie (right); unknown man on left. This was taken 1916 or earlier as Alnie was killed in a train accident on 14 July 1916. Just seeing things. So you can see us. Will try and send you a good picture soon.
Note: A correction to this photo description was made following Alnie’s grandson commenting on this post.

My or Pa’s adress for his mail is delivered to me. 817 4th St., Monett, MO. This message would suggest that Charles may have been moving around quite a bit. Beeing a horse lover he may have travelled around and worked as a blacksmith or farrier.

Charles (far right) in front of Greathouse Horse Shoeing with three unidentified men.

Following the death of his son Alnie, Charles may have moved to Iowa (after 1920) to be closer to his married daughter Fay. His ex-wife Lizzie was not mentioned in the obituary of son Alnie and may have died before 1916. Charles died 25 January 1922 in Oneida, Delaware County, Iowa, and is buried in the Fairview Cemetery in Earlville, Delaware County, Iowa. His daughter Fay died in 1925 and is buried in the same cemetery.

 Joe Rooney kindly gave me permission to use these photographs on my blog.

Joe ROONEY wrote on 15 February 2015: This collection of photographs was scanned at 300 dpi color by me. The original photos were sent by Sandra Lillie about ten years ago after she found them cleaning out a relative’s garage in Southern Illinois, finding no other takers (suckers). She believes they were a collection by L Vance Lillie. Many of the pictures seemed to be removed from frames or were in albums evidenced by fading characteristics and may have been from other’s collections. I scanned the reverse if there was laboratory advertising or writing. Some of the authors’ identification may be figured out of the handwriting matches. I did not scan the reverse of photos where there was only a three digit number that I believe to be sequence numbers on a roll of film. I didn’t spot any obvious helpful commonalities.

© 2015 Cathy Meder-Dempsey

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