Last year I posted a photo that I believed was taken in Seattle. It was in the Culver-DeKorn photo album that was so kindly sent to me by a “caretaker” of the photos for decades. I wondered what the uniform was that the man was wearing and what the building was that is shown behind him. My assumptions have been shaken to the core. The old post is in quote marks, and below that is what I discovered!
First let me tell you a little more about Jennie DeKorn Culver, my 3rd great-aunt. She is a very sympathetic character to me. She went through a divorce when very few people did so, and she lost her daughters to the orphanage for a little while because of that. She was an artist when that was not approved of for a woman, especially from her background.
Jennie’s parents and two siblings were all born in the Netherlands, but Jennie was born in 1857 in Ottawa, Michigan.
When Jennie was 7, her mother died. When she was 16, her father died. The year before her father died, her oldest sibling, Richard DeKorn, married Alice Paak on May 10, 1872. Her sister Mary married John DeSmit on October 4, 1872. So when their father passed away, that left Jennie alone. Jennie didn’t marry John Culver until she was 25. What did she do from age 16 to 25 and where did she live?
Here is the old post:
(The Culver-DeKorn family: my great-great grandfather’s sister, Jenny DeKorn Culver, and her daughters, Lela and Rhea, who moved from Kalamazoo to Seattle 100 years ago.)
In the scrapbook which I received from a blog reader I found this photograph. Any ideas on the type of uniform? Since this would have been around the time of the end of WWI, does the uniform have to do with the war?
I don’t know who the man is. Most of the Culver photos are of women.
But the clues would leave me to believe the photo was taken in Seattle in or around 1918. But did Seattle have old elegant buildings like this at that time?
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Well, my goodness! I had a surprise yesterday when a blog reader posted a comment that upset my whole way of looking at the photo album in general:
That building is the old First Congregational Church in Kalamazoo. It burned down in 1925. There is a colorized view of the building halfway down this page.
http://www.kpl.gov/local-history/religion/first-congregational.aspx
A bigger question remains: who is Carl Sadler?
I can’t find a Carl Sadler in Kalamazoo who would be born around 1915 or 1916. Since these photos were taken in 1917, I am estimating that he was born around that time.
Another thing to consider: how many other photos in the album are from Kalamazoo?!
But stay tuned for the next installment of Aunt Jennie. Because I have some more new info about her!
Related articles
- What Did Lela and Rhea Culver Do at the Orphanage? (thefamilykalamazoo.wordpress.com)
- Is This Jenny DeKorn Culver in A Velvet Coat? (thefamilykalamazoo.wordpress.com)
- Why Did Jennie Move to Seattle? (thefamilykalamazoo.wordpress.com)
The Family Kalamazoo 
Wow! What a turn of events. Yes, that would be one of several downtown churches destroyed by an arsonist. How horrible it must have been for the city. Anyway, the man still looks like a Salvation Army worker to me. Given the date, however, the man might have had some connection to the military in WWI. Possibly civilian patrol? Is little Carl the man’s son or grandson or what? These questions make me itch!
How horrible that someone would do that!! Did they catch the person? That corded trim on the sleeves prevents me from agreeing about Salvation Army. It looks very decorative/ornamental, and I think the idea of him being a doorman or something similar makes perhaps the most sense? But you are right that the hat does give that impression. There is a Carl born in Missouri and another from Illinois around that time period. I might have to investigate them and see if I can find any connections to the Culvers. Every time I get one new answer, I get three new questions. Sigh.
What a great update! I love it when readers share information that helps further our work. Happy day. I’m excited to hear your update on Aunt Jennie. 🙂
I know–me too!!! Woohoo!
Wow, that’s very intriguing. Beautiful church—how sad that it was destroyed. I assume the photo was labeled with Carl Sadler’s name? And presumably the adults are his parents. Why did you originally think it was Seattle? (Sorry—I’ve forgotten.)
So beautiful! Two years ago a woman read about my search for my great-great-grandfather’s sister Jennie who left Kalamazoo for Seattle. She had a photo album that belonged to one of Jennie’s daughters that her father had found 20 years earlier. Here is a link. https://thefamilykalamazoo.com/2014/06/03/a-wishful-post-a-thoughtful-reader-and-a-package/
I thought that the album was all AFTER the move–but apparently not!!!!
I do remember that post—I think I just forgot that you thought it was all after the move!
Now, and I mean NOW, I think how stupid that was to assume that they were all after the move. But because there were so many travel shots I thought they started it for the move, if that makes sense.
Well, I can’t tell you how many times I have made an assumption that turns out to be wrong!
Thank you for making me feel better!
It’s wonderful that a reader was able to identify the location. Once a building is gone (or a road relocated), it often becomes really difficult to figure out what the setting was like prior to the change.
When I find old photos with buildings and wonder where they are, I feel so helpless. I don’t know where to start to try to find what is probably long gone!