Can you help me identify the wife?

[CuriousCollector]

I'm hoping some of you have skill in identifying period clothing or hairstyles, and can help me figure out which of my husband's ancestor's wives this is.

These two large images hung in frames in my FIL's mother's house.  When she died, he pulled them out of the frames and propped them up on a shelf against a wall -- this is the same wall that, in previous posts, I have mentioned had a roof leak, causing wet plaster to cascade on paper, artifacts, and as you can see, on this large image of the wife.  They don't look like photos, and they don't look like original drawings -- perhaps copies of drawings.  The paper is thick and in layers, with the thinnest layers on the back starting to peel from the moisture.

Here is the husband, Lemuel Morton.  He was born in 1809, and married his first wife, Sarah Faegin in 1832.  She was born in 1816 and died in 1856 in childbirth.  Lemuel lived until 1898.





Here is the mystery wife -- sadly, this image took the brunt of the water damage.  Six months after Sarah's death, he married Elizabeth Peed.  Elizabeth was born in 1834 and died in 1877.  She was 22 when she married Lemuel who was 47.



It would seem more likely that the wife is either Sarah or Elizabeth, as he had 21 children by these two women.  However, he did marry a third time to Jennie Duke in 1878.  I have no birth or death information for Jennie, but I think she outlived Lemuel.  

If any one can give me any advice about which wife it might be -- perhaps hairstyles or dress styles point to a particular era, one which might rule out one or the other -- I sure would appreciate it!

Thanks!

Jeannie

[Oceans64]

Do you know where they lived? State, County, etc...

[CuriousCollector]

Sorry!  Yes, they lived in Stewart County, GA, moving there from Jones County, GA around the 1840s.  Lemuel was a substantial landowner (and -- sorry, but it's true -- large slaveholder) in Stewart County.  All this means is that in 1860 he was rather rich, and by 1866 not so much.  My husband's dad was born on that farm, and his mother lived there until she died in the 1990s -- my husband and his cousin own all the family farms down there, now. 

[KC]

Sure looks alot like these.....my relatives from GA - next County Over (I descended from the Jones line) which are from the 1850 - 1870 range.....

[Oceans64]

Interesting.... Maybe a local artist in the area??  Very cools pics...  I'm jealous!!!!

CC...  You probably already know but your family missed the Mayflower by this much (my finger and thumb are almost touching)    
I'm looking for pics in some books and family trees...  Maybe we'll get lucky!

[CuriousCollector]

Oceans -- actually, they made it!  Well, the direct Morton line came in on the second wave (1623, aboard the "Ann"), but if you take a shimmy over to a female line, they go back to Edward Doty on the Mayflower.

KC -- wow, those pics look so much like mine!

[Oceans64]

I didn't have much luck and if I knew how to sew this page would be helpful to me

http://www.ajmorris.com/roots/photo/datep18.php

Maybe you can understand it more?  

ETA:  Ahhh  good!  I come from the (troublemaker) Billington line.

[CuriousCollector]

I'll have to read it when I can concentrate on it -- fashion language isn't one of my primary tongues!  Thanks, Oceans!

KC -- if this is the work of a local artist in the Jones Co area, then it would be the first wife, Sarah.  She died after the move to Stewart County. 

[talesofthesevenseas]

This may help...

http://www.fashion-era.com/Dating_Costume_History_Pictures/index.htm

[KC]

Just found out that they moved from Jones County to Greene County which is within a good spitting distance of Stewart County!!!  East of it.

They said this was the style of photos/clothing and hair in this area at the 1830's to 1860's!

[cogar]

They don't look like photos, and they don't look like original drawings -- perhaps copies of drawings.

 

CC, your pictures look to me like the typical "mail order" pictures one could order during that era by sending a photo to an artist who would then create the large picture from the small photo.

Like this one, ..... probably made about 1900 given the fact of (Blanche Mollohan Tonkin, dob 1881 – dod 1917)

[waywardangler]

Cogar, I see many of these pics at auctions but had no idea they were (at least some of them) ordered by mail from a smaller photo.  It totally makes sense, given the number of them around and the sizes are pretty consistent.  Learn something new everyday on this forum.

[CuriousCollector]

Ugh!  If one could mail in a picture and get a drawing, it could be any one of the wives! 

Thanks for all the advice and links, everyone!  I think if I can pinpoint the era for her wide and pointy bodice and the pointy cap of the sleeves, I should have some luck.

[Oceans64]

One thing I found yesterday was a Father/Son team in Atlanta. The son was a photographer and the father a portrait artist.  I was thinking this team probably did the very thing Cougar says.  They were in an 1880 directory and probably active well before that.  From the style's link I read yesterday, I thought the dress seemed 1870's.  By the 1880's I think Beards were out and Georgia is hot (right?) so why wear one if not fashionable??  My memory is poor tho...

I can get the names of the artists if your interested.

[CuriousCollector]

After reading the links, I, too, was thinking 1870s, or even 1860s -- the beard definitely looks 1860s  And I would think country folk would be less fashion-forward anyway!

That would preclude the first wife, who died in 1856.

Also, if the images were done at the same time, that also precludes the first wife, who was Lemuel's contemporary, and would have been as old as he.  The second wife was a good 25 years younger. 

In the 1860s, Lemuel would have been in his 50s, and the second wife would have been in her 30s. 

Also, it would make more sense that a picture/drawing on the second wife would have come down through my husband's family -- she was the mother of Lemuel's 20th child (her own 11th child) who is hubby's great-grandfather.  She died when he was about 6 years old.