From the Forties...

My mother serving a nursing internship at Western Washington State Hospital in the late 1940s.


My father the milkman--one of his early jobs.

Nostalgia

The doily was crocheted by my father's mother, Pearl Ford Rutland. That's her in the photo with my Mom sometime around 1950. Our family's roots are in Washington state, where my family names turn up in books on local history.

Street Snap - 1945

A street photographer snapped this photo of my aunt Lillian and grandma Merle on the streets of Tacoma in 1945. World War Two was winding down and a new spirit of optimism infused daily life in the States. This picture seems to catch that feeling...

One Hundred Years

In 1908, my great-great-grandfather, Willard Tabor Payne, built a house at 3111 North 8th Street in Tacoma, Washington. For a decade, the house at 3111 North 8th was known as "Granda and Grandma Payne's house." My grandma Merle and her siblings played in the back yard or posed for photographs on the front steps.



Here--in 1910--great-great-grandpa Payne is watering the lawn and saplings. The house was to be his last residence. He died there in September of 1917 at the age of 68 years. Afterward, his widow, Lydia, went to live with her daughters and the house eventually passed out of the family.

I was curious to know if the house still existed. The north side of Tacoma is full of old neighborhoods and gracefully aging homes, but I was surprised when I found a street-view in Google Maps that showed Granpa and Grandma Payne's house still standing after a century.

Ethel Caroline Payne - 1898

Ethel Caroline Payne--Merle's mother and my great-grandmother--at aged 16 1/2 years. This is her graduation photo taken in 1898.

Christmas - 1948

This photo was taken sixty years ago at the home of my great-grandparents, Richard and Ethel Ketner at Sylvan on Fox Island, Washington.

These are my parents--Ethel Shoemaker and Eugene Rutland--two month before they got married. This was my Dad's introduction to the Ketner clan. I guess it went well as my parents will be celebrating their sixtieth anniversary this coming February.

What I love about old photograph is the chance to look into the past and see the details of daily life. Like the old radio behind the couch, the piano and the old-fashioned Christmas tree. Getting a glimpse into a 1940's home is fascinating.

Most of my photos from before the mid-1940's are taken outdoors, which leads me to surmise that flash photography only become widely accessible to the amateur after that time.

Wedding - 1880

These are my grandma's grandparents on their wedding day in La Mars, Iowa in 1880.

Willard Tabor Payne was born in Williamstown, Vermont on August 13, 1849. His family moved west when he was three, eventually ending up in Mankato, Minnesota. A branch of the Payne family still lives in that area.

I don't know what led him to La Mars, Iowa, but assume that was where he met my great-great-grandmother, Lydia Ella Burgess, who had been born in La Mars on November 29, 1857. Their daughter, Ethel Caroline--future motherof Merle and my own great-grandmother, was born in La Mars on April 11, 1882.

Shortly thereafter, Willard returned with his family to in St. Paul, Minnesota. The family moved west from St. Paul to Tacoma, Washington in 1891, following close on the heels of the first direct rail link between Minnesota and the Pacific Northwest.

Willard and Lydia built a home in Tacoma and lived out the rest of their lives there.

Willard died September 19, 1917 in Tacoma. His wife, Lydia, died July 20, 1920.