Ernest E. Shoemaker (1902 - 1968)

Ernest Ellsworth Shoemaker was born 16 March 1902 at Mt. Holly in Warren County near Xenia, Ohio.



Ernie Shoemaker at about sixteen years old.
16 mar 1902 ~ 18 mar 1968

Sometime after 1910, his mother left his father and moved the family to Washington State. He joined the Navy for a stint before becoming a carpenter.



I don't know how he met my grandma Merle and I suppose I should ask someone before all those who have heard the story are gone. I think it was while he was in the Navy and stationed on Puget Sound.

His is a quarter of my own DNA. I had the opportunity to know him into my teens. But I don't feel that I know much of who he was or what he felt as a person. He seemed mostly unhappy when I knew him but maybe that was just the effect of grandchildren pestering him. Lord knows most young people that meet me probably think I'm a crabby old bitch so I could see that possibility. He had a sly sense of humor. I hope he made Merle laugh more than cry.

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.