A SAMPLE
This is a sample of my work, an excerpt from a longer piece which is, in turn, an excerpt from an extensive family history I researched and wrote some years ago. I've deleted a lot of the detail, footnotes and quotes which are included in the original piece, but this should give an idea of my style.
Cornelius Winter Prior (abt. 1820 - 1884)
As noted above, Cornelius Winter Prior was the son of William Prior, and was said to have been born in Ireland in 1820. At some point before March 1840, Cornelius was adopted by his uncle, the Reverend James Prior, (a "Non-Conformist" clergyman) and his wife, Anne. Louisa Ranger (the sister of Cornelius’ adopted mother Anne) died in 1841. In her will (dated March 1840), Louisa indicated she was leaving her collection of books to Cornelius, her “nephew” who was the adopted son of her sister). By the time of the 1841 census, Cornelius is listed as the son of James and Anne and was living on Chantry St. in Netherbury, Devonshire, England. Soon after that, he moved to Dartford in Kent, where he was living when he married Selina Gifford two days after Christmas in 1841...James officiated at the wedding, and after that time he is clearly considered to be Cornelius’ real father. In Dartford, Cornelius worked as a “druggist” or “chemist” (today we would say he was a “pharmacist”.) His daughter, Ellen, was born in Dartford on September 21, 1842, and the family lived in Dartford through 1843 (he is listed on the tax list for that year), but then moved back to Netherbury. In April of 1844, Cornelius, along with his wife Selina, and their two small children, sailed with his parents to New York on the Cambridge. Although he had been a druggist in England, Cornelius worked for a while as a farmer after the family’s arrival in Nottingham township, Washington County, Pennsylvania. In October of 1847, Cornelius and his father became naturalized American citizens. Cornelius and Selina had four more children while living in Pennsylvania: Selina Gertrude (about 1846), Ambrose (about 1849), Priscilla (1849), and Charles (about 1852). Soon after the birth of their son Charles, Cornelius and his family moved with his parents to Long Island, NY. Selina apparently did not survive the journey, dying in New City (Rockland County) in 1853.
The Priors settled in the town of Hempstead, Long Island, and at some point in the next few years, Cornelius learned the new technique of producing the lifelike images called daguerreotypes (for more about the history of the daguerreotype, please refer to Appendix A). In 1854 and 1855, Cornelius was working as a daguerreian at a gallery in Brooklyn, though he was still living in Hempstead.
At some point between 1853 (the death of his first wife, Selina, in New York) and about 1856, Cornelius met and married his second wife, Jesse Mayne. In an 1855 directory, Cornelius is listed as a Daguerrean in Brooklyn, and sometime later that year, he moved west to the town of Elgin in Kane County, Illinois. Whether he met Jesse in New York, or in Elgin or Freeport, or even in Chicago, through which the family almost certainly had to go on the way to Elgin, is not known. For some reason, his daughter Priscilla, stayed in Hempstead and lived with her grandparents. She eventually became a schoolteacher in the area, and married a local man named Elias Pray. Priscilla lived in Hempstead until her death in 1930.
Cornelius briefly worked in Elgin as a daguerreian, and then moved to Freeport in Stephenson County, Illinois, where he began offering his services as a daguerreian in the spring of 1856. By the spring of 1856, Cornelius and Jesse were together.
A newspaper called the “Freeport Daily Journal” was published in Freeport for 2 years only, 1856 and 1857, but the periodical provides a wealth of information about Cornelius and Jesse. Both of them posted detailed ads in the Journal for their businesses during that period (for Jesse’s information, please see the Mayne section of this report).
At the Stephenson County Fair in Freeport in October of 1856, both Cornelius and Jesse entered items in the craft competitions. Cornelius’ ambrotype won second prize (75 cents!), and his daguerreotype won first prize (one dollar!). Evidently, he also entered the “waxworks” competition, winning first prize for a “case of wax fruits, which was so well executed as to be quite inviting to a lover of fruits.” In the fall of 1857, Cornelius once again entered his wares in the Fine Arts competition at the Stephenson County Fair. He took first prize in the categories of Ambrotypes, Hallotypes, and Photographs! Interestingly, he also took home a second prize in the “Oriental Painting” competition! His prize money for the four awards amounted to four dollars.
On August 27, 1858, Freeport, Illinois, was the site of one of the most famous events in American history, the second of 7 public debates between the incumbent U. S. Senator, Stephen A. Douglas, and his challenger, Abraham Lincoln. The debates were well attended and received national coverage in the press. Douglas was a Democrat, and Lincoln represented the new Republican Party, and though Douglas won re-election, this particular debate was to have a significant impact on the Presidential election of 1860. During the debate, Douglas argued that the people of a territory could keep slavery out simply refusing to pass legislation that would protect slavery, even though the Supreme Court had ruled that the Federal government had no authority to exclude slavery. This position angered Southern Democrats, and ultimately divided the party. When Douglas and Lincoln again faced off in 1860, this time for the Presidency, the split in the Democratic Party allowed the Republican, Lincoln, to win.
The debate took place outdoors, and the site of the debate is commemorated by a statue next to the current Freeport Public Library. The entire debate was accompanied by the Brodhead Brass Band, punctuating the points made by each candidate. While many spectators probably couldn’t hear Douglas or Lincoln, they could undoubtedly hear the band. The debate site was near the corner of State and Douglas Streets. This is only 2 blocks away from Cornelius Prior’s photography studio, which was at the corner of Stephenson and Chicago Streets. The likelihood that Cornelius was aware of, and probably in attendance at, an event of this magnitude happening only 2 blocks away is very high. It also makes me wonder if Cornelius found an opportunity to make any images of the debate or participants……
In May of 1859, Cornelius and Jesse were still living in Freeport with their family, and their son, William, was born there on May 24th of that year. For some reason, in about 1860, Cornelius and Jesse took their family some 600 miles south to the town of Bolivar in Tennessee.
Bolivar lies some 60 miles east of Memphis and about 20 miles north of the Mississippi border. According to the Federal Census, a couple thousand people farmed in the districts around Bolivar in 1860, but the population of the town itself was only about 480. Cornelius Winter Prior was the town’s only photographer, although his brother-in-law, James Radford, was also working there as a daguerreian.