A 4"x6" glass plate negative, portrait photograph of Ezra Parker, Mary, Orville, Royal, Irma, Ivan and Ima Ruby Stephens, Bellwood, Nebraska. The father and two sons are wearing dark suits, white shirts and knotted ties. The two girls are wearing dark dresses with gathered sleeve cap ruffles and stand collars. Mary is wearing a long-sleeve blouse with small stand collar of dark fabric with white dots, a dark skirt and wide fabric belt with metal medallion clasp. They are seated in front of a painted backdrop.
Thorpe Opera House Foundation/Boston Studio Project
Local Accession Number
00036480000
Source
Original format: 4"x6" glass plate negative from the Boston Studio Project collection.
Historical Notes
Mary "Amanda" McKnight was born in a log cabin near Clarksville, Pennsylvania, in 1858. After living in Iowa for a short time, her family moved to Butler County, Nebraska. Parker Stephens was born in Iowa in 1862 and moved to Butler County as a child. They were married in David City in 1885. They moved to Boone County, Nebraska, in 1903 where they farmed for thirteen years before returning to Butler County. They had six children, two dying in infancy. The last thirty years of their lives were spent in a Sears Roebuck home which they built on Carpenter Hill, not far from Bellwood. Both are buried in a country cemetery overlooking the Platte Valley near Bellwood.
