Wistful Wednesday : 1880

Recently I was contacted about a blog post that I wrote about Far Guys Grandmother’s family.   A cousin found me, and could remember coming to this area and visiting when he was little.

This cousin..is not really a long lost cousin. I think we all have cousins out there that we just have not taken the time to connect with. Anyways..I am so glad he found me. He had an old tintype of Far Guys Great Grandparents.  He shared with us, and I shared some old photos with him.

I wonder what life was really like for these two young people in 1880.  They were living on a farm with Louisa’s widowed mother and six small children ages 12 to 2.  Louisa’s father was a Civil War Veteran and he died in May of 1879.  Another child Cassie close to Louisa’s age appears in the 1870 census but not the 1880 census…I wonder what happened to Cassie?

Great Grandma Louisa and Great Grandpa Louis. They were married on February 5 1880. I suspect that this photo was taken right around that time.  I can see a resemblance to Far Guys Grandmother in her fathers face..and that head of hair..lets just say it must have been a recessive gene because none of Far Guys uncles or cousins have that amount of hair.

Louis and Louisa were both born in Jefferson County Missouri. He in 1854 and she in 1860. They went on to have fourteen children with one set of twins.  One of Grandmas favorite sayings was “The first baby can come along at any time, but all the rest take nine months.” I wonder if she heard that from her mother.  Their first child appeared in August of 1880..a mere six months after their marriage.

They lived a long life.  They settled in Minnesota in 1914. She died in 1929 at the age of 69 and he died in 1932 at the age of 78. 

In Grandma’s diaries she calls them Mama and Papa and sometimes Daddy. I am almost done transcribing the diary that Grandma kept in part of 1911, 1912 and 1913:)