I picked up this cabinet card photo in Allegan, Michigan. Although it’s a lovely portrait I added it to my collection because of what was written on the back. In addition to the Victorian couple being identified as Aunt Maude and Uncle Perry, there was a note signifying that this was their wedding day and that “grandma made the dress.”
I quickly located a married couple named Maude and Perry living in Lexington, Illinois where this image was captured and discovered their last name was Jenkins. Maude Dailey wed Perry Jenkins on October 30, 1890. She was about twelve years his junior. Look closely and you can see Maude’s very fancy hat sitting beside her husband. I wonder if grandma made the hat as well.
The couple had four daughters; Roena, Ada, Ila, and Leta, and three sons; Leslie, Shirley, and Orla. About 1920 the family relocated to Scottsville, Michigan where the Maude and Perry lived until their deaths.
Perry passed in 1947 and is buried in Brookside cemetery. Maude died in 1957 and is buried beside her husband.
Sources:
Census records
Find a Grave
Illinois Marriage Index 1860-1920
Can you imagine someone making her own wedding dress nowadays!? I love Perry’s mustache!
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I think the mustache steals the spotlight. Maude should have worn the fancy hat. haha!
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The dress is quite something! but the stash steals the show for sure 🙂
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I’d love to know what he’d been saying before the shutter clicked… I bet she has her hand on his arm to stop him from cracking any more jokes… he looks like he just has! 🙂 That dress is unusual. My own grandmother was a seamstress whose speciality was wedding dresses. I’ve often wondered if she had made her own, too.
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