Iva Goodwin

I wouldn’t have guessed this fresh-faced sitter was much older than sixteen. But according to writing on the reverse of this cabinet photo, Miss Iva Goodwin was 21 years old when she sat for her portrait on September 3, 1908 in Reading, Michigan.

Iva grew up nine miles west of Reading in the tiny township of Algansee with her parents, Fred and Loretta (Holley/Hawley). Iva was the second youngest of eight children. Two sisters, Rhoda and Sara, died before she was born and a brother, John Augusta, perished when Iva was just a toddler.

Two years after this photograph was captured, Iva married Clarence Camp, a farmer like her father. The couple had seven known children; Carl, Lewis, Albert, Richard, Myrna, Arthur, and Paul.

Clarence was from Ashland County, Ohio which is where the young couple settled after tying the knot. Clarence didn’t labor on the farm his whole life. He got a job as a mechanic for the Ohio State Highway department. By 1940 when the family relocated to Iva’s hometown of Algansee he continued working as a mechanic for a local garage.

I can’t be sure Iva and Clarence’s love story lasted a lifetime. When Clarence filled out his WWII draft registration he listed his son as his contact, not Iva. However I find no divorce record and when Iva passed on Christmas day in 1973 she was laid to rest beside Clarence in Reading, Michigan.