Favorite Photo

My great grandfather, Walter, in white, Albert standing, Charles seated.

I have always loved photos.  Especially old photos of my parents and grandparents and those who went before me.  And over the past year I have received even more photos from distant cousins that I had never seen before.  There is just something about putting a face with the name of your ancestor.  Do I choose my grandparents wedding photo?  Or my great grandparents?  A baby picture of one of my grandmas?  The only photo I have of my great grandfather with my grandpa as a child?

When digging through my Grandma's trunk of photos as a little girl, there was one that was always my favorite.  This photo of my great grandfather, Walter Bartley, and his brothers, Albert and Charles, taken in Virginia when all three brothers were on leave during WWI.

I loved this photo!!  First of all, how handsome are these men?  And the fact that all three were fortunate enough to meet up on leave together and have this photo taken was always so cool to me.  The photo was printed on a post card, whichI found fascinating (as a kid I didn't realize how common that was).  But I especially loved the story behind the photo.  My Grandma told me the photo was taken and a newspaper article was printed about the Bartley brothers being on leave together, walking down Main Street to have this photo taken and that they were printed in the Taylors Falls (Minnesota) newspaper.  

After Grandma passed, and I started looking into my family history, I went looking for that newspaper article.  Not really sure where to start looking, I emailed the Taylors Falls Library.  After a few days I received an email from a man named Jack.  He told me that the Taylors Falls newspaper actually stopped printing from May 1916 through June 1918.  He checked the neighboring St Croix Falls local paper and didn't find anything.  He said it was possible an article like this could have run in one of the four papers printed in the Twin Cities but I would have to start looking through microfilm at the Minnesota Historical Society.  In other words, no luck with the newspaper article, although he did send me some obituaries and information on my great uncle, Albert, who lived in Taylors Falls until his death (and he has helped me many times with other questions that have popped up over the last three years).

Last year I received a transcript of a scrapbook kept by a distant cousin, Gladys Bartley, from the around 1910 into the 1930s.  I was flipping through the pages and the title jumped out at me.  BARTLEY BROTHERS IN NAVY - MET AT NORFOLK.  I almost started crying...the article!! 

"Mrs. EJ Litle has three brothers in the service, AL, WJ, and CA Bartley.  They have written an interesting letter to The World telling of their work.  In their letter was enclosed the photo of the three brothers for Mrs. Litle.  The Bartley boys' mother died when they were children, since which time Mrs. Litle has reared them.  She is justly proud of the fine looking trio."  Included with the photo printed in the Hiawatha Daily News was a letter from the brothers, talking about their enlistments, their duties on their ships, and their leaves in New York City.

So after many years, I finally had the story.  My Grandma had it half right.  The photo was printed in the newspaper with a short article.  But she combined their story with that of my 3x great grandfather and his four brothers, who met up in Kansas and had their photo taken while in their 60s and 70s.  I'll share that story another time...