Who Were They?

Take it to church!

Mrs Marvel

January 4, 2013

This week’s Sepia Saturday prompt shows a rowdy group of fellows, soldiers, some in kilt, with drums and liquor bottles and smiles aplenty. They are just the kind of boys my dad would say partied all week and then late on Saturday night went to confession. Well that got me thinking that perhaps I shall give you the anti-prompt for Sepia Saturday this week. I give you….churches.

The Little Chapel by the Lake, Buena Park, CA

This postcard was purchased at Knott’s Berry Farm, Buena Park, CA (right near where I live) and was sent from Louella [Rudd] to Mr & Mrs R. L. Fields in Kingfisher, OK. The “Little Chapel by the Lake” was an attraction in the farm, built in 1941 specifically to house a painting of Christ called The Transfiguration by Paul von Klieben. Visitors entered the church and sat on benches. A brief recorded talk about what Christ might have looked like played and then, the painting revealed. Through the use of fluorescent paint and lighting, the painting looked like Christ opened His eyes. Sounds rather creepy to me! The chapel was eventually removed to put in a roller coaster, probably in the 1980s. Knott’s still owns the painting. Knott’s had a second church, called the Church of Reflection which also faced the lake and was in a lovely grove of trees. After the roller coaster was installed it was impossible to hear anything inside the church as it was directly underneath the track! That particular church was relocated in entirety across the street and is still in use today. Unfortunately for us, the postmark on this postcard shows it was mailed on August 5th, but the year is obscured. Louella was having a great visit and had called Aunt Vera.

Methodist Episcopal Church, Kingfisher, OK

This postcard was not mailed. I can only guess that perhaps the Rudd family in Oklahoma attended this church.

Catedral de Guadalajara, Jalisco, Mexico

It’s April ’68 and Neil Rudd was stopping for a rest after driving 300 miles per day for 5 days. He was traveling through Mexico with Freddie, who was “full of zest and rarin’ to go!” The writing is spidery and difficult to read. Neil sent the above postcard to Floyd & Louella Rudd.

Temple Square, Salt Lake City, UT

1970, and Henry & Pauline have visited Denver where it was cool, but it turned hot in Salt Lake City – 100 degrees! They were driving through to Yellowstone. The postcard was mailed to Louella Rudd.

If all this churchifying disrupted your weekend debauchery, click on over to Sepia Saturday to find what sort of carousing and goings on other folks have come up with. You will be happy you did!

Should auld acquaintance be forgot

Ruth Ann McGuire

Mrs Marvel

2 comments

January 4, 2013

Grandma McGuire

This cabinet card has been trimmed to the photo size and on the back was written:

Grandma McGuire

Ruth Ann

Floyd Rudd

There was no photographer’s information but I assume it was taken in Arizona where the majority of the other Rudd family photographs were made. Ruth Ann is dressed in a rather plain dress, probably black. The sleeves are suggestive of the 1890s and the skirt appears to be plain and modestly sized. Ruth Ann also has her hair parted in the middle, which is an older convention, but probably what she liked and grew up with. The chair is interesting. It reminds me of those school desks with the writing table. It appears to have been big enough to seat a very large man, a small woman quite comfortably, or probably a pair of children or more. The arms with their wide ledges would have been perfect for seating smaller children around an adult family member.

Cute baby boy

Mrs Marvel

1 comment

January 2, 2013

Here’s a wiggly Rudd, McGinnis, Colter or related child. The back of the CdV originally identified the child, but unfortunately someone cut the photo to fit into something and only the top swirls and peaks of an M and maybe an L remain. The baby boy was photographed in the Photographic Parlors in the Downey Block, 221 Main Street, Los Angeles, California. I did find a reference to Godfrey’s Photographic View Rooms, in the Downey Block and in business as early as 1870. The Downey Block was at the same intersection as the Temple Block, which housed the photographer of this couple, making me wonder if they are the wiggly boy’s parents.

In the previous post, I gave you a brief history of the Temple Block and so today I will tell you about the Downey Block. Apparently back in the day, it was “the thing” to build an industrial & retail building and name it after yourself, calling it a Block. While the Temple Block was named after Jonathan Temple, Irish immigrant and former California Governor John G. Downey built the one covered here today. Some notable details about Downey include the fact that in 1860 he was the youngest governor of California to be elected; he was the only governor of California to have been born in another country until the election of Arnold Schwarzenegger in 2003; he maintained California as a Union state during the Civil War even though he was a Democrat and his counterparts disagreed heartily with him; he served in a variety of local political offices before heading to Sacramento, where he became the Lieutenant Governor, and then in 1860 was the first Southern Californian to be elected Governor; after returning to Los Angeles, he cofounded the Farmers & Merchants bank, the first successful (and still prospering) bank in the area; as if that wasn’t enough, he pioneered subdivision of land for housing – creating the town of Downey, and donated land for a university, just a small one named University of Southern California. During all this, he built the Downey Block. The Block housed a variety of businesses, including photographers, furniture sales, druggists, auction houses, and many others. It was built sometime around 1870, as businesses advertised their location in the newspaper as early as 1871. It was demolished May 1, 1904.

Four kids and a baby buggy

Mrs Marvel

4 comments

January 1, 2013

From the Rudd collection, here is a shot of four kids – one in a baby buggy – on the porch of a house. They appear to be two boys and a girl standing. Perhaps one of the Rudd McGinnis Colter family members can recognize a face or the house even.

Happy New Year to you, my wonderful visitors! A review of the site stats revealed 140,000 views from 148 countries last year. Amazing!! I am humbled to know that this blog has touched so many people. Your comments mean so much to me and if we can continue to work together to reunite old photos with loving family members, I will be the happiest person on the internet.

Merry Christmas Happy New Year

Mrs Marvel

6 comments

December 29, 2012

For as long as there have been Christmas cards, people have been sending them late, haha. Here’s a nice card showing stair step kids in coordinating pajamas. It appears that Mrs Smith intended to mail these before the Christmas rush but missed the opportunity due to late delivery, and just wrote over the Christmas greeting with wishes for the new year, 1959.

The note on the back indicates the family will not “view the parade” with Lucille & Fred, which suggests to me anyway that they lived in Southern California, since the parade here is the Rose Parade on New Year’s Day. My family used to live around the corner and down the street from the Rose Parade route and we could walk over. Back in the 60s, it wasn’t the free for all madhouse it is today. After we moved away from Pasadena, we still had friends in the neighborhood and would drive up, park in their driveway and walk over. Miss Parr, a long time neighbor, would have hot chocolate and these cookies with giant sugar crystals on top for us. When it got too cold to stand and watch the parade, we would walk back to Miss Parr’s house and warm up. She had the parade on the television so we didn’t miss a thing. After the Rose Parade finishes its route, the floats are taken to Pasadena City College and parked for several days so spectators can view them up close. They are gorgeous and detailed to say the least.

I hope that you have been enjoying your Christmas holidays. I am submitting this to the Sepia Saturday “open house” for the holidays and hope you will click over and visit some of the other contributors. The theme of course is the holidays.

Merry New Year!

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