The Spence Sisters, plus some Oldies

These are some of my oldest photos:  pictures of Elizabeth Rushton Worden and her husband, Samuel Worden.  See Rushton Pedigree Chart. 

Elizabeth is the daughter of Sarah Hall Rushton and Jeremiah Rushton.   Sarah and Jeremiah were newly married with a baby when they left Westchester County, New York Colony.  Elizabeth was born in their new home in Westchester, Nova Scotia.  Samuel was also from a Loyalist background born in Nova Scotia.  They ended up moving to Ontario.  This couple was born in 1793 and 1792, so if you think they are about 60, then these pictures were taken in 1850.

Here's another really old picture.  This one is sweet baby Connie, this time with her mother, Phoebe Esther Rushton Spence.  (see Spence Pedigree Chart).  It's the oldest picture of Phoebe (Grannie, Grannie English) that we have and the only one where her hair is not gray.  If Constance Lenore Spence Robinson Thompson is, what do you think, 2 1/2?  Then it's Spring 1915.  If she's 1 1/2, it's 1914.  That makes Phoebe 46.  

I think it is spring because of the melting snow and the bare trees.  It's warm enough for Phoebe to be without a coat, but not warm enough for Connie to go without.  If it was winter, the snow would be deep, and if it was fall, the trees would have brown leaves.  If I'm really imaginative, I can see buds on the tree.

Can you see the stick coming diagonally off the back of the house to make a clothesline?  And the sheets hanging on the line?  And the outhouse in the background, beyond the fence?

Here are the 3 sisters, the youngest children of Phoebe and Bill Spence.  Helen, Connie, and Helena.   You can see them also in the Little Spence Girls with their Papa post.  They look like they are, what, 7 and 10 years old?  Helen is staring off into space, Connie looks scared to death, and Helena has this knowing impish grin, like, "I just told Puppa that Connie painted the dog, and she's about to get a beating.  I'm not getting a beating, 'cause I know better than to paint dogs."

Yes, Connie painted the dog.  She found some paint and a paintbrush in the barn, and she thought it would be a fun idea to paint herself.  So she painted her arm, and that was fine.  It didn't hurt, so she thought she would try the dog next.  She painted some of the dog, and that went well, so she painted more and more until she painted the whole dog.  When Puppa saw the dog, he told her the paint would kill the dog slowly and painfully, and he would have to shoot the dog.  So the dog got shot, and Connie got a beating.

Here are some pictures of the Spence Sisters.  Their parents are Phoebe Esther Rushton Spence and William Mariner Spence (see Spence Pedigree Chart)  They were born between 1893 and 1912. In order of birth, they are:  Bessie, Eva, Anna, twins Helen and Helena, and Connie.

Summer, mid 1920s:  for Girls Night, everyone got homemade finger curls.  From left, sisters Bessie, Anna, Helena, Connie.  Does Bessie look pregnant?  If she is, it's 1927.

The left picture is Helen holding her nephew, Eva's baby Denzil Alonzo Rushton in 1926.  Look at the license plate on that car!  Look at the car!  On right, twins Helena and Helen.  It must be the same month, because Helen's haircut looks the same.

Speaking of Eva, here she is.  Looking very blonde with that verrrry long braid.  Possibly in front of her home on the farm in Roslin?  Is that her daughter in the background?  Anywhere from 1918 to 1925.