The Scully Family Photo

In the previous installments of this series, I posted several cabinet card photos of the Scully family of #Galesburg, Illinois. Before continuing onto other cabinet cards from the same collection, I wanted to post the Scully family photo. The photo is held by a cardboard frame as is found in cabinet photos of the time. The frame is embossed with "Osgood Photo Supply, Galesburg, IL". The frame has been cropped out for this post. The photo is not labeled or dated, but appears to have been taken in mid to late 1906. It was certainly taken before April 9, 1907 when Margaret (Godsil) Scully, who appears in the photo, died. Catherine Scully also appears with her husband Jack Farrell whom she married on June 20, 1906. Robert James Scully, the son of James Philip and Antonia Julia (Wetzel) Scully, who was born in January 3, 1906, is the youngest child appearing in the photo and appears to be less than a year old. The adults in this photo are fairly easy to identify, the young adults and teenagers also, however, the young children can only be identified by their approximate ages and by whose arms in which they appear.

This Scully family photo comes to us from Margaret (Scully) Forsyth's photo collection, whose access was graciously provided to me by Nick Hyslop. The occasion of the photo may have been a gathering for Jim and Julia Scully who appear in the center of the photo holding their two children. They were living in Taylor, Texas at the time. It appears to have been taken in front of Edmund Scully's home. I don't think the photo was taken using Charles Wilson's camera or in front of the Wilson's home. It is known that Charles Wilson owned a camera and the photo collection includes many photos taken by him, including a photo of his home which looks markedly different, although it could be that they were alonside the side of the house. This photo appears to have been taken by a professional photographer using a wide-angled lens. None of Charles Wilson's photos were taken with a wide-angled lens. Also Charles developed his own photographs, and was unfortunately not well skilled in that regard. Most of his photographs have faded, some almost to oblivion. We know the lens used for this photo was wide angled because of the photo's width and because the people near the outside edges have been distorted by stretching. Non-linearities are inherent of many wide-angled lenses due to their use of curved glass to focus the light onto the camera plate. That is why when it is time for that historic family photo and someone whips out a camera phone, make sure you jockey your way to the center, so as not to appear fat(ter). That's my free photo tip for the day. You're welcome.

A   | D   I | J L M |     | R | S |   | U V |
B C |   E H | K     | N P |   |   | T |     | W X
    | F G   |       | O Q |   |   |   |     | Y Z

As it turns out, the various Scully families are group together making identification easier. Staring on the left, is my grandfather, William Henry Forsyth [A], his widowed mother, Margaret (Scully) Forsyth [B] and his sister Edna Margaret Forsyth [C]. To their left is the family of William Henry Scully, he being the tall man in back [D], His wife, Josephine F. (O'Brien) Scully [E] sits in front of him undoubtedly holding their youngest child, Dale Francis Scully [G] who, according to his California Death record was born January 23, 1905, but appears to be a year younger in this photo. Several of his census records indicate that he was born in 1906. It is not uncommon for birth dates found in death records to be off by a year as the information is usually provided by a spouse or child and not the individual themselves. Their eldest son was William Thomas Scully [I] who was born July 18, 1899 and is probably the young boy located over his mother's left shoulder, he would have been about 7 years old. Their next son, Edward J. Scully [H], was born on July 4, 1901, so would have been about 5 years old. According to Margaret (Godsil) Scully's obituary, they had another son, George Scully [F] who would have been about 4 years old. He is the young boy in front sitting in a rocking chair. There is no other record of George, so he must have died before the 1910 census was taken. Their only other child was a daughter, Blanche J. Scully [Y], who was born January 9, 1903, so would have been about 3 and a half years old. She is probably the young girl on the right of the photo sitting in Charles Wilson's lap. The Wilson's children, John Howard age 7 and Mary Leona age 9, do not appear in this photo.

The next family, those to the right of William Henry Scully's family (their left) are those of Jackson Lee [J] and his wife Ellen Auretta (Scully) Sipes [K], but more commonly referred to as "Nell". Jackson is standing and his wife sits in front of him. Their eldest son, Henry Edward Sipes [L], was born on October 15, 1889 and is the boy behind Jackson's left shoulder. He was about 17 years old. Their daughter, Mary M. "Mattie" Sipes [M] is to Edward's left and was born on August 15, 1891. Their youngest son, George William Sipes, was born on October 9, 1893, was about 13 years old and is not shown in this photograph. Sitting in front of Edward and Mattie Scully are James Philip [P] and Antonio Julia [Wetzel] Scully [N]. James is probably holding their daughter, Helen Margaret Scully [Q], who was born on February 18, 1904 and was about 2 and a half years old. Julia is likely holding their son Robert James Scully [O] who was born on January 3, 1906 and was probably less than a year old when the picture was taken.

Next, off of Mattie Scully's left shoulder on the rear row, is Daniel Scully [R], no middle name. He was born on July 25, 1884. He had not yet married. To his left is Ann Scully [S] who was born in December of 1872. She never married. Sitting directly in front of Ann is my great-great grandmother, Margaret (Godsil) Scully [T], who was the matriarch of the family and who was not quite 64 years old. She would be dead within a year. Her husband, Edmund Scully, was still living, but it is not found in the photo. To the left of Ann Scully, along the back row are Catherine L. "Kate" (Scully) [U] and John "Jack" Farrell [V]. They would were married on June 20, 1906. In front of them sitting are Charles E. [W] and Mary Elizabeth (Scully) Wilson [X], the eldest of the Scully siblings. Charles Wilson is most likely holding his niece, Blanche Scully, the daughter of his brother William H. Scully. Mary Scully is holding an unidentified niece [Z]. It is likely this child died young before the 1910 census leaving no record. The only probable candidate for her parents are William H. and Josephine F. (O'Brien) Scully making her a child falling between her older sister, Blanche Scully who is sitting next to her, and Dale Francis Scully who is still an infant.

Missing from the photo, but likely present were Edmund Scully, the patriarch, George William Sipes and the Wilson children. John Joseph Scully, another son was living in La Junta, Colorado when his mother passed in 1907, so may not have been present.

Following are two detail photos with the contrast cranked up in an attempt to get a clear image of some of these relatives.

In the next installment, we will look at some additional cabinet cards from this collection, taken in Galesburg, Illinois, and for the most part not identified.