Sharing Old Family Photos Found in an Envelope

Photo: Bertha and Charles Miller, Contra Costa County, California /

Michelle’s sister recently shared an envelope of photos she found among the belongings of their late mother, Barbara Trefren Mayer (1948-2018). Barbara probably received the photos from her own mother, Gladys Serilda Williams Trefren (1917-2002), a passionate family researcher and amateur genealogist.

In case you are curious, yes, my last name is Williams. Michelle’s maiden name was Williams and her grandmother’s maiden name also was Williams. The repeated surname certainly makes our daughters’ family tree Williams-heavy.

Over the years, several people wrote on the fronts and backs of these photos. Their notes make most of the subjects relatively easy to identify today. In several cases, the inscriptions are almost as interesting as the images themselves.

I scanned both sides of the photos to share them with Michelle’s family and others interested in Idaho and family history. Unless otherwise noted, the identifications come from those handwritten inscriptions and accompanying family records. Where the evidence conflicts or remains uncertain, I have tried to make that clear.

Taken together, these photographs tell the story of a family that repeatedly moved west in search of land, work and a new beginning. Martha Baldwin Williams (1846-1926) was born in Indiana into a Quaker family, married George Washington Williams (1847-1924) and eventually followed the broader American migration from Indiana to Iowa and then Idaho.

Martha and George raised six children, although their family life included considerable loss. Their eldest daughter, Minnie, died at 27 after already losing an infant daughter. Another daughter, Lena, died at 21.

Their son Hiram Watt Williams (1879-1962) continued the family’s western story. Born in Iowa, he married Nettie Grace Warn (1884-1943) in Boise in 1908 and raised a large family in Idaho. One postcard captures four generations together: George and Martha, Hiram and Nettie and their infant daughter Beatrice. Other photographs show the children on a “cow pony,” Gladys as a baby and the nearly grown family gathered in 1943, the year Nettie died. The pictures reveal a family shaped by farming, children and extended family, but also by tragedy, including the 1930 drowning of Hiram and Nettie’s 2-year-old son, Ray Eugene.

The photographs also show how the family spread beyond Idaho. Hiram’s sister Bertha Williams Miller (1873-1957) married Charles Clifton Miller and eventually settled in California. A 1931 portrait became the last photograph of Bertha and Charles together before his death in Contra Costa County. Nearly 20 years later, photographs taken at Christmas 1950 in Roseville show Bertha with her son Altie and her daughter Leda. Leda died of heart disease the following year at only 52, turning what appeared to be an ordinary holiday visit into one of the last visual records of a mother and daughter together.

Perhaps the most important story, however, is how the photographs survived. They were mailed between parents, children, sisters and granddaughters, often with names and explanations written on the backs. They appear to have passed through several generations of women — possibly Olive, Vera or Juanita, then Gladys, Barbara and finally Michelle’s sister, Trish. Without those women and their handwritten notes, most of the people would now be unidentified faces possibly for sale in a thrift store. The collection is therefore more than a record of the Williams family’s movement from Indiana to Iowa, Idaho and California. It is also a record of how one generation deliberately preserved its memories for the next.

Hiram Watt Williams Sr. and Martha Wilhoit Williams

This is likely the oldest photo in the collection. Pictured are Michelle’s third-great-grandparents, Hiram Watt Williams Sr. (1807-1891) and Martha Wilhoit (1813-1898).

Hiram was born in Oldham County, Kentucky. Martha also was born in Kentucky and descended from one of the German families associated with Virginia’s large number of German immigrants.

Family research identifies Martha’s grandfather, John Adam Wilhoit (about 1732-1815), as a Revolutionary War militiaman. A surviving January 1781 list of Culpeper County, Virginia, militiamen includes a John Wilhoit in militia class No. 92. That may or may not be the same man.

John Wilhoit’s grandfather was Johann Michael Willheit (1671-1746), Michelle’s seventh-great-grandfather. Willheit came from Schwaigern in the Duchy of Württemberg, now part of the German state of Baden-Württemberg. Recent research indicates that he left Schwaigern in 1717 but probably did not reach Virginia until 1719 or 1720. His first firmly documented Virginia land record is a 1728 grant for 289 acres.

Family records identify Hiram’s grandfather as David Williams Jr. (1775-1849), who was born in Henry County, Kentucky, and died in Lincoln County, Kentucky. His father was David Williams Sr. (about 1750-1815). Numerous online family trees repeat the story that the elder David immigrated from Wales.

Hiram and Martha married in Oldham County in 1830. They moved to Indiana the following year and settled near Monrovia. Nearly two centuries later, the community became the subject of filmmaker Frederick Wiseman’s (1930-2026) 2018 documentary, “Monrovia, Indiana,” a look at daily life in a small Midwestern farming town.

In addition to farming, Hiram served as a Lutheran minister. The family moved again in 1869, this time to the area around Lebo, Kansas. Hiram remained there until his death in 1891 and was buried in Lebo Cemetery. Martha died in Lyon County, Kansas, in 1898.

Hiram and Martha had 11 children. A family account states that four died before Hiram and that two of his sons died “in service to their country.”

Four generations in one postcard

We know more about this photo because it was made into a postcard sent by Michelle’s second-great-grandmother, Martha Baldwin Williams (1846-1926), to her daughter, Olive Ethel Williams Martin (1877-1934). It was later sent to Juanita with the note: “Grandpa Williams, Grandma Williams, mom holding Bea, Vie, Dad on Homestead.”

Pictured from left are George Washington Williams (1847-1924), Martha Baldwin Williams, Nettie Grace Warn Williams (1884-1943) holding Beatrice Williams (1909-2000), Violet Evangeline Warn Smith (1890-1964) and Hiram Watt Williams Jr. (1879-1962). Violet, Nettie’s sister, was deaf.

Olive this card is for you. I guess you can see there is snow on the ground. I am so squinting—the sun shone in my eyes. That is Nellie’s deaf sister next to Hiram, & the baby turned its head so you could see the back of it.
A deaf & dumb fellow took them. We are standing on the north side of the door on the west side of the house. We had them took 2 weeks ago last Sunday. Why don’t you write? We haven’t had a letter for quite awhile.

Hiram and Nettie were Michelle’s great-grandparents and the parents of her maternal grandmother, Gladys.

The postcard captures several generations of the family in one image: George and Martha, their son Hiram, Hiram’s wife, Nettie, and their infant daughter, Beatrice.

Gladys Williams Trefren as a baby

The inscription on the back makes this photo especially important. It identifies this as the only known photo of Michelle’s grandmother Gladys “when she was little.”

Gladys Williams was born Oct. 23, 1917, so the photo was probably taken in 1918. Her mother, Nettie, is holding her.

The woman identified as “Aunt Vie” is Violet Warn Smith. She is holding her son, Owen L. Smith (1918-1991). Violet and Nettie were daughters of John F. Warn (1845-1923) and Serilda Martina Eaton Warn (1846-1942).

The Baldwin sisters

Family tradition holds that Martha Baldwin Williams was “disowned” by her “wealthy” family because they objected to her choice of a husband and the couple’s decision to move west.

The Baldwin sisters: Asenath “Asenith” C. Baldwin Reece (1844-1939), Oma Baldwin Perisho (dates unconfirmed), Mary Baldwin Morris (1849-1934), Emily “Emma” Baldwin Perisho (1860-1940) and a woman identified uncertainly as “Sarah B.” The women belonged to the family of Caleb Baldwin (1819-1896) and Matilda Mary Lindley Baldwin (1822-1882), a Quaker family that moved west from Indiana into Iowa and later spread across the West. The inscription notes that their sister Martha Baldwin Williams (1846-1926) was not present. Research confirms Asenath, Mary, Emma and Martha as daughters of Caleb and Matilda; Oma’s exact identity remains unresolved, and “Sarah B.” may have been a sister-in-law or another relative rather than a Baldwin sister.

The note specifically states that Martha B. Williams was “not present.”

Martha and the identified sisters were daughters of Caleb Baldwin (1819-1896) and Matilda Mary Lindley Baldwin (1822-1882). Caleb was a Quaker and eventually was buried in Whittier, California.

Among 18th- and 19th-century Quakers, disownment often meant that a person had been removed from membership in a monthly meeting, frequently for marrying someone who was not a Quaker or for marrying without the community’s approval. It did not automatically mean that the person’s parents had severed all contact, denied an inheritance or expelled the person from the family as one might thing. They most likely did not “go no contact” as sometimes happens today.

Martha may indeed have experienced a break with her relatives, but the surviving family story could be combining two separate ideas: formal Quaker discipline and personal family opposition to her marriage or migration West.

George Washington Williams and Martha Baldwin Williams

This photo shows Michelle’s second-great-grandparents, George Washington Williams and Martha Baldwin Williams.

The words “mother’s parents” appear on the back. The inscription was obviously written by one of George and Martha’s grandchildren.

George was born in Indiana to Hiram Watt Williams Sr. and Martha Wilhoit Williams. His Idaho death certificate listed his occupation as rancher and his residence as Nampa. Martha was also born in Indiana. She was identified as a homemaker in family records. She died in Idaho.

George and Martha had six children:

Minnie F. Williams Veach (1870-1897)
Bertha Williams Miller (1873-1957)
Olive Ethel Williams Martin (1877-1934)
Hiram Watt Williams (1879-1962)
Orleana “Lena” Matilda Williams (1882-1903)
Willet Byron Williams (1886-1951)

George and Martha are buried at Morris Hill Cemetery in Boise along with several relatives.

“Vera and Juanita’s grandmother”

The inscription on this photo of Martha Baldwin Williams reads, “Vera and Juanita’s grandmother, died in Idaho.”

The girls were Vera May Martin (1896-1971) and Florence Juanita Martin Johnson (1898-1994), daughters of Martha’s daughter Olive Ethel Williams Martin (1877-1934).

Olive may have written this inscription and several others in the collection.

Possible photo of Martha

Nothing is written on the back of this photo. Based on a comparison with the identified images, I believe it is likely another photo of Martha Baldwin Williams.

A studio portrait of George Williams

This portrait of George Williams was made by “Adams & Drake, Photographic Artists” in Union, Iowa.

The photographer’s imprint advertised the studio as being “one door west of the barber shop.” I love it when the studio and other information is included because they help date a photo by comparing the studio name and address with newspapers, city directories and business advertisements. Someone wrote “Geo Williams Olive’s father” on this particular photo.

“Grandpa sends these two pictures to the girls”

The inscription on this photo postcard reads, “Grandpa sends these two pictures to the girls.”

The house is not painted, just oiled.
Grandpa sends these two pictures to the girls. This one shows the screen porch on the southeast corner of the house, where the X is one of the foothills.

It shows George Williams near the family’s Idaho home, which stood close to the foothills. Martha made a point of identifying the house’s “screen porch.”

“The girls” were probably Vera and Juanita Martin, the same granddaughters named on other photographs.

The Williams home in Boise

This photo is identified as the Boise home of George and Martha Williams.

Although the photo is not good quality, its still interesting to see the style of the house and fence since it is so different than the photos from my Tennessee families.

“As looked last year”

The inscription on the back of this photo appears to read, “George and Martha Williams as looked last year,” although the final word is difficult to decipher.

Three generations of Williams women

This photo shows Martha Baldwin Williams with her daughter Bertha Williams Miller and Bertha’s children, Leda Gale Miller Fry (1898-1951) and Altie Porter Miller (1903-1978).

The children on the “cow pony”

Writing on the postcard and a later note on its envelope identify this as the family of Michelle’s great-grandparents, Hiram Watt Williams and Nettie Grace Warn Williams.

The children on the “cow pony” are Beatrice Ruth Williams Plain, Florence May Williams Bybee (1912-2009), Chester A. Williams (1913-1997) and Doris Elva Williams Workman Brantner Drake (1915-1992).

My wife’s grandmother Gladys and the couple’s younger children had not yet been born. Because Doris was born in 1915 and Gladys arrived in October 1917, the photo was probably taken in 1916 or early 1917, most likely in or near Boise.

Hiram and Nettie also had a daughter, Violet Evangeline Williams (1909-1909), who died during infancy.

Hiram was born in Iowa and Nettie was born in Boise. They and several relatives are buried at Cloverdale Memorial Park in Boise.

Hiram and Nettie with their children

This later photo shows Hiram and Nettie (far right) with their children, including Gladys (third from right). The family inscription dates the photograph to 1943, the year Nettie died.

Harold, Bea, Chet, Jack, Florence, Doris, Gladys, Nettie and Hiram Williams

Not all the children of Nettie and Hiram lived to adulthood. One of the saddest episodes in their family history occurred in July 1930 when their 2-year-old son, Ray Eugene Williams (about 1928-1930), drowned.

His death certificate states that he “fell headfirst into a barrel of water” that had been placed in the ground beside an irrigation ditch. He was buried in Canyon Hill Cemetery in Caldwell, Idaho.

Hiram and Nettie with their grandson

This photo was not in the original envelope, but I found it while researching the family. The online caption dates it as July 3, 1937.

It shows Hiram and Nettie with their grandson, Hiram Donald Trefren (1937-1983), who was born with the surname Pugh. He was the son of Michelle’s grandmother Gladys and her first husband, Earl Franklin Pugh..

Hiram Donald later worked for the Idaho Transportation Department. He died after suffering a heart attack at work in Boise on Oct. 26, 1983.

Orleana “Lena” Matilda Williams

These photos show Orleana “Lena” Matilda Williams, another daughter of George and Martha Williams.

The 1900 federal census placed 18-year-old Lena in New Providence, Hardin County, Iowa, with her parents and her brother Willet Byron. Her sister Minnie had died three years earlier. Her siblings Bertha, Olive and Hiram were no longer living in their parents’ household.

Lena died in 1903 at age 21 and was buried in New Providence Cemetery.

Her young age and the number of surviving portraits make this group of photographs particularly interesting. They allow members of her family that were born more than 100 years after her death to know she existed.

Evening Times-Republican (Marshalltown, Iowa), June 12, 1903, 7.

Minnie Williams Veach

Minnie F. Williams Veach was the oldest daughter of George and Martha Williams.

She married Clinton W. Veach (about 1871-1903) in 1894 at her parents’ home in New Providence. Their daughter, Lulu Jessie Veach (1895-1896), died during infancy.

Minnie died in 1897 at age 27. Clinton died in 1903 at about age 31. Minnie and Clinton are buried in New Providence Cemetery.

Bertha Williams Miller

Bertha Williams Miller was a sister of Michelle’s great-grandfather, Hiram Watt Williams.

She married Charles Clifton Miller (1874-1931) in Hardin County, Iowa, in 1897. Bertha died in 1957 at age 83 and was buried in Roseville Public Cemetery in Roseville, California.

Roseville Press Tribune (Roseville, California), April 25, 1957, 2.

“Mama’s sister” is written on the back of the photo. “Mama” probably referred to Bertha’s sister Olive, with the note written by Olive’s daughter Juanita.

Leda and Altie Miller

Charles and Bertha Miller’s youngest children were Leda Gale Miller Fry and Altie Porter Miller. It appears Altie was not a fan of cats, having his photo taken or both.

A postcard to Vera and Juanita

This postcard was mailed July 7, 1909, to Vera and Juanita Martin in Iowa from their grandmother, Martha Williams, in Meridian, Idaho.

The message is difficult to read, but a sideways inscription identifies the people in the photograph as Charles and Bertha Miller and their children, Leda and Altie.

Vera and Juanita were daughters of Olive Ethel Williams Martin and granddaughters of George and Martha Williams. Vera was about 12 and Juanita about 10 when the postcard was mailed.

These two sisters are probably the “girls” mentioned in the inscription accompanying the photos of George Williams and his horse.

Charles and Bertha Miller in 1931

Bertha sent this photo to her sister Olive in 1931.

According to the accompanying note, it was the last photo taken of Bertha and Charles together before Charles died at age 56 in Contra Costa County, California.

Leda and Dick Fry

This photo shows Leda Gale Miller Fry (1898-1951) and her husband, Geddes Dixon “Dick” Fry Sr. (1891-1976).

Leda was born in New Providence and married Dick in Boise in 1916. She died of heart disease in 1951 at age 52.

Dick lived another 25 years and died in 1976 at age 85. They are buried at Pioneer Cemetery in Horseshoe Bend, Idaho.

Christmas 1950

This photo was taken during Christmas 1950 in Roseville, California. It shows Bertha Williams Miller with her son, Altie.

Bertha and Leda

This photo was taken during the same time. It shows Bertha with her daughter Leda.

Leda died the following year, making this one of the last photos of mother and daughter together.

For more of my genealogy research, visit rscottwilliams.info.