This photo is printed on a thick card, like many formal portraits from around 1900. The print includes the photographer’s studio name and address. This one was taken in Kokomo, Indiana, where the girls’ father was the pastor of the Friends church.
The girls are Gertrude (Gertie) and her younger sister Tirzah Stout; based on Tirzah’s apparent age I’d guess that the photo was taken in 1896 or 1897.
Tirzah with a bucket of puppies! This photo is not dated, so it may not belong to the college years – but it’s a great photo.
This is Tirzah’s graduation photo, taken when she graduated from Friends University in Wichita, Kansas. We don’t have the graduation date, but it must have been before her marriage to Frank Jessup in 1913.
“Tirzah” is not a name that we encounter very frequently. According to the Internet, the name Tirzah means “she is my delight.” A woman with that name appears in the book of Numbers. It is also the name of a city in the Old Testament books of Joshua and Kings – it was the home of the king of Israel, and apparently a beautiful place. The husband in Song of Solomon says of his bride, “You are as beautiful as Tirzah.”
This, perhaps, explains the choice of her name by her parents, Lewis and Anna Stout. As kids, we just called her “Aunt” because that’s what our dad called her.
When Tirzah was born, most people didn’t have cameras. Photos (like the one at left) were taken at studios and were probably expensive – especially for a pastor’s family. So we don’t have pictures of Tirzah as a young girl like we do for her sister Mildred, born 13 years later.
By the time Tirzah went to college (at Friends University, in Wichita, Kansas) cameras had become easier for people to own, so we have quite a few pictures of Tirzah as a young woman.
It was a common practice at the time to have one’s photos made into post cards so that they could be mailed; an example is below.
The photo on this post card is of Tirzah (left) with her friend Beulah Gilbert. The card was written and mailed to Frank Jessup in 1908, when Tirzah was 18 years old and a student in Wichita. Frank lived in Plainfield, Indiana, and became Tirzah’s husband in 1913. The message, signed with Tirzah’s initials, begins on the back. Here is a transcription:
Well here is your postal after so long a time. I’ve been asleep for two hours and am just feeling fine. I suppose you have been cutting weeds all day and are awful tired. I wonder if you could recognize these people its been so long since you saw either of them. If you decide its your duty to stay home Sunday just lets me know and it will be all right. Did you go to sleep going home? Bye Bye T.E.S.
This photo, on a post card, is addressed to Byron Travis (no address) and the message says
Merry Christmas 1910
your teacher Tirzah Stout
Apparently she had one of these cards made for each of the boys, and handed them out at the last class meeting. Maybe Byron was sick that day, so he didn’t get his card.
We have two of these post cards – the other one was mailed to Frank Jessup, but was later pasted in a photo album and the message is only partially readable.
We have a few pictures of Tirzah wearing a big, fancy hat; apparently she liked them!
Here is a college photo of Tirzah (center) between two of her friends, Grace Compton (left) and Leota Mattern (right).
Here’s another post card with a photo of Tirzah on it. Nothing is written on the post card.
When I was a boy, I don’t remember how old, Aunt Tirzah took me with her one day to a class that she was teaching in a nearby city. The class was for young boys my age, and she was teaching them from the Bible. This continued a practice that had begun when she was in college, as shown by the picture at left.
We have a few pictures of Tirzah with a Sunday School class and with various church people. It’s evident that she was deeply involved in church, along with her parents.
Tirzah’s graduation class at Friends University, Wichita, Kansas. She is on the far right, in the second row.
Tirzah (right) poses on the lawn with school friend Anna Henley. Both of them are wearing beautiful white dresses – at least they appear to be white – and holding flowers. We can only imagine what might have been the occasion of this photo.
In this photo Tirzah stands (on the left side, front row) with a group of friends from church. This may be her Sunday School class. Many of them appear to be carrying Bibles. Tirzah’s younger sister Mildred is standing directly in front of her.
Here is Tirzah, wearing another of her big hats, with horse and buggy; one guess is that this may have been taken just before this mode of transportation was used for the last time.
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