Photo Friday – Hinkley & Gruver.

Linwood Dyer Collection – Part 042
Hinkley Family Photographs (2024.13.43)
By Don Taylor

This photo album is from the Linwood D Dyer Photo Collection and is in very rough condition. Because most of the images are glued in place, I cannot access the photo backs. The collection includes images of people in the Hinkley family of Portland, Maine. Today, I identified five people from the collection. My goal is to reunite the photos with family members who may have never seen the pictures before. The Scarborough Historical Society holds the originals in the Linwood Dyer Photo Collection[i] “Hinkley Family Photo Album.”

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Twins – Eleanor & Margaret Hinkley, c. 1871 to 1894.

Hinkley Family Album, Pages 12, 13, & 14.

These three pages contain photos of two young girls.

On page 12, there are three photos. They are clearly twins and named “Eleanor” and “Margaret.” Beneath the photo of the twins together, “M” is labeled as the girl on the left and “E” as the girl on the right. A note at the bottom of the page is “Born July 6 – 1871.”

On page 13 are five photos of the girls; all are labeled, and four are dated.

1. Eleanor & Margaret [I estimate circa 1878]
2. Margaret, June 1892
3. Eleanor, June 1892
4. Margaret, 1894
5. Eleanor & Margaret, Sept 1889

Page 14 has five photos. Four are of Eleanor, and one is a group of seven women; all five are dated.

1. Eleanor, 1891
2. Eleanor, Berlin, N.H. 1895
3. Eleanor, Berlin, N.H. 1895, which is very similar to the above.
4. Eleanor, 1897
5. Unlabeled, dated 1919.

What I learned while researching this photo:

• My Linwood Dyer Collection Family Tree contains Margaret Prindle and Eleanor Tisdale Hinkley, born in 1871.

I am confident these are photos of Eleanor & Margaret. I cannot identify any of the people in the group photo.

I added five photos of Eleanor, three of Margaret, and two of the twins together to my Linwood Dyer Collection family tree at Ancestry.

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Elbert & Margaret (Hinkley) Gruver Family, 1871 to 1908.

Hinkley Family Album, Pages 15, & 16.

Page 15 includes three “snapshot” photos labeled “Bert – Eleanor, Elbert – Margaret Gruvers.” One professional photo of a baby is labeled “Eleanor Gruver.”

My previous research revealed:

• Eleanor Tisdale Hinkley married Ernest C Kinney. They had two children, Margaret & Louise.

What I learned:

• The 1930 U.S. Census lists Eleanor H Kinney, head of household, living at 215 Vaughan, Portland, with her two daughters. Margaret is 18, and Louise is 15.
• Eleanor’s sister Margaret married Elbert Gruver. So, it appears that Eleanor had a daughter she named Margaret and her twin sister Margaret had a daughter she named Eleanor.

FamilySearch profile for Margaret (Hinkley) Gruver indicates she had two children who died as infants then. Eleanor was born in 1902, and Elbert was born in 1905. Eleanor appears to be about one year old, dating that photo to about 1903. Elbert appears to be about four years old, dating the three pictures of both children about 1909.

Page 16 includes two professional photos and two “snapshots.” They are:

1. Professional portrait of a man – no date.
2. Professional portrait of a woman with a baby, dated Sept 1902.
3. Photo of two children labeled “Elbert – 1908 – Eleanor.”

Findings:

1. I am sure the first photo is Elbert Gruver, Sr.
2. I suspect the second photo is also of Elbert Gruver, Sr., but I can’t prove it. Also, it is of poor quality, so I’m not including it.
3. Eleanor was born on 29 June 1902. I’m confident this is a photo of Margaret holding Eleanor when Eleanor was about 2½ years old.

I added photos of Elbert (Sr.), Margaret, Eleanor, & Elbert (Jr.) Gruver to my Linwood Dyer Collection family tree at Ancestry.

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Conclusion

I would love to hear your reaction if any of these photos are of your family member. Especially if this photo is of a loved one for whom you hadn’t seen this photograph before.

Due to software limitations, the images uploaded to Ancestry, Family Search, or Flickr are of higher quality than those here. Feel free to use these photos in your genealogical activities. Please cite “Photo Courtesy: Scarborough Historical Society.”

Endnotes

[i] Scarborough Historical Society Accession number: 2024.13.43.