Sunday School Class Photo – Bloomingport Friends, Randolph County, Indiana [Genealogy] –
I’m about 90% sure I’ve titled this photo accurately. The names of most of the children were labeled for me. The photo does not specifically state that it’s a Sunday School class, neither does it specifically state it’s from Bloomingport Friends Meeting. These are both a really educated guess on my part, but I’m confident enough to name the post accordingly.
For the last few weeks, I have been sharing photos from the Ward and Pettyjohn Rescued Photo Album. Those were not my own ancestors or relatives and lived mostly in the Ridgeville area of Randolph County, Indiana. I still have many more photos to share from that album, but since I have some form of genealogy Attention Deficit Disorder, I’m skipping back to my other photos again. I start getting bored if I work on one family for too long, so I jump around a lot. I’ll get back to the Wards and Pettyjohns later.
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Is this really a Sunday School Class?
I don’t even actually know if this photo is a Sunday School class, but I don’t believe my great-great-grandmother Estella was ever a school teacher, so that only leaves me to conclude this photo is of a Sunday School class she taught. Her son Ralph (my great-grandpa) is included in the photo, and all the other known children are very close in age to him.
If this is, in fact, a Sunday School class, there is a very small chance this Sunday School class might have been at Cherry Grove Monthly Meeting which was just a couple of miles from Bloomingport, but I doubt it. I feel pretty certain it’s Bloomingport Friends because there are mentions of Estella, her children, and her in-laws being involved in various activities of Bloomingport Friends in the local newspapers around this time period.
You can find a reference here in the Richmond Pal-Item about one of the Bloomingport Friends’ Sunday School classes meeting at the home of J.H. Bales [my ggg-grandfather John Henry]. If you ever click on any of these newspaper clippings, you should always look at the advertisements on the pages. Sometimes they’re pretty entertaining.
Bloomingport Friends’ Sunday School Class
The individuals found in this Sunday School class picture were labeled as:
Back Row – Laura Cranor, Edith Hockett Oberander, Stella Bales, Ettie Johnson, and Hilda Oberander
Front Row – Ralph Bales, [not labeled but appears to be Virgil Huber from other pictures], Chester Reger, Brinnard Cranor
Bloomingport Neighbors
Many of these individuals can be found on the same page in the 1910 census as the John Henry and Martha Bales household. You can see that census page here. Laura and Brinnard (or Braynord) Cranor appear to be siblings. You should really take a look at some census pages. The spellings are sometimes hysterical. They spelled people’s names any way they pleased.
If you’ve been following, you know that John Henry and Martha (my great-great-great-grandparents) operated the Bloomingport Livery Stable (photo here) which was just southwest of the church. Hilda Oberander was a niece of Estella and has been mentioned and pictured previously in Gender-Confused, Transgender, or Just Messing Around?. Virgil Huber and his family were pictured in Bales, Huber, Oberender, and Mercer of Bloomingport, Indiana. The extended family of Estella (Sharp) Bales can be found in This Family Reunion Looks Sharp!. Several posts have been devoted to Estella’s husband Ozro Francis Bales – most notably What Ethnicity Was Ozro Bales?.
If you have a connection to any of the children pictured, I would love to hear from you. What do you think? Is this a Sunday School class photo? Am I correct on the church?
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Other posts related to this topic:
Bales and Others at Carlos, Indiana
Bloomingport Livery Stable and Carlos City to Carlos Mystery Solved
J. H. Bales Butter, Eggs, and Poultry Wagon
Other genealogy posts can be found under the Genealogy tab on the toolbar!