Solving a Photographic Century-Old Cold Case

The Vintage Postcard Mystery

            My inquisitive mind struggles with finding unidentified old photographs. When my father received a wicker basket with photographs from his mother’s home, at least one-third of the pictures he was given were unidentified. My heart sank since I prize a photograph because it can capture the essence of a person. Knowing about people who came before us can give meaning and understanding to our own lives. So discovering the names of people in those photographs became almost  obsessive to me.

            I picked the photograph postcard shown below from the basket. The young girl in the photograph captured my attention. She had eyes that appeared sensitive and kind to me. Flipping over the never-mailed postcard, I was surprised to see scrawled with pencil in cursive writing the words:

To Mamie  

From Theda

A careful examination of the clothes, furniture, and setting of the photograph helped me deduce to which Mamie this was given. Based on the setting, it had to be my grandmother, Mamie Irene Tripp Gates, not my aunt, Mamie Marie Gates Judkins Tice. In my mind, I was silently asking, “Grandma, who is Theda?”

            Later, I was thumbing through some of Grandma's saved yellowed newspaper clippings primarily about my father’s World War II experiences, when a fortunate happening occurred--I found a tiny 2” X 3” clipping that was a death notice of Theda Hogan. Wow! How many people did I know with the name Theda? I wagered that Grandma didn’t know many individuals named Theda either.

            My research showed Theda Hogan had been born in Burbank, Oklahoma in 1899, and had died in California on January 20, 1979. More information…but no explanation of her connection with Grandma.

             After many years of wondering, I began researching for the second blog post in September of last year. I discovered a family history online that mentioned Grandma’s father, Rufus Tripp. (See Blog Post of September 8, 2013, entitled One of the Hardest Things for a Little Girl to Do.) Lo and behold, like a needle in a haystack, there was a brief mention of a one-year old girl named Theda in a 1900 United States Federal Census report taken in Chautauqua County, Kansas.

              Just like a bloodhound with a mere sniff, I began meticulously reading this 1900 census report. My sleuthing revealed Theda’s father was Charley Drake.  As I investigated further, I untangled the thread connecting my grandma and Theda. Charley Drake and Rufus Tripp, Grandma’s father, shared the same mother, Elizabeth Wood Tripp Drake. Her first husband, Horace Tripp was the father of Rufus Tripp who was the father of Mamie. (An interesting sidenote- Elizabeth’s second husband, Theda's grandfather, just happened to be twelve years younger than she was.)  Her second husband was Isaac Drake the father of Charley Drake who was Theda’s daddy. Mystery solved. Grandma and Theda were cousins on their fathers’ side.

                Seeking a confirmation that the Theda Drake that was the one-year-old in the 1900 U.S. census was the same Theda Hogan in the obituary clipped from the newspaper by Grandma, I did an internet search with the name Theda Drake Hogan. Was I ever surprised to find she had graduated from Fairfax High School in 1919, so I found her listed with all three names on the Fairfax Alumni website!

                Theda was born in 1899, and Mamie was born in 1895. Just four years separated these two cousins, but some great bonds must have drawn them to each other. My father’s oldest sister Ella Edith Gates Bledsoe told me at the last Gates Family reunion she attended prior to her death that her mother, Mamie Gates had only wanted to make music and draw, but ended up having a dozen children and devoted her life to them. Maybe she shared that love of music and art with Theda. My grandmother was a sensitive, creative person. I can only speculate how imaginative these two little girls were in their play whenever they visited each other.
              Photographs were rare in the early 1900s. Theda must have cherished her cousin, my grandmother, Mamie Irene Tripp Gates, since she gave her the treasured photographic postcard, and Grandmother obviously cared deeply for Theda because she kept it for her 92 years.

                What fun and satisfaction to solve this vintage photograph mystery! Now if I can have this kind of success with the myriad of other mystery family photos from days gone by.

Theda and Guy Drake as seen on the mystery photographic postcard. Final

research for this blog ended with identifying the little boy on the postcard as
Guy Drake, Theda's younger brother. He was listed on the 1910 U. S. Census
as being five years old. Theda was eleven years old in this same census.

Mamie Irene Tripp as a young girl. As a pianist, I would love to have inherited
her long fingers!