Sunday, November 24, 2013

Mystery Photo Sunday... Amboy, Minnesota

Mystery Photo Sunday
I have such a large photo archive... of both relative & non-relative photos... that I've decided to do a weekly spotlight of one the 'mystery photos' in my possession.
 
 
 
Two separate photos, both from Amboy, Minnesota photography studios...
These were both found by me over a few years... no reason to believe the first photo is related to the second photo.


 
Two great old cabinet card photos... would sure love to reunite them with relatives who would treasure them~

4 comments:

  1. What wonderful photos! Thanks so much for saving and sharing these pictures! I am Amboy's Historian and wrote our town History book in 1979. I am currently working on updating and re-publishing, but so many new [old] photos and additional information has come to light since I started working on the 2nd edition, I think it will be over twice as large as the first one was. I work at the Amboy Cottage Cafe so I will ask the coffee ladies around the round table if they have any clues to who these "ancestors" might be. Susan Hynes sent this to me via Facebook. We both work on Betsy-Tacy Society events and portray characters. Last night we finished the last BECHS "Ghosts of the Past - Ghost Towns of Blue Earth Co." I was telling the story of Shelbyville as my Great-great-great grandmother Isabella Van Nuys Brace. She came to MN as a teenager in 1856 with her family and settled on a farm in Shelby Township, just south of the new village of Shelbyville. She became the first school teacher in Sterling Township, and married Edward Brace, who was the 2nd settler in Shelby Township. Her parents were Cornelius and Susan Lee Dickerson Van Nuys [sometime spelled Van Nice]. They were friends with the pioneer Presbyterian minister, Jacob E. Conrad who was farming in Sterling. Shelbyville was a very Methodist community, and although the Van Nuys Family attended that church, they suggested to Rev. Conrad that he start a Presbyterian Church in Winnebago. A meeting was held and a charter was signed by 7 people - 4 of them were Van Nuys... After Isabella married Edward Brace and they began having a family, they built a large red brick home on the NW shore of Jackson Lake. Rev. Conrad was again asked to start a church. It was in their home that the “Presbyterian Church of Pleasant Ridge” [now Amboy Presbyterian Church] was founded in March of 1869. Services were held in the Big Red Brick House and the area country schools. There is another photo of an Amboy family that I'm also going to look into, as a couple of the faces look very familiar....as if I have some photos in my collection that may be related. Thanks again, Kelly Reuter

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    1. So glad you were sent the link here. I just recently began re-sharing the links for some of the older blog posts on some genealogy sites & groups. I usually post a new "mystery" photo every Sunday, many of them are from Southern MN. I do know that I have other Amboy photos in my large archive & many from Winnebagy (1,000s of photos in total). Eventually, they will all get posted.
      Good Luck with your book and if you ever want better scans or prints made from any photos here, just let me know!

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    2. Hi, I know this is an old post, but Kelly Reuter, how is the updated book coming along? I'm having a hard time finding a copy of the previous edition, but would prefer the new one anyway if it's still happening. From what I understand, my great great great great grandfather, Thomas Jefferson Cross Sr. was a preacher of some kind in Shelbyville area, but so far all I can find is information about his son of the same name who was involved in the Dakota Wars in 1862 & court martialed before his unit was involved in the Civil War. Have you come across that name in your research, or Erastus Gould Cross?

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  2. I am interested to hear about the book, also. My grandfather was born in Amboy in 1898. His great-uncle owned the store in Willow Creek for a while.

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