Mr. and Mrs. H. Y. McCord Sr.

.....at their 50th Wedding Anniversary, Nov. 8, 1932... and 40 or so years earlier, about 1890 or so

Children of H. Y. McCord Sr.

As inscribed, J. R. McCord Jr (Barto??) and Henry McCord _ ages respectively - 4 yrs & 5 months, and 17 months. This photograph had to have been made about 1888, as J. R. McCord was born in 1884.  He's labeled "Junior," but technically, he should have been "II" if named for his grandfather James Rufus McCord.

Front Page and Center......

Who would you put on the front page of your family album? Your mother, your wife, your grandmother?  I certainly don't think I would put myself front and center in my personal album. My album would be filled with pictures of important persons in my life. And I might be along side in some of those pictures.  That being said, we need to remember these are not selfies, not even snapshots.  These photographs should be classified as portraits. An appointment was made with the photographer.  You went to the studio.  You dressed with great care in  your finest apparel.  And as you shall see in many of the others, the backdrop was very carefully staged.

So who do we think this lovely lady might be?  This particular photograph was taken by J. Usher, Jr. Photographer, 702 Broad Street, Augusta, GA. His name can be found in the 1883 Augusta City Directory.

Papers falling out.....

Bibles and Family Albums are frequently a treasure trove of far more than just photographs.  We save newspaper clippings, old letters, locks of hair, church bulletins, all sorts of odds and ends that we wish to keep.  I am afraid such is the case of the letter found in the front of this particular album.  Myra McCord Granade in her later years, after her husband Frank died, lived with the niece that she had raised, thus explaining why the album would have been found in the closet of  Odessa McCord James.  But unfortunately, it does not explain if it was actually Myra's album, or had it belonged to her mother, or grandmother. Or had it been her album that she gave to her niece?

The Letter...

McCord-Stewart Company

Atlanta

                         June Nineteenth,

                    1918

                              Miss Myra McCord,

                              Crawfordville, Ga.

                              Dear Myra:

                                                                                 I am sending you herewith a

                              history of the McCord family, which I hope you will

                              copy for the other members of your family. I am

                              sending you also a family tree of your great-grand-

                              mother McCord, who was Miss Mary Reynolds.  I hope

                              this will be of interest to you. 

                                                                                 With love to all of the family

                              especially your father, I beg to remain,

                                                                                        Sincerely yours,

                                                                                        H Y McCord

First, some family background.....

     Miss Myra McCord was the daughter of Joel Walstein McCord, born in 1846, and Lula Hall McCord.  Joel was the son of James Rufus McCord and his second wife, the Widow Nancy Watts who died sometime in the late 1840's.  James Rufus took a third wife, Louisa Kenney around 1853 and had another son, H.Y. McCord, born in 1854.  So H. Y. and Joel were half brothers, having the same father and different mothers, making H. Y. McCord the uncle of Miss Myra McCord. 

Discovered......

Summer 2015

She'd spent several weekends cleaning out the house after her mother died.  There was so much to be sorted, so many decisions to be made.  If you have ever been responsible for closing down the home of a relative, I need explain no further.  As she made one more sweep through the closet in her mother's bedroom, she found it in the far back corner.  Wrapped in old crumpled newspaper was a heavy book.  At first look, she thought it might be a family Bible. But instead, it was an old album. There was no title page, no inscription on the inside.

 But there was a letter.