This is a carte-de-visite (cdv) of Harriet E. Whiting (1839-1888), the daughter of Presbyterian minister, Rev. Russell Whiting (1797-1855) and Theodotia M. Mitchell (1798-1845) of Preston, Chenango county, New York. Note that her mother died when she was but 5 or 6 years old. At the time of the 1850 US Census, Harriet, or “Hattie” as she was called, lived with her father and her stepmother Eva (her mother’s step-sister) in Oswego, Kendall county, Illinois. Five years later, Hattie’s father died when the family resided in Sugar Grove, Kane county, Illinois.

A search of School records informs us that Hattie’s father was an 1835 graduate of Union College in New York State. He then attended the Princeton Theological Seminary from 1825-1826, the Andover Theological Seminary from in 1828, and was ordained by the Albany Presbytery in October 1828. His first pastorate was at Batavia, New York (1829-1831) and then at various other churches in Western New York before relocating to Oswego, Illinois in 1849.

Hattie’s whereabouts could not be confirmed in the 1860 US Census when she would have been 21. It may be that she was on her own working as a school teacher somewhere. The cdv featured above that was taken in Natchez by the Hughes & Larkin studio was probably taken in 1865. That’s the year that the Freedmen’s Bureau established schools in the vicinity of Natchez. Hattie married Jonathan W. Stryker (1836-1888) on 3 March 1867 in Joliet, Illinois. A Freedmen’s Bureau record dated August 1867 shows that J. W. Stryker (and Hattie) were reimbursed by the Bureau for the monthly rent of $25 for the Union School in Natchez.

The 1870 US Census records enumerate Jonathan and Hattie Stryker in Port Gibson, Claiborne county, Mississippi where they were working as teachers for the Freedman’s Bureau. That census record informs us that Jonathan was born in Canada. The couple were living in Spink, South Dakota, in the 1880s where they died.

Curiously, in a poor hand, someone has written on the front of Hattie’s cdv, “My school marm.” This was most likely a black student attending school in Natchez. The cdv was found in the album of a member of the 3rd US Colored Cavalry.

In yet a different hand, not Hattie’s, someone has written on the verso, “Stray Lamb Hattie.” Hattie’s signature is believed to be at the bottom of the verso.

[Note: This photograph is from the collection of Rick Brown who asked for research on the image and gave express consent for me to share it on Spared & Shared.]