Between the pages: the boy, the poem, and a riddle - Part 4

Discovered between the pages of The Child's Scripture Question Book (1836, American Sunday School Union, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania), was a carte de visite (CDV) of a young boy and a folded paper with a handwritten poem. The poem included a curious coded citation at the end.

The book was full of engravings (illustrations) and wonderfully worn. I love old books that have been used and handled.

All Pictures in this post by Jamanix Books, used with permission.

Was the boy in the picture the owner of the book? If not, how are the boy and the book connected?

The obvious place to look was the inside cover. The name was barely legible, written in pencil.

But a closer look and some photo software magic and the inscription became clear.

M. Jacob ?? [illegible surname], possibly beginning with "D," or "P", or "L" and beneath it, "Got from the Sabbath School." What was written between those lines? What appeared to be a word handwritten above the line, "Got from the Sabbath School," was almost illegible. However, the letter "B" was clear at the beginning and a possible "y" at the end. I wondered if it could be "Bobby." As in, "Bobby got from the Sabbath School." But then I thought there were two "o's." perhaps it wasn't a "y" at the end, but a k? Would it be the word "Book?"

As for "M. Jacob," more work will have to be done to decipher the last name of the boy who once owned the book. With some photo editing and enlarging of the image, I was able to get this:

My sister-in-law, Martha, thought the first letter of the last name was P. And she also thought she saw an apostrophe. M. Jacob P - - - - 's. I thought it could be a name that started with "D." What do you think? Do you see any letters in the last name of M. Jacob?

Because I had already researched the poem that was handwritten on the paper found in the book, translated the code at the end of the poem, and discovered the person who wrote it, I already had my biggest clue. The person who handwrote the poem was Phoebe V. Lory, and that the person she wrote it for was Emmie E. Leer. I knew that it was possible that the boy was somehow connected to one of these women.

I began by researching Phoebe.

I found her almost instantly with a search on Ancestry.com. I looked for any woman named Phoebe V. Lory living in Adams County, Pennsylvania. I searched there because the photograph of the boy had a photographer's stamp from Adams County.

I found a Phoebe Virginia Lory, born on 7 September 1869 in Pennsylvania. Phoebe was the daughter of William Lory and Mary Bell. Phoebe's father was a carriage man and her older brother worked on the farm. Additional research revealed that Phoebe never married and died at the age of 24 after an illness that lasted three days.

Her death as a young single woman with no children removed the possibility that the boy in the photograph was Phoebe's son.

In the 1880 census, Phoebe is 12 years old and living with her parents and 7 siblings in Latimore, Adams County, Pennsylvania.

A social security death application for an Emma Daw, revealed that her name at birth was Emma Lory and she was born after the 1880 census, in 1887 to William and Mary Lory, bringing the total number of Phoebe's siblings to eight; five brothers and three sisters.

The surname of "M. Jacob" could be Lory, but it didn't really look like that. So I turned my focus to Phoebe's sisters. Who did they marry? And did any of them have children named Jacob or M. Jacob?

Phoebe's sister, Annie, married Charles A. Ebersole. I ruled out this last name for the boy who owned the book. Phoebe's sister Ella, married Edward A. Daw. It was possible that the boy who owned the book had the last name of Daw. I found that Ella and Edward Daw had no children who survived. Ella was 34 and Edward was 47 when they married as per the 1930 census. In 1930, Ella and Edward had been married about 12 years. If they had any children, they should have been under the age of 12 and living in the home. Could Ella and Edward have had a son who died and this was his book? perhaps.

A review of online records available and newspapers at the time, revealed no deaths of Daw children during the years of 1868 - 1880.

A thorough search of the immediate Lory family of Phoebe Virginia Lory also turned up no child named Jacob or M. Jacob. It still was possible that Phoebe had a familial connection to the boy, but I chose to set her family research aside and look at the person who received her poem.

Stay tuned!

#historydetective