Identified Photo in the Hooper-Squires Photo Archives

This is one of the photographs that was in the Hooper-Squires musty box which I wrote about yesterday in Rescued - the Hooper & Squires Photograph Archive

We know that Edgar J. Hooper is the young man on the right and my husband thought he remembered his Aunt Florence telling him that the other two boys were Edgar's brothers.

The only clue, other than clothing and hairstyles, to help date the photo  is the photographer's logo which isn't visible in this image on the left.

It is in the bottom left corner and reads "Webster & Co. St. Mary's"

The first thing I needed to do was find out when Edgar was born. So I turned to Ancestry.com. I knew Edgar's father was John Hooper and figured Edgar was born circa early 1880s since his son Wilbert (Aunt Florence's husband) was born circa 1913.

The first document I found was the 1901 census for Blanshard Township, Perth County Ontario. There was 16 year old Edgar with his parents John and Kezia Hooper. Edgar's siblings were listed as Luther age 14, Edith 11, Milton 11, Eva 6 and Ella 3.

Next I looked for information on when Webster & Co. was in business in St. Mary's. That was a bit challenging as I don't have a book on early Ontario photographers but it seems they were in business starting circa 1907. 

We do not know for sure but it seems quite possible that this photograph is Edgar, Luther and Milton Hooper probably taken circa 1907-1910. If this is Milton I also found that in 1915 he was in Huron County Ontario where he married Josie Bell Elsley.

I did check the 1891 census to see if Edgar had an older brother but he is found as a 6 year old and the oldest in the family with siblings Luther and Edith.

If anyone knows for sure who the two young men are with Edgar or has a better timeframe for  Webster & Co. photographers please do let me know in the Comments section of this blog post.