We may never know who the woman is staring out of this cabinet card taken by Salem photographer W.P. Johnson sometime between 1877 and 1888.
The Willamette Heritage Center houses over 200,000 photographic images documenting the history of Salem and Marion County. There is nothing more disappointing than coming across an unidentified photo.
We may never know who the dour-looking woman is staring out of this cabinet card taken by Salem photographer W.P. Johnson sometime between 1877 and 1888 — the years he operated his photo gallery in Salem. However, a little research into some interesting markings on the photo itself did offer insight into the life of another enterprising woman of the time.
The backside of this photograph features the photographer’s name amidst palm fronds, pyramids and sphinxes, all printed in shimmering silver. At the very bottom of the logo are the unadorned words: “Mrs. A.L. Stinson and Son, Printers.” This little phrase gave made me pause.
Professional women in Salem during the latter half of the 19th century were, to use a phrase of the time, scarce as hen’s teeth. The U.S. Census bureau didn’t even keep statistics on women in the work force until 1890. By then, only 515,260 married women were employed in the entire United States, just 2 percent of the American workforce. How many fewer were actually business owners?
While her business name was always Mrs. A.L. Stinson, she was christened Sarah Watts and her life was not an easy one. Born in Illinois in 1843, she came across the Oregon Trail as a young girl of 4. Her family settled in Linn County, near Peoria. Her father died when she was just 11 years old.
The only photograph I could find of Mrs. Stinson (maybe a bit ironic for a printer) is in a 1917 Oregon Journal article describing the reunion of veterans of the so-called Oregon Indian Wars. In it she recalls knitting socks for fighters as the mother spun yarn.
Sarah married a printer by the name of Ashby Logan Stinson in 1862. Their marriage would last a grand total of 17 years and four children before her husband fell dead of a heart attack on the street in Salem. She suddenly became a single mother in a community where there were few employment opportunities for women.
We can do little but speculate how she got into the printing business. Maybe she learned at her husband’s side? Her husband, after all, is credited with bringing the first cylinder press to Salem and ran several newspapers and a job printing business in Albany and Salem.
There are precious few remnants of her career, and the business name seems to be constantly in flux. The 1880 Directory of the City of Salem was printed by “Mrs. A.L. Stinson, Book & Job Printer.” Just a few years later in the Oregon, Washington and Idaho Gazetteer and Business Directory by the R.L. Polk Co., she is listed in the classifieds under “Printers - Book and Job” as Mrs. A.L. Stinson & Co.
This name change may be explained by an obscure reference found in the finding aide for the Thomas Jefferson Cronise photos held at the Oregon Historical Society, which claims that Cronise – later to become one of Salem’s preeminent photographers – first worked for a printing business owned by Mrs. A.L. Stinson after his arrival in Oregon in 1882.
It can be hard for us to consider in a time of word processing the important role job printers played in everyday business around town. They could create forms, print invitations, pamphlets and advertisements and even create logos and stationery like that found on the back of our mysterious cabinet card.
After selling the business, Mrs. A.L. Stinson really only shows up in the newspaper entertaining at her West Salem home called “Le Mati Grove” and in relationship to the exploits of her children. Her woes continued. Daughter Alice, who had gained fame as a doctor in Salem with the somewhat unbelievable name of Dr. Prettyman, sadly died at age 39, leaving behind a little daughter of her own. She had to rush to her son‘s side on an October evening in 1915 after hearing a shot, to find he had taken his own life.
Her daughter Mary married her mother’s business successor, Ross E. Moores. Mary would not outlive the dispersal of her mother‘s estate and her husband became her only surviving heir. A sad end to an interesting story.
Kylie Pine is the Curator at the Willamette Heritage Center, a five acre historical museum located in downtown Salem dedicating to connecting generations by preserving and interpreting the history of the Mid-Willamette Valley. Learn more at www.willametteheritage.org.