Mrs. Charles Dean photo
Today’s picture is a CDV showing a young woman with a high collar. She is framed inside an oval, typically an 1870s feature, and outside the oval is filled in with a leafy pattern. This photo has an inscribed date and identification, as well as a photographer’s imprint.
The photographer imprint reads:
Raimheld & Graham
Photographers,
Lyons, Ia.
The inscription says:
Ma 1878 D. AD. 12-29-10
(and in different ink:) B D Dean, wife of Chas. Dean
The blue ink that the names were added with appears to be ballpoint pen, and so is certainly not contemporaneous with the image. The date is also not of the same age as the print, since it appears to include a reference to her death in 1910, but it is probably older than the name portion of the inscription.
The image certainly looks as if the 1878 date is correct — everything ‘fits’ that time period, the color and style of CDV and the woman’s clothing style. Let’s see if we can find anything more about the subject and photographers.
Searching the ClassyArts site, I find George Graham listed as a photographer in Lyons IA in the 1880 census. Raimheld is an uncommon surname, so we can guess it is probably Henry Raimheld, who with his wife Harriet are both listed as photographers in the 1880 census, but at that time they were in Morrison IL. In fact, as we continued to search the census records, we found Henry and Harriet were the only Raimheld’s listed, so the identification is essentially certain.
Here is the information from the ClassyArts site:
Raimheld, Henry (born abt 1833 in PRU) is listed as a photographer in the 1880 US census for Morrison, Whiteside county IL. The census shows that this person was the spouse of Harriett.
—
Raimheld, Harriett (born abt 1837 in New York) is listed as a photographer in the 1880 US census for Morrison, Whiteside county IL.
—
Graham, George (born abt 1851 in Ohio) is listed as a photographer in the 1880 US census for Lyons, Clinton county IA. The census shows that this person was the Son of Elizabeth.
I searched Google for Raimheld and Dean, and found a very similar image at the University of Iowa. Note the stern copyright warning — in point of fact, scanning an existing image does not establish copyright to that image, any more than I can claim copyright to the Mona Lisa by photographing it. Anyhow, we see it is almost exactly the same as our photo — just a different woman. The librarian has assigned it a date of 191_ based on the high collar (which became very popular in the 1895-1915 period). Clearly the correct date would be late 1870s — we know Raimheld left the partnership before 1880 sometime.
In doing further research we found quite a bit about Henry and Harriet Raimfeld. Military records show Henry Raimfeld served in the Civil War. One record notes him joining Company F, 29th Wisconsin Infantry Regiment as a private, but is undated. Another shows that when his first hitch was up he re-enlisted in the same company, this time as Corporal, on August 21st, 1862. He served until the end of the war and was mustered out on 22nd June, 1865 at Shreveport LA.
We next find him in the 1870 census, living in Fort Atkinson WI and his occupation is listed as ’shoemaker’ — however in the same household is William Monville, whose occupation is ‘photographer.’ Thus we can guess that it was about this time that Henry Raimfeld learned the photography trade. Harriet Raimfeld is also listed, so they were married some time prior to that census.
Since we assume the date of 1878 for this photo is correct, the Raimfelds must have moved to Lyons IA sometime in the early or mid-1870s, and Henry formed a partnership with George Graham. Then, around 1879 the Raimfelds moved again, this time to Whiteside IL, where we find them in the 1880 census. In that census Hannah Bullis is also in the household, identified as his mother-in-law.
By 1885 we find the Raimfelds moved to Minnesota, where we find them in the state census, living in Warren, still with Hannah Bullis in the household.
On September 28th 1888 Henry Raimfeld died of ’softening of the brain’ and was buried in the Minneapolis Pioneers and Soldiers Memorial Cemetery. By 1889 until 1891 we find his widow listed as ‘matron’ at the Benedict Home in Des Moines, Iowa. At the time of the 1895 state census she and her mother were again living in Minnesota, in Minneapolis. By 1910 Harriet Raimfeld was living alone in Upland California.
Finding information on George Graham was a bit more difficult, since the name was so common. We did note that in the 1880 census, George was living with his widowed mother and two younger sisters — and the mothers occupation was ‘teacher of oil painting.’ In the 1870 census he was only 19 and had apparently not taken up photography yet, as the only likely candidates I find were farmers sons. I could not find him in the 1900 census, all I can say is that he was no longer in Lyons IA at that time.
Searching for information on the subject of our picture, B D Dean, wife of Charles Dean, proved more difficult. There was no Charles Dean in Lyons IA in 1880, but we don’t even know for sure if they were married yet at that time — the inscription was added much later than than the image was taken. Without knowing her maiden name, or even her full name, I kept coming up with blanks when searching for her. I checked all of the 750 or so Charles Deans listed in the 1900 census, but only a few had wives with names starting with ‘B’ and they were all too young. She may have been called Betsy and listed under Elizabeth, in which case there are lots of candidates, but no way to know which is correct. In short, I can not confirm that the identification is correct, nor prove that is not. That’s the way these things sometimes go — often you find lots of details about people, and other times nothing.