This photo was taken in front of the farmhouse on Gooney Manor Loop, about two miles south of Browntown, which John Byrd Updike built in about 1894. The farm was approx. 305 acres when sold in 1922. The Updike’s lived there until 1922, when it was sold to Ott and Nannie Borden. The farmhouse is known today as the Hammock-Meredith House. It is the headquarters of the Warren County Chapter of the Izaak Walton League, who bought the house and 155 acres of land in 1955 from the Bordens.
The family appear to be dressed in their Sunday-best clothes. The one exception is the small boy (Arleigh Updike) in the front row who seems to have forgotten to put his shoes on. The positioning of each person suggests that the person who took the photo was either a professional photographer or a talented amateur.
The photo above on the left shows the front of the original farmhouse, taken in 1970 before porches were added. The photo on the right shows the additional wing that was built on to the back of the house, probably in the 1920s.
The photo on the right shows the additional wing that was built on to the back of the house, probably in the 1920s.
Many of the old photos that people bring us come with little or no information about who the people are in the photos. Fortunately, this is not the case with this particular Updike family picture, which came to us with the label on the left attached.
When we started researching the history of these names, we soon discovered the complex family history of Pauline and John Byrd Updike and that one person in the photo (“Shirley Updike”) is incorrectly identified.
Sal Cooper, the lady in the second row, also turns out to have a very interesting history with the Updike family, beginning way back in the 1850s before everyone else in this photo was born.
Rather than attempt to describe the history of all the people in the photo we have limited ourselves to focusing on just Pauline and John Byrd Updike (standing together on the right in the front row), Sal Cooper (standing in the center of the back row), and the young lady identified as Shirley Updike (2nd on the right in the front row).
PAULINE (1865-1945) AND JOHN BYRD UPDIKE (1860-1954)
Tracing the history of the Updikes in South Warren is guaranteed to give anyone a headache, partly because the first Updikes to settle in the area had very large families and also because interfamily marriages were common amongst the Updikes.
The family line can be traced back to the first generation of Opdycks who emigrated from Holland to New Amsterdam (New York City) prior to 1650. The “Browntown Updikes” can trace their history in the early 1800s specifically to John Updike Jr. (1775-1852) who operated a sawmill and gristmill in Rappahannock County. He and his wife, Elizabeth Pancoast, had ten children, two of whom died soon after being born. Most of their other children moved to Ohio but three brothers, Asa (1800-1881), Israel (1802-1869), and Samuel (1817-1839), moved to the area then known as Gooney or The Manor. After they moved to the Manor, all three brothers married members of the Brown family (after whom Browntown would later be named).
The three Updike brothers all bought and cleared land for their farms about 2 miles south of Browntown where there was good availability of water from local springs and from Gooney Run and Greasey Run, and good access, via dirt roads (originally cleared to serve the needs of the Cover Tannery), to Luray, Browntown, and Bentonville.
Pauline Updike was the granddaughter of Israel Updike. Her parents were Franklin Updike and Evaline Updike who were double first cousins, since their fathers (Asa and Israel) were brothers and their mothers (Ruth and Eleanor Brown) were sisters. Pauline’s mother, Evaline, was affectionately known as “Aunt Duck” by friends and family.
John Byrd Updike was the grandson of John Updike Jr. His parents were Samuel Updike, the younger brother of Asa and Israel Updike and Angeline Brown.
We originally thought that John Byrd and Pauline were cousins but it turns out that their relationship to one another was a bit more complicated than that. Obviously, they were husband and wife but it turns out that Pauline was also a first cousin once removed of her husband.
To make things even more complicated, this means that their children were also 2nd cousins to their mother. Whether or not they ever realized this we may never know.
SAL COOPER
“Sal” was born Sarah Cooper in 1840. Her father was Elias Francis Cooper (1812-Deceased), a chairmaker and laborer. Her mother was Susan Mary Comrell (1818-Deceased). Sal was one of nine children. We know nothing of her early years. The first record of her life is the 1860 census, where she is listed as 20 years old, working as a servant for Frankin and Evaline Updike (Pauline Updike’s parents). It is likely than she began working for the Updikes a few years earlier.
Pauline Updike was born in 1865, so she would have known Sal from the time she was a baby until she left home after marrying John Byrd in 1883. Whether Sal continued to work for Franklin and Evaline after Pauline left to start her own family is not known. We do know that she made this move before 1900 because the Census for that year shows her working for Pauline and her family.
Our photo from 1909 shows Sal holding onto the arms of Reginald and Grover Updike, suggesting that there was a very close relationship between Sal and these two boys. The fact that she was included in this photograph also strongly suggests that she was considered an integral part of the family.
Sal Cooper stayed with the Updikes for the rest of her life and was still living with them in their farmhouse when she died in 1919 at the age of 79. She was buried in the Cooper-Updike Cemetery that is located near the farmhouse
THE YOUNG GIRL IDENTIFIED AS SHIRLEY UPDIKE IN THE PHOTO
The young girl identified as “Shirley Updike” in the photo is standing next to a taller and older girl to whom she bears a striking resemblance. This has led us to conclude that she is definitely an Updike. However, we also know that she is not “Shirley” Updike since Shirley was actually a boy (born in 1898). According to Wikipedia, Shirley has a long history as a male given name, mainly before 1849.
Why Pauline and John chose that particular name for one of their sons is a mystery we have yet to solve. Because of the strong family resemblance, we have assumed that the girl is most likely related to the other Updikes in the photo. We have found only one other female Updike living nearby in 1909 who appears to be the right age. Her name was Ada Florence Updike.
Ada was born in 1895, which would make her about 14 years old when the photo was taken. Her father was Joseph Franklin Updike, who was a grandson of Israel Updike. She would have been a second cousin once removed of Pauline Updike and a third cousin of the other children in our photo.
POSTSCRIPT: 30 YEARS LATER
While writing this paper we have often wondered what the adults and children in the photo would look like many years later, once all of the children had grown up. We were delighted then to come across the photo below, taken in the later 1930s.
This is the family of Uncle Byrd and Aunt Pauline Updike.
- Front Row (left to right): Arleigh, Aunt Pauline, Elinor, Uncle Byrd, Elsie.
- 2nd Row: Edison at left and Finley at right
- Standing at back: Shadah, Tilden, Bessie, Reginald, Kate, Blanche, Shirley, Minnie, Grover, Daisy, and her husband, Fred Arnold.
NOTE:
- “Aunt Pauline” is Pauline Updike and “Uncle Byrd” is John Byrd Updike.
- Those whose names are colored blue are the children who were in the 1909 photo.
- Shirley (standing at the back) was not in the 1909 photo – even though he was identified as being there.
Source of this photo: The Virginia Updikes-Updykes – A History of the Descendents of John Updike who came to Virginia prior to 1750. By Robert S. Craig, McClain Printing Company, Parsons, West Virginia, 1985