Wordless Wednesday: Aunt Jessie’s House

In honor of the newspaper article I posted on Halloween about the “Mock Wedding Features Scotch Hallowe’en Party,” I’m posting a photo of Aunt Jessie and Uncle Lou’s house in Harrisburg where the party most likely was held for this month’s Wordless Wednesday.

According to the article, Jessie and Lou lived at 2017 Foster [Forster?] Street in 1915. The 1910 census and 1920 census both show them living in the attached 2019 Forster Street with their daughters Alice, Agnes, and Jessie L.

Given the approximate ages of the children in the photo, if it’s of the Orrs, it should be from this period. I can’t say the house there looks anything like this, though.

Jessie’s parents, Robert and Allison (Whitelaw) Trotter, were from Scotland. Jessie was born in 1870, making her a contemporary of Eliza Craig (Bonnington) Smith, who like Jessie’s mother married and started a family in Scotland, then immigrated to the United States where she settled and raised her children.

I’d always perceived Jessie as great grandma Isabella (Smith) Hocker’s friend from the way Aunt Jean spoke about her. But I guess I was off by a generation.

• Category: Photos, Research
• Tag: Family Photos, Wordless Wednesday