52 Ancestors: #5 ~ The F. E. Webster Dental and Photo Boats

Among the many photos that my maternal grandfather, Debs Warren Webster, owned was this fascinating picture of the F. E. Webster Dental and Photo Boats.



This photo is on some kind of thick cardboard paper. As you can see, someone wrote on it. The writing on the top is in Portuguese. According to my mom, who speaks Portuguese, the basic translation is as follows –

"A  French family built this. With imitation steam, but a horse makes the wheel in the back move in order to navigate the boat."

Well, that's interesting! It sounds like the third boat in this photo, the larger one on the far left with people standing on the top deck, is an imitation steam paddlewheel boat that was actually drawn by a horse on the shore. Although, I can't imagine that only one horse would have pulled this boat.

I'm glad whoever wrote on this photo decided to include the location and dates. It looks like these boats were docked at Lake Charles, Louisiana. And it's dated 1896 – 1902.

F. E. Webster was my maternal great-grandfather, Frederick Emory Webster, also known as "The Traveling Dentist" here on my blog. My regular readers have likely heard of him before. He was born on 14 February 1864 in Coolville, Athens, Ohio. He was the third of six children born to Ebenezer Perry Carlisle Webster and Cynthia Maria Waterman. If you read last week's 52 Ancestors post, you may remember Ebenezer Perry Carlisle Webster's photo album that I shared here on my blog.

Frederick was actually named Watson Emory Webster at birth, but later changed his name to Frederick Emory Webster. I've written a post theorizing about why he changed his name. You can read about that HERE.

Frederick graduated from the Western Dental College on April 2, 1896. Frederick's Doctor of Dental Surgery Diploma was found inside a metal tube tucked inside one of my grandfather Debs Webster's suitcases. I shared this exciting find on my blog. If you'd like to take a look at this amazing document, click HERE.

Frederick was also an inventor! Yep! That's right! He received a patent and everything. He made improvements to a dental handpiece. I shared a copy of his patent here on my blog too. If you'd like to see it, click HERE.

Frederick was an interesting person. He certainly traveled quite a bit during his life. That's why I refer to him as "The Traveling Dentist" here on my blog. He married my great-grandmother, Esther Matus Villatoro, in Mexico.  This is a picture of Frederick and Esther with their two oldest children, Carlota and Edna.

Sometime after the birth of their first child, Carlota, who was born in 1910, Frederick and Esther and their daughter moved to Brazil. Frederick and Esther continued to travel after moving to Brazil, including trips to the United States and Mexico.

I've been able to trace many of Frederick and Esther's travels through documents and photos.

I'm grateful that the photo of Frederick's dental and photo boats included information about where and when they were docked.

I thought it would be interesting to crop and enlarge Frederick's dental and photo boats so we could get a closer view of them.

In this close-up of the F. E. Webster Dental Boat, I think I found Frederick. See those three men standing there under the dental boat sign? I think Frederick is the one on the far left. I don't know who all of the women and children are in this photo.



And here we have the F. E. Webster Photo Boat. I think it's awesome that Frederick was also a photographer.



Of course I have some questions.

• How long did Frederick have his dental and photo boats?
• How did he acquire them?
• Where did he travel in these boats?
• Did he have a large clientele for his dental practice and photography studio?
• Did he advertise his floating dental practice and photo studio?
• Did the dental boat rock at all while dental work was being done? (Scary thought, right?) 
• Who took the photo of these dental and photo boats?

I'm very grateful to my grandfather, Debs Webster, for keeping this photo, as well as all of the other family photos he kept for his descendants to enjoy.

Thanks for stopping by!

Jana

© 2014 Copyright by Jana Last, All Rights Reserved

Hurray! It's Time To Do The Genealogy Happy Dance!

Thanks to Jen Baldwin at Ancestral Breezes, I was able to do the Genealogy Happy Dance yesterday.  On Facebook, Jen posted a link to the Colorado Statewide Divorce Index, 1900-1939 on FamilySearch.org.

I clicked the link to start searching for a divorce for my Great-Grandfather Frederick Emory Webster, a.k.a. "The Traveling Dentist."  Why was I looking for a divorce record for him?  Because he was married twice.  Ya, I hadn't mentioned that little fact on my blog yet. I descend from his second wife, Esther Matus Villatoro, who was from Mexico.  His first wife was Kate E. Woodhouse.  She was from England.  Kate and Frederick married in Denver, Colorado on December 10, 1888.

I discovered that Frederick had a first wife some time ago.  After learning this fact, I  was really hoping that he hadn't just left the United States and married again without getting a divorce first.

Would you believe I found Frederick and Kate's Divorce Record Report in less than half an hour?  Yep, it was absolutely time to do the Genealogy Happy Dance!!  There is no index in this record set, but it is alphabetized, which does make it easier to peruse.

I have to admit, I was quite relieved to find the Divorce Record Report for Kate and Frederick yesterday.  Thank you again Jen!  You helped me check off one of my research goals for Frederick.  Finding a divorce for Frederick and Kate was on my To-Do List.


"Colorado Department of Health. Colorado, Statewide Divorce Index, 1900-1939," images, FamilySearch  (https://familysearch.org: accessed 6 January 2013), image 1569 of 4516 images, Frederick E. Webster and Kate E. Webster, 1899, Colorado Department of Health and Environment, Denver, Colorado.

As you can see from this divorce report, Fred and Kate had two children together – Myrtie Edna Webster and Earl Webster.  This fact isn't new to me and I've done quite a bit of research about them.  I've found a lot of information on Earl, but not so much on Myrtie Edna, or as my records show, Edna Myrtie (don't know which is right on this one).

Webster Dental and Photo Boats circa 1896-1902
Lake Charles, Louisiana
Click to Enlarge

And the Date of Decree is March 14, 1899.  I'm not familiar with divorce lingo, and I'm not a lawyer, so I wasn't sure what a Decree was.  I did a little research online and it looks like it means the divorce is final.  I could be wrong though.  If anyone knows the answer to this, please let me know.  I'd really appreciate it.

Also, it looks like Kate was the one who filed for divorce from Fred.  Now I want to know why.  Was he negligent?  Did he travel too much?  Did she travel with him or was she left at home to care for the kids by herself?  I'm hoping that I can locate the actual divorce records to answer these and other questions.

Assuming the Decree date is the actual date the divorce was final, I was curious to see where Frederick was at that time.  So, I looked at my timeline for him and this is what I found.  I have a photo dated 1896-1902 showing Fred Webster's Dental and Photo Boats at Lake Charles, Calcasieu, Louisiana.  I also have another photo with boats with a date range of 1890-1902 in Morgan City, Louisiana.

Is Kate one of the people in this photo?  If not, just who are all of those people with Frederick?  Perhaps Kate didn't like this bohemian lifestyle of Fred's and called it quits.

Whatever the reason for Fred and Kate's divorce, I'm just so glad to find evidence that there actually was a divorce.  And that Fred didn't just sail away in one of his dental boats to a new life without the proper legal separation from his old life.

Thanks for reading!

Jana

Copyright © Jana Last 2013

Sepia Saturday 127–Frederick E. Webster’s Dental Office

Sepia Saturday provides an opportunity for genealogy bloggers to share their family history through photographs.







There are no cows or markets in this photograph, but it IS an interesting building with an interesting group of people in front of it.

This group of people are posed in front of the Dental Office of my great-grandfather, Watson Emory (Frederick) Webster.



Yes, you’ve heard of Frederick before.  He is also known as The Traveling Dentist and as an inventor in previous posts on my blog.

Frederick is the one seated to the far right with his arm around his son (my grandfather Debs Warren Webster).



This photograph was taken in Louisiana in 1926.  The back of the photo actually lists the people in the picture, so in case there are any of their descendants reading this post, I’ll go ahead and list their names:

From Left to right:

Sitting - Alice Jaques, Esther Allen, Alice Pickett, Geo. T. Pickett-General Mgr., Pauline Vanhorn, Dr. F. E. Webster, Debs Webster.

Standing – W. J. Hoag, Douglas Briger, Esther Jacobson.

Now for some curious observations about this photo: 

If you look closely at the lady seated in the middle of the picture, she is holding what looks like a dental teeth model. 


Also, take a look at those beehives that are sitting right in front of the group. Yikes!



On the back of the photo is typed the phrase, “Hiven (sic)  wiht (sic) 11 Caucasian and Carniolan Queens in them to take to Brazil.”  It looks like the first two words had some typos in them and are supposed to read “Hives with.”  I did a Google search and Caucasian and Carniolan are types of bees.

I don’t know about you, but I would NOT want to be sitting that close to beehives!  Oh, and I would NOT want them as traveling companions on my way to Brazil either!

Thanks for reading!


Copyright © Jana Last 2012