CDV Album CIVIL WAR Officer w SWORD/Solon WILEY J S Newton & Nash--GREENFIELD MA

Description

Carte-de-visite photograph album (4 ¼” by 5 ¼” by about 2 ¾” thick) of the Nash, Newton, and Wiley families, with forty-two photographs, including a carte-de-visite photographs of Solon Wiley and a Civil War officer, circa 1860s to 1870s. There are seven tintype photographs—the rest are CDV photographs. The album seems to have belonged originally to Mary D. Newton Nash (1845-1909) of Greenfield, Massachussetts and includes photographs of her family, as well as some neighbors and friends. The highlights include a CDV of an unidentified young Civil War officer with a sword taken by J. Cremer & Co. of Philadephia, Pennsylvania, and a CDV of Solon L. Wiley, a wealthy manufacturer who went to the West (see below for more information on him). Mary D. Newton was the daughter of John Sawtelle Newton and Angeline Martin Newton and the daughter-in-law of Sylvanus Nash III and Harriet Elizabeth Thayer Nash, all of Greenfield, Massachusetts. Her sister, Anna Celestia Newton, married Solon Wiley in 1865. After she died in 1876, Solon married a younger sister, Kate Melvina Newton. Most of the people in this album are tied to these families. The album has a wedding card for Ogden L. Beach and Sarah E. Remington of Easthampton, Massachusetts, in the first page of the album—I’m not sure how this ties into the family. There are seven more slots for photographs that are empty, but only one page has a name on it—Kate Newton. The other empty slots may never have had photographs in them. I’ve had the album for more than twenty five years and have neither added nor removed any images from it. The photograph album itself is in only fair to good condition with wear to the loose (nearly detached) covers and the leather missing from the spine but only minor wear and soiling inside on its pages. The interior and the photographs are in good or better condition. A very nice Civil War era album from a Greenfield MA family!
I have another small album with seventeen more photographs of folks from these families that I will make available to the next owner of this album (no soldiers just family portraits in it). I might be willing to include it in this sale if the buyer pays the Buy It Now price.
Solon Lysander Wiley (1840-1926) served in the Civil War with the 52
nd
Massachusetts Infantry. After the war, he returned to Greenfield and may have worked for the J. Russell Cutlery Co. at their Green River Works. In 1872, he formed the Wiley & Russell Manufacturing Co. with Charles P. Russell, a nephew of John Russell. Their company would become a very successful tap & die manufacturing concern, and Wiley accumulated a small fortune. He had married Anna Newton in 1865 and, after her death in 1876, then married her sister Kate. In that same year, Wiley went west and settled in Omaha, Nebraska. Familiar with hydraulic engineering, he became deeply involved in irrigation projects in Nebraska and Wyoming and had substantial business dealings with Wild Bill Hickok. He died in 1926 and is buried in Denver, Colorado.
Joel Hudson Nash (1827-1899) was the uncle of Mary D. Newton’s husband, Dwight H. Nash. He went to California during the Gold Rush, in 1848, and remained there for nine years. Then he spent three years in Australia before returning to Massachusetts by way of the West Indies. In 1864 and 1865, he served in the 17
th
Massachusetts Infantry and the 2
nd
Massachusetts Heavy Artillery, spending most of that time in North Carolina. He later lived in Bernardston and Leyden, Massachusetts.
The identified individuals in the album include:
John Sawtelle Newton (1810-1897)
Angeline Martin Newton (1814-1892)
Solon Wiley (1840-1926)
Anna Newton Wiley (1840-1876) [Sister of Mary Newton], wife of Solon L. Wiley
Mary Newton (1845-1909) later wife of Dwight H. Nash
Kate Newton (1851-1910) later wife of Solon L. Wiley
Anson K. Warner (1831-1916), husband of Esther Nash, Sister to S. Nash
[injured in train wreck at Bardwells Ferry MA in 1886)
Walter Wiley (1869-1949) [cousin of J.E. Nash DeWolf]
Edith Wiley (1866-1917) [also cousin]
1870s CDVs of J.S. Newton and Mrs. J.S. Newton
Martha Newton (1841-1867)
Tintype—Kate & Mary Newton [with a young man who looks just like J.S. Newton, their father]
Ella Chapin, Mary Newton’s Chum
Sarah Long, Friend of Family
Edith Wiley [likely followed by another early CDV of her]
Horatio G. Parker (1823-1899) [lawyer, Democratic politician in Cambridge MA, accused
embezzler in later years]
Harriet Newton (1830-1871) wife of Horatio Parker [sister to J.S. Newton]
Joel Nash (1827-1899) [brother of S. Nash]
CDVs of infants Walter Wiley and Edith Wiley [of S.L. Wiley]
Ruth Wiley (1886-1961) [daughter of Solon Wiley]
Katherine (Anna Katherine Wiley—1882-1970) being held by Kate Wiley
D.H. Nash (1851-1931) Dwight H. Nash, husband of Mary Newton
There are eighteen images not identified, including the Civil War officer and one that is likely Edith Wiley (noted above).