(By Stephen Kelley from the Peoples Defender, 1981)
The old proverb, “one picture is worth a thousand words” certainly holds true for the researcher/historian. Old photographs reveal to later generations a true image of yesteryear and many times help solve research problems. Fortunately for those of us living today, a number of early photographers did live in Adams County and recorded many scenes of the last half of the 19th century and the early part of the 20th century. This was before photography became commercialized and made available to the general public on a large scale.
Finley Black, from the Wheat Ridge area, was probably the first resident photographer of the county.
Many of his photographs, dating from at least 1865, preserved scenes of rural Adams County including bridges, the Mineral Springs resort and the old stone courthouse. As early as 1880
G. M’Clatchy had “daguerrean rooms” in West Union with the village later being served by photographer, O. E. Hood. Manchester’s partnership of Gregory and Cooley was
operating a studio in the mid 1880’s. One of the very few women photographers during the “Gay Nineties” included Lizzie Treber of Bentonville.
Winchester, too, had a photographer at the turn of the century, as proven by the discovery in recent years of several glass negatives revealing the
early views of that village, but his/her identity has yet to be uncovered. The formative years of Peebles were recorded in pictures by D. I. Gardner. Born on July 31, 1859 to John and Liza Ann Morrison-Gardner, David Ira Gardner first saw the light of day less than a mile south of the future site of Peebles. His career in photography begin in 1888, just seven years after the founding of Peebles. His first views on tintypes but by the mid 1890’s he had switched to a camera that took glass negatives. Many of his prints made from these negatives have survived to the present time and allow us a glimpse of that area’s past. Gardner took photos of almost everything, but his specialty seemed to be the Peebles community, the Peebles Chautauquas and various views of Serpent Mount. His picture postcards of the latter subject are among the most sought after by collectors. His many views of the Shimer Train Trestle collapse in the very early years of this century are treasured by their owners today. Thanks to Gardner, a visual history of the extensive McDermott stone quarry in Scioto County is available to the modern generations. Other subjects photographed by Gardner include family reunions, group picnics, portraits and school photos. He also shot farming scenes of laborers working in tobacco, prized livestock, threashing and shocking wheat. More unusual request included a physician hiring Gardner to photograph a diseased patient and a taxidermist having his mounted animals photographed for posterity. Because of the demand for expertise in photography, he often found himself employed in nearby communities including Rarden where he eventually met, courted and married Jane Cox. Sometime before 1910 Gardner expanded his business and set up a small print shop. In an advertising brochure he touted sale bills, letter heads, envelopes and labels. To illustrate how times have changed, in the same brochure he asked,
“Do you want cheap photos? We are making them for awhile at a penny a piece.” Business was apparently good for Gardner. Within two years after his career began, he bought two lots in the fledgling village of Peebles and built a gallery on Main Street (now occupied as a residence by Mrs. John McFarland) and a little later he erected a small Gothic Style home next to it (presently still standing but unoccupied). These two structures are separated today by Frost Avenue. Gardner’s career as photographer apparently lasted into the 1930’s. After closing his studio
for the last time, he returned to his birthplace just south of town where he died at age 83 on December 29, 1942.
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