Olivia Picnic, circa 1907/8

Olivia Picnic circa 1907/8 (Calhoun County, Texas)

This picture was identified as from Olivia, Texas by its similarity to a picture of a 1914 picnic printed in the Calhoun County history, “Shifting Sands of Calhoun County.” The scene and that tablecloth look remarkably similar!

As to the date of 1907/1908 for the glass negative: as we identify more and more of the pictures – we are narrowing the dates of the photographers’ visits to the area. In the early 1900s they appear to “clump" around 1903 and 1907/08. Based on the woman’s dress (and I am Not an expert on dating clothing styles), I’m speculating that the photo was taken during the later visit (1907/08).

Community picnics in Olivia appear to have been a feature of early life in the community.   Possibly a 4^th of July picnic was an annual affair (which would explain the bold stars on the tablecloth.) 

A 1902 Calhoun County News article reports from Olivia:

  "The Fourth of July was celebrated in our neighborhood in the usual way at the grove. The picnic was well attended. Mr. John R. Swenson, the able-bodied schoolmaster of the district, made a speech i English and the Rev. Mr. Damstrom addressed the people in Swedish. The young ladies’ double quartette rendered several patriotic selections.
  A number of people from the interior were spending the Fourth in our neighborhood. Among these might be mentioned Mr. Jamieson of Edna and Messrs Hill, Hultquist and Lundeen of Ganado. " 

As an additional note: the “able-bodied schoolmaster”,  John R. Swenson, is the uncle of our likely photographers (George and Amy Paulson) and we shall be hearing (and seeing) much more of him in later blog posts. Rev. Mr. Damstrom is Carl Johan Damstrom who has already been featured in earlier posts in this blog.  I do wish that I had a picture of the “young ladies’ double quartette” renderlng those “patriotic selections.” But I fear that our photographers were not taking pictures at the 1902 picnic, or if they were – those pictures are lost forever.

Identifiers:

Negative: Paulson228 (1200bpi tiff, downsized to 400bpi jpeg for this post)

Place: Olivia, Calhoun County, Texas

Date: 1900s, probably 1907/08

People mentioned:

   John Robert Swenson. (1870 -1950)

   Carl Johan Damstrom  (1838-1938)

Photographers: Paulson Family

Sources:

Shifting Sands of Calhoun County.  Calhoun County Historical Commission. 1981. Pg. 294.

Calhoun County News. July 1902. 

Special thanks to Nancy Lussier and Gretchen Olson who combed through reference books and newspapers at the Calhoun County library to find and scan small references and pictures relating to Olivia; and to Debbie Stovall, Calhoun County genealogy librarian, who brought us these materials to "comb through!"