PINCKNEY, Jessie and Gertrude

Jessie Pinckney, age 6

Jessie and Gertrude have gone home!
These two photos of sisters Jessie and Gertrude PINCKNEY were located at an antique shop in Ballston Spa, New York.  The photos were taken in 1880 in the town of Rutland, Vermont.

The back of the first photo contains a hand-written note which says "Jessie Pinckney, age 6 years, in Dec 1880."

The back of the second photo says "Gertrude Pinckney, age 4 in Oct 1880."

I have discovered that these were two of the four children of Charles H. Pinckney and Grace A. Goodnough, who lived in Pittsford, Vermont around that time.  The other siblings were John and Grace Jr. Charles was a store clerk. They lived at the Pittsford farm of Grace's parents.

Gertrude Pinckney, age 4

Sadly, it was discovered that Gertrude died at age 18 of appendicitis.

Jessie married Walter Scott Hale, a clerk, but that marriage ended within a few years.

Jessie is found on the 1905 Manhattan Census, as the head of the household, which also includes her widowed mother, and a younger sister Grace Jr.

Jessie married again in 1906 to Herman Frank Hannun, a German-born dental surgeon from New York City.

An interesting side-note about Jessie's first husband Walter Scott Hale - I find lots of references in Census and City Directories for Walter Scott Hale.

He applied for a passport at age 16, and appears to be working for a shipping company in New York at that time. Census records report that he was born in Massachusetts; as was his father, and his mother was born in Rhode Island. He married Jessie Pinckney at age 21, but by age 25 he was a private in the military and serving in The Philippines during the Spanish-American War. When he returned home, he married Harriet C. (last name unknown) around 1904. She was born in California. Meanwhile, Jessie has gone to Manhattan, meets and marries Herman Hannun, so we can only assume Jessie and Walter have divorced. Walter returns to Rockford Mass and works as a real estate agent, insurance agent, and also is a member of the Massachusetts House of Representatives. By 1910, he has been married 6 years and has 3 children, and the family is living in Brookline Massachsetts. In 1918 he registered for the WWI draft. The 1920 census says he is an insurance salesman.

In 1922 Harriet files for Walter's military pension and gives her own status as "widow." The same form indicates that a previous filing had been made in 1920 when Walter became an "invalid."  A Boston area newspaper in June 1922 carried a headline stating that the House of Representatives opposed the Governor's veto of widow Harriet Hale's request to be paid the balance of her late husband's salary which he would have been entitled to, had he lived. The Journal of the Massachusetts House of Representatives glowingly eulogizes Walter in one entry in late May 1922, and carries a motion to adjourn early so fellow House members may attend the funeral.

Grace A. Goodnough
from Ancestry.com tree

UPDATE - I am happy to report that I have found a relative to send these lovely girls' photos to. The recipient has a tree on Ancestry.com which includes a photo of the girls' mother Grace A. Goodnough. I see now where the girls get their good looks. It is heart-warming to think that these photos will now be displayed lovingly on some shelf next to their mother. That is where they belong - not in a dusty old box in an antique shop.