When I first met Helen and the Boorman family in 1963 in Ashland, Oregon, I noticed they did not have much money but they had three newspapers delivered every morning(Medford Mail Tribune and both Portland papers)…and they took photos! Ruth Elizabeth Reed Boorman always had a camera and film. Even during the really poor days in Tionesta on the pumice mine while they lived in a shack with no running water, Ruth took photos of the families. Thanks to the photos Ruth took we have a great record of the Boormans during their early days and with the Reeds. Ruth also had many photos from the Bishop side.
Ruth Reed Boorman’s mother was Irene Bishop and Ruth’s father was Wallace Reed. There are so many sad and happy stories when you dip back into the family history. A sample is the story about Ruth’s brother, Harland Reed. He was a great kid, well loved, but was shot to death at age 5 by a 12 year old boy playing with a gun. I have a lot of photos of the Harland, he was such a neat kid. Ruth was born after Harland was killed.
As we were cleaning out Ruth’s apartment I ran across a goldmine of old negatives from the early 20s, great quality. We found boxes of photos and documents dating back to the late 1800s. I have done lots of scanning. I had never seen some of these photos before. Ruth never mentioned this treasure trove to us. Ruth was very organized and saved many memories. If a family member had mailed her a photo, she saved them. Some of the photos in these albums are the results of my early days of scanning with an inferior scanner, before I had learned much. I have uploaded the photos to many Google Plus albums that I have loaded onto this link. So far they date back to 1862 and total about 10,000 images. If there was any writing on the photo they are captioned under the photo or I scanned the back of the photo.
This Web link proves my saying: A birth certificate proves you were born, a death certificate proves you died, photos proves you lived. Ruth lived.
We mark our history like shallow footprints left in snow, and what little trace we leave, quickly melts away…unless you have the Internet, photos, and a scanner….Lloyd Smith
“Family stories & photos preserve precious links between our past and our future, events where the heritage of our ancestors are instilled within the hearts of our children.”
Chester, Kenneth, Wallace and (top) Marvin, the Reed Brothers.
Ruth Reed Boorman – This was one of Ruth’s favorite photo
Ruth Elizabeth Reed Boorman’s 1935 graduation photos.
Bishop-Reed-Boorman Family Photos 