George M. Nash Family Tintype Photos - Ca 1860’s

In various family photos handed down from my grandmother to my mother, there was an envelope containing a small packet of photos wrapped in one piece of folded paper. They were images printed on tin. They were of the Nash side of the family, and “great-grandfather Nash” was even hand-written on one of the images. I scanned them years ago, and then did nothing more. The envelope and paper with the photos is shown below in one photo, and a second photo shows the photos laid out on a magazine to show their size. There was nothing on the back - just the metal.

NOTE: In that paper were seven metal tintype photos. This page was created around those seven photos. When I went through my mother’s things after her death in November 2023, I found an eighth tintype photo - that appears to have become separated but appears to be from this batch. I have added it to this page as Photo Eight - and that might explain why anyone who viewed this page in its early form will now see an eighth photo.

I managed to obtain tintype photos of my Clawson ancestors - taken in the 1860’s - and have a page on this website of those images, where some are identified, and others are not. I was reminded of these Nash photos in preparing a Nash web page for my relatively new genealogy web site - and thought it was time to enhance these seven photos, take a stab at who they might be, and post them - in the hopes that whomever I can’t identify might be recognized by other descendants. This is that page, with that goal.

Tintype Photos. The photo style, of printing images on tin, was developed in the 1850’s, and was widely popular in the 1860’s and 1870’s - although the process has been used up to the current time. Wikipedia has a page describing the process and history. My Modern Met also published a good article on the history and the process of tintype photography.

Background on Nash Family in This Era

It is likely that the tintype photos center around the George M. Nash Family. While the photos appear to include members of the George Nash and his family, there are others who do not fit the profile of the immediate family who are included in the images. 

It is possible that they are of the extended family. In Illinois, the extended family members included the Blodgetts, the family of George’s wife Phebe; the Carpenters, the family of Phebe’s mother; and the Morses, Alcander Morse was in Boone County, Illinois and his daughters married Orson and Orley Nash once they were all in Carroll Township, Charles Mix County.  Laid out below are the relationships, with a listing of George and Phebe’s children and birth dates to try to help identify the people in the photos, and also help figure out the time frame in which the photos were taken.

George M. Nash was born on September 2, 1834 in Ellisburgh, Jefferson County, New York, and died on May 9, 1908 in Charles Mix County, South Dakota.  He was married about 1855 to Phebe Blodgett, most likely in Illinois.  Phebe was born on September 11, 1836 in Erie County, New York and died in Charles Mix County, South Dakota on April 23, 1897.  Phebe was the daughter of Squire Blodgett and Johanna Carpenter, who came to Boone County, Illinois (and lived right across the county line from the Nashes in McHenry County).

George M. Nash was the son of Oliver Nash and Cynthia Pierce, who both came to McHenry County, Illinois in the 1840’s.  Oliver died in January 1860 and Cynthia died on March 19, 1869.  Four children of Oliver and Cynthia came to Illinois – three brothers and a sister, who came to McHenry County, Illinois together from Ellisburgh, New York – our ancestor George M. Nash, who along with his descendants is described below; Charles Nash, who left McHenry County for “the west”, Sidney Nash, who married Caroline Carpenter, Johanna’s sister and the aunt of George’s wife Phebe Blodgett, and remained in the McHenry/Boone County area; and Mary Nash who married her second cousin Samuel W. Nash.

Also coming to the area from Erie County, New York were Phebe’s family members.  Her parents, Squire Blodgett and Johanna Carpenter, had seven children.  One of them, Climena, married Henry Carroll – they came to Charles Mix County, South Dakota area with the Nashes.  The township where the Nashes homesteaded was named Carroll Township, after Henry Carroll.  George and Phebe had eight children: 

1) Ida May Nash (later Hickok and Atkins) – born November 29, 1856

2) Orley A. Nash – born October 7, 1858

3) Orson Blodgett Nash – born February 19, 1860

4) Ella Joana Nash – born January 15, 1864

5) Elmer James Nash – born November 22, 1865

6) Charles Schuyler Nash – born July 28, 1868 and died in 1870;

7) Mary Fidelia “Mate” Nash – born March 17, 1870

8) Clemena Annette Nash – born February 8, 1873 and died June 21, 1882

The childrens’ births were spread over seventeen years.  Six lived to adulthood and came to Dakota Territory.  The oldest four homesteaded themselves or with their husbands in Carroll Township - and the other two lived in the same area. I have not included any information about marriages, children, or life span - because the identification of the tintype photographs is more about the beginning of their lives.

Below is a photograph of George M. Nash’s compass, which has passed down in the family and is in my possession. I always think of him using this in the period he homesteaded in Dakota Territory. 

The 1960 Charles Nash Genealogy item on George Nash and his family follows (The Charles Nash Genealogy is posted in its entirety on a page on this website - under the Nash-Christensen tab):

The Tintype Photos

In considering the best way to present these eight images, I chose to present below one by one - with the original photo, and then the original photo colorized for impact. Where I think there are places to present other older images, that might help identify who is in the photo - they will be presented under the photo. However, there are very few photos of the Nash family in the Illinois period.

The one photo of the entire living Nash family in 1883, the year they homesteaded in Dakota Territory, will be posted below the first photo. I have made one observation based on the photos of George Nash. He seems to have aged faster than the aging process we might experience now. The tintype of him is of him, and likely where he’s in the early 30’s. The family photo from 1883 shows him in his late 40’s, but by current standards he looks older than that chronological age. Here are the seven images:

Photo One - Three men. Across the top is written “Great grandpa Nash”. It is unclear who, from what generation, wrote this note. I had never observed the note before, and wish I had gotten on this sooner. There are two options for who “Great grandpa Nash” was. One is that a grandchild of George M. Nash wrote that, and if so, it would be Oliver Nash, George’s father. But he died in Illinois in 1860, and therefore it is unlikely - given the ages of some of the other people in these photos, that this is him.

As stated above, George Nash was born in 1834 in New York, moved to Illinois in the 1840’s with his father Oliver, left for Dakota Territory in 1883 and died in South Dakota in 1908. That would mean this is most likely George M. Nash, during the Illinois period. I have one photo of him from the Epic of the Great Exodus, which is also reproduced in a family photo, and is shown just below. If these photos were taken in the mid-1860’s, George looks older than age thirty in the photo. More questions, than answers. Who are the other two men? In what year was this photo taken? But based on this analysis, the man in the center is almost certainly George Nash.

The photo of the George M. Nash family was provided by a descendant of Orley and Charles Nash. It is a family photo that was taken in 1883. The ages of each family member are listed. The text appears to have been written by Charles Nash, son of Orley Nash. They are referred to as Grandpa and Grandma Nash, and Charles would have been their grandson. It is the only other known photo I have seen of George Nash - an enhanced version shown below the family photo.

In an amazing coincidence, while I was working on this page, my cousin Kari Ofstedahl let me know she had two framed charcoal portraits of family members. She didn’t know who they were. It turns out the two portraits were framed, more detailed portraits of George and Phebe, the same photos that are shown above in the family group photo. I have enhanced and colorized the photo of George, which is posted just below. It is of better quality that the photos from the group photo above. I will post the Phebe photo below Photo Six below, which I believe includes Phebe.

Photo Two. Two Young Boys, shown as the header photograph on this web page. The logical guess for the identity of these boys is Orley and Orson Nash, the oldest two sons of George and Phebe. Orley was born in 1858 and Orson in 1860. If they were seven and five in this photo, that would make the year this photo was taken about 1865, when Orley was seven and Orson five. The next oldest son was Jim Nash, born in 1865. I have been unable to uncover any surviving photographs of Orson and Orley before the George M. Nash family photo that is posted above, taken in 1883.

However Shawn Mitchell, a Carroll descendant, provided some Nash family photos from the 1880’s or the 1890’s. Included were photos of Orley Nash and his wife and children - and also Orson Nash with his wife. They are posted below the photo of these two children in the tintype batch. Both Orley and Orson seem to match basically the facial features of the two boys in this photo. It lends more credence to the fact that these photos are of Orley and Orson as children.

Below is Orley and Amy Nash with their sons Frank and Charles. Orley and Amy were married ca 1884, and Charles was born in 1888 and Frank in 1889. Given the age of the children that appear in this photo, this photo was taken sometime in the 1890-1895 period.

Below is Orson and Eva Nash. They were married in 1888, and their children were born in 1888 and 1891. In the batch of photos that included the photos posted here of Orson and Orley, there was a photo of Guy Nash as a toddler. It is likely that this photo was taken in the late 1880’s or 1890’s.

Photo Three. Unidentified Woman. The oldest daughter of George Nash was Ida Nash (Atkins Henderson). She was born in 1856. The photo of her in the Nash family photgraph above is very similar, but was too small to enhance. I have one photo of Ida - and it does not seem to be sourced or have a photographic listing. I am not sure where it came from. It is posted just below the photos below. The woman in that photo is older that the tintype, but the subject of each photo looks similar. There is a very distinct possibility that the subject of this photo is Ida Nash (Atkins Henderson).

Since I first posted this item, Shawn Mitchell - a descendant of Henry Carroll - provided some early Nash photos. One of them was the photo posted just below the tintype photo. In that batch, it was listed as “Ida Nash”. I found the same photo in the items left by my mother after she passed away in November 2023. On the back is written, “Aunt Ida Adkins, Grandpa Nash’s sister”. There is no studio identification in the photo.

Photo Four. Three Unidentified Women With Flags. The three women that were daughters of George and Phebe Nash were Ida (born 1856), Ella Joana (born 1864), and Mary “Mate” (born 1870). If these tintypes were taken ca 1865, then it’s possible that one of these women was Ida, but the other two were not her sisters. It is possible that they were members of the extended Blodgett or other families mentioned in the introduction. But it is an unanswered question at this point.

Photo Five. Three unidentified women. In the discussion of Photo Four above, I mention that “The three women that were daughters of George and Phebe Nash were Ida (born 1856), Ella Joana (born 1864), and Mary “Mate” (born 1870). If these tintypes were taken ca 1865, then it’s possible that one of these women was Ida, but the other two were not her sisters. It is possible that they were members of the extended Blodgett or other families mentioned in the introduction. But it is an unanswered question at this point.” The same applies to this photo.

The one photo I have of a member of the extended George M. Nash family is a photo of Helen Blodgett Goodall, the daughter of Russell Blodgett - brother of Squire. That would make Helen the cousin of Phebe Blodgett Nash. The photo of Helen, undated, is posted below.

Photo Six. Two unidentified Women. It is my view that the woman on the left is quite likely Phebe Blodgett Nash. Two versions of one photo of her are posted below. It is unclear who the second woman is, but it is possible it is a sister or sister-in-law. The extended family of Phebe and George is described in the introduction to this page.

Below is a photo of Phebe Blodgett Nash, taken in a photo studio in Belvedere, Illinois - which is by where the Nashes lived before they moved to Dakota Territory in 1883. The handwriting appears to be of my grandmother Josephine Nash Ofstedahl - who was the granddaughter of Phebe. However, Phebe died the year before Josephine was born. She never met her.

The photo below is the enlarged colorized 1883 photo of Phebe Blodgett Nash from the charcoal portrait provided by my cousin Kari Ofstedahl. This appears to be the same image from the photo above. This is the only known portrait of Phebe.

Photo Seven. Two Unidentified Women. In the discussion of Photo Four above, I mention that “The three women that were daughters of George and Phebe Nash were Ida (born 1856), Ella Joana (born 1864), and Mary “Mate” (born 1870).” If these tintypes were taken ca 1865, then it’s possible that one of these women was Ida, but the other one was not her sister. It is also possible that both were members of the extended Blodgett or other families mentioned in the introduction. But it is also an unanswered question at this point.

Photo Eight. An Unidentified Woman, seated with a background. On the left is a cleaned up version of the original and on the right that photo colorized. This subject of this photo can be compared to the women above. It is likely that this person was a daughter in the Nash family. This is the eighth photo not with the original batch but found among my mother’s items after her death.

Those are the eight tintype photos, likely from the George Nash family in Illinois. Posting them meets my goal of sharing any unique thing I might have about our family, so other family members might enjoy them.

The photos were likely taken in the latter half of the 1860’s. There are possible identifications in four of them. I hope that by posting these and circulating their existence widely, identification of others might be made - and that any other existing photos of the George Nash family might emerge. I thank everyone for their help thus far, and any help to come.

John Laird, Santa Cruz, CA

March, 2023