I couldn't immediately pinpoint the importance of the farm, but the Walbridge name was familiar.
Because it was among photographs belonging to my great-grandmother, I pulled an old family history book published in the 1990's. The volume detailed the life of my second great-grandmother Minnie Hawks who was born in a dugout on the Kansas prairie near the town of Cuba. She was married twice - first to John Lumpkins who died young and then to Joseph Barber. Between those two marriages, she had eight children who lived to adulthood.
Thumbing through the family history, I found a passage that explained the Walbridge farm's link to my family:
"In 1922, when Vernon [Minnie's youngest child] was old enough, Minnie and Joseph Barber and their children, Roy Lumpkins - age 18, Marion Lumpkins - age 15, John Lumpkins - age 12, Vuferd Barber - age 7, Virgil Barber - age 5, Joe Barber - age 2, and Vernon Barber moved to the Walbridge place which is located one mile east and four miles north of Gorham, Kansas in Russell County. They lived there until 1927."
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| Joseph and Minnie Barber with their sons Vuferd (back, left), Virgil (far right) Joe (front left) and Vernon (front right). Taken about the time they lived on the Walbridge farm. |
Living on the farm for five years between decennial census enumerations, the family was documented only once on the property in a 1925 Kansas state census.
Joseph Barber was renting from an L. C. Walbridge who owned the land and was its namesake.
Although the photo doesn't ID any of my ancestors (and I can't make out any of the men - surely one of them must be Joseph), it provides a glimpse into what life was like for my Kansas kin in the years just before the Dust Bowl. It's the next best thing to having a time machine and experiencing it for myself.
