In 1887, a photographer visits Buena Vista to encapsulate a
moment in time. He asks the men and boys to line up for a photograph. He
explains that this will only take a few moments. For those few moments, time
stands still as all hold their place along the main street. Once those few
moments pass, time resumes. People return to their normal daily activities.
Yet, in the lens of the camera, time has now been frozen forever. A photograph
has been born.
Below is a portion of that photograph, capturing the men of Buena Vista along Main Street. It is just a photograph of a crowd of individuals, most of whom probably haven't had their picture taken before; or if they had, it is now lost to history. (Photo from Colorado on Glass: Colorado's First Half Century As Seen by the Camera by Terry Wm. Mangan (c) 1975)
When I first saw this picture, the three boys caught my eye. Here is a speculative guess: it is possible that these boys are (from left to right) Alfred Dodge, Edward Dodge and Sherman Dodge, sons of Nathaniel T. Dodge. Below is a close up of these three boys.
If these young boys are Nathaniel's sons, they would have been 9 years old (Alfred was born Nov. 25, 1877), 5 years old (Edward was born Jan. 28, 1882), and 12 years old (Sherman was born Apr. 21, 1875), respectively. These boys appear to be around the ages that Sherman, Alfred and Edward would have been in 1887. Also, if these are Nathaniel's sons, it would be the only known photograph of Sherman and Alfred Dodge (I have another picture that is presumably of Edward that was taken in 1934; this is discussed more in the blog on John Edward Dodge).
Would Nathaniel also be in this picture? Here is another speculative guess: I have also included the gentleman next to these young boys in this close up because he may be Nathaniel T. Dodge. He is closest to these boys, and from what I can tell, bears some resemblance to the two known pictures of Nathaniel T. Dodge (the picture on the left was taken ca. 1915, the right taken possibly before 1880).
Again, this is all speculation, but one never knows...
