Lawrence County MO Historical Society

I am attaching a .jpg image of the daguerreotype I found in the old Neill family photo album for placing on the Lawrence County Unidentified Photo page, should you think appropriate. I had the image professionally enhanced, which is the version I am sending you. I can also send a scan of the original daguerreotype and the reverse handwriting “Oregon Express”.

When I saw it, I was very excited, thinking that this young couple might have been a very young Isaac Louis Neill and Sarah Elizabeth Gammill (although the jaw for her didn’t look right), or perhaps even Isaac’s father Peter A. Neill and mother Susan Runyon. I emailed it to Robert E. Neill, my Uncle Bob (father’s first cousin, raised like brothers), expecting to find out who they were. He had no idea, had never seen it before, and thought that perhaps they weren’t Neills or Gammills at all because they were dressed too opulently to be Missouri farmers from our family. Did photographers ever “rent out” suits of clothes for picture taking?

I would really love to know who they are; they must be related somehow, or we would not have the daguerreotype. On the reverse of the daguerreotype are the words, handwritten in pencil: “Oregon Express”

I can’t guarantee that this couple is from Lawrence County, so you may opt not to post them here; I am also posting the picture on the Barry County website, since the NEILLs started off there. Our Neills lived in Buck Prairie Twp, Marionville, on the Neill farm. Once I know the protocol, I’ll send the other pictures for consideration.

Regards,

Lorraine Fletez-Brant
NEILL, GAMMILL, HIX, MALLARD, WORD, COLLINS, WILLIAMS, COMPTON, BRANT