Hattie Eddy Askew and her well-hatted friends, part 1

Updated 2013-08-03: Details of Hattie’s death and burial have been revised. Incorrect details have been left in, but stricken out, and revisions are highlighted in blue.

Four turn-of-the-century women in magnificent hatsOn August 7, 2012, Harriet Prettyman gave me a few of her older family photos, including the photo pictured below.  The woman in the lower right of the photo is my great-great grandmother, Hattie Eddy Askew.

Hattie Eddy Askew lived a short life, dying in her early thirties (32-34) at the young age of 33.  She died around 1908-1910 on February 14, 1909, at her farm home outside Casselton, North Dakota. She died of pneumonia, which I was told she caught on a trip to Colorado as a result of a sudden and unexpected heart failure following an illness of about a week’s duration.  Not only did her grandchildren never get a chance to meet her, but her own children were only about 1, 8, and 10 1 ¾, nearly 9, and 12 ¾ years old when she died, so they also didn’t get much of a chance to learn about their mother as a person.

This is only the second definitive photo I’ve found of Hattie Eddy Askew, which is why I’m interested in learning as much as I can about this photo.  What follows is a log I kept of my initial research on this photo. Continue reading