Purporting? Really?

Yeah, I knew I could use "purporting" in a sentence, but doing so in my last post should have been a hint. I argued with mother all last night about the problems with that picture of Arthur and "the Book Ends". She didn't concede the argument, but she didn't answer my questions about the Conlin brothers either. If I interpreted the tradition correctly - that Arthur never returned after the war - then that picture would have to have been taken in early 1864 at the latest, just before he left to join the 170th. I'm no expert at estimating ages, but I'm not buying that the gentleman in the middle was 22 when the picture was taken. And the others, 27 and 28? No way. As my Hawkins cousin in Amarillo said, the old guys look more like the Smith Brothers.

The guy in the middle fairly screams "1880s". I immediately thought he may have posed for the artwork for the opening credits of the sitcom Cheers (I love the mustache). But Cuz did a whole fashion analysis comparing the mid-1860s and the 1880s. She even included a picture of Bat Masterson, Luke Short, Wyatt Earp, and others. The picture had to have been done in the 1880s. Calvin and Hobbes agree.

Of course, we're talking about 1864. My grandfather wasn't even born for another 15 years. So the family tradition that Arthur "never came back from the war" may be just that - and botched, at that. Maybe the picture is of the Conlin brothers but the tradition as we heard it was misstated. Maybe Arthur didn't come directly back from the war. Maybe he went to Idaho and came back to visit his brothers in the 1880s. The Conlins (and the Hagans) were Irish, but the rest of the family was pretty much German or, more correctly, Alsatian. That side of the family by all accounts was pretty close-mouthed. Stories of family members who had moved away might consist of a few terse statements mixed with grunts, coughs, and shaking heads. Overheard by the children there is no telling what the "stories" might morph into.

So the picture either is or is not the Conlin brothers. Shifting the relative weights of a family "tradition" and an analysis of the photograph in question leaves a big question mark - I think I'll make it red.

By the time my mother and her brother, Arthur, became interested in the Conlin Story another generation or two had slipped by. Mom labelled the print fairly recently, but who's to say she wasn't just leaving me a clue - thinking, "I'm sure someone told me these were the Conlin brothers." Nobody else was around to check with - that made her the expert. I guess, now, I'm the expert. That, as ever, is a scary thought.