FACTS & FIGURES

In the Spotlight this month.

Facts

Easterly Family History
By Philip Easterly (1815-1897)

Submitted  by E.M. Easterly

" From a two hundred-year after the fact perspective we know that the family bible supports the Rev. Isaac version of just two children being born to Conrad Easterly, Sr. The circumstantial evidence also supports the notion that George Easterly was raised in a Branner household as Dr. Philip writes. However, Dr. Philip used the wrong name. Casper Branner is the second husband for Christina Zirkle Easterly Branner. Michael Branner was Casper and Christina Branner's second son and George Easterly Sr.'s, half brother."

Figures

THOMAS MARTIN EASTERLY

Born 1809

Died 1882
Daguerreotypist
American

A sometime calligrapher and writing teacher, Vermont-born Thomas Easterly learned the daguerreotype process in New York between 1841 and 1844, possibly from Charles and Richard Meade. In 1844 Easterly sailed from New York City to New Orleans, where he made photographs before returning to Vermont the following year. He did not remain for long: by October, he had entered into a daguerreotype studio partnership in Iowa. He and his partner operated as traveling photographers working throughout Iowa and Missouri for several years. Some scholars have credited Easterly with making the first photographs of Plains Indians.

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