Hockey Sticks and Wedding Pics: New Photo Discoveries

Edward Baker hockey photo colorized, repaired, and enhanced on MyHeritage.

 

My recent Edward Baker project has motivated me to take a closer look at a few photographs I have. And I think I’ve made a couple interesting discoveries. See what you think.

The first photo is one I've posted before of a younger Edward wearing ice skates and flourishing a hockey stick. What I know about his time playing hockey I learned from notes made some years ago by my aunt Margaret Gilbride Firestone (1947-2004): Edward “played hockey in Cleve on a pro team,” at the “alysum” owned by “Humphrey” of “Euclid Beach,” and that Edward’s photo “hung on the wall there” and “he also taught ice skating there.”¹

Aunt Margaret knew her stuff! The ice rink was the Elysium Arena, an indoor ice-skating rink located at the corner of E. 107^th Street and Euclid Avenue in Cleveland. It opened in 1907, and at the time was the largest indoor rink in the world! It was indeed owned by Dudley S. Humphrey III, who also operated the famous Euclid Beach amusement park in Cleveland.²

Elysium Ice Skating Rink, about 1908.³

 

Looking more closely at the photograph and comparing the image to an Elysium photo, I think that Edward’s photograph might have been taken outside near one of the doors. The placement of the darkened doorstep, the white door frame, the recessed brickwork, and the slender white pillar behind Edward in the photo seem to align with this closeup of the Elysium doorway. Perhaps this is Edward's photo that “hung on the wall” at the Elysium. 

 

I am already digging into early Cleveland hockey history to see if I can find anything on Edward’s participation. Stay tuned for future developments.

My second discovery could be an image of my great-great-grandmother Sarah Dyer Baker (1860-1932), Edward’s mother. My cousin shared two wedding photos featuring Ina Marie Baker, who was Sarah’s daughter and Edward’s sister. The first appears to be a photo of Ina and some of her siblings. There were ten Baker children in all, seven boys and three girls. (Since one, Veronica, died when she was two years old, she could not be in the photo.) The woman to the right of Ina in this photo could be her sister Kathleen. The men could be several brothers and perhaps her intended. I can tentatively identify Edward on the far right, and probably his brother Rev. Vincent in the clerical collar, second from the left, standing.⁴

 

A second wedding photo has many more family and friends crowded behind the bride. Again, there is Ina, possibly Kathleen, Edward, and Rev. Vincent, in much the same positions as the previous image.

But it was the woman standing between Ina and Kathleen who caught my eye…she looks like the woman in another photo which another cousin owns. That photo featured several Cassidy and Baker family members taken about 1915, and the persons photographed are identified on the back. Sarah Baker was one pictured.

Below is a side-by-side comparison of the women pictured in the two photos. I'm noting the similarities in the shape of her chin in particular, as well as her elegant, long neck.⁵

Side-by-side photo comparison. Left photo is positively identified as Sarah Dyer Baker, about 1915. The right photo was taken in 1921.

I plan to contact other Baker researchers to see if they can identify more folks in the photos. I’ll post any updates in a future post.

Until next time...

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NOTES

 ¹ Edward Baker hockey photo, undated, unknown photographer, possibly taken at the Elysium Arena, Cleveland, Ohio; private collection of R. Firestone [address for private use], 2022. Also: Margaret Firestone, undated handwritten notes on “Grandpa Baker,” private collection of R. Firestone, Willowick, Ohio, 2021. Margaret was Edward Baker’s granddaughter. The notes passed to her daughter R. Firestone.

² Wikipedia, (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elysium_Arena : 13 November 2023), “Elysium Arena,” last revised 22 April 2023, at 11:59 (UTC).

³ Spaldings Official Ice Hockey Guide 1909, (New York, New York: American Sports Publishing Co. 1908), p. 48, Elysium Ice Skating Rink, Cleveland, Ohio; images, Internet Archive (https://archive.org/details/officialrulesfor02newy/page/48/mode/1up?view=theater : 13 November 2023). In the public domain.

⁴ T. Gilbride [e-address for private use] to N. Casey, "Some Ohio Graves and more...", e-mail, 19 February 2018, including attached photos, Baker Project folder, N. Casey, Tioga, Texas, 2023. "I have also attached 2 photos of the wedding of Ina Marie Baker and Edward Fitzgibbons. This was sent to me 10 years ago from a relative in Port Dalhousie, St. Catharine’s, Ontario.  She was the Granddaughter of Ina Marie (Edward’s Sister)." Digital copies of photos shared by Kathleen Tyminski, granddaughter of Ina Baker Fitzgibbons to T. Gilbride, who shared the digital copies with author. For number of children: Joseph Becker profile, "Gilbride/Casey Family Tree," public member tree, ncasey61, Ancestry (https://www.ancestry.com/family-tree/person/tree/34074975/person/150076309090/facts : 14 November 2023). Also: "A Deadly Bon-Fire," St. Catharines Standard, 21 April 1903, p. 3; image supplied by Niagara Peninsula Branch, Ontario Genealogical Society, Concord.

⁵ Detail from photo of Charles Cassidy, Edward Baker, Ina Baker, Mary Jane "Mayme" Cassidy/Sister M. Magdalena, Catherine Cassidy and Sarah Dyer Baker, after 1913, unknown photographer/location; private collection of R. Firestone [address for private use], 2022. Date of photo calculated based on date when Mary Jane "Mayme" Cassidy received the Sisters of St. Joseph habit in 1913 and when she took final vows in 1920, per her order's biography. Individuals are identified on the back of the photo, by one of the daughters of Edward and Catherine Baker: "Dad's Mom," "Mom's Dad," etc.