![\"Hine,](\"http:\/\/findingyourhistory.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6\/2013\/09\/Hine-Lewis-photo-of-Eddy-Lou-Young.jpg\")
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I was reading my latest issue of \u00a0Family Tree Magazine Genealogy Insider<\/em>\u00a0and clicked, as I always do, on the link for Maureen Taylor’s Photo Detective blog\u00a0<\/a>. The post this week was about Ancestral Occupations and in her article Maureen Taylor made reference to photographer Lewis W. \u00a0Hine<\/a>. \u00a0From 1908 to 1924, Mr. Hine worked for \u00a0the National Child Labor Committee and\u00a0traveled around the United States photographing children at work in the mines, mills and factories. \u00a0His haunting photos went a long way toward the implementation of more stringent Child Labor Laws. \u00a0Over 5000 of his images are available online at the\u00a0 Library of Congress<\/a>. \u00a0The photos themselves, with the captions that Mr Hine added are very moving and just perusing them took several hours of the day, but Maureen Taylor also made mention of the work of \u00a0Joe Manning and his Lewis Hine project<\/a>. \u00a0Joe Manning has taken many of the photos that particularly inspired him, and using his skills as a historian and genealogist, has researched the lives of some of the children portrayed in the photos, tracked down their descendants and interviewed them. \u00a0The photo above was merely identified by this caption, “Two of the “helpers” in the Tifton Cotton Mill, Tifton, Ga. They work regularly,\u00a01909. Photo by Lewis Hine.” <\/span><\/em>In looking through all the photos from the Tifton Cotton Mill he found the little dark haired girl on the right was in all of them. \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n In this picture of the 9 stair step children, the little dark-haired cutie is right in the center. \u00a0The caption Lewis Hine had for this one gave Mr Manning enough information to begin the tale,”\u00a0A family working in the Tifton (Ga.) Cotton Mill. Mrs. A.J. Young works in mill and at home. Nell (oldest girl) alternates in mill with mother. Mammy (next girl) runs 2 sides. Mary (next) runs 1 1\/2 sides. Elic (oldest boy) works regularly. Eddie (next girl) helps in mill, sticks on bobbins. Four smallest children not working yet. The mother said she earns $4.50 a week and all the children earn $4.50 a week. Husband died and left her with 11 children. 2 of them went off and got married. The family left the farm 2 years ago to work in the mill. January 22, 1909. Location: Tifton, Georgia. Photo by Lewis Hine.” \u00a0\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n Mr Manning spent about 5 years tracking down and telling the life story of each of these children, the 2 not pictured here, \u00a0and their parents. \u00a0Amazingly, all of the children lived to adulthood and several lived past the age of 75. \u00a0The tragedy of this photo is that within 3 months after it was taken, the 7 youngest children here were all dropped off at an orphanage and would never again be together as a family. \u00a0Imagine the heartbreak that this mother, Catherine Bailey Young faced when her husband, Andrew Jesse Young died in 1906 or 1907 at the age of 37. \u00a0She was either pregnant still or had just had her 11th child, Jesse. \u00a0Somehow the family had managed to stay together and keep food on the table for 2 years. \u00a0Maybe the only way that they were able to survive was by having the children work? \u00a0It is pretty difficult from our vantage point 100+ years later to make hard and fast judgments about what should have been done . \u00a0The ethical issues involved in child labor seem easy to decipher now, but was it so easy then?<\/p>\n It is a logical fallacy to argue that just because one event transpires after another event that the second event was caused by the first, but in this case you have to wonder if the visit of Lewis Hines to the Tifton Cotton mill somehow precipitated the breakup of this family? \u00a0Each individual was affected differently and had differing degrees of abandonment issues etc., but maybe one or more would not have even survived to adulthood if they had remained working in the mill? \u00a0You’ll have to read the stories yourself, but for me, I’m just profoundly blessed that I never had to make a decision like Catherine Young did.<\/p>\n All this got me to thinking about my grandparents, who were about the same ages as the Young children. My great grandfather Louis Trzecki was a butcher and for at least part of his life he owned his own shop. \u00a0He and his wife Antionette( Tucholske )Trzecki had 7 girls and 1 son between 1892 and 1910. \u00a0My grandmother, Agnes was the third child, born in \u00a01895 and she always said that she and her older sisters all worked in the butcher shop. \u00a0A butcher shop does not sound like a real great place for kids to be working, but I guess it was better than a factory. \u00a0 Here is a picture of the Trzecki kids minus the oldest, Helen and the youngest, Irene. <\/p>\n Josephine, the youngest in this photo was born in 1905 and looks to be about 3 here, dating the photo around 1908. \u00a0It was supposedly taken in front of the butcher shop which according to family tradition was in Wood River, IL, just across the river from St Louis. \u00a0I do love the wooden sidewalks, and maybe those are more likely in Wood River than in St Louis? \u00a0I have not yet located the shop, in the 1910 Census the family lived in St Louis, but in a news story when Helen witnessed a shooting in August of 1909 they lived in Wood River. [ The news story will have to wait until another posting.]<\/p>\n This 1910 Census of the Trzecki family (line 70-78, family 41) shows the 3 older girls all working. \u00a0The older 2, Helen and Stella, both worked in a “Dry Goods” Store, but my grandmother, Agnes, at age 14 was working in a shoe factory. \u00a0I wonder how long she had been working? The 1940 Census says that she completed the 6th grade, so she may have begun working at 12 or 13.<\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n