Life & Work of Early Area Photographers
Much of our area history initially depended upon words – those written in personal journals or periodicals of the time. Descriptive words will often create an image in the mind’s eye; even so, what the writer actually saw and expressed may not always match what the reader imagines.
That’s why, according to Stephen Massengill in his authoritative Photographers in North Carolina: The First Century, 1842-1941: “With the introduction of daguerreotypers into the state in the 1840s…visual images multiplied, first of persons and later of scenes. Words were no longer the only means of ‘picturing’ history. We could now truly ‘see’ the past – at least slivers of it.”
He later continues, “In the two decades before the Civil War, traveling photographers and later, talented permanent operators, gave local residents, especially those who resided in towns and along transportation routes, the opportunity to acquire the new art forms.”
Three Important Influencers
In fact, much of the visual record that we have today of early 20th-century life in western North Carolina was largely made possible by three photographers with local ties: Rupert Henry Scadin, Edward Hiram Glover, and Joseph Stokely Wilde.
Scadin and Glover were friends and contemporaries who enjoyed photographic pursuits in North Carolina and elsewhere, separately and together. Arriving some decades later, Wilde is best-known for his documentation of lumber and tourism activities in western North Carolina.
Rupert Henry Scadin (1861-1923)
R. Henry Scadin with his photo gear
A Michigan native, R. Henry Scadin first dabbled as an amateur photographer in the 1890s, using Florida’s St. John’s River as a frequent backdrop.
After several visits to the Sapphire area, Scadin, then 25, and his wife Kate moved to North Carolina, where he kept regular accounts of his activities in and around his Dana home from 1886-1921.
Continuing to pursue photography, he also built a home, farmed land, and made many friends and acquaintances while exploring the area.
Scadin helped to document the construction of the three area lake inns (Fairfield, Sapphire, and Toxaway); you’ll see some of his images in other posts on our site about those resorts. He also captured many scenic views near Brevard, Dana, Hendersonville, Highlands, and Sapphire. In addition, he was well known for his portraiture, with a keen eye for posing his subjects.
Kate, a painter, later helped him colorize many of the landscape images as postcards for sale to the tourists seeking the clean air and beautiful surroundings of “Little Switzerland” or “Beautiful Sapphire Country,” two descriptors applied to the area around Lake Toxaway.
In June 1902, Scadin embarked on a photography effort with nationally renowned photographer William Henry Jackson, documented in several diary entries:
Tuesday, June 3 I was sent for this morning and when I got to Sapphire I found that Mr. Jackson, the most noted view photographer of America, was there and I had the pleasure of going with him to make some views. It has been a fine day.
Wednesday, June 4 Went to the Narrows early this morning where I met Mr. Jackson and then we went to the Horse Pasture Falls. I came home at noon and he went up on Mt. Toxaway.
Thursday, June 5 Mr. Jackson came over and took breakfast with us this morning, then we went to the Whitewater Falls. The water was too low for a good photo of the falls, but he made some exposure. When we came back we went up on Rainy Knob for a view of Mt. Toxaway. I went to Sapphire tonight.
Friday, June 6 Was with Mr. Jackson this forenoon going over Bald Rock on foot. I said good-bye to him and came home at noon. He leaves tomorrow morning.
The Brevard News item from May 5, 1905 (at right) shows that the Toxaway Company seems to have kept Scadin busy with projects throughout their great empire build.
A Special Collection of Scadin’s diaries and photos is kept by the Ramsey Library at the University of North Carolina – Asheville. His journal entries were often terse, but frequent.
These examples from the spring and summer of 1912 are typical samples:
Thursday, April 4 Finished planting out the grape vines and set a few cherry trees. Started using dynamite for making holes to set trees, and find it a good way.
Thursday, April 11 I took camera and made a trip up the Pacolet Valley today, making a number of exposures. It has been a fine, warm day. The dogwood is in bloom and many other flowers.
Thursday, May 30 Spent the day in rambling over and about the cliffs of Sugar Loaf. The wild rhododendron and laurel are fine and I found many beautiful spots to try for pictures. Am stopping at Beulah House.
Friday, June 21 Left Highlands this morning and walked through to Sapphire and am at Burlingames. I called at Dr. Grimshawes and Squire Nicholsons. Had an awful heavy load to lug. It is raining tonight.
We appreciate all that R.H. Scadin did to allow us to “picture history.”
Edward Hiram Glover, likely shooting in Florida
Edward Hiram Glover (1856-1941)
Although Glover was a number of years older, his and Scadin’s lives intersected at multiple points.
Both were originally born and raised in the same area of Michigan. Around 1880, Glover moved to Apopka, Florida, where Scadin visited the Glover home in 1892.
Probably due to Scadin’s influence, Glover bought property near Sapphire, NC in 1902, and later owned an orchard and property in the Dana area near Scadin’s. Glover continued to over-winter in Florida but spent summers in Brevard, often accompanied by his mother and sister. In 1903 he opened a photography studio and residence in town, and from all appearances, he was more comfortable taking portraits in that studio setting, than operating in the field like his companion, or our next featured photographer.
The Glover studio in Brevard.
Glover frequently advertised in the Sylvan Valley News, and the newspaper occasionally noted his activities, along with many of the other locals in Brevard, as was the reporting custom of the day.
Joseph Stokely Wilde (1879-1960)
In 1910, Wilde was in the Army stationed in New York, where he may have first dabbled in photography. He met and married wife Ethel in Tennessee in 1915. By 1916 they were in North Carolina, and in quick succession, two children were born.
In 1918, Wilde and his family moved to a Pisgah Forest lumber camp, where he supervised crews and photographed operations. Ethel kept their home and also taught, nursed, and provided church services at the camp.
Wilde served in the late months of World War I, then moved his young family to Tennessee, where a 3rd child was born. Eventually, the growing family moved back to North Carolina, where in due course five more children were born. At the time, Wilde listed his occupation as “farmer,” with an alternate source of income that was primarily family portrait photography.
Ethel Wilde and children on board one of the logging railroads. Courtesy of the Rowell Bosse North Carolina Room, Transylvania County Library.
The family’s story has been fictionalized in several novels by its youngest sibling, Exie Wilde Henson. Oldest daughter Dorothy (“Dot”) Galloway also had this to say about her photographer father:
Joseph Stokely Wilde
Wilde’s photos of the logging camps and logging operations are considered classics of the time. He was also asked to document other subjects, such as a river baptism which may have followed a camp meeting.
River Baptism, Joe Wilde.
“Daddy was always out making pictures, but he worked in the logging camps, too. He supervised the men in the logging camps. But he was mainly a photographer. He’d go out to where people were having a reunion, or they just wanted their family picture made. He’d put the camera on his back and ride out on horseback to wherever they were.”
“He had one of those old box cameras on the tripod. You had to put a black cloth over your head to shoot the pieture. The camera used those old glass plates to take the pictures. Then you had to wash, wash, wash the pictures after they was developed. lt kept ‘ein from fading. We’d have to wash, wash, wash all of them, and then one more time. We had to carry the water from the spring because we didn’t have running water in the house. I always helped him with the pictures.”
Transylvania County was fortunate to have had these three visionaries, and others like them, to capture so many ordinary moments in time that now, in hindsight, seem quite extraordinary and special.
SOURCES:
Photographers in North Carolina: The First Century, 1842-1941, compiled by Stephen E. Massengill, 2004
Ticket to Toxaway, Jan C. Plemmons, 2004
Treasures of Toxaway, Jan C. Plemmons, 1984
Transylvania Memories, Peggy Hansen, 2011 ( Interview with Dot Wilde Galloway and Exie Wilde Henson)
“Photographer Scadin Helped Boost Tourism And Business”, The Transylvania Times, Marcy Thompson, October 2013
https://www.transylvaniatimes.com/story/2013/10/14/lifestyles/photographer-scadin-helped-boost-tourism-and-business/15076.html
“Glover’s Photos Reveal A Rural Brevard”, The Transylvania Times, Marcy Thompson, October 2013
https://www.transylvaniatimes.com/story/2013/10/21/lifestyles/glovers-photos-reveal-a-rural-brevard/15193.html
“Joseph Wilde Was a Traveling Photographer,” The Transylvania Times, Marcy Thompson, October 2013
https://www.transylvaniatimes.com/story/2013/10/28/lifestyles/joseph-wilde-was-a-traveling-photographer/15326.html
