Century-old portraits are going home

For 20 years, a pair of charcoal portraits of Ira and Catherine Ebright have hung on the wall of Anna Harvey’s home in rural Clarke County. For 20 years, Anna has been on a mission to find the family of the mystery couple, chasing leads across the country and online. 20 years later, the family has been found, and the portraits are going home.

The portraits

The charcoal wedding portraits first caught Anna’s eye a quarter of a century ago as they hung high on the wall of an antique store in Weldon, Patsy’s Antiques. There was something about them that drew Anna to them, especially the portrait of the woman. However, they cost more than Anna wanted to spend, so she just visited them when she was in the store.

Then, Patsy died, and new owners bought the building along with its contents. Knowing that Anna was fond of antiques, the new owners offered to her to make a pile of items she wanted, and then they’d talk price.

Anna did just that, and included the two portraits, and made them an offer.

“We finally came to an agreement,” laughed Anna, who secured the portraits for a fraction of their original cost.

Once in possession of them, Anna was able to see the faint handwriting on the back of each with names of the couple - Ira and Catherine Ebright - and learned that they portraits were from their wedding in 1859. There was also some lineage of the two, and thus began her research into trying to find living relatives of the two.

20 years of searching

The couple’s portraits were encased in circle frames under original glass, measuring 22- by 25-inches. Up close, Anna was able to see an artist’s signature on both - Webber. Upon further investigation, Anna

determined that the portraits were most likely done by Charles T. Webber, an artist who lived from 1825-1911. Anna found that Webber was in Springfield, Ohio around the same time as Ira and Catherina, and was most likely the one to have done their portraits.

Research into family was slow going initially, as the faded writing on the back of the portraits had Anna searching for “Elright,” not “Ebright.” She said once they figured out it was a different letter, it was smoother sailing.

“I chased leads all over the place,” said Anna.

When Anna found that the couple had been buried in Topeka, Kansas, she traveled there in the hopes of finding the cemetery and their graves. Her son, Vernon, eventually was able to find their gravestones on findagrave.com, as he took almost as much interest as his mother did in finding the Ebright descendants.

Making contact

Earlier this year, Vernon called his mother one night ecstatic, exclaiming, “we’ve done it!”

After looking through online ancestral registries and databases, Vernon had found a 97-year-old man, Malcolm, in Colorado, along with two younger relatives. Anna spoke with Malcolm, cross-checking the facts she had on the Ebrights with the facts he had on his family to make sure it was the same family, and it was.

“[I] made lots of calls, visited lots of places, worked off and on for 20 years. They were never out of my mind, I wanted to hand them back. I am so pleased to have found the family,” said Anna.

She doesn’t think the family had any knowledge the portraits existed - Catherine died in 1887, and Ira in 1902. Anna did have a photo of a living room with Catherine’s portrait in the background, so she surmised that the portraits were likely donated or lost at some point over the years, and how they ended up in Weldon is unknown.

Journey home

Vernon will be taking the portraits to the Ebright’s family in April, when he and his fiance pass through Colorado on vacation. Anna said the family she’s talked to are excited to see them in person, and to continue to pass them down through their family.

While Anna is sad to see the portraits go, she is happy that they have finally found their family, and she’s debating starting up the process again with another old photo. In the meantime, however, she said the 20-year process taught her one thing that she wishes to impart on others,

“Here’s why it’s important to label your photos!”