Unidentified Photograph

  ©  Kathy Duncan, 2020

This is an unidentified photograph found in the Harding/Dabbs Collection. 

My best guess is that it is a photograph of Rev. Thomas Treadwell Eaton, who was born in Murfreesboro, Tennessee in 1845. This photograph was taken in Lexington, Virginia by M. Miley. Michael Miley had a photography studio in Lexington, Virginia by 1872.

Thomas Treadwell Eaton attended Washington College in Lexington, Virginia in 1866 - 1867. I think, though, that this unidentified picture was not taken then for two reasons: the M. Miley studio was not open yet and he looks older than 21 - 22 years old.

By 1867, Eaton was back in the Murfreesboro area and was a professor at Union University. 

In September of 1875, he returned to Virginia to pastor a church in Petersburg. He remained there until March of 1881 when he penned his tribute to Lavinia B. (Murfree) Burton. I think this photograph was made of him at some time during that nearly six-year period from 1875 to 1881 when he would have been 30 to 36 years old. It seems reasonable that he would have had friends in Lexington along with having other reasons to visit there and have his photograph made. 

That means this photograph was probably sent to either Lavinia B. (Murfree) Burton while she was living or given to her daughter Lavinia Emily "Lily" (Burton) Selph - possibly as Rev. T. T. Eaton traveled from Petersburg, Virginia to his new appointment in Louisville, Kentucky in 1881.

Here is an identified photograph of an older Rev. Thomas T. Eaton for comparison: