Brooks Gosting with his mother Portia, November 1905.
Although not labeled with her name, this looks like Emma Gosting, age 39, with her 12 week old nephrew, Brooks Gosting. This was taken in December 1905 in St Louis, Missouri.
Portia, age 34, and Brooks, less than 6 months old in early 1906.
It is suspected that this may be James Crawford, age 36, with his nephew, Brooks Gosting, in 1907 in St Louis, Missouri. James was married to Henry Gosting’s sister, Beatrice.
This is felt to be Horace Applegate, age 41, with his nephew, Brooks Gosting, in 1907 in St Louis, Missouri. Horace married Henry Gosting’s sister, Grace. Grace and Horace had no children.
Portia Brooks Gosting, age 35, with her first born, Brooks Gosting, in 1907 in St Louis. She would go on to have three more children.
This is Beatrice Gosting Crawford, posing with her nephrew, Brooks Gosting, at the time of his christening in 1907. Beatrix was also called Aunt Trix by the family.
Brooks, age 1 ½, at the time of his christening in 1907 in St Louis. The child with him looks like another picture we have of his cousin, Suzanne Nettleton. Suzanne was the daughter of Henry Gosting’s sister, Lenore. Suzanne and her family lived in Ohio.
This unlabeled picture was taken in 1908 and may be Olive Gosting Austin, age 43. We have only one labeled picture of Olive taken in 1890, and she looks like the Olive in the other picture. Olive was Henry Gosting’s sister. She married Frank Austin who had a son from a previous marriage, but she had no children of her own.
This picture was taken in 1908 at the home of Henry and Portia Gosting. It is unlabeled, but it too is believed to be Henry's sister, Olive Gosting, age 43.
This was the home of Henry and Portia Gosting from 1906-1908. This picture was taken from google.earth and shows a house that has seen better days.
Portia and Henry took boarders in their house and Portia would feed them their meals. My mother told the story that Portia did not like it when the boarders would spill food on the tablecloth, so she had a rule that if they got the tablecloth dirty, they had to cover the dirty places with coins.
Henry Gosting with his son, Brooks in August 1907 in their back yard. Henry is wearing a suit in most of the photographs that we have of him. People dressed up in 1907 more than they do today. It was the age when people believed that “clothes define who you are.”
Henry, Portia, and Brooks Gosting at home in 1907 in St Louis.
This is believed to be a picture of Lenny Gosting Nettleman, age 39, with her son John Benjamin, age 3 months. Lenore was her given name but she was called Lenny in the family. She was the sister of Henry Gosting. Although not identified with her name, it looks similar to a picture of her taken in 1890. This picture was on the other side of the page from a picture of her daughter, Susanne, taken around the same time. This was taken in 1908 in late summer at Henry and Portia's house in St Louis.
In Henry Gosting’s family growing up, there were 8 brothers and sisters who made it to adulthood. Although six of them got married, only three had children. Our Henry had four children, Lenny had two, and Beatrice had one.
This picture was taken in late summer in 1908 and is also believed to be Lenore Gosting Nettleman, age 39, and her son, John Benjamin Nettleton, age about 3 months.
This photograph, taken from Google Earth, was the home of Maria Guerin Gosting and her extended family of nine living in one house from at least 1908 to1910 in St Louis. According to the 1910 census, in this rented three story house were living Maria (pronounced Mariah) age 71, five of her adult children, two sons-in-law, and one grandchild. Her children living there were Milton Gosting age 38 (a photographer who would not marry until the age of 50), Alfred Gosting age 32 (who was mentally retarded), Emma Gosting age 43 (who worked as a sales lady and never married), Grace Gosting Applegate age 30 and her husband Horace Applegate age 45, Beatrice Gosting Crawford age 28, Beatrice's husband James Crawford age 38, and Beatrice's son James age 3.
I would have liked to be sitting at the dinner table with all this family.
This is Grace Gosting Applegate, Maria Guerin Gosting (the matriarch), and Brooks Gosting in 1908 in the back yard of the house where nine members of the extended Gosting family were living. Fortunately, this was a three story house, but still, that was a lot of people in one house. They rented this house at 5203 Maple Avenue in St Louis in a rather affluent neighborhood, perhaps on the principle that one should have a good address, even if you have to put a lot of people in it to afford the rent.
Our cousin, Mary Crawford Mathews (born 1947), has been in touch and went by to look at this house recently in St Louis. Mary is our second cousin. She is the granddaughter of Henry Gosting’s sister, Beatrice, and the daughter of Beatrice’s son, James Crawford (Jimmy). She reports that this house, like many of the houses from that time period in St Louis, is narrow across the front and close to the house next door, but it is long from back to front, so perhaps nine people in one house would not be all that crowded.
In the middle is Maria Gosting (who would be a great grandmother to my generation), on the left is her daughter Grace Gosting Applegate, and on the right is her grandson Brooks Gosting. This was taken in 1908.
From 1907, this is three cousins on the Gosting side of the family: on the left is Henry Brooks Gosting, in the middle is James Crawford, and on the right is Suzanne Nettleton.
This is the same group in a different pose. On the left is James Crawford (son of Beatrice Gosting Crawford), in the middle in Suzanne Nettleman (daughter of Lenny Gosting Nettleman), and on the right is Henry Brooks Gosting (Portia and Henry Gosting’s son). This was taken in the summer of 1907 in St Louis.
This was taken in the back yard of the three story house at 5203 Maple. The church in the background is still there.
Maria Guerin Gosting, age 69, with James Crawford (not yet walking) and Brooks Gosting, age 1 1/2 in August 1907 in St Louis.
Another picture of the same three people taken on the same day in August 1907.
This is Portia Brooks Gosting with her son Brooks in 1907 in St Louis, Missouri. Portia made most of the clothes that she wore.
This is Portia with her son Brooks Gosting in 1907 in St Louis, Missouri.
The question is, how many birds did it take to make these hats? These are Portia’s two sisters, Mabel in the middle, and Connie on the right. On the left is their long time family friend from St Louis, Maime Skinner. Written on the picture it says, “Gathering mountain holly in Los Angeles, Christmas 1907.” I suspect that Connie or Mabel sent this picture and the next from California.
This is Portia’s mother, Samantha, age 58, with her chickens in the back yard of their house in Los Angeles. Apparently in 1908, it wasn't against city regulations to raise chickens in your yard.
Beatrice Gosting Crawford with her nephrew, Brooks Gosting, and her son, James Crawford in August 1907 in St Louis, Missouri.
This was taken in August 1907 of the cousins, James Crawford and Brooks Gosting. Brooks was the first child of Portia and Henry Gosting. After that came George, Connie, and Walter.
Brooks Gosting with his toys in 1908. Brooks married but never had any children. He died at the age of 46 in 1951 from tuberculosis, which would be easily cured today.
On April 4, 1908, George, the second child, was born. This is Portia, age 36, in 1908 with Brooks, age 3 1/2, and George, still a baby, on the front porch of their house in St Louis. They would soon be moving to a new house.
Brooks, Portia, and George Gosting in 1908 in St Louis.
George Gosting was only a few months old when this picture was taken in their house in 1908. His father, Henry, was doing some creative photography with natural light in these three pictures.
George is happier having his brother Brooks sitting on the chair with him.
And now their mom has joined them too.
In October of 1908, the Henry Gosting family moved into this house in Webster Groves, Missouri, which is within St Louis County. They owned this house rather than renting. Henry's job title during that time was "Assistant chief telegraph operator" at the busy Western Union Telegraph Company in St Louis. Would it be fair to say that he worked in a high tech company?
This is Portia with her two sons in Webster Groves, October 1908.
George and Brooks Gosting in the winter of 1908 in the yard of their new house.
Brooks is being a big brother to little George in 1909.
George and Brooks Gosting in 1909.
Brooks and George seem to be enjoying the snow.
Brooks Gosting with his cousin, Suzanne Nettleton (This was Henry’s sister Lenny’s daughter).
This is believed to be a picture of Virginia Crain with her father, Marquis Crain, in 1908. Marquis was pronounced like “Marky.” Marquis Crain was Henry Gosting’s cousin who was the same age. They worked together at Western Union both in St Louis and in Kansas City and remained close all their lives. The picture of her father looks similar to other pictures that we have of him, and the child would be the right age when this picture was taken to be his daughter, Virginia. Virginia was Marquis’ only child and was 10 months older than Brooks. The Gosting children grew up knowing her well.
“En route from Los Angeles to New York”
Portia’s sisters were traveling across country by train and stopped in St Louis on the way and visited Portia and Henry. In the back are Mabel Brooks Garland, Anna Constance Brooks, and Portia Brooks Gosting - the three Brooks sisters in 1910. In the front, are Billy Garland, George Gosting, and Brooks Gosting. At this time, Mabel and Billy were living in New Jersey outside New York City.
The three Brooks sisters - Anna Constance Brooks on the left, Mabel Brooks Garland in the middle, and Portia Brooks Gosting on the right.
This is Anna Constance Brooks and Mabel Brooks Garland with Billy getting ready to go. Grandfather Henry Gosting waited until just the right moment to snap the picture as the train was moving behind them.
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