We received this wonderful group photo by email from Jeffrey Butler with the following note:
I viewed your website on the Little Colonel with great interest. I have just finished making photo scans from a book of family history written by my great grandmother, Ada Darle Dryden Sweet, of Martinsville, IN. Her husband, Edward M. Sweet M.D. opened the National Sanitarium in Martinsville in the year 1895.
http://scican3.scican.net/history2/sanitariums/martsani.htm
From my great-grandmother’s book: “These were the years of great activity in the school life of the children. These were the years when books of all kinds made their greatest appeal. And these were the years (1906 and 1907)when the books of the “Little Colonel” series were annually appearing to fascinate young and old readers. The original of these thrilling tales lived in the Pee Wee Valley, Kentucky, the home of the author and of the family of Gen. Lawton of Philippine fame. The widow of the general and her two young daughters, sometimes accompanied by the “Little Colonel”, were frequently guests of the Martinsville Sanitarium, where we once spent an evening with them. The invitation was due to the kindness of Mrs. Budenz of the Reporter office, who was attached to our children and who gave us the accompanying picture. The Little Colonel is seated at the right. The other two are the Misses Lawton.”
“The Inevitably Flowing Years, A Genealogical and Family History”
Here is a scan of the photo from her original manuscript. Frances Lawton is standing, Katherine Lawton is seated on the left, and Hattie Cochran is seated on the right.
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Webmaster note: the photograph would date from about the time of Little Colonel, Maid of Honor and The Little Colonel’s Knight Comes Riding.