In November, 2017, a person from Peoria posted 3 auctions on eBay. One included only about 30 photos, another a bag of newspaper clippings and the third was a large lot of photos. It was stated that many of the photos were from Peoria and Pekin, but there was no mention that all of the items appeared to come from one family.

I collect photographs by early Peoria photographers. I was very interested in these auctions, based on my assumption that there would be many early Peoria photographs that would go well with my collection. When I went thru the photos, I discovered that only 4 of them were by early Peoria photographers and the subjects in all 4 were identified. I decided not to keep them, as they belong with the others.

 

I went thru the newspaper clippings and started a genealogy database, to piece together who these people are. There is a clear link to the family of John Gent (1844-1925) and his wife Frances Halfpenny (aka Hapenney) (1845-1923). They had 9 known children, the youngest of whom is Charles Henry Gent (1889-1944) who married Edith Mae Counterman (1897-1980), she the daughter of Jacob Norris Counterman and Sophia Breese (aka Brees). Charles and Edith had one son, David Henry Gent (1919-1990), who married Marjorie B. Roelofson (1921-2015), she the daughter of Wayne Martin Roelofson and Beatrice Winters.

The majority of the identified photos in this lot, and many of the newspaper clippings, include the names Gent, Counterman, Roelofson, Breese (Brees), Berger, Bitner, Collins, DeBoer, Rudd, Tharp, as well as many others.

After going thru the photos and clippings, and making the genealogy database, I contacted the person who sold me the items and asked how they were acquired. This is the story I was told...

The boyfriend of the sellers best friend works on houses. His company was working on a house in Pekin. All of the items were left in the house and it appeared they were left there as unwanted by the previous home owner. It was believed that the home owner was a "step family" of the family in the photos. The boss put them into storage, but I was not told for how long. The boss cleaned out the storage unit and asked if any employees wanted these items. The boyfriend knew that the seller did sell things on eBay, so he took them and gave them to the seller. The seller began to go thru the items, with the intent of selling the photos individually or in small lots, but realized it would be too much work and most would not sell, so then divided it all into 3 lots. They were put on eBay and I won those auctions. Two of the auctions did get other bids and not from the same person, which means if they had won, the items would have been broken up as a collection.

It was clear to me that I should not keep any of this. Somewhere out there is a family member who wants them (hopefully not to sell.)

There are a very few photos from Leicestershire, England, the home of John and Frances Gent. I would estimate that about 50 or so are pre-1920, many more from 1920-1930, a great deal from 1930-1950 and the bulk of the rest from 1950 and later. I found a very few dated after 2000. Many of the early photos are identified as are some of the later ones. Most photos are of people, but there are also outdoor photos of vacations, trips, etc.

I counted about 1505 photos, not including the negatives and the photos in the older black photo album. Photos in newspaper article clippings are not included in this count.

My cost for the auctions and shipping came to just under $150.00. I am asking $150.00 for all of the items, which includes Priority Mail shipping (2-3 boxes), from CA. I am not listing them on eBay or other auction sites. Payment is via PayPal only.

If you are interested or know another person I should contact, please email me at:
jmwhistorian@gmail.com

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There are 12 images of the collection. Use arrows on either side of each image.

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