The Whites Creek Historical Society has reviewed these two photographs and can share a couple of facts and a few hypotheses based on their content.
Facts:
In the picture with three gentlemen standing in front of a horse and buggy, the man of the far left is Allen Prince Connell, great grandfather of Angela Williams. The man next to him is Eli White who served as postmaster, store proprietor, and notary public.
Hypotheses:
It is believed that these two pictures were taken on the same day as they both have references to “35 Years” on them and it would have been unusual for a photographer to take these without a special occasion.
For reasons described below, these were probably taken between 1909 and 1911.
“Standard Oil Company of Louisiana” was a subsidiary of Standard Oil of New Jersey and operated under that name starting in 1909 and was known as Stanocola until 1924.
The signs indicating “35 Years Ago” and “Better Stick to the Standard, We Have For 35 Years, White Bros” probably date these photos between 1905 and 1917. Standard Oil was started in 1870 so 1905 would be a 35 year anniversary; Standard Oil of New Jersey was started in 1882 so 1917 would be a 35 anniversary for the company.
A box on the porch of the store shows the brand name “Mother’s Aluminum Crushed Oats”. This brand existed until 1911 when it was bought out by Quaker Oats.
The buggy in the picture matches one in a 1905 ad:
Esso Station:
