Jessie Belle Dalton Schenk (1860-1954) – 52 Ancestors # 29 Music

Belle, as she was mostly known, was my first cousin twice removed.  I don’t think I ever met her, but certainly I heard about Cousin Belle as my father and great aunt Susan called her.  She was the older daughter of Jessie Coffin Dalton and Richard Dalton and mother of Cousin Jessie who I wrote about earlier.

Belle was a pianist.  She was frequently noted to have been to a church or an event and played.  I don’t know when or how she learned to play but apparently she liked it, and it was both a source of some income for her at times as a young woman and of social interactions.

This photograph, a cabinet card, was taken in Cincinnati by Howland Photographer.  It has no date or other information but may have been around the time Belle finished high school, so maybe 1878 or so.  She seems to be relatively young, and dressed for some special occasion.