WOW (CLICK PICTURE TO SEE FULL SIZE)- My mother forwarded me an email tonite with this wonderful picture attached. She received and email from her second cousin. My Mom's side of the Family is the Gust Family (her maiden name). The child in the center standing up is my GREAT Grandfather!! How cool is that?!?! This picture is believed to have been taken in 1906.I think it's so cool to see pictures and hear stories like this...
Below is the text of the email from Cousin Roland... it has all details the Gust Family knows of this picture...
""Attached is a copy of a 16 in.x 20 in.photo of Matt and Hilma Gust and their four children in the front yard of their home in White Cloud,Michigan. From left to right are:Ingrid Sophia Gust (often spelled or misspelled as Ingred, who adopted her mother's first name, Hilma as her own preferred middle name sometime during her school days, Matt Leander Gust (formerly known as Gustaffson until he had his name changed while living in White Cloud Anders Victor Gust (who was called Victor A, Gust from an early age),Hilma (nee Mattson) Gust and Myrtle Eleanor Gust. Garford William Gust sits on stool front and center. I believe the name shortening to Gust was done officially and legally, but the other changes were probably just personal preferences that the individuals adopted. My mother didn't like the name "Sophia" so she went by Ingrid H(ilma) Gust. On her birth certificate copy the middle initial is S, and her brother, Vic, occasionally would tease her in their senior years by calling her "Ingid Sophia" which annoyed her mildly.
There is no date on the original but I judge that it must have been taken about 1906 in the summer or early fall, based on my opinion that Garford (Garf) looks about three years old. He was born July 29th 1903. If 1906 is the correct year, then Ingrid would have been nine years old; Matt,about forty-six; Victor about twelve years old; Hilma about thirty-eight yrs. old; Myrtle, about ten years old. I'll check some other records at a later date and let you know if these need correction. In any case, they must be very close to the actual ages at that time. Another sibling, Elvira Gust, who died in infancy had been born in 1893 and would have been about thirteen years old had she lived to be included in this photo. I have a portrait of her as she looked when about one to one and a half yrs. old.
As seems to be the style for formal portraits in those years, everyone is supposed to look serious. Too bad that we could not have seen them smiling. Of course, the process took quite a bit of time and multiple exposures, so the subjects may have just the serious look the photographer was seeking. For some like Myrtle they were on the edge or just past the stage of grumpiness. My mother told me that our grandfather had this house constructed and it was the birthsite of all five of the Gust children in an upstairs front bedroom. I think the name of the street is Charles St., White Cloud, on the SW side of the intersection of M-37 (which runs north/south) and Charles which runs east/west. I don't remember the house number but I believe it was about two houses in (east) from the intersection corner. I don't know how long the family lived there, but the house was razed for a parking lot about twenty or so years ago,long after the family had moved to the hotel on Wilson Ave. (White Cloud's main street) or the four children had left White Cloud after graduation from old White Cloud High School.The lots remain vacant as of 2008. I have no information on when Matt Gust sold the house nor to whom it was sold. The old archives in White Cloud probably has that on
record.
My mother Ingrid, and our aunt Myrtle were separated in age by only 13 months. Myrtle should have graduated from high school in 1915 but she had missed a year of school early in childhood due to "spinal meningitis". When she had recovered, she ended up in the same class with Ingrid and they graduated together in 1916 from White Cloud High. Almost like twins, they remained close throughout their long lives,
Matt, we believe, had a brother, Anders, the Swede/Finn name equivalent of Andrew, who had come to the USA from Finland earlier than 1881, the year of Matt's passport. We hear that he had settled in Wisconsin or Minnesota where he was a successful farmer. Victor A. Gust, Sr. as Matt's elder son was known through most of his life apparently chose to be called Vic rather than Andrew or Andy at some early age. Victor or Vic is the name that his childhood friends always used in referring to him when I interviewed a number of them in later years. The quality of the original of this picture came into my possession unframed and with some damage from light, water, abrasions, and some edge tears. I believe Shirley had it from her mother and then gave it to me after Myrtle's death. I only flattened it, photographed it, did some minor coverups which did not include any of the faces. No doubt further professional restoration could improve this old image.
I wanted to share this antique as it is now so that our family can enjoy it. I wanted to send it before Christmas but was sidelined by a cold and snowbound for three days just before the holiday.
Please transmit to any and all the Gusts on your group list together with my love and warmest best wishes to all for a Happy New Year.
Roland"
