![Ray Smith farm (Trenton, Hitchcock, Nebraska) [RG3839.PH6-8 (SFN25308)]](http://blog.nebraskahistory.org/wp-content/uploads/2010/03/25308b.jpg "RG3839.PH6-8 (SFN25308)")
Ray Smith farm (Trenton, Hitchcock, Nebraska) [RG3839.PH6-8 (SFN25308)
The best part of my job is that I see some truly amazing Nebraska photographs. We have about 500,000 images in our collection. So if a picture is worth a thousand words. . . . Well, you get the picture.
I found this photograph the other day in our digital image database and it made me smile. I hope it brightens your day as well.
These three little, barefooted Nebraskans were photographed atop their horse in about 1918-1920. The farm in the background belonged to Ray Smith and was located four miles east of Trenton, Nebraska in Hitchcock County. According to our database, the boys are supposed to be the sons of Ray Smith. However, a quick check of the 1920 U.S. Census reveals that Ray Smith and his wife Bertha only had one son, Clifford, and two daughters, Lula and Doris.
So, who are the other two boys? And which one is Clifford? Well, I can’t answer either question at the moment. Hopefully, someone will see this blog and help me with the identification.
Now for a bit of fun. Write your own caption for this photograph and submitted in the comments below.
COME ON MA ENOUGH OF THIS, WE WANNA GET DOWN TO THE CREEK AND FISH
There was another Ray Smith who was married in 1917 to Bernice Lyons. The had Keith, Bonnie, Shirley….another possibility
This image was posed on the NSHS blog and Facebook page on March 8, 2010. Brad Smith posted the following response on Facebook: “I believe the boy in the middle is Ray Smith’s son Cliff (b. 5 Nov 1908). The boy in the front is Wyatt Guys; Harlan Guys is on the back of the horse owned by Mable Guys. The photograph was taken by A.E. Sheldon in 1915 at Ray Smith’s Bova Ranch Farm.” and later “Ray Smith and my grandfather Earl Smith are brothers. I obtained a copy of the photograph with the identifying information while I was visiting visiting Bill Smith, Ray Smith’s grandson, in Palisade, NE last summer. Bill Smith’s father is Cliff Smith, the boy in the middle.”