I would love to have been sitting at this dinner table with my great grandmother Jeannette "Nettie" Clyde Beveridge (Dingman), and 7 of her ten children. The African-American woman standing behind the table may have been cook Maggie Montague, identified on the 1900 U.S. census as a household member. [1] I would like to research this person. Nettie must have needed help, with so many children.

Note the netting over the chandelier which would have prevented insects from flying into the lights, dying, and falling onto the table. It looks like there was roast meat (chicken?) for dinner along with three side dishes — perhaps vegetables and potatoes. A plate of sliced bread, a slab of butter on another plate, coffee pot, and crystal salt and pepper shakers complete the table setting. There are two wood or coal stoves in the background.

Jeannette Beveridge (Dingman) with 7 of her 10 children. The young man at the head of the table is Thomas Alvah, her eldest son. [2]

Notes

1. 1900 U.S. census, Rockland County, New York, population schedule, Spring Valley village, p. 75B (stamped), Enumeration District (ED) 73, sheet 1B (penned), dwelling 12, family 13, James A. Dingman; Ancestry.com (https://www.ancestry.com : accessed 28 January 2018); citing NARA microfilm publication T623, roll 1155.

2. Jeannette Clyde Beveridge (Dingman) and children photograph, ca. 1900; digital image, privately held by Ann D. Watson, [ADDRESS FOR PRIVATE USE], New Haven, Vermont, 2018. Ms. Watson obtained the image from an ebay seller, who had sold the glass plate but provided the image. Seller unknown as of 2018.