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(c) Pocumtuck Valley Memorial Association, Deerfield MA. All rights reserved.
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This picture is probably of the family of William B. Pulsifer (1848-1903), who had married Nettie Wilson of Shelburne in 1875 and had four children with her, only two of whom survived infancy. The boy sitting on the grass is probably Leon Wilson Pulsifer (b. 1888), and the woman standing next to the tree is probably his other surviving child, Loula May Bates (b. 1881). The Pulsifer home was located in Conway center, near the Baptist Church, and probably was the home owned by his father, Joseph R. Pulsifer. William's wife, Nettie, died in 1898, and when he died in 1903 his children were left orphaned.

This photograph comes from the Howes Brothers collection of photographs. The Howes Brothers, based in Ashfield, Massachusetts, made more than 20,000 images of New England rural life from 1890 to around 1910, offering a glimpse into the lives of people rarely visible in history.

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