One Little Indian

Charles King, Indian warrior, abt 1913

The cute kid dressed like an Indian on his horse pictured here is my father, Charles King.  Or at least I'm pretty sure it's him because the back of the photograph is noted with his name.  He appears to me to be around eight years old when this photo was taken which, if correct, would mean the year was around 1913. Long time ago, right?  Right. Unless you're interested in genealogy like I am. Then 1913 is, instead of "a long time ago" more accurately described as "less than 100 years ago!" To a genealogist (even an amateur one like me) one hundred years ago can seem like yesterday. There are tons of records and documents available to anyone who has an interest in studying their ancestors' lives...census records, military draft records, agricultural records, deeds, and passenger manifests, just to name a few.  Throw in a few photographs (especially those identifying the subjects and date taken), a couple of letters, some newspaper articles and obituaries, and memoirs to enrich the official stuff and you've got the makings for a pretty healthy family history portfolio. That's what I'm talkin' about!

But I'm getting ahead of myself.  My father's birthday was March 11, 1905. That's one hundred and six years ago today. I wonder if the Indian get-up was for a birthday celebration? He looks pretty happy to me, proud even. Like a proud warrior on his war pony. With a brand new Indian bonnet with feathers!  I'm pretty sure the photo was taken in Bloomfield, Florida where he grew up. Wonder if anybody told him he looked like a Seminole Indian? Not that he did look like one but I'll bet it would have been exciting for an eight year old Florida boy to imagine himself that way. Especially since the last Seminole War had ended in Florida about fifty years previous!  The fact that the Seminoles were not a horse oriented society shouldn't have been an obstacle for an eight year old kid's imagination I'm thinking.

I guess it's just my own imagination at work here. My father told me a few stories of what his life was like growing up in Florida.  The only one I remember clearly was one he told about his seeing an alligator on the road where he walked to school each day.  That was pretty impressive to me when I was eight years old because my boring life growing up in Massachusetts couldn't compare in excitement to a story like that! He also told me he was born and raised in Okahumpka Florida which is a town near Bloomfield but I think he just said that because he knew an Indian derived town name would be a whole lot more impressive to me than one that sounded like a flower! If that's what he was thinking he was right.

I wish I'd paid closer attention to any of the things he told me about his life growing up in Florida. I should have taken some notes!  I don't remember much of anything he told me about his parents. Both had passed away before I was born. I never even saw photos of them until a few years ago when I started researching family history in earnest. But cud-a shud-a wud-a doesn't get you far in genealogy research. It's just a form of imagining things.  Like one little Indian.