Looking for family history in rural America

I have been trying to identify the mystery man in this daguerreotype for the last 14 months, when I started organizing my late grandmother’s photography collection. The portrait dates from the late 1850s, at which point this man appears to have been approximately 20 years old. Little by little, I have eliminated ancestors from contention. Some men would have been too old at the time this portrait was made, others too young. It finally dawned on me that the mystery man may be Charles Wesley Throckmorton, my second great-grandfather.

Wesley, as he was known, lived in Morrow County, Ohio. Although I have verified pictures of his wife (Mary Jemima/ Jane Hicks, my second great-grandmother) and children (including Mary Edna Throckmorton, my great-grandmother), I do not have any verified photographs of Wesley. My research task now is to find another portrait of him.

The 1911 History of Morrow County, Ohio, written by Abraham J. Baughman and Robert Franklin Bartlett, includes almost four pages of information about Wesley’s life and family. That profile begins with the following passage:

Such a glowing account makes me believe that another portrait of Wesley, perhaps taken later in life, must exist. The question is where.