BABY PHOTO CONTEST IN INDIA

Co. K, 45th ILL. Infantry
From Kansas and Kansans:
Nathan A. Corbin, president of the Bank of Blue Mound, at Blue Mound, Kan., claims New England as his nativity, having been born at Woodstock, Conn., Jan. 7, 1843. His parents, Nathan and Anna (Sumner) Corbin, were also natives of New England and both the descendants of English families established there in Colonial days. Nathan Corbin, the father, died when his son Nathan A. was but an infant six weeks old. The mother, accompanied by her four sons, came to Kansas in 1857, making the journey from Connecticut to Jefferson, Mo., by railroad and from thence to Kansas City by boat up the Missouri river. From Kansas City they drove to their destination, a point about five miles northwest of Mound City, which did not exist at that time, however, and there preempted a quarter section of land at a cost of about $250. The four sons who accompanied their mother to Kansas were Myron M., who served the Union cause during the Civil as a member of the Twelfth Kansas infantry; he died at Lawrence in 1900; Jesse S., deceased; Byron B., a hardware merchant at Mound City; and Nathan A. Mr. Corbin's mother and brother Jesse S. were accidentally poisoned in 1872 by eating canned cherries that had become poisonous through contact with lead in the inner side of the can, and the unfortunate accident resulted in their deaths. The family, upon coming to Kansas, had located in the midst of the border troubles incident to the period, just preceding and during the Civil war, and though our subject was too young to participate in the earlier part of that strife, he well remembers many of the stirring events that took place at that time. The older brothers, however, took an active part in the border warfare, and John Brown was a well known and frequent visitor at the Corbin home. Mr. Corbin remained on the home farm until 1861, when he went to Galesburg, Ill., to attend college. Instead of entering the college, however, he enlisted in August, 1861, in Company K, Forty-fifth Illinois infantry. On Jan. 12, 1862, the regiment left Camp Douglas, Chicago, for Cairo, where it went into camp until Feb. 1, when it was assigned to the Second brigade, First division, and the next day left Cairo with General Grant's army for the Tennessee river. The regiment received its "baptism of fire" at Fort Donelson and bore its full share in the three days' fight. It went into the fight at Shiloh with about 500 men and was in the front line from first to last of the two days' battle. This regiment participated in all the battles of the Vicksburg campaign, forming a part of General Logan's division, it took part in three charges against the Confederate works in May and June, and the regimental flag of the Forty-fifth was the first flag to be raised in Vicksburg. The regiment was on provost guard duty in Vicksburg, from July 4 until Oct. 14, 1863, and was then relieved to take part in the "Canton raid." From Feb. 3 to March 4, 1864, it took part in the "Meridian raid." Beginning on June 7 it took its share in the Atlanta campaign, before and after the fall of Atlanta, until the beginning of the march to the sea, in which it also joined. it participated in the Carolina campaign and passed on to Richmond, After Lee's surrender the Forty-fifth participated in the Grand Review at Washington, D. C. They were mustered out of the service July 12, 1865, Mr. Corbin receiving his pay at Springfield, Ill. Mr. Corbin joined the regiment at Jackson, Tenn., and was constantly with it from that time until the close of the war.
He then returned to the old homestead in Linn county, Kansas. On March 7, 1866, he came to the present site of Blue Mound, and bought 200 acres of land which comprise part of his present homestead, for he has added to his original purchase until he now has 840 acres of fine land, all in one body, 700 acres of which can be viewed from the eminence on which is built his fine modern residence. The land adjoins Blue Mound on the north. Mr. Corbin has one of the finest farms in Eastern Kansas and is also extensively engaged in stock raising. The vista of his farm itself presents evidence that the fields are tilled according to modern agricultural methods and the handsome residence and commodious and well-equipped farm buildings, are all conclusive evidence of the prevailing thrift and prosperity of its owner. When Mr. Corbin located there, however, there were but seven settlers in the township and it was not until 1883 that the town site company, of which Mr. Corbin was a member, was formed. The same careful but progressive methods used in the management of his farm have also characterized his career as a banker. He has been interested in the Bank of Blue Mound about twenty years and has been its president fifteen years, during which time it has been very successful.
Mr. Corbin has been twice married. His first wife was Miss Mary E. Robinson, to whom he was united July 18, 1

From its small, tentative beginnings in April 2006, the Fray Bentos Photostream has grown into that repository of truth, wisdom, obscurantism and ossified prejudice which the world knows and loves. I flatter myself that the mixture is one that will not be found elsewhere on the Web.
I think I discovered Flickr when I idly searched on "Bristol" and was led to Flickr's Bristol group. "Ooh!" I thought, "I've got some stuff that could go on there". Not much more than a month after joining I finally found the "add to group" tab and was able to upload some photos. The rest is history. A troubled history, for there have been a number of crises along the way. After I had uploaded about 500 photographs I bought a new computer. It was immediately apparent that the monitor of the old one had been wrongly set up; what had looked right on the old one now looked pale and washed-out on the new ...and must always have looked so to others. I'd always wondered why everyone else's pictures looked too dark and I always had to brighten or gamma-correct my own to make them look right. This meant a crash replacement programme which, to date, has never been completed.
The next setback was the great "marked restricted" emergency of 2008, when Flickr restricted my entire photostream to those users who have set their preferences to "see all content". This was done, presumably following a "report", because I had uploaded half a dozen drawings of the undraped figure. Note that the restriction had been applied to the entire stream, not just the offending material. Daily views dropped to a trickle and I had to go through everything to flag it in accordance with site guidelines ("breasts and bottoms, moderate, no frontal nudity, no pubic area") before applying to Flickr for a review of my account.
The purchase, at Christmas 2008, of a scanner which did negatives redoubled my interest and greatly improved the quality of the images. Until that time I had scanned from the poxy little 5?x3?" "enprints" you used to get from the local high street chemist. This was the form in which I had always known my older photographs. Hitherto I had assumed that their poor quality was attributable to my want of expertise or shortcomings in the camera. Now it became obvious that the fault was with the commercial processing available in those days. For the first time I saw the image that had always been present on the negative. In some cases the improvement was a revelation. Hundreds of pictures whose original prints I had discarded as not worth keeping, had not seen for decades or, in some cases, could not remember, were resurrected in all their sharp, correctly exposed beauty. I spent a year scanning my negatives ...I'd always kept them, praise the Lord... and a programme to replace the non-negative scans still present on Flickr is "ongoing".
Returning to my earliest posts the main surprise is that I gave only brief descriptions. But after a few weeks of "finding my feet" I got into my stride and the "mature photostream" was established. Since that time I have regarded the caption as of equal importance with the photograph. The effect I aim for is of a short discursive essay. In the age of dumbing down I hope I may claim, without immodesty, to have "clevered up" a little from the general standard of "user-generated" material found at photo-sharing and blog sites. Actually this isn't difficult.
Anyhow, I wouldn't bother to post this stuff if no one looked at it, and I am grateful to all who have contributed to the two million "aggregate views" so far accrued by these humble offerings. Especial gratitude is due to veteran commenters ...they know who they are... who, I feel, are due to a gold watch or a campaign medal or something, a certificate on vellum at least.