On verso: "My grandma."]]>
On verso: "My aunt."]]>
On verso: "Later-Catherine Bain, my mother."]]>
On verso: "Great Grandma."]]>
On verso: "My grandfather."]]>
On verso: "To my son. To urge you to close attention to business, to economy and sobriety, to be good and do good in Christian faith, to work hard and always to keep up a good heart and hope for the work that is before you."

"The History of the Above Writing by Richard Yates [II]. One day, in 1903, I sat in the quiet office in the Mansion provided by the State of Illinois, for its Governor, when, all of the sudden, one of the secretaries came to me and said: 'Do you happen to have in this room a blank book? We need one for some of our work, and need it now. Of course we can send to a store and buy one. But time is precious, perhaps you have one here.' I replied, 'In that corner, over there, you will find a pile of large blank books, left by my Father. They are forty years old, but some of them have excellent paper.' Presently, the secretary returned and said: 'May we have this one? It suits our purpose.' I replied, 'Yes, but let me be sure it is blank.' I rapidly turned the pages, and lo, in the very center of the book, was a page with writing on it - the only page in the whole book which was not blank. Of course I read it, for it was in the handwriting of my Father, dead and gone for thirty years- his death having occurred in 1873, when I was only 13 years old. Here is what that writing said; here it is, as he wrote it, framed by me, after I had cut it out."

"I know not whether this was written about 1863, when I was little and he was thinking much of me; or whether it was written about 1853, when his second son was little, and he was thinking much of him; or whether it was written about 1843, when his first-begotten son was small; the idol of his young manhood. But this one thing I do know; it was addressed 'to my son'; and so I have the right to take it and appropriate it to myself. How like a message from beyond the grave; aye, even from the realms of light, it seemed to me, that day! It still seems so. I love to believe and do believe, that no one saw these words until I did; that he was sitting alone, in that midnight hour, which brings that rare and radiant moment, when the wrought-up brain conveys high thought to shining pen; and that he wrote these words, and then closed the book, and wrapt the curtains of his couch around him, and laid him down to pleasant dreams -- and that the next eye to behold these lines was mine."

"So help me, it has always seemed like an Oath of peculiar sanctity, administered to me in a sacred way, and when ever I read it, I feel as if I stood on the Holy Ground, and that I must, as I do, answer: 'Father, my Father, I have read and I understand, and I promise and vow, to keep the Faith."]]>
On verso: "2nd from left - holding child - James Ritchey (spelling changed by family to Ritchie during this generation), 4th from left - Sarah Ross-Richie, 5th from left - Eli Richie, 7th from left - Eli Scott Etter, 8th from left -probably Walter Richie, 11th from left or 5th from right Frank Richie, 13th from left or 3rd from right is Elfa Jane Etter. James Richie Homestead, Palmyra, Ill. Grandparents of H. Ross Etter."]]>
On verso: "This picture is printed in reverse - L of house is on left instead of right. House faces east."]]>
From left to right, Eli Scott Etter, James Etter, Julia Florence Ritchie Etter, Elfa Jane Etter, and Henry Ross Etter (on horseback).]]>
On verso: "Henry Etter and Elizabeth Davidson-Etter, parents of George (Herbert, Myrtle, Horace), James*, Smith (Henry Jefferson), Elijah (Robert (only child)), grandparents of *Eli Scott, Elfa Jane, Henry Ross, Stella girl died at 7, Ola, Russell (mother died at birth) died about 18 months. Palmyra, Ill. Macoupin Co."]]>