Franklin Asa Nims

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Franklin Asa "Frank" Nims (born August 27, 1854 in Manlius , New York ; † January 2, 1935 in Anderson (Indiana) ) was an American photographer who a. a. is known for his landscape shots of the Grand Canyon and the Rocky Mountains .

family

His parents were Asa Nims and Alvira Elizabeth (Moulter) Millis. Franklin A. Nims had four brothers, namely Edwin, Horace, Hobart (or Hebert) and George Nims.

Little is known about Franklin Nim's childhood and adolescence.

Nims was married twice, first from September 28, 1881 to Estella Lilia (Whaite) Baker, with whom he was married in El Paso, Colorado. When exactly their marriage ended is unknown; at least before September 16, 1890, when his ex-wife Estella married her new husband Seth Baker.

On February 5, 1894, Nims remarried in Boulder County , Colorado, to Margaret Lillian (Gale) Nims. He had four children from his two marriages: from his first marriage Arthur Franklin (Nims) Baker, from his second marriage Gerald Nims, Valiant Gale Nims and Eleanor Nims.

Career and life path

Colorado Springs, photography by Franklin A. Nims

In 1879, at the age of 25, Nims was a employed photographer in Colorado Springs , Colorado, on the north side of Huerfano Street, west of Tejon Street.

In 1880 he appears to have been living in Manitou , Colorado, with a Thurlow family, possibly sublet. After Nims' colleague, the photographer Byron H. Gurnsey , died on November 19, 1880, Franklin A. Nims apparently continued Gurnsey's photo studio in Colorado Springs on behalf of his widow for a while.

On September 28, 1881, Nims married his Estella Lilia Whaite.

In 1882 he worked as a landscape photographer at 20 South Tejon Street and lived at 117 East Costilla Street in Colorado Springs, Colorado.

In the summer of 1889, Franklin Nims took part in the Brown-Stanton expedition to explore the Grand Canyon of the Colorado River . The first expedition leader Frank Mason Brown had founded the "Denver, Colorado Canyon and Pacific Railroad" railway company (DCC & PRR Co.), the goal of which was the construction of a railway line from Colorado to California, the route largely through the Grand Canyon should run. To check the feasibility of this project, the Brown-Stanton Expedition was carried out, for which Frank Brown recruited the photographer Franklin Nims and the engineer Robert Brewster Stanton, among others. On May 25, 1889, the 16-person crew set out under Brown's leadership on the Green River in the Utah Territory . In July 1889, the expedition reached Marble Canyon in the Arizona Territory , where three expedition members were killed within five days, including, on July 10, 1889, the expedition leader Frank Brown himself. The rest of the team then broke the expedition initially until winter 1889/1890 from.

From December 10, 1889, the expedition, led by engineer Robert Brewster Stanton, was resumed on Crescent Creek in the Utah Territory. Among the twelve participants in the second expedition were four members of the first crew, including the photographer Franklin A. Nims. On New Year's Day 1890, Nims climbed onto a cliff to take photos from there, but lost his footing and fell onto rocks from a height of almost seven meters. He broke his skull and one leg and suffered serious internal injuries. He is said to have not regained consciousness until January 12, 1890, that is for twelve days. In a rescue operation that lasted for days, other expedition members carried him out of the canyon on an improvised stretcher. He and his rescuers did not reach Winslow, Arizona until January 26, 1890 , where Nims was examined by a doctor and then put on the railroad. On January 31, 1890, a month after his serious accident, Nims reached Denver .

On January 29, 1890, the Aspen Daily Times, the Los Angeles Herald and the Colorado Daily Chieftain reported on Franklin Nim's fall.

Nims kept a diary of his Grand Canyon expedition that was published in 1967 by Dwight L. Smith under the title "The Photographer and the River, 1889-90: Franklin A. Nims' Colorado Canyon Diary" at Stagecoach Press in Santa Fé were issued.

It appears that Nims stopped working as a photographer after the Grand Canyon expedition. On June 18, 1890, Nims was appointed notary public in Arapahoe County , Colorado.

About four years after his serious accident, on February 5, 1894, Nims married his second wife, Margaret Lillian Gale.

In 1900 Franklin Nims lived in Greeley, Colorado with his second wife Margaret Lillian and their six-year-old son Valiant .

On April 17, 1901, Nims was appointed as a notary public in Weld County , Colorado, where the town of Greeley is located.

The 1910 census lists Franklin Nims as a resident of Greeley, Weld County, Colorado in a household with his wife Margaret Lillian, son Valiant, daughter Elenor, and daughter-in-law Edith.

Franklin Asa Nims died on January 2, 1935 in Anderson, Indiana and was buried in Riverside Cemetery in Denver, Colorado, Block 13, Lot 73.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Franklin Asa Nims (1854-1935) | WikiTree FREE Family Tree. In: wikitree.com. Retrieved April 17, 2019 .
  2. ^ "In the Grand Canyon - The Photographer of the Expedition Seriously Injured by a Fall from a Cliff", in: "Aspen Daily Times", January 29, 1890, online
  3. ^ "Crime and Casualty. An Accident In the Grand Canon ”, in:“ Los Angeles Herald ”, Volume 33, Number 109, January 29, 1890, online
  4. ↑ “In Marble Canon. One Member of the Expedition Meets With an Accident. ”, In:“ Colorado Daily Chieftain, ”January 29, 1890, online
  5. ↑ Franklin Asa Nims in the Find a Grave database . Retrieved April 17, 2019.
personal data
SURNAME Nims, Franklin Asa
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Nims, Frank (nickname)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American photographer
DATE OF BIRTH August 27, 1854
PLACE OF BIRTH Manlius , New York
DATE OF DEATH January 2, 1935
Place of death Anderson (Indiana)