James Wesley Fleming with two daughters and two granddaughters — c. late 1930s

An outdoor group photograph of three generations of the Fleming family, c. late 1930s — the aging patriarch James Wesley Fleming standing at the center in a dark suit, flanked by two of his grown daughters, each with a young daughter of her own in front. It is among the earliest photographs in the maternal Fleming line held in this archive, and it catches Wesley near the very end of his life.

Who is in the frame

• James Wesley Fleming (1855–1940) — center, the patriarch; Chuck’s maternal great-great-grandfather, father of Sadye Fleming Wildermuth. His identity is confirmed by comparison with his standing portrait already in the archive: the same prominent nose, gaunt angular face, and mustache, here twenty-odd years older and frailer.
• Etha May (Fleming) Becker (b. 1904) — back left, Wesley’s daughter and Sadye’s younger sister; Chuck’s great-grandaunt.
• Mary Evelyn (Becker) Mitchell (b. c. 1929–1931) — front left, Etha’s daughter and Wesley’s granddaughter.

Still to identify: the woman at back right is almost certainly another of Wesley’s daughters — one of Etha’s thirteen siblings, perhaps her twin Diatha, or Della, Nora, Mary, or LaVerna — and the girl at front right is that woman’s own daughter, another Fleming granddaughter. Both are open for family confirmation.

Dating

Wesley Fleming was born in December 1855 and died 2 October 1940 in Marietta. He reads here as a very elderly, frail man — markedly older than in his earlier standing portrait — while his daughter Etha (b. 1904) appears to be in her early-to-mid thirties and the granddaughters are small children. Together those place the photograph in the second half of the 1930s, in the last years of the patriarch’s life. His wife Verona had died in 1922, so by this gathering Wesley was long a widower, surrounded instead by his daughters and their children.

Source: Eesley family archive, maternal Fleming line; identifications by Chuck Eesley, 2026 (family-labeled scan); James Wesley Fleming portrait comparison. The two right-hand figures are not yet named.