F. Jay Haynes

F. Jay Haynes, 1882 Haynes Foundation Collection, Montana Historical Society

F. Jay Haynes was born in Saline, Michigan, on October 28, 1853.  In 1876 he moved to Moorhead, Minnesota where he opened his first studio.  The next year he traveled 400 miles by stagecoach photographing Dakota Territory.  He married Lily V. Snyder on Jan 15, 1878, and in that same year he made a photographic journey to the West Coast.

Haynes was the first photographer in the Fargo-Moorhead area, however Jacob Skrivseth has the distinction of being the first to have a studio with-in the city limits of Fargo. Both men opened their Fargo studios in 1879. Haynes moved into his newly constructed Fargo studio at 725 Front Street on May 19th of that year, Skrivseth had opened his studio in March.  In 1881 Haynes made his first trip to Yellowstone Park where he made a collection of stereoscopic views, and eventually he opened a park concession to sell pictures. Haynes was asked to take photographs of several historic occasions. First, when U.S. President Chester A. Arthur toured Yellowstone Park in 1883, Haynes was asked to take the pictures.  When the golden spike was driven linking the east and west Northern Pacific railroad in 1883, Haynes was commissioned to take the photographs, and he was also asked to become the official photographer of the Northern Pacific Railroad.

Haynes outfitted a Palace train car into a photo studio, which he used to photograph towns from Puget Sound to Chicago.  In 1889, Haynes moved his studio to St. Paul, Minnesota.  He continued his adventurous trips to Yellowstone and helped develop its large tourist business.  He died March 10, 1921 in St. Paul.

People known to have worked for F. Jay Haynes at Fargo:

Clow, Frank W. (See Biographical Sketch)

Haynes, Frederick E. (See Biographical Sketch)

Logan, Samuel (See Biographical Sketch) name="logan">

Loomis, Almon L. 1854-1919
Almon L. Loomis was found as an employee of F. Jay Haynes on a photograph of the "Haynes Rustlers" taken on February 10, 1883. Almon L. Loomis was born January 3, 1854 in Ashtabula County, Ohio. He was educated at Grand River Institute in Austinburg, and the Orwell Normal Institute of Ashtabula County.

In 1874 he moved to Chicago and worked as a traveling salesman until 1879, at which time he moved to Fargo. His first few years here he worked as a clerk in the post office. He spent a short time in Montana but returned to Fargo in 1882. On his return he worked as a bookkeeper, and in real estate.

Mr. Loomis became a prominent Fargo business man in 1887 when he embarked in a livery business in the firm Marsh & Loomis. Later he went into the frout business working as the treasurer of Lewis, Vidger, Loomis Company.

From 1891 to 1892 served in the North Dakota state legislature, and then as Deputy United States Marshal. In 1898 he was appointed as postmaster for Fargo. Almon L. Loomis died in 1919.

Malmstrom, N. T.
N. T. Malmstrom was found listed as a photographer for F. Jay Haynes in the 1881 Fargo city directory.

Paris, James, ca. 1843-
James Paris was born about 1843 in Canada. He was living and working as a photographer in Fond du Lac, Wisconsin from 1860 to 1875. He had moved to Fargo by 1881 where he worked for F. Jay Haynes until sometime between 1885 and 1887, when he is no longer listed in the city directory.

His wife's name was Ida and he had two children in 1885 named Helen and Claire.

Schad, Gustave (August) ca. 1868-
Mr. Schad is listed in the 1885 census as a photographer.  He was born in Illinois in about 1868.  In 1885 he was living with his mother Minnie Schad on Front Street. In the 1885 and 1887 Fargo city directory he was at 725 Front Street the address of the Haynes studio. His sister Emma is listed as an artist at the same location in 1887.

Smith, Emma
Emma Smith was listed as a photo retoucher and lived at the corner of Front and 8th Street in the 1882 city directory.

Mattie Truesdell
Mattie Truesdell was listed as an artist at 725 Front Street in the 1887 city directory. It is possible that she was an employee of F. Jay Haynes.

White, Thomas J.
Thomas J. White was listed as working as a photo printer at the address of the Haynes Studio in the 1882 city directory. In 1885-1893 he operated a studio in Portland, Oregon.

He was also active as a traveling photographer and was in partnership with Fred E. Haynes in Idaho Territory, Montana, Wyoming, Oregon and Utah. In 1904 and 1906 he owned a studio in New Salem, N.D.

Wilcox, H. H.
Mr. Wilcox is listed as a photographer in only the 1885 Fargo city directory.  He was working as an assistant to F. Jay Haynes in Jamestown in 1887, and traveled with him to the west coast. He was later a manager of the Elite Studio in Tucson, Arizona about 1908.

1870s & 1880s photographers

 

Photographers of Fargo, N.D.
Institute for Regional Studies,
North Dakota State University,
Fargo 2001