For the little we know about Emma Barton Coombs, perhaps the most we can assume of her personality comes from photographs. While many subjects in early photographs did not smile and can be seen holding a plain, almost bored facial expression, Emma appears in many historic photos with a small, Mona Lisa-esque smile or another captivating expression. She commands each photo she appears in.
Born in 1880 to Homer and Flora Barton, Emma was part of the second generation of the logging-era transplants. Her father was a veteran of the Civil War, having joined the Maine Volunteers at 16. When Homer’s father found out, the older man traveled to the camp and brought his son home, only for Homer to run away again and rejoin. After the war, Homer moved to California in 1867. Working as a teamster, he was known for driving what is believed to be the heaviest load of logs ever driven in the county: ten logs, 12,500 feet of lumber, with ten oxen.
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