WONDERFUL WORLD OF PHOTOS - Horst Family Mystery Solved, Part I

Four Horst Brothers, Mobile, Alabama (ca. 1883)

Several years ago, a member of the Horst family in Mobile, Alabama, shared of picture of what was described as "4 Horst Brothers". He asked me if I could identify them. Since then I have come back to the picture many times, with no clear answer. Here is that picture (right).

These were the sons of Martin Horst (1830-1878) and Apollonia Weinschenk Horst (1829-1908), my 3x-great-grandparents. Martin and Apollonia had eight children together, six living to adulthood. [Apollonia had four children with her first husband Tobias Berg (1819-1953); only two daughters survived infancy.] Their sons were Charles (1856-1912), my 2x-great-grandfather; Edward (1858-1901); Henry (1861-1922); and Martin (1868-1928). Two sons - William (1863-1864) and Fredrick (1867-1867) - both died before their second birthday. It was a descendant of Henry who shared this picture with me.

So this really shouldn't be too hard - there were four young men in the photo and there are four brothers. I had some pictures of a few of them as much older men, so maybe it would be easy. But there was another photograph that added to the confusion.

"Martin Horst, Mayor of Mobile" (c. 1871-72)

This photograph at left [Courtesy of The University of South Alabama Archives (Eric Overby Collection)] is labeled "Martin Horst, Mayor of Mobile". But to me, it looked almost exactly like the picture of the young man in the back on the left in the "4 Brothers" photograph, just older. So I reasoned, maybe this photo from the Archives wasn't Martin Horst the father, maybe it was mislabeled and was actually Martin Horst the son. And that's the way I tentatively left it for several years - neither proclaiming it as fact nor being able to prove anything else.

Then recently I tried once again to confirm the identities of the "4 Brothers". There was just no way to make the brother on the back left, whom I thought was Martin (the son), seven years younger than the brother on the back right. So I tried something else, and it solved one mystery.

Martin Horst Family Portrait (c. 1877)

I reconsidered that the above photograph from the Archives was actually labeled correctly. My problem was that it didn't look anything like the only confirmed picture I had of Martin Horst, a black-and-white photo of his portrait that my father had gotten years ago.

You can see, they don't resemble each other at all. I remembered my father telling me that Martin had aged dramatically after coming down with Bright's Disease, a kidney condition that ultimately caused his death at age 48. [NOTE: Check out an earlier post "Sunday's Obituary - Martin Horst" for more information about the disease and his death.] Could these two be the same person, this official "Mayor of Mobile" photograph in the University of South Alabama Archives from 1871-1872, and this family portrait completed within 6 short years? It would be hard to believe, if true.

I had one other photo (left) that I knew was Martin Horst, I just didn't know which Martin Horst it was. So I used a technique that I have seen on all those crime analysis shows I've watched throughout the years.


I decided to try to compare the facial features of the known portrait (above) with one of the photographs of "Martin Horst". I used Photoshop to do the overlays, lining up the bodies so that they're the same size. Amazingly he held himself almost the same way in both pictures. And here's what I got.

They're a perfect match! Click on the photo to see an enlargement. You can see that the ears are exactly the same, as is the nose and the shape of the head. His eyes are the exact same shape and width apart, and even the small circles under his eyes are the same. When the transition from mustache to beard takes place you can see his bottom lip is also exactly the same. It was really quite amazing to discover.

So if this second photograph was actually Martin Horst, the father, then the photograph in the University Archives is labeled correctly, too. It also means that one of Martin's sons looks strikingly similar to him. But which one is it? To find out the answer to that mystery be sure to check out Horst Family Mystery Solved, Part II, coming soon.