Benjamin Eyre Catton was my 1st cousin 3 times removed. His mother and my 2X great grandmother were sisters.
This LO was a bit complex. I started off with the photo of the house, adjusted its color to match the wedding photo, then tried a sketch effect action that seems to work really well.
The background is a single sheet from the collection with an illustration of an Illinois farm from a book that is now in the public domain blended over it in pin light mode. Then I changed to color of the grunge layer so it wouldn't interfere with the text.. I played with the colors of the paints and stamps until I liked it then added the wedding picture and used the frame as a clipping mask to add the paper to it and added the photo of the house with a 25 pixel inside stroke for the frame. I added some elements to the cluster and removed some from it as well, then added the text. The journaling just would not darken up so I duplicated the frame to make it heavier. Journaling is below.
Benjamin Eyre Catton led a life filled with adventures. At the age of 3 he sailed across the ocean with two older sisters and an infant brother from their home in Scopwick, Lincolnshire, England in May 1855 aboard the Belle Wood, the ship his great uncle and aunt would sail on 10 years later.
Life was good for the Cattons in Illinois. His father was half owner in a coal mine and later farmed in Livingston County. Benjamin grew up learning these skills and more. He became a valued member of any community in which he lived.
On 16 February 1875 Ben wed Margaret Ann Dixon. Interestingly, the next year, following in their parents’ footsteps, his brother William Scott would marry Margaret’s sister Elizabeth.
The 1880 census showed Ben Catton as a grain dealer. By 1900 he was a lumber merchant, living in a beautiful home in Champaign County, Illinois. In November 1882 their daughter Florence was born and, in the years, following a baby boy was born to them. We know him only as A. Catton and that he died as an infant on 18 December 1891. The convention of the day often called children infants until they were 4 or 5 years old. How sad for them!
Both Ben and Margaret were deemed jovial, kind, and considerate and well-loved by those who knew them.
