Jefferson Clay Ensminger

Self Portrait of Jefferson Clay Ensminger, likely taken at the same time as his other portraits. Ensminger was born in the year 1843, in Stark County Ohio. His father was a photographer and he likely picked up the trade from the family business based out of Ashland, Ohio. Ensminger spent much of his young adult life on the move, intermittently establishing photography studios in New York City, Pittsburgh, Independence Iowa, and eventually Sanford. Ensminger and his family moved to Sanford in 1884 and shortly after became close friends with the aging General Sanford, who commissioned Ensminger to perform a series of photographs. Ensminger would spend the remaining 28 years of his life in Sanford, and the studio he established with his brother would be known as a Sanford institution.