"It was really a shock. Until Mr. Manning contacted me, I didn't know about them. I had no idea they were in the Library of Congress and all that," Peacock said. "People didn't take pictures of kids back then.
"He told me about things when he was little, but I never saw pictures. I knew what he looked like in his wedding pictures. He was a handsome young man, and he was a gentle giant who had a magic touch with little children and babies, but I never knew what he looked like as a kid. So for me it was a treat," she said.
Hine's work was intended to show the bad side of child labor, which existed in many parts of the country, but Peacock said the boys, who were two of 12 children, were only doing what children were supposed to do and helping with the family work load.
"The book tried to show it as being bad, but he didn't know what he was talking about. This had nothing to do with child labor, this was just family helping family," Peacock said. "If you live on a farm, you have responsibilities. They weren't paid to work on the farm like they were working in a factory. To me, child labor is when they work in factories and stuff for pay, not working on the farm helping family."
In an interview with Manning, Orie Fugate's daughter Judy Johnson, who lives in Cincinnati, said she too was surprised that the photo of her father and uncle working in the tobacco field was used as an example of child labor.
"I was kind of surprised, because I know in those days, families did it. It wasn't like they farmed him out to work for somebody else. They had big families and the kids had to help on the farm," Johnson said.
William and Orie Fugate moved from Clark County to Cincinnati while in their teens, where they married and began their families, but still retained their ties with the community. They visited often, according to Peacock.
"When I was growing up, we used to come down to Winchester a lot and visit my Aunt Pearl on the farm. We would go out in the tobacco fields and play hide-and-go-seek. But I can tell you, if I had known there had been worms out there, I probably wouldn't have gone in the fields," she said. " My cousin had a pony, and we got to ride it. … They grew all their own stuff, so we ate like kings. It's such great memories."
Peacock said she still has relatives living in Clark County, and although she doesn't get back as often, she comes to family reunions and still has a warm spot for Winchester.
"To me, Cincinnati is home because that is where I was born. But Winchester is back home too, as is Liberty, Kentucky, because that is where my mother and father were born. Winchester is such a beautiful, beautiful place, and it will always hold a special place in my heart," she said.
Manning, who has written several history books, said his journey to find the families of the children in the photographs began as an effort to help a friend find information on one child in a photo.
"Another writer friend of mine had written a children's book that was inspired by one of Lewis Hine's child labor photos named Addie Carr, and she asked me if I thought I could find out what happened to the little girl," Manning said. "In eleven days I found her granddaughter and eventually found her whole story. Her family was so excited to find the picture they had never seen before, so I decided to try to find some of the other families also."
Manning said that after the early successes and the reactions of the families at seeing the photographs, he was hooked.
"Most of the people I contact are not aware of Lewis Hine or that their family member was involved in child labor, or that the photos are in the Library of Congress," he said.
Most of them don't have pictures of their parents or grandparents as children, he said, "so it is incredible and very emotional for them."
"That's what keeps me moving in this project. I think that every time I can contact one of these people, I'm doing something that is beneficial to them, and I am absolutely ecstatic."
