That’s a tough looking group of teenagers! Maybe some pre-teen.
He served as a Private in the armed forces during World War I. On Nov. 19, 1927, he married Flora Belle Quinton. On Jan. 25 of the following year he died in a mine accident at the age of 31, crushed by a rock, and was buried in Jefferson County. He became a father, posthumously, when his widow bore his child in the summer of 1928. His older brother Jack had already been killed in a mine accident in 1920.
People lived hard lives back then.