McNett Photo Studio of Marion, Illinois is a business that does not appear to have been around very long. The owner James Gardiner McNett was born in Lincoln, Nebraska on February 5, 1893. When the 1910 census was taken he was 17 years old and still living with his family in Nebraska.
An Iowa state census located him in Osage, Iowa in 1915, but by the time he registered for the WWI draft in 1917, he and his mother were living here in Marion, Illinois and he was listed as a self-employed photographer. He was 23 and living at 104 N. Vicksburg St. He claimed that his mother was partially dependent on him for the home and he was single. He was described as medium height, slender build, with light grey eyes and black hair.
How long he operated his business is unknown due to a lack of directories and information in that time frame, but it is known that by the 1920 census he was living in Rochester, New York. His business however, appears to have been sold, since one listing was found in 1922 for McNett Studio being operated by a George W. Bayless located at 604 ½ Public Square which would have been upstairs over the old Woolworth building. By the next available directory which is 1927, there was no longer a listing for the studio.
When the 1930 census rolled around, McNett had finally married a younger woman about 15 years his junior and they were living in Oyster Bay, New York. They continued moving around, in 1940 they were in Ware, Massachusetts and by 1942 they were back on his home turf in Lincoln, Nebraska.
McNett died in Deland, Volusia County, Florida on November 1, 1974 at the age of 81.
(Extracted from Marion Directories and Federal Census Records; compiled by Sam Lattuca on 03/15/2014)