Captain Jared Jernegan was 35 years old when this photo was taken in May, 1861. Jared wrote many letters home to his in-laws after his first wife died, including a note to his son that read "I am coming home and I am not going to sea again..." Jared returned to Edgartown in 1861. Within three months of his homecoming, he married Helen McLellan Clark, a young teacher from Maine.