To my knowledge there were only two men in the family named Sylvanus DeBee; Sylvanus H. DeBee (1841-1915) and his grandson of Sylvanus L. DeBee (1897-1958). The handwriting on the back appears to be that of a granddaughter of Sylvanus L. Debee. It may be that she did not realize that his middle initial was ‘H’ and just assumed that the two Sylvanuses were father and son.
Sylvanus H. was a Civil War veteran. I feel like I’ve seen a photo of him in a Union uniform, sporting the long beard often seen in photos of Union soldiers, however, the photo has not turned up in either a search through my many boxes of photos or online. I may have imagined seeing the photo.
To learn more about my 52 Ancestors in 2018 project, read my introductory blog post.