Ben & Rebecca Cotton
Rebecca, Ben Cotton's 1st wife, was probably 16 when she had her first child. She raised three girls and a boy. The marriage lasted 25 years. It seems unlikely that she herself was ever on stage. She died in 1879, in Bristol, Rhode Island, at the age of 49.
The photograph is attributed to the studio of California photographers James H. Wise & Edward H. Prindle. It was probably taken around 1863, not long after she arrived in San Francisco. She traveled there on a steamer from Nicaragua in November of 1862.
The lower photograph was taken in Providence, R.I. around 1874, after her divorce.