Wednesday, April 30, 2014
Monday, April 28, 2014
Ossian Euclid Dodge – Divorce Clipping – New York Daily Tribune 28 January 1873 – and other bits…
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| Ossian Euclid Dodge 1820-1876 (public domain) |
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| Clipping - New York Daily Tribune 28 January 1873 (original copyright expired) |
Comic Song
Writer and Performer Ossian Euclid Dodge 1820-1876 whose most noteworthy
accomplishment in life according to his NYTimes Obit would seem to have been to
pay $500 for a ticket to Jenny Lind’s first night performance in Boston. (Shades
of blatant future Diamond Jim Brady self-promotion and free more than $500’s
worth of publicity.)
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| 1850 Lithograph - Ossian E Dodge (left) being Introduced to Jenny Lind by P.T.Barnum (public domain) |
Euclid Street (St. Paul, MN): Ossian Euclid Dodge, “an eccentric troubadour,” was a nationally-known journalist,
writer and song writer who once had a traveling concert troupe. He was a strict
teetotaler who hoped that the public “could learn that a comic song is not
necessarily a vulgar one; and that wit which has no fellowship with profanity
or coarseness, will be keenly relished by the best and most refined portions of
society.”
Dodge came to St. Paul in 1862 and had a downtown house
called “Alpine Cottage.” He sold music and pianos and got into real
estate. In 1873 he named the street after himself. He was secretary
of the St. Paul Chamber of Commerce from 1869 until 1873. What the local papers
called a “scandalous divorce” forced Dodge to flee to England in 1874, where he
died two years later.
More on
Ossian Euclid Dodge:
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“the laborer is not worthy of his hire” Michael Grimm - GOP Party Line
“the laborer is not worthy of his hire” Michael Grimm -
GOP Party Line
“the laborer is worthy of his hire” Saint John XXIII – JESUS Party Line
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Saturday, April 26, 2014
Best Man Protocol - Advice - Brooklyn Daily Eagle 1 July 1894
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Brooklyn Daily Eagle Washington DC Office 1916
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| (Original Copyright Expired) |
Brooklyn Daily Eagle 1 July 1894 – page 4
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Kimball / Connell Wedding - Saint Leo's Church 11 East 28th Street NYC - 27 June 1894 - Best Man / Paul Story Kimball 1872-1896
Source of above images. St. Leo's 11 E 28th Street NYC (exterior top) (interior above) - http://sthughofcluny.org/2013/10/the-churches-of-new-york-xlvi-losses-5.html
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| Brooklyn Daily Eagle 1 July 1894 (Original Copyright Expired) |
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| Gilsey House (Hotel) - 1876 (Left) (Image - Public Domain) |
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| Gilsey House Apartments - 29th Street and Broadway (Google Maps 2011) |
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Thursday, April 24, 2014
Jesse Ludington - Fair Haven Oyster Man - Portrait by artist George Henry Story
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| Jesse Ludington (1805-1886) - Oil on Canvas - artist George Henry Story (Smithsonian American Art Museums) (public domain) |
I have to
wonder if the portrait of Jesse Ludington (1805-1886) by George Henry Story - if the
subject is in his best and probably only Sunday suit and posed in best possible
light or if his attire is the everyday attire of a man in the oyster business
of harvesting, inspecting, cleaning, packaging, selling and shipping of the
product in a major nineteenth hub of the Oyster business in America, Fair Haven
Connecticut.
The direct verifiable
genealogical history of the American artist George Henry Story is sketchy in
the public records of the Internet.
No doubt
more exact records exist on paper and in private family hands to this day but
not yet scanned into the new global culture represented by that Internet.
Of the
records available and researched thus far, it is a good possibility that the
subject Jesse Ludington pictured above was married to George Henry Story’s
older sister Julia Ann Story.
No exact
record of Julia Ann as being George’s sister is documented at present. Julia is born 1810 and George's parents marriage date is listed as 1806 - a possible family tie and timeline fit.
I have researched
and George’s father James died about a month after his birth in January 1835.
As such and in world without social government safety nets, there was the
family. That George’s vague personal history presented here and there in
records is one that he himself may not have been personally aware of or saw no need to
present considering he never knew his father and a great deal of personal
knowledge of a family history and legacy was lost by being raised without that father.
But then again, his mother
may have raised him in separate living conditions or moved in with a daughter
in a larger extended family situation and George had many adults in place to act
in place of a missing deceased parent. "It takes a village..." and or a large extended family sometimes to raise a child.
Jesse
Ludington married Julia Ann Story in New Haven Connecticut on March 23, 1829
and was married by Baptist minister Benjamin M. Hill.
Other
sketchy records indicate that George story may have had another sister from the
marriage of his father and mother, James Story and Clarissa Barnes Story. Her
name is Elisabeth Story (Armstead) with dates 1826-1864.
.
That tagging
Jesse Ludington as a possible brother in law of George Henry Story ties in with
the name of their daughter Clarissa Barnes Ludington, Clarissa Barnes being
George’s mother’s first and maiden name as a point of continuity and a possible
genealogical audit trail. Daughter
Clarissa Barnes Ludington by the way married a Duane Epaphroditus Newton later on.
Research
shows that Fair Haven, not yet a mere “neighborhood” or district within a later
in date greater New Haven Connecticut, was heavily invested in the business of
oysters. That many genealogical records reference the move of some Ludingtons
from other parts of New England because of the growing oyster production and
harvesting industry there.
In the New
Haven Directory of Inhabitants 1874, Jesse Ludington is listed as “oysters” by
profession at 88 E. Pearl Street as opposed to “oysterman” by other inhabitants
of his neighborhood. I take this to mean
that he is more in the upper end of the business as opposed to the dirty
everyday hands on business of extracting the product from the waters about New
Haven and the northern end of Long Island Sound.
Many
genealogical references point to the fact that a “Ludington Buoy” still sits in
the waters of New Haven to mark designated territory and state sanctioned by law harvesting rights of a product long
extinct from the present region and habitat.
Not to say
that Jesse Ludington did not start life in a fisherman’s life or in an oyster
boat in his younger days.
That the
artist George Henry Story started out his young working life as an apprenticed
wood worker in the local shipping industry before moving on to his desired apprenticeship with a portrait
painter. No escaping the local economy of
the sea, of fish and oysters, ships and boats I would imagine back then. No escape except by luck, karma or the tyranny of chance.
Jesse’s
portrait speaks of a man who has worked with his hands and has the forehead wrinkles of a man closely related to the sea and its many distant horizons.
Also in that
pose and time it is difficult to guess the age of the subject which I guess to
be at anywhere from mid-fifties to mid-sixties. As such, the portrait would
likely have been painted somewhere around the early 1860s and current with G. H. Story’s
painting career picking up in Washington DC at the beginning of the American
Civil War before his moving onto, with his wife Eunice, into the Bohemian life of a
young artist amidst the glamor and excitement of the New York City in little
Bohemia centered around Broadway and Bleecker Street then – part of the then "in" - “Pfaff Cellar” - crowd.
That that
1874 New Haven Directory of Inhabitants also has George H. Story, an artist, listed
to 276 North Front Street right on the waterfront. The house in Google
Satellite view is a rather modest wood structure with a street front that
suggests a onetime shack attached to the front of the house, on the waterfront
of that house and perhaps a onetime small scale Oyster processing, cleaning and
packaging affair to support a young fatherless child by a strong independent self-sufficient
Yankee mom?
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| (Original Copyright Expired) |
That spending the summers in Fair Haven out of New York in the family house was a good
time to reconnect to friends and family and during the off season of harvesting
Oysters.
That
possible brother in law Jesse Ludington was a father figure, or an uncle figure
considering age differences etc. Family is sometimes an awkward thing to
describe but perhaps George Henry Story has expressed it in a way that he was
uniquely talented to express – in his painting.
The 88 East
Pearl Street house of Jesse Ludington is one that speaks of a successful later
nineteenth business man in the Second Empire style with its Mansard style roof that
we here in America or the English speaking world would label as Victorian, like
much of Story’s work – dated but a rare glimpse into a bygone and perhaps not
examined closely enough as it should have been age – especially in working
class Fair Haven Connecticut.
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Tuesday, April 22, 2014
The (Benyon) Family - Brighton Massachusetts - Auburndale Mansion - 1872 - Artist George Henry Story
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| The Family - by George Henry Story (Public Domain) |
The great 19th
century successful American Middle Class grand family portrait painting – “The
Family” by Artist George Henry Story is said to be of the Boston banker Abner
Ingalls Benyon's family, and said to be painted in 1872 in the Benyon Mansion in
Auburndale Massachusetts.
Public
records show the Benyon family situated in Brighton Mass. where all their
children were born.
The year
1872 seems to be highpoint in Abner Ingalls Benyon’s banking career with a
listing at the National Exchange Bank as
both president and a director in 1872, having working his way up through the
ranks first as a Paying Teller in 1856 at this same bank and along the way
working as a Cashier, next step up in the banking business, in 1862 at the
Brighton Market Bank in Brighton Mass..
The year
1872 saw Abner Benyon named as Vice President of a new Homoeopathic Medical
School also operating as the Medical Department of Boston College. This alongside
his other duties as one time Treasurer and long term Trustee of same college /
university 1872-1883.
Abner
Benyon, with a middle name of Ingalls that matches a middle name of the brother
in law of the artist, Hannibal Ingalls Kimball, the commission for the painting
may have come through a family connection.
Mr. Benyon
was all the talk of the east coast in 1882 when he quickly migrated to Canada
and Mexico and back to Canada after indictments of embezzlement against him were
about to be delivered on him in his then position as president of the Pacific
National Bank Boston.
Abner
Ingalls Benyon born 1832, died in Toronto in 1888 and is buried in Mount Auburn
Cemetery Cambridge Mass..
In Brighton –
Abner Ingalls Benyon married to Ruthanna J Towne
Children:
George Henry Benyon 1857-1926
Carrie L Benyon Dec 4 1860 – Apr 5 1866
Arthur Ingalls Benyon Mar 17 1863 - 1903
John W Benyon – dates ?
Elizabeth Benyon – dates ?
Luther Benyon – dates ?
Abner Benyon – dates ?
+Family+-+George+Henry+Story.jpg)
+Family+-+George+Henry+Story.jpg)
Presumed Tags to Figures in Painting Above:
1 - George Henry Benyon
2 - Abner Ingalls Benyon
3 - Arthur Ingalls Benyon
4 - John W Benyon
5 - Ruthanna J Benyon
6 - Baby Abner Benyon (?)
7 - Elizabeth Benyon
8 - Luther Benyon (?)
9 – Unidentified Relative
10- Unidentified Relative
11- (Presumed) Grandmother Towne (?) or Benyon (?)
12- (Presumed) Carrie L Benyon Dec 4 1860 – Apr 5 1866
January 6, 2018
Suggested name tags per e-mail:
Monday, April 21, 2014
Lincoln's Favorite Humorist Artemus Ward and His Wartime Bohemian New York Crowd 1864
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Source: - Artemus Ward
(CHARLES FARRAR BROWNE) A Biography and Bibliography BY DON C. SEITZ 1919 (Don
Carlos Seitz 1862-1935)
(original copyright expired)
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The long island
of Manhattan seems at every point in history to have staked a claim on the
horizon and built its boulevards and structures toward that point towards the
rising, setting or noonday New York City sun. And later upward to that very same star itself.
I would guess that around
the middle of the American Civil War, that Manhattan was headed toward that
turn in Broadway at Grace Church around Tenth Street and headed further uptown to
Union Square and uncharted points beyond, and toward those then great sheep meadows and cow
pastures of Central Park.
The literary
and artsy cognoscenti of the day, the then Bohemians of New York in a watered
down crowd, thinned out by the ranks of war, kept up the spirits and voice of
culture around the hub of Broadway and Bleecker Street and referenced below.
The spirit
or flavor of the moment, the "in" people of the moment, might have been best described by
a favorite of the Walt Whitman’s Pfaff cellar crowd Ada Clare defining a Bohemian as a:
"cosmopolite, with a general
sympathy for the fine arts, and for all things above and beyond convention".
http://digital.lib.lehigh.edu/pfaffs/p23/
http://digital.lib.lehigh.edu/pfaffs/p23/
“…The De Soto, a restaurant on Bleecker Street just
east of Broadway, was his favorite dining-place.
Here
there was usually a coterie of choice spirits to aid
in
enjoyment of the meal. One of these survives in the
person of George H. Story, the eminent artist, long
curator of paintings in the Metropolitan Museum of
Art, whose wife, Eunice Emerson Kimball, had been a
fellow-member with A. W. in the Thespian Club at
Norway, Maine, long before.
Dining here one day with Story, David Wambold,
the minstrel, Dan Bryant, and some others, one of
the unknown persisted in making some boresome,
child-
ish remarks in competition with the genuine wits.
He became a nuisance, but was silenced at last by
A. W., who took out his note-book and gravely
inquired,
"What is your age, sir?"
Mrs. Story was a relative of Ralph Waldo Emerson,
who had been a familiar figure in Waterford, and was
a sister of Charles P. and Hannibal I. Kimball, both
men of note in Norway when young and who later in
life had distinguished careers, the first as a great
manufacturer in Chicago and the second as the
recreator
of Atlanta, Georgia.
One night the Storys went to the show, sitting well
up front. Cracking a joke that elicited much applause,
Artemus explained, much to the confusion of the
lady,
that it was an old one, first used in Norway, Maine,
when he and "Eune Kimball played together in
the
Thespian Society!" …
[169]
- Artemus Ward (CHARLES FARRAR BROWNE) A Biography and Bibliography BY DON C. SEITZ 1919 - https://archive.org/stream/artemuswardchar00seituoft#page/169/mode/1up
http://archive.org/stream/artemuswardchar00seituoft/artemuswardchar00seituoft_djvu.txt
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Sunday, April 20, 2014
George Henry Story - American Artist (1835-1922)
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| George Henry Story - Self Portrait 1902 - Gift to Metropolitan Museum of Art by Mrs. George Henry Story 1906 |
George Henry Story. Born Fair Haven, New Haven Conn. January 22, 1835, son of
James Story, a sea captain and Clarissa Barnes Story.
Died November 24, 1922, the Hubert Co-op Apartments 230 West 59th Street New York City.
Started his career apprenticed as a wood carver for three years 1849-1852 to a Mr. Northrop. Studied art under Charles Hines 1852-1855. Then studied art in Europe for one year.
Died November 24, 1922, the Hubert Co-op Apartments 230 West 59th Street New York City.
Started his career apprenticed as a wood carver for three years 1849-1852 to a Mr. Northrop. Studied art under Charles Hines 1852-1855. Then studied art in Europe for one year.
Set up a portrait studio in rented space in a corner of the
photographer M.B. Brady’s business space in Washington DC in 1860 and 1861. Was
subsequently asked as a favor by Brady’s assistant to help pose president-elect
Abraham Lincoln for a photograph.
From there he gained access to White House
for several days to sit in on Lincoln at work to make pencil sketches which
later were worked into his famous series of Lincoln portraits over the years,
some 12 or so in total, one of which is now in the Oval Office, West Wing of the White
House. He also painted a portrait of Lincoln's Secretary of Treasury Salmon P. Chase.
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| Abraham Lincoln by George Henry Story |
Married Eunice Berry Emerson Kimball June 5, 1856 in New Haven Conn..
Eunice, born June 9, 1835, daughter of Peter Kimball, a carriage maker in
Norway Maine and Betsey Emerson, first cousin of Ralph Waldo Emerson. Died Jan
14, 1908.
- Eunice was sister to a whole family of brothers, carriage
makers including C.P. Kimball of Chicago and Hannibal Ingalls Kimball, the “recreator
of Atlanta” in post-civil war Georgia.
- Father of adopted son Paul Story Kimball born January 28,
1872 in Newtown Mass., a nephew of wife Eunice and original child of George Franklin Kimball, a carriage maker of Boston Mass. and Lucretia J. (Wright)
Morton Kimball. Died June 20, 1896, aged 24. Was model for Story painting "Dutch Cavalier" and or "Cavalier" at the Wadsworth Museum in Hartford.
Exhibited at 1876 Centennial Exhibition in Philadelphia
received a – Gold Medal – for his showing of three paintings, “The Young Mother”
(a first version, lost, as opposed to a later 1881 version at the Wadsworth), “The Young Student”
(then owned by Wall Street broker financier David Groesbeck), and “Echoes of the Sea”.
Curator of Painting at Metropolitan Museum of Art NYC
1889-1906, Acting Director of same museum 1904-1905, Curator Emeritus after
1906.
Curator of Painting at Wadsworth Athenaeum Hartford Conn.
1899-1922.
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| Story Family Plot Green-Wood Cemetery Brooklyn New York (Photo by Bob Collins) |
April 21, 2014 - Many Thanks to Bob Collins who has provided Inscription below of above stone, a presumed final statement of love by husband George Henry Story :
Green-Wood Cemetery
Section 145, Lot 29429.
----INSCRIPTION, top and front:'
This memorial was erected to perpetuate the grateful sense of pleasure I had in the conversation of an accomplished woman, a sincere friend, and an agreeable companion.
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Green-Wood Cemetery
Section 145, Lot 29429.
----INSCRIPTION, top and front:'
This memorial was erected to perpetuate the grateful sense of pleasure I had in the conversation of an accomplished woman, a sincere friend, and an agreeable companion.
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Wednesday, April 16, 2014
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Sunday, April 13, 2014
Moses King New York Guide Book Cover – Inspiration for O.Henry’s short story The Lady Higher Up?
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New York World Sunday Magazine, July 24, 1904, The Lady Higher Up by O.Henry
I have to thank the Internet for the coming together of ideas. Researching the latter part of the nineteenth century New York I came across the Moses King Photographic Views of New York originally published in 1892.
I cannot but help to think in the last twenty four hours looking at the cover of the King’s Tourist Guide that Bill Porter hanging around pool halls, billiard parlors and rummy saloons around Fourteenth Street, fingered his King’s Guide to New York to inspire a story for a much needed sawbuck to pay his bar tab and some back rent on a furnished room.
That about a year and a half to two years into residence in New York City he may have been ready to toss that book - feeling like a native NYer - but instead fingered that guide for inspiration, in a copy newly purchased when he has first arrived or in a dime used copy at a bookstore outdoor stall – with the cover image of Diana the Saint Gaudens sculpted weathervane on top of Madison Square Garden - pointing an arrow at Lady Liberty - may have just been the visual inspiration trigger for the story mentioned above.
Just a thought.
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Walt Whitman 1887
Walt Whitman 1887 - presumably in his Camden New Jersey home.
Photograph attributed to the Philadelphia artist Thomas Eakins - (Library of Congress)
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Saturday, April 12, 2014
Greenwich Street and Trinity Place NYC - 1892 thru Present
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Above looking north - 1892 View from #1 Broadway / Washington Building - Greenwich Street left (Ninth Avenue Elevated) - Trinity Place right (Sixth Avenue Elevated)
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| Looking North - Greenwich Street left - Trinity Place right |
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| Looking South - from Trinity Place and Edgar Street |
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1 Broadway NYC - 1884 thru Present - Washington Building
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Thursday, April 10, 2014
Charles Keating Lonely in Hell - Awaits His Pals Dennis DeConcini and John McCain for Reunion of the Phoenix Boys
Dear Denny and Johnny:
Missing you in Hell. Am keeping a special spot warm for each of you.
Your Bosom Buddy.
Love Charles.
P.S. Mother Teresa gives lousy head here in hell. Not like the good ole' days in the 80s.
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