The Ghost Horse -- Artwork of the 1800s! By Marsha Meyers
Grandma Hutch was one of three girls, whose father called them Faith, Hope, and Charity. (picture at right, about 1875.) Their real names, left to right, were Hallie Ann, Ludia, the youngest, and Mary Francis, my great grandmother. His pet names for them, as well as their farms that he gave to them, (1,000 acres each), proved he loved them, even if, after their mother died, they didn't get along that well...
Long about the early 1870s, the family had recovered from the set backs of the Civil War, and had enough money to hire a governess, to care for the three girls. Actually, Miss Josie was to have been more of a companion to Hallie, a teacher/friend for Mary Francis, my great grandmother, and a teacher for Ludia. (When Sophronia, the girl's mother died, Miss Josie married my great-great grandfather, which was quite the scandal. She had 4 children, two of whom survived birth-- my great-great half uncles, John and Will, aka the Bruce Boys. I adored them.)
It was normal back then, to have a governess--not a big deal. School only went to the 8th grade and it was a huge ordeal to get there-- roads were poor and it was a long way in the buggy. Most family of "means" hired a younger woman, well-reared but of not much money, (and there plenty of those after the war), to teach their children. Miss Josie came to teach penmanship, French, Arithmetic, English, Geography, and the more domestic arts, such a piano, fancy sewing, painting, and deportment.
Under Miss Josie's tutelage, my great-grandmother learned how to paint, in the Hudson River Style of painting. These are not great works of art, but I have enjoyed them all of my life, and love them!
The first is the one, I call The Ghost Horse. I love the mountain in the background. To my knowledge, Grandma Hutch had never been out of the state of KY, when she painted this, but you can see that "out west" obviously captured her imagination. Notice the indians in the front of the painting... I wonder, did she see indians, as a matter of course, in her hometown of New Castle? Funny coincidence-- the dog looks like my other great grandmother's dog, Zero. Grandma Scherer was 1/2 Cherokee...
Next picture: Don't ask me where she got this mountain-- we are fairly rolling, around her home town... As a geologist, I'd say this mountain was a cinder cone, with maybe an Egyptian pyramid in front?. As an art critic, I do my best not to see it, but love the boat in the foreground, and only wish I could just be right there, getting ready for a picnic...
I have 2 more paintings she did-- one of a lake, and one of pansies, but I can't get to them-- they are in the living room, which is covered up with stuff from Mama's house.
Anyway-- This is not a painting, but a very old print. Mama said it came from Sophronia's mother's family, the Combs. It is called Moonlight over the Potomac, and I've loved it, all my life... It has lived in this frame all my life, which is a miracle, because Mama could never leave anything in its frame...
I'm sorry for the angle of this picture. No matter where I stood, I got a flash back from the camera.
This is my Grandma, at age 5, in 1896. I love this picture! She was such a darling little woman! Or little girl, in this case... She looked just like this, but wrinkled, when she was old... Sweet little bright eyes, that saved her grand-daughter's life, on more than one occasion! She was her Daddy's favorite, and he called her the runt of the litter. She stood 4'11" tall and wore a size 4B shoe.
Artwork from the family is not confined to just paintings, though... This is a light fixture that began life in Grandpa Bruce's house, as coal oil, then, moved to to Grandma Hutch's house, as part of her inheritance from her mother, Sophronia. Later, Grandpa converted it for her to gas, once they got gas lighting, and later, to electricity. The fixture was moved to my Grandma's house in the late 1960s, where Grandpa re-wired the electricity, and then, after his death in 1980, it came to Mama's house, where Daddy re-wired it. It will now come to my house, and I've got to find a place for it. It really needs a 12' ceiling...
It is definitely pre 1880s, but it also has a bit of an Egyptian look to it, that looks more art deco.
More below:
This comes more under the heading of neat stuff, as opposed to art work. It does fit into it's stand, but I had tripped over it, before I took the picture. Anyway, this is Grandpa's toy from the 1890s. I would say about 1899. It is a working steam engine. You fill the boiler with water and put a coal from the fire under it. It works up a head of steam, and whoo-wooo, off it goes.
Grandpa showed me how it worked when I was a kid. There are a couple of pieces missing, right now-- I'm looking for them. Way back when, it took off out of the kitchen, through the dining room, and into the living room, where it thunked up against the wall under the couch. What fun!
Next on the neat stuff list: A grouping. Upper left hand corner is Mama's play stove, that was electrical and actually cooked food with a heater coil, from about 1937. She had a matching icebox, and lotss of little tin dishes, some of which have survived. Beside it, you'll see a cannister set for spices from Grandma Scherer's. There are a set of 7 canisters, all wooden, and labeled. Beneath it, (on the top of the fridge), is a small chest of drawers that my great grandfather, Grandpa Scherer, Grandpa's father, used to sort his thread into at his shoe shop. SOME of the thread is still in there-- waxed, heavy duty thread that he used to sew shoes together in his cobbler's shop.
Then, this, is now used as a planter, but once was the first radio in Hancock County, back in 1919...
The painted metal box and the pretty wroght iron stand were the radio-- on the bottom of the box, it has a diamond shaped opening, for the radio. Grandpa ordered the radio from Chicago, and I have no idea what they listened to, but this was, back then, A Big Deal.
The bottom wrought iron thingy is a kick plate for a gas grate. When I was a kid, Grandpa and Grandma still had gas grates in every room. You could sit in front of them with your foot on the kick plate and toast your toes! Quite cozy!
More...
The chest on the left was Grandma's doll trunk-- it is made of cedar, and still faintly smells of cedar, especially when you put damp dog-foot-wiping towels in there-- which is what Mama did. The little "chest" to the right of it is actually a purse, sitting on a plant stand-- my father made in the 1960s. He made little wooden boxes, and they were darling and in style and everyone loved them... He tooled the leather on the top-- a skill he learned in Shop Class, not prison... They were great until you had one on your arm and were standing in line with a kid next to you. I turned once, and WHAM, hit some poor kid in the head...
This is NOT fine art, nor is it that old... Well, yeah it is, now that I think about it. In two more years, it will be an antique! I made this in St. Augustine, the summer of 1967. It's a Tiki Man, and I carved it out of coquina, the local shell stone they built the St. Augustine fort out of. It was carved with a hammer and a screw driver.
Any more, there is no coquina to be found, so naturally, THIS is coming home with me! Some of all this stuff is home, and some is in storage, and some is packed and ready to come home with me... Tiki Man is sitting on a boulder of green limestone from Wyoming. 
Daddy and I collected LOTS of rocks!
I had forgotten that I went around and took pictures of everything before Mama came home 1.5 years ago from the hospital. I wanted a visual record so I could put things back exactly as she had them... Well, that didn't work.
Thanks so much for coming by! There will be more! Carvings and odds and ends and all kinds of strange things...
Tags
Who is online
442 visitors
Beautiful Dowser, such elegance...
This picture was made a couple of years before my great grandmother eloped with my great grandfather. Weren't they pretty?
Aunt Hallie was known in the family as The Dragon Lady-- she looks more like her father, with a strong jaw. She was the eldest, and married Dr. George Oldham. Bruce, Hallie's only child, was a strong Methodist, who married Lessie May, and equally strong Baptist, and they got so bad, arguing over it all the time, that Grandpa and Grandma decided to limit their visits, even though Grandma loved Bruce. I knew him well.
The Bruce Boys, Will and John, were old bachelors that never married, taught Sunday School at Mt. Gilead Methodist Church, which was built by their great-grandfather in 1812, and never had any electric anything. When they died, in the late 1960s, the family farm was sold. I loved them, so very much. Fine looking men, they ironed their own shirts with a flat iron, pumped water from a well, farmed with a horse and plow, and were sweet. They both looked askance at women, in general. They were kind to me, and took me to see their baby animals when I went to visit.
Ludia married a man whose last name was Batts. The road in front of their house, which is still standing, is named Batts Lane, and borders Grandpa Bruce's land. I never knew him, or her, but her son, Eugene, was a lovely man-- he married late in life to Lois, and had a couple of sweet, good boys. Lois just died about 10 years ago at the age of 102.
Sometimes, knowing who these people are/were, helps to understand the times and how different their lives must have been...
Those were wonderful times Dowser, its good to know the family history..
Thanks, so much!
Yes, it makes all this come alive, for me-- to use the things they used, to see the things they saw, gives me a real sense of continuity...
I love her paintings! They are fun-- and these are not very good pictures of them... I did the best I could, and I was in a hurry to pack everything up before the sitters got there to take care of my mother. I didn't want all this to be out and about and "loose".
Thank you, so very much!
There are so many practical things, as well as things that are just pretty to see... And then, there is also a beauty in the simplicity of the practical things. I'm amazed, a lot of times, how very ingenius they were-- to think of such things! Plus, too, these things were built to last. Wow, does THAT make a difference!
Absolutely magnificent Dowser. No wonder you are so talented and have so many interest. It's in your genes. I hope you are able to enjoy it now more than ever. Thanks for putting this up.
Talented? Moi? HAHA! I have lots of enthusiasm, but no talent... thank you, very much, for the kind words!!!
Yes, there is so much to be interested in! Every body did wood-working, mechanics, gardening, photography, music, canning, specialty cooking, quilt making, wool carding, you name it, they did it...
The only good thing I can think of about being an only child is now... I am enjoying everything immensely, and trying to figure out just exactly what things do! So much fun! It takes me into their lives, and I like that!
Thanks, dear Six!
Just being old doesn't make something cool... but being old and cared-for... Yup! Definitely cool!
Thanks, Dowser. Wonderful pictures and stories about them. Some of the artwork could be considered 'Americana', and regardless of the author, they could be very valuable to some collectors, if not museums. Love the cedar chest. Got two of them myself. One exactly like yours, the other one more of a steamer trunk type. Cinder cone in they background.... I can 'see' it.
Wonderful photos Dowser, you have quite the collection.
Thanks for the posting.
WOW! Very nice shots Dowser! Thank you for sharing these treasures with all of us. You are very fortunate to have so much of your family history. I'm sure these treasures kind of make your family history more realistic..I have but a few things that belonged to my Father and Mother. And the picture you were concerned about the angle of the shot...is GREAT!!:-)
Isn't old junk (that's what some call it) just plain old fun? Cool, Dowser.
Well, thanks!
I'm old, but I'm not sure how well cared for I am...
Hahaha!
That's one sharp mountain-- I don't know where she came up with that idea... Maybe she had never seen real mountains. The little cedar chest is so cute! There is another one similar to it, but it was a chest for tools. I hope I find it, too!
I do love this old stuff. My house is going to look like Cracker Barrel.
Thanks, dear Kavika!
It's a lot of fun to live with their stuff-- puts me in touch with them, somehow... I found my great great grandmother Nancy's chair, too. I'll post a picture of that in the group.
Love you!
Oh, I've always loved that picture-- it's so dreamy! So many of these were at bad angles, just because every time I clicked, I got a really bright spot from the glass. So, there didn't seem to be much I could do-- taking a picture without the flash didn't work...
I want to be there, with those guys, on the rocks and in the boat... It just looks surreal...
It IS old junk, and they had so much better junk than I do! It's fun, just to play with it...
Dowsey, this was fantastic! Your grandmother was a heckuva artist... darned talented! And the antiques... enough to make any sane person droll uncontrollably! Thank you so much for sharing all this! I truly enjoyed every bit of it! And I think that, now, we all have a clue as to where you got all your talents! {{{{{Dowsey}}}}}
I love you so much! But, I don't have any talents... Especially in painting! Egads!
I took oil painting and made glorious messes-- and treasure each and every one of them, simply because the cats sniffed them, there are their sweet little nose prints on the canvas... I miss my babies...
I love my family-- even the ones I haven't met yet!
Dowsey, dear... you DO have talents! Oil painting isn't the only evidence of a talent. You do so many things, and you do them so well, and THOSE are talents!!! You're smart, and you are sweet, and that is more than enough to qualify as being talented because you use all of it so nicely!
So there! I hath squoken! {{{{{Dowsey}}}}}
OH, dear bitey, thanks! Of late, I've felt that I have 5 thumbs, on one hand...
Here is a REAL nose print on canvas :
Dowser,
What a fine collection of photos, collectables and folk art. You are so lucky to have these in your life. I have to ask you about the painting. I purchased a Hudson River School painting from an antique dealer that has since passed on, for my grandmothers 80th birthday. Since then, they are now considered to be very desirable. I would have that one appraised.
Your family had fine belongings and I can see where you got your class. It is not the worth of the items as the choice of them that says so much about your family history.
Perrie, you are 100% correct! Wish I'd said that! I also ditto your suggestion about having the paintings appraised.
Dowsey: make that 6 thumbs, three on each hand (it is more symmetrical that way... like me
)!
{{{{{Dowsey and Perrie}}}}}
My kind of stuff, Dowser.
There appears to be a signature at the bottom left of the moonlight print; can you make it out?
It does have a signature and I would gladly look at it and tell you what it is, but I can't get to it. It is boxed up to keep it safe, and is stacked, upright with the other boxed up paintings in my living room. My house is a wreck and will like stay that way until I can get Mama's house taken care of. I am truly overwhelmed.
I think it is a famous print, or a print of a famous painting, but I don't know for sure... I've googled it, but not found it. I'm at Mama's house right now, but left my camera at home. I guess getting the laundry here was more important. I still have a large envelope to mail to you, but am gathering, more and more... Please don't think I have forgotten you, but, again, I am overwhelmed. I thought I had packed all the flat irons, but, of course, found yet another one today. And the ash can thingy is full-- it has to be dealt with before I can pack it up. Grandma Hutch, who loved pansies, (I have her pansy picture), painted pansies on the lid and front.
I wonder if I can actually take some pictures with my phone? I found the cord so that I can download them to my computer, but, it is in the camera bag, with the camera-- naturally!
Love you, A. Mac!
Petey, I'm so sorry I didn't see this sooner! GREAT picture!
Somehow, seeing elephants paint always makes me want to cry-- they ARE sentient beings!!! How could people murder them???
I need to get a lot of this appraised, for insurance purposes, I know! It is just so overwhelming, right now... Too much to keep track of, for sure!
Thank you, so very much, for your kind words, and much love to you! Part of the family had money and class and there were likely parts who were horse thieves, I'm sure. We actually did have a feather bed renovator in the family. He went from house to house with bugs in his pocket. Housewives would hire him to inspect their feather beds, and, then, he would show them the bugs he found... Well, you can imagine the rest. When I was around as a kid, he was always spoken of, tactfully, as having been dead for years. And who knows, by the time I got there, he probably was...
They were very special, to me, and I love them, even though I never knew them. I hope to meet them in heaven, and I hope they know how much I have enjoyed their wonderful things, all my life. To me, they are all still alive, and I speak with them frequently, when alone in the house. Maybe they know I'm still here, loving them. (According to my mother, they have rotated in their graves over my behavior over the past 50 years to the point that they have augured their way to China, I'm sure...)
I found a 3rd cousin! The top picture-- Aunt Ludia's, (far right), great-granddaughter! I found a pin that was Aunt Ludie's and I am going to make sure she gets it. It belongs in her family, not mine. It's a beautiful pin, Aunt Ludie's initials, old red-gold, (14 K). And a gold ring that must have been Aunt Ludie's mother-in-law's ring. GLB. That has to be G--- L--- Batts, but we have no G first names, all the way back to 1812. So, that's who it has to be. I'll be sure she gets that, too.
I can't think of anyone I'd rather match with, dear bitey, than you!
Love you so much!
At your convenience any time is fine.
Thank you for your understanding! I've been going around taking phone pictures, but I doubt they turn out well... I shake a lot.
Wow, I googled it again, and what showed up? This picture! Hmmmmm...