Sunday, May 27, 2018

Helen Spence, Dayton Bowers, and a Mysterious Quilt



       When I think of the evolution of photography in America, I tend to think of Matthew Brady whose striking images of young frequently illiterate young men, such as my great grandfather, who enlisted in the Confederate Army in Alabama at about 18, and though badly wounded near the war's end, nevertheless survived.  The Civil War was there to be captured, and Brady ventured southward from New York with this relatively new device, to capture it in images.

       As Fortune would have it, Dayton Bowers was about six when my greatfather enlisted, and the War Between the States would be history before he would discover the artistic possibilities of a camera.  In stark contrast to the horrors of battlefields, Bowers ventured southward from Indiana  to Arkansas in the post war years to capture the lives and fortunes of folks in the vast Grand Prairie in Stuttgart and DeWitt and the smaller towns along the White River like Crockett's Bluff and St. Charles.

       Thanks to the efforts of Denise Parkinson, the significance of his images, as evidence of the richness of  life in this part of Arkansas, particularly that along the White River, in the first decades of the twentieth century, has been "rediscovered."  DPW  5.27.18

       [The fascinating conversation below has been lifted, with Denise's permission, from a Facebook exchange between Denise and Jeanie Marrs Vasseur, and Billy Rabeneck.  Both Jeanie and I were born in Crockett's Bluff, though neither of us actually lived on or in a White River houseboat, as did Denise.]




This photo of Helen Spence (standing) and her sister Edie Spence was taken around 1915 by Dayton Bowers. It's a detail of a photo of several people and appeared in my book, Daughter of the White River. The quilt in the background was used as a backdrop in several photos I have seen by Bowers, who traveled to St. Charles throughout his career.

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Jeanie Marrs Vasseur My mother's old photos. She told me that it was of Cesiro Spence and my grandfather, taken @ 1917Manage
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Jeanie Marrs Vasseur . The older gentleman is my great grandfather, John Peter Townsend 1854-1922Manage
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Denise Parkinson Wonderful! Did they live in St Charles too?! That's the same quilt!i have seen the top photo before! Thank you 😍
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Jeanie Marrs Vasseur They were woodsmen and lived on the river. This photo was taken (I think) at a timber camp on White River.
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Jeanie Marrs Vasseur Denise, I would not be surprised if all three pictures here were taken at the same time, Compare the pattern at my grt grd father's elbo with the pattern of the seated girl's picture (probably same chair!)
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Billy Rabeneck I wonder if the picture of Helen and Edie was taken from a larger picture? I can see another person's shoulder to the right, like maybe this was a school class picture? A Sunday school class picture or something larger.
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Billy Rabeneck It also occurs to me that this could be Eva, and Wesley Spence (Helen and Edie's half-sister, and half-brother) to the right as well. Edie and Helen's mother was Ellen Woods, and Eva and Wesley's mother was Jeannie Ealum. I think Ellen died at some point, and then Cicero Spence married Jeannie. Jeannie and Cicero evidently divorced because Jeannie, Eva, and Wesley moved to Missouri, and Jeannie remarried.
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