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Show The Most Famous m American Mother .' WV; U - -'n 1 1 f "7 4 vt " , ' x i n - J ' ' ' "k ' ' ..''"'' .- , - . Reconstructed ' Fort Dearborn ' ' . , ' , . - ,S , - - . Whistler's Portrait of Hi5 Mother . rSS? a . I : fcSi'T ' By ELMO SCOTT WATSON -3; 1 e j " M I j 1 jl'IEN the special Mother's day "wfWl ElL ' " - , " jll y I stamps were placed on sale re- "-. .h&.jT i 11 - v all y7 A I was added another Z&I&2tS fa. ' r V VV I chapter to the romantic story of a -I" -Jl.'"-x::j ' Ff 5 d U vf " C m M woman who Is undoubtedly Amcr- f -Afe il r-V'-, i5- IL f " 111 ' "" " lea's most famous mother. For S5? iu, " V lb V ' 5 si xll I H'e stamps hear the reproduction f-'" ' ' A. ;l Ml iiQy "f James Ahhott McNeill Whlsller's ' tiSS U A " " Si "5 H SW f,amos palnlins which is called ',X ! ' !.f iWfS ,4 , A Z&W) ArranKenient In Gray and Black," ' M "yff&Ji B1? 3 J ?- , M hut which Is more familiar to his "7 ' ff'S'l !&W'1V U A 4 ' 4 fellow-Americans as "Whistler's M )JU'4S U '- iV""W" , -x- 1? 1 1 T 1 Portrait of His Mother," or, more ' t f t'l'P ' j lij simply still, "The Mother." ' :f K.-S$k " ' 5;- jl LnBiaraS Although Anna Mathilda McNeill V ...VvX TO .. I 1U . i $N , j l Whistler needs nothing more than r . . E , this painting to guarantee her Immortality, yet Sel T-Portrait Blj Whistler CI859; 11 , 3f '"S"l the choice of her portrait for reproduction on a II t II special commemorative stamp Issue this year and named Capt. John Whistler as commandant 1 " - ' (the first time, Incidentally, that such notice has Accordingly the fort was built in the summer $ . ' been taken of Mother's day) Is an additional of ISO;!, given the name of Fort Dearborn, In - honor conferred upon her. In all of our history, honor of Gen. Henry Dearborn, then secretary , " " " 3"N-& H only three other women have had that distinc- of war, and thus OapL John Whistler became " " ' "2 tlon. They were rocaliontas, the Indian prin- the real "father of Chicago." The original draft ' fJSZ& WJJj LJ I cess; Isabella, the Spanish queen; and Martha for the plans of the fort, drawn by Captain - " Washington, wife of our first President. But Whistler, is still In the archives of the War de- 1 7 7 . . , Anna Mathilda McNeill Whistler Is not the only partm.ent at Washington-a good soldierly job, Hal I of Fmp NeworkUmversitU one who Is honored in this year's Mother's day it is. but revealing none of the artistic qualities liaU 0t rame' New lorK Univer5ltj 4 By ELMO SCOTT WATSON j"3-""IIICN the special Mother's day -r- f I at!lInlls were placed on sale re- I I cently, there was added another V V I chapter to the romantic story of a I woman who Is undoubtedly Amer- 1 lea's most famous mother. For the stamiis bear the reproduction f James Abbott McNeill Whistler's SjXjpS famous palnling which Is called "Arrangement In Gray and Black," wll'c'1 '3 more familiar to his 3j3 fellow-Americans as "Whistler's j T 5V Portrait of Ills Mother," or, more j I j simply still, "The Motlier." VmwuMiinP Although Anna Mathilda McNeill Whistler needs nothing more than this painting to guarantee her Immortality, yet the choice of her portrait for reproduction on a special commemorative stamp Issue this year (the first time, Incidentally, that such notice has been taken of Mother's day) Is an additional honor conferred upon her. In all of our history, only three other women have had that distinction. distinc-tion. They were Pocahontas, the Indian princess; prin-cess; Isabella, the Spanish queen; and Martha Washington, wife of our first President. But Anna Mathilda McNeill Whistler Is not the only one who Is honored in this year's Mother's day stamp. It was Issued also to commemorate the one hundredth anniversary of the event which took place in Lowell, Mass., on July 10, 1834 the birth of the son who was to achieve such world-wide fame himself and to bring a similar world-wide fame to her by his portrait of her. It Is doubtful If any other painting ever put on canvas Is so well known to so many people. Reproductions of it, running up into the millions In numbers, have been printed and these prints have gone to every corner of the earth. During the last year and a half, while it was In this country under a lonn agreement from the French government, It was exhibited In 12 leading cities throughout the United States and it is estimated that during its triumphal tour more than 2,000,-000 2,000,-000 persons viewed it Several hundred thousands thou-sands more will have been added to that number before it Is sent back to Paris late this month (for the agreement with the French government calls for its return by June 1) to resume Its honored place in the Louvre. For five months of the time that the painting was on a tour of the country it was exhibited at the Chicago Art institute In connection with A Century of Progress. But among the thousands thou-sands who saw It there and who also saw the replica of Fort Dearborn on the exposition grounds It is doubtful If one in a thousand realized that there was a- historical, if not a cultural, link between the world-famous painting, paint-ing, the highest exemplification of a man's skill In the line of fine arts, and the crude architecture architec-ture of a building which had only the very utlll-ftarian utlll-ftarian purpose of preserving the lives of Its inhabitants in-habitants from savage hatred. That link is the theme of this story. The story has its beginning in Ireland more than 175 years ago. In the year 175S there was born to an English family named Whistler, living liv-ing there, a son to whom was given the name of John. Long before he had reached his majority majori-ty young John Whistler ran away from home and joined the British army. In 1777 he came to America as a soldier in the expedition with which "Gentleman Johnny" Burgoyne intended to deal a crashing blow to the American colonies. colo-nies. But the rapier thrusts of Daniel Morgan and Benedict Arnold warded off that blow at Saratoga, and the end of the year saw John Whistler a prisoner of war along with the rest of "Gentleman Johnny's" army. Mark that fact well, for it has a curious aftermath ! Before the end of the Revolution, Whistler, as n paroled or exchanged prisoner, was back in England where he soon afterwards was discharged dis-charged from the army. Then he fell in love with the daughter of one of his father's friends, eloped with her, came to America a second time and settled at Hagerstown, Md. In 1701 this soldier sol-dier who had worn the scarlet uniform of Old England put on the nondescript uniform of a lieutenant adjutant In the levies which made up a part of the army of the new republic. From that time on he served continuously on the Northwestern frontier under St. Clair. Wayne and others who were trying to break the power of the savage tribes that were resisting the westward west-ward push of the American frontiersmen. In 1797 It was "Captaiu" John Whistler and In 1S03 he was stationed at Detroit. The Louisiana Louisi-ana Purchase had flung our frontier from the Mississippi back to the Rocky mountains, but If we hoped to make good our possession of this vast empire there must be garrisons In the heart of the Indian country. One of the strategic places for such a garrison was at the foot of Lake Michigan at a place variously called Chl-cagou, Chl-cagou, Chikago, Chekakou and a half-dozen similar simi-lar spellings. So, early in 1S03, the inspector-general inspector-general of the army stationed at Cumberland, lid., gave orders for the building of a post there and named Capt. John Whistler as commandant. U Accordingly the fort was built in the summer of ISO;!, given the name of Fort Dearborn, In 1 honor of Gen. Henry Dearborn, then secretary l of war, and thus Capt. John Whistler became the real "father of Chicago." The original draft for the plans of the fort, drawn by Captain Whistler, is still in the archives of the War de- L! partm.ent at Washington a good soldierly job, It is. but revealing none of the artistic qualities which were later to make the name of Whistler so famous. For the next nine years John Whistler, as builder of the fort and its commandant, dominated dom-inated the little community in this lonely outpost out-post of civilization which was to become the second largest city in the United States. But the building and the commanding were not the only contributions he made to the history of Fort Dearborn and the beginnings of Chicago. He brought with him a growing family, some of whose members were destined for renown even greater than his. His eldest son, William Whistler, accompanied him to Chicago as a second lieutenant and served there throughout the elder Whistler's term of service. His eldest daughter, Sarah, was married in November, 1804, to James Abbott, a trader of Detroit, thus becoming Chicago's first bride. Another daughter married Lieut. Joseph Hamilton, who was also a subaltern under Whistler at Fort Dearborn. But our chief Interest Is in a toddling child of three who came with his father to Chicago in 1S03. His name was George Washington Whistler. Whist-ler. Thus did the ex-British soldier honor the great commander of the "rebels" against whom he had fought under Burgoyne. Young George Washington Whistler grew up into sturdy boyhood boy-hood along the marshy banks of the Chicago river and on the sandy shores of Lake Michigan. He was only ten years old when, as the result of a garrison feud, the War department thought It advisable to scatter the officers at Fort Dearborn Dear-born to various posts in the Middle West and the boy accompanied his father back to Detroit. And there, two years later, young George Washington Wash-ington Whistler probably witnessed the scene which made his father unique in American and perhaps In any other history. For Capt. John Whistler and his elder son, Lieut. William Whistler, were officers in General Hull's army when that flustered American commander com-mander surrendered the fort at Detroit to the British at the outbreak of the War of 1S12, and tradition says that the captain was so enraged over the capitulation that he broke his sword over his knee rather than surrender it to the enemy. Perhaps it was only the shame of a surrender without firing a shot that caused him to do it Or perhaps it might have been his realization that he was destined to go down in history as the only British officer who, having once surrendered to a victorious American army, became In turn an American officer who surrendered surren-dered to a victorious British army. In due time John Whistler was exchanged for a British prisoner, and the choleric old captain remained in the American army only until the close of the war when he was honorably discharged. dis-charged. He died September 3, 1S20. but he lived long enough to see his son, William, win some renown as an officer in the Indian and Mexican wars. Old Capt. John Whistler also lived long enough to see his youngest son. George Washington Whistler, graduate (Tom West Point at the age of nineteen and assigned to the artillery branch. But he was not to have the satisfaction of knowing know-ing to what heights his son would rise in another profession, nor to what greater heights this son's son would rise in still another. While George Washington Whistler was still a cadet at West Point he once visited, while on leave, the home of a classmate, William Gihbs McNeill. It was a great brick mansion which had been built on a plantation near the Cape Fear river In North Carolina before the Revolution Revolu-tion by one Donald McNeill, scion of a Scotch family that had emigrated to America from the isle of Skye in 1739. There Cadet Whistler made the acquaintance of Anna Mathilda McNeill, the eldest of a family of five children. It would be pleasant to be able to record the fact that it was a ease of love at first sight for Cadet Whistler and Anna McNeill. But that is doubtful, for soon after he was graduated from West Point he was married,- but not to Anna McNeill. Shortly afterwards young Whistler was left a widower and early in the '80s he again met the motherly older sister of his classmate, William Gibbs McNeill, and married her. In 1833 Whistler resigned from the army and the next year to George Washington Whistler and Anna Mathilda Whistler was born a sou to' whom was given the name James Abbott McNeill Whistler, thus perpetuating the name of his uncle, James Abbott, the Detroit trader at Fort Dearborn, as well as his paternal and maternal families, the McNeills and the Whistlers. After George Washington Whistler's resignation resigna-tion from the army he rose to eminence as an engineer and in 1842 he went to Russia to enter the service of the czar in the construction of the railroad from St. Petersburg to Moscow, winning for himself from C?.nr Nicholas the decoration of the Order of St. Anne. To Russia with him went his wife and their two sons, one of them a slender, weak lad, affectionately known to his mother as "Jamie." And "Jamie" he was to her to the end of her days, even when he became a world-famous painter. For the close tie between be-tween the mother and the son who was to immortalize im-mortalize her on canvas began during this Russian Rus-sian experience. She nursed him during those bitter years and when they were ended in the death of Major Whistler and when the widow and her two sons were reduced to poverty, she brought them out of the land of snows back to her sunny North Carolina. When "Jamie" grew up he decided to follow the profession of his father and become a soldier. He secured an appointment to West Point in 1852, but his career there was a short one. In fact, it lasted only two years. But the loss to the military world, if indeed It was a loss, was the gain of the world of art. After leaving West Point, Whistler went to Paris, resolved to become a painter, and his career In that role is too well known to need further comment. During the years he was rising to fame his mother was in Europe, also, not with him always, but nearby in case he should have need of her. For somehow her little "Jamie" never seemed to grow up enough to be without his mother. In 1SG0 Whistler left London for three years more of study in Paris and his mother returned to America for a last visit with her relatives in North Carolina. For Whistler had decided never to return to his native land to live. So his motlier was going to wind up what few affairs she had there and then return to London, where they would live on the scant means which the son could provide. While she was visiting In Cumberland and Bladen counties in North Carolina, the storm of the Civil war broke and her return to Europe was postponed indefinitely. Finally early in 1S64 came word from her son that he had returned to London and established himself there. So she announced her Intention of joining him. But no matter how much her relatives told Anna Mathilda McNeill Whistler that it would be impossible for her to go to Europe now, her onbileply was the calm statement that her "Jamie" needed her and she was going. And go she did. Somehow she arranged to take passage on a Confederate blockade runner and on It arrived safely in England. There she lived to the end of her days, the Inseparable In-separable companion of the man who came to be hailed as one of the greatest painters In the world. by Western Newspaper Union. |