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THE LITTLE GIRL IN THE YELLOW DRESS |
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Carrie Jewett, The Little Girl in the Yellow Dress, is home again in Lancaster. Her return-the Fairfield Heritage Association purchased the painting in 1982-was set in motion by coincidence and a chance encounter and sparked a renewed interest in her identity. Like every good mystery story, hers leaves something to the imagination. In
1949 Pick Richardson, an astute antique dealer and collector, was in one
of the oldest homes in the old city of Lancaster. In the attic of the
home of the recently-deceased Miss Alice Champion, he came across a
number of old frames which he purchased on-the-spot for S1.00 each .
Mounted in one of these frames was an unusual early painting of a
very young girl in a yellow dress-subject unknown, but certainly
American, almost certainly Ohio. For three decades, despite many offers
to sell he kept her in his personal collection. In
1977 the painting was sold-unannounced-to an unknown dealer. Four years
later two members of Fairfield Heritage Association attended the
Cincinnati Antiques Show, where they paused briefly to examine the
display of Chicagoan Taylor B. Williams. Learning that the pair were
from Lancaster, Williams exclaimed "Really?
I have a painting in Chicago that came from Lancaster." On
the basis of that chance remark, the long-delayed return to Lancaster
was set in motion. Williams, a friend of Pick Richardson's, had been the
painting's 1977 purchaser. He had removed it to Chicago where he
displayed it briefly in his shop, before retiring it to his private
collection. Now, with an impending commitment to a new\\ building and
the need for capital he was preparing to offer the pall1ting for sale at
the New York Armory Show-for substantially m,)re than its original price
of S1.00. Coincidence
had played its part. The painting had been located and was available.
But still the questions remained: "Who did it'?" and "Who
was she?" Despite years of admiration and speculation, no one had
made a determined search for the answer to either question. The
first concern was to give the little girl a name, for in so doing
puzzles of both historic and artistic importance might well be solved.
Ruth Drinkle assumed the role of Hercule Poirot. Drawing upon her wide
knowledge of Fairfield County's past and people, she contacted a friend
who had moved from Lancaster some thirty years previously-Isabelle
Champion Duffendach, the niece of the long-departed Miss Alice Champion.
The answer came at last, and a tragic story it was, The Little Girl in the Yellow Dress now had a name: Carrie Jewett, born in 1852, died in 1854 in Kenton, Ohio-the older half sister of Alice Champion. Carrie Jewett's mother, Mrs. Caroline Champion, was the daughter of Judge James Wilkinson, a member of one of Maumee's pioneer families and Alice Cook Roby. At sixteen, Caroline married Chauncey Mathews, a doctor in Maumee. That same year, 1847, she bore a son and her husband died during an epidemic. About 1850 Caroline married the Reverend A W. Jewett, an Episcopal rector who at the time of his death in December 1854 was serving a parish in Kenton, Ohio. His eulogy, published in the Kenton newspaper, tells of the great bereavement of Caroline Wilkinson Mathews Jewett, who had lost not only her husband but also their lovely little two-year-old daughter, Carrie, the previous summer. The portrait was that of little Carrie Jewett and must have been painted in 1853 or '54-probably in Maumee. Twice widowed with one surviving son, Caroline married Marcus Champion, a railroader, in 1859. Marcus and Caroline headed west, and added two children to their family-Curtis Roby and Alice. But in 1865, Marcus was killed in a steamboat explosion on the Sacramento River at Rio Vista, California.
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Caroline
and her three children returned via the Isthmus of Panama to Lyme,
Connecticut, the home of her late husband. There she stayed for a few
years while Chauncey, her oldest son, finished his education.
When he obtained a railroad position in Lancaster, Caroline and
all her family moved there in 1870. Among the precious family belongings
~he brought with her to furnish their home was the lovely portrait of
Carrie, her little lost daughter. Ruth
Drinkle's sleuthing had resolved the critical question of the little
girl's identity. But the
story does not yet have an ending, for the second question remains
unanswered-the name of the talented but untrained artist who painted
Carrie Jewett shortly before her death is still a mystery. Like so many
artists of his time, he left his work unsigned. If, as seems likely, the
portrait was painted in the Maumee area, no record of such an artist has
yet been uncovered. Conceivably the artist could have been from the East, for in its exhilarating heyday, Maumee was expected to become the major center of the Midwest. Prominent Maumee families like the Wilkinsons had close economic and cultural ties with the Eastern Seaboard. But to date, no evidence has been found to support any identification theory, and experienced antique dealers consider ascertaining the artist’s name a remote possibility. However, in this story of coincidence and chance, surely it is possible that one more such incident may occur, allowing "The End" to be written to the mystery of Carrie Jewett, The Little Girl in the Yellow Dress. The Ohio Historical Society Timeline Volume 1 Number 1 October-November 1984
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