Portrait and biographical record of the Willamette valley, Oregon, containing original sketches of many well known citizens of the past and present, Part 133

Author: Chapman Publishing Company, Chicago
Publication date: 1903
Publisher: Chicago, The Chapman Publishing Company
Number of Pages: 1622

USA > Oregon > Portrait and biographical record of the Willamette valley, Oregon, containing original sketches of many well known citizens of the past and present > Part 133

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Armed with his experience and with great hope in the future of America, Mr. Cusiter came to the United States in 1885, and after crossing the continent to Portland, Ore., remained there for a couple of months. Not being particularly well impressed with the northern city he found his way to Silverton, where he secured a position as bookkeeper for the flouring mills of this city. Five years' association in this capacity convinced him that he had found a good place in which to live, and one which held out a helping hand to all who were industrious and capable. Desiring to engage in business on his own responsibility, he bought out a merchandise business with a partner, and thus continued to cater to the needs of the community for several years. In 1902 he bought out his partner, and has since conducted the business alone. His store contains a stock valued at $8,000, and his goods are selected with reference to supplying a large and exacting trade. The greatest consideration is shown pa- trons of this well managed enterprise, the pro- prietor encouraging in his assistants, tact and patience, and the greatest order and neatness.

In Salem, Ore., in 1893, Mr. Cusiter married Nettie Ridings, a native of Clackamas county, Ore., near Marquam. Mr. Cusiter is a Democrat in political affiliation, and among the positions of trust held by him during his residence here may be mentioned that of mayor of the city for three terms, and member of the council for two terms. He is fraternally connected with Silver- ton Lodge No. 45, A. F. & A. M., and Home Lodge No. 35 Knights of Pythias. The friends and associates of Mr. Cusiter speak of him as a whole-souled, honorable and public-spirited gen- tleman, and one in whom his adopted city may well repose the greatest confidence.

MARION J. AND JOHN R. WHITE. As small and irresponsible lads, M. J. and J. R. White came across the plains in 1852; but as strong, courageous and resourceful men, they occupy an important position in the agri- cultural world of the Willamette valley. Side by side, they have worked and progressed along natural lines of development, until to-day the

farm operated by the two brothers, and the hop business conducted by M. J. & J. R. White & Son, represent all that is substantial and reliable, both as to the extent and scope of their operations and the character and attainments of the men conducting them.

On a farm in Callaway county, Mo., Marion J. White was born September 17, 1845, while his brother, John R. White, was born November 17, 1846. Peter White, their father, whose first wife had lived but a short time after their marriage, was born in Pennsylvania in 1810, and in young manhood removed to the far-off state of Mis- souri. There he learned the trade of silversmith, and was employed at the same until his second marriage, in 1843, with Virginia Q. Foster, who was born in Virginia in 1813. Subsequently, he settled upon a farm in Callaway county, Mo. Upon the outbreak of the Black Hawk war he left his duties on the farm and enlisted in a Mis- souri regiment, serving three years in this mem- orable conflict. His military experiences were interesting. He was attached to the escort of General Fremont during the latter's expedition to the Rocky mountains, and participated in numer- ons important engagements. After being mus- tered out, he returned to the farm and pursued the even tenor of his way until 1852. In the meantime, four children had been born into his family, named in the order of their birth, as follows: Elizabeth J., wife of A. S. Gleason, of Hubbard, Ore .; M. J .; J. R., and America Q., wife of J. T. Ross, who resides near Monitor, Ore., on part of the White homestead.

In the spring of 1852, Mr. White disposed of his Missouri property and outfitted for a journey over the plains, M. J. and J. R. then being six and five years of age, respectively. Always full of lurking dangers, and uncertain of accomplish- ment, this journey, as did many in those perilous times, proved the futility of the plans of man- kind. All went well until Fort Laramie was reached. There the father was stricken with the cholera, and died while the party was stopping on Deer creek. The disconsolate widow buried her greatest treasure at that lonely spot, and for- tified herself to bear, unaided, the greatest blow that had ever befallen her. Wearily she traveled the rest of the distance with her little family, and with a heavy heart and little hope for the future, took up a donation claim of one hundred and sixty acres on Butte creek, two and a half miles southeast of Monitor, in Marion county. The land was a wilderness, and the immediate re- sources must have been pitifully small ; but good fortune came her way from the start, for her sad story touched the hearts of the neighboring set- tlers, who, one and all, put their shoulders to the task of building her a little log cabin, in which she might at least find shelter from the inclement

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weather. Food and other necessities were also forthcoming, and, being one of those courageous and dauntless pioneer women of whom one reads with feelings of the most profound admiration, she succeeded, in spite of adversity, in rearing her children and in making them a comparatively comfortable home. When the boys were old enough to do so, they erected a more pretentious modern structure, and the farm began to take on the aspect of an up-to-date and enterprising cen- ter of activity. This pioneer mother continued to guide the affairs of her household for many years, and lived to be sixty-nine years of age, dying April 6, 1883.

Of the sons who have attained prominence in Marion county, Marion J. lived at home until 1874. In that year he made his home with his brother, with whom he has since resided. He has never married. He received his education in the public schools, as did also his brother, John R., both also attending the high school at Silver- ton. John R. finally engaged in educational work for a few terms. He was united in marriage, October 3. 1872, to Mary A. Birtchet, a native of Yamhill county, Ore., born December 1, 1853. Her parents, George and Elizabeth (Haughn) · Birtchet, came from Missouri to Oregon in 1853, crossing the plains and locating near Wilsonville. Mr. and Mrs. White began housekeeping on the 'farm which is still their home, and where, with his brother, John F is laying by a competence. Of the farm of four hundred and ninety-six acres, two hun- dred and fifty are under cultivation, fifty-six acres being devoted to the culture of hops. In 1902, the hop harvest yielded fifty-four thousand pounds. All of the improvements on the White farm have been made by the brothers, for they had to deal with wild land from the beginning, and much arduous labor was required before the seed could be placed in the ground, or any hope of gain indulged in. At present large numbers of Shorthorn cattle browse in the fertile mead- ows, and other high-grade stock contribute to a substantial income. While the farm in general is managed by the brothers, the hop industry, which entails additional responsibility, is under the care of George Gasner, son of J. R. White. To Mr. and Mrs. J. R. White were born nine chil- dren; Lulu P. became the wife of A. L. Briggs, of Cottage Grove, Ore., and they have two sons, Merl and Verne; Marion P., who resides in Clackamas county, married Hattie Taylor, and they have one son, Drexcl; Euphe M. died at the age of twenty years; George Gasner, who lives on the home farm, married Mary Pursifull; Vir- ginia Elizabeth became the wife of R. Scheurer, a resident of Plaza, Wash .; America R., Volney J. R., Rosetta and Merton O. are living at home. The White brothers occupy an enviable place

in their neighborhood, where both are regarded as public-spirited and progressive men. Politi- cally both view public affairs from an independent standpoint, and John R. White has been promi- nently identified with local matters. Both broth- ers are members of the Butte Creek Grange. Mr. and Mrs. J. R. White are members of the Chris- tian Church, in which Mr. White is a trustee, and for twenty-five years he has served as clerk of the school board.

HOMER C. DAVENPORT. Perhaps no other newspaper artist in the United States has been the subject of so many "write ups " as the person whose name heads this article. His ap- pearance among the foremost cartoonists was so sudden and unheralded that writers of all de- grees were tempted to try their descriptive and analytic powers upon him. Of necessity, they had not much data to draw from, for he had no diploma from any American art school; had not been in England, Germany, Italy or France; in fact, had not been educated in art anywhere; and as he was not a lineal descendant from artists, as any one knew, it was not strange that many of the "interviews " were as grotesque as the artist himself could wish. He never claimed to be an artist, and so when questioned as to the employment of his youth, he generally gave such facts as would make a humorous picture, such as firing on a steamboat, wiping locomotives, breed- ing and fighting game chickens, playing clown for a circus, feeding lions and tigers in a men- agerie, clog dancing in a minstrel show, um- piring base ball games, or any other of the thousand and one things boys attempt in the rattle-brain period of existence. As such things made up the greater part of his antecedents, upon which his interviewers delighted to dwell, the opinion became prevalent that his case lies outside of heredity and that early art training is unimportant. If from such vagaries, and without previous training, a green Oregon boy could enter the field of art and carry off high honors and emoluments, why not others do the same? Hence, all over the Pacific coast, boys who had never taken a thought of how pictures are made, began to draw cartoons, full of enthu- siastic purpose, to become famous like Homer.

Young men just beginning to encounter the earnest tug of existence and wanting to find an easier way of making a living ; and boys who had seen Davenport's pictures in the Eraminer and Journal and were stirred with emulation, these brought samples of their art yearnings to be ex- amined by the celebrated cartoonist, during his short visit in Salem two years ago. One hope- ful woman desired him to leave the train and go six miles into the country to see the work of her

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darling boy, who had been drawing for only three months, and never made a line until he was twelve years old. One of Homer's early com- panions, now editor of a Seattle paper, said, " It is too bad, so many young people should abandon pursuits in which they can make a living, and spend their precious early years in drawing hideous pictures and dreaming of brilliant suc- cess in art." To satisfy his regret of such a con- dition, he proposed to publish his opinion that Homer's success is the worst calamity that ever befell the boys of the Pacific coast.

Such a statement, however emphatic, will not deter any ambitious boy, for has not everybody seen the catchy write-ups of Homer, who was pictured in spicy phrase as a queer, jolly fellow ; a veritable freak of nature, given to all sorts of vagaries, and having a disrelish of book learn- ing, as well as any remunerative employment, and that his present success is the result of one or two lucky incidents?

One, that he painted, on the outside of a hen house, a game cock so life-like that his bull dog thought it a veritable live cock and bristled for a fight every time he passed that way; another, that a friend having confidence in the sagacity of the dog, suggested to Homer that he had better work at art for a living. There is plenty in all this to rattle the boys and make them believe there is an easy way to fame and fortune, such as Homer had found or strayed into.

But the dear school of experience is a very effective teacher, and two years of experiment- ing and cartooning has convinced most of the boys that the hill of art is as hard to climb as the hill of science which they abandoned to loiter in the royal road to fame.

Only here and there an art scribbler is left, punishing himself in the vain endeavor to evoke a faculty too weak for self-assertion; very much like making something out of nothing. The plain, unvarnished truth, as respects Homer's early ycars, would have saved the boys from the unlucky diversion, but his interviewers were not informed thereof. In fact Homer himself at- tached no importance to his early habits, nor had he considered the controlling impulse which prompted them. It is doubtful if he could have given as good a reason for himself, as Topsy did, that he "just grow'd."

The common mind everywhere takes but little account of what is most influential in the form- ative period of human character. Unless a per- son has received an academic education, he says at once, "I am uneducated," and considers as unworthy of mention the early, constant, and un- aided exercise of his mental faculties, the only true and reliable education. And it is owing to the omission of the basic conditions, the absolute- ly essential antecedents, from the biographical

sketches, that make of Homer an inexplicable personage. Very creditable accounts, however, have been written within a year by Allan Dale, Julian Hawthorne and Arthur McEwan, but they contain no antidote to the irrational intoxi- cation which possessed the young would-be art- ists of Oregon. If they could have been as- sured, for a fact, that although Homer never attended an art school or had an art teacher, he had spent his whole life in the daily and almost hourly practices of art, not as technically under- stood, but of drawing such pictures as suited his fancy, not because any one else was an artist, or to satisfy an ambition to be an artist, for he was void of purpose, but from an inherited en- dowment of special faculties and an irrepress- ible desire to exercise them, they would have dropped their pencils in utter amazement, to think of following in the track of such a being. He didn't wait until he was twelve years old before he began to trace his mental pictures on paper. Before he was three years old he was observing and drawing, rudely but continuously, subject to such intermissions of play as chil- dren take. It is nothing uncommon for young children to draw, but it is very rare to see one absorbed in the work hour after hour, putting his observations to paper as though it were a de- votion. His extraordinary love for animals, and especially of birds, was exhibited when only a few months old. Unlike other babies, toys af- forded him but little amusement. Shaking rat- tle boxes and blowing whistles only fretted him, and his wearied looks and moans seemed to say that he was already tired of existence. Carry- ing him around into the various rooms and show- ing pictures soon became irksome, and in quest of something to relieve the monotony of in- door life, his paternal grandmother found a continnous solace for his fretful moods in the chickens. It was worth the time of a philoso- pher to observe the child drink in every motion of the fowls and witness the thrill of joy that went through his being when the cock crew or flapped his wings. Such a picture is worth re- producing. Old grandmother in her easy chair upon the veranda ; baby sitting upon the floor by her side ; his little hands tossing wheat, at inter- vals, to the clucking hen and her brood, the lat- ter venturing into baby's lap and picking grains therefrom, despite the warnings of the shy old cock and anxious mother. This lesson, with all its conceivable variations learned, ceased to be entertaining, and a broader field was needed. So grandma, or her substitute, carried baby to the barnyard, and there, sitting under the wagon shed, acquaintance was made with the other domestic animals, which afforded him daily di- version. At first their forms and quiet attitudes were of sufficient interest, but as these became

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familiar, more active exhibitions were required, and the dog perceiving his opportunity, turned the barnyard into a circus of animals.

Whether this was the cause and beginning of Homer's extravagant love for dogs, is probably not material, but unlike Madame DeStael, who said, " The more I see of men the better I like dogs," he has love enough to go all around. All this seems very commonplace, as any child would be likewise entertained, but it is a very rare infant to whom such scenes and acquaintances are a necessity. And that the forms and actions of his speechless friends were being photographed up- on his brain, was shown by the fact that as soon as he could use a pencil he began to sketch them, very imperfect in proportions and form, but ex- hibiting them in action with sufficient accuracy before long to label one as untamed, another mad, and another frolicksome. After his moth- er's death from smallpox, on the 20th of No- vember, 1870, the family was subjected to sev- eral months of social isolation, during the rainy season, when Homer, just recovered from the dread disease, was kept in doors. During these dull months he worked more assiduously at draw- ing than ever since for pay. Sitting at the desk or lying prone upon the floor, it was draw, draw, draw. Fearing the effect of such intense appli- cation upon the slimsy fellow, his grandmother tried various diversions without much success. She could interest with Indian or ghost stories, but such gave him no bodily exercise and only set him to drawing how granny looked when telling ghost stories.

Plainly observable, even thus early, was his love of the dramatic in everything having life. Though much attracted by beautiful specimens of the animal kingdom, his chief satisfaction came from representing them in their moods. His pictures were all doing something. Horses, dogs, monkeys, chickens, ducks, pigeons, were exhibit- ing their peculiar characteristics and so fitted to the occasion as to awaken the supposition that the artist must be "en rapport " with all ani- mated nature. Of course, his artistic creations were wide of the mark, as respects conformity to natural proportions, which his visiting critics unfailingly pointed out. "Homer ! this horse's legs are too long for his body; his back is too short and his neck too long. And this dog. chasing the horse, is too long bodied and too short legged. Nobody ever saw a dog like that." His reply was, " That is a bench-leg dog and the horse can't kick him." The real excellence of the disproportioned animals, which the volun- tary critics did not sce, lay in the fact that they were truly acting out their natures, under the circumstances, and exhibiting the same con- trolling animal desires in every limh and feature. A mad horse was mad all over, and an ardent

dog showed it in every part, regardless of pro- portions.

It may be said that these are a fond parent's after-thoughts, or the result of his own sug- gestions at the time, but neither of these sus- picions can be true. The suggestion as to har- mony in dramatic composition and co-ordination of details might be elaborated to a student a thou- sand times, and yet, without natural faculty to perceive, without the sympathy with nature, the suggestions would result in a mere artificiality as devoid of life as " a painted ship upon a painted ocean." Art education at the highest schools can- not supply an artist's natural deficiency in me- chanical aptitude or give him a receptive sym- pathy with life.

A highly accomplished Parisian artist, work- ing on the Examiner, saw a cartoon hy Homer, representing the havoc created among the ani- mals of a barnyard, by the passing of the first railroad train through it, and remarked, “No man who was not born in a barnyard could do. that." Evidently that artist was off in his casu- istry, for he, too, had seen ducks and geese, cows and calves, goats and sheep, horses and mules, all of them in action, and while he could repre- sent them in action with far more accuracy as to proportion of parts, his animals in such a scene would be doing some very poor acting, in fact, not looking and acting like themselves. If an early acquaintance and continuous existence with domestic animals could make an artist then all farmers' boys would be artists. The poor Irish who raise pigs and chickens in the house, and the Arabs who tent their horses and children together from birth, should be artists. Such incidents do not make artists; they merely furnish opportunity for the exercise of birth endowments.

And Homer's early method of work, if an im- pulsive employment may be dignified by the term method, was "sui generis " and probably unique if not wonderful. Coincident with the drawing of a mad horse, was the acting by himself. The work would be arrested at times, seemingly for want of appreciation or mental image of a horse in that state of feeling, and then he took to the floor. After viciously stamping, kicking, snort- ing and switching an improvised tail which he held in his hand, behind his back, until his feel- ing or fancy became satisfied, the picture was completed and referred to me with the question, " Is that the way a mad horse looks?" Yes, he appears to be mad through and through.

Granting that the importance of harmony in a composition was frequently spoken of in his vouth, I lay no claim to being his teacher, for he was moved by an impulse that paid but slight regard to the technical restrictions of scribe and ruļẹ,

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And although it has been said by a writer in the New York World that he " has a robust con- tempt of art," his natural ability and aptitudes for accomplishing such results as the critic would call artistic are unsurpassed. The mechanical aids and dilatory processes of the schooled artists are never resorted to by him. He does not use a snap-shot camera or wait for a dead-rest pose, but sketches on the spur of the moment, and " shoots folly as it flies." Under such circum- stances, faultless art is out of the question, nor does a daily newspaper need it. During the Columbian Exposition at Chicago in 1892, a famous horse race occurred and all the great newspapers sent artists to sketch the winning horse. Homer's picture for the Chicago Herald easily surpassed all competitors. What other artist in America can study a man's features for a minute or two, then walk a mile to his studio and draw a better likeness of him than was ever done by any artist having a pose? Sam Rainy's picture was taken in this way and he was so pleased with it that he procured the original from the Examiner and has it framed in his office. And still Homer makes no pretensions to serious art, as taught at the schools. His forte is caricature, though Clara Morris says it is not, but that he is a great actor. He fell in love with the beautiful beasts and birds at first sight, and the attachment continues unabated. His fondness for dramatic scenes, first noticed in connection with them, did not end there. Very early, even at three years of age, he was experi- menting with his playmates, for no observable reason, except that he desired to see them act. People said he was a hector, a tease, and few of them discovered the cause, as there seemed to be no connection with anger or ill will. Many a delightful play ended in a rumpus, which he eagerly eyed, the only placid and sweet-tempered one of the company. One woman said she be- lieved Homer loved to see children quarrel and cut up. Indeed, she had come very close to the truth, but the motive she had not divined. Likely, he was probing human nature and as- similating its moods. I do not take him to be a philosopher. His peculiarities in this respect are referred to his mother, who was the most con- summate reproducer of social scenes. No per- son, however odd in feature, form, voice or gesture, was beyond her powers of imitation. And it was all so natural that I did not call it acting. Rather, it was being. I asked her once how she could do this, and she said. " I feel like them." I have often thought, when seeing Ho- mer immersed in his work, that he, too, feels like his subjects.

All through his boyhood days he was fond of pictures and spent much time in poring over il- lustrated books and papers and in visiting art

galleries, but he was never known to copy from them. His innate desire and tendency, as well as my advice, was to illustrate his own concep- tions and fancies. His first observations, as be- fore narrated, were at home in his father's barn- yard, but as he grew he began to roam in quest of something new, and when he heard of any strange breed or any extraordinary specimen of the animal creation, he was at once seized of what ordinary people would call an irrational desire to see it. And to see, in his case, meant the most intense study, not for a few minutes or an hour, but continuously until the subject became a part of him. Of scores of pigeons he knew every individual and discovered that the old story of their marital faithfulness is a myth ; that they have their little jealousies and love in- trigues like human beings. Of his visits over the country, people said they were idle, purpose- less ; that he was sowing wild oats, a mere pleas- ure seeker, but I noticed that he came home full, not of book learning, but of the only kind of acquisitions for which he cared, new birds and beasts, new men and their character manifesta- tions, as he could prove with his ever ready pencil. They were as much voyages of dis- covery as Columbus undertook in 1492. Unlike the great navigator, his cruisings were not for wealth or power or the introduction of religion to heathen lands; they had no ulterior purpose of financial gain, for the thought had never crossed his brain that he was in this spontaneous and almost unconscious way preparing himself for a gainful occupation. But he was approach- ing manhood and I occasionally remarked to him that he had so far been acting as though life here were a holiday or a visit, when in fact it is a very serious matter and requires earnest effort to get a good living. He did not dissent from my view of it, but seemed at a loss in deciding for what he was best fitted.

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Portrait and biographical record of the Willamette valley, Oregon, containing original sketches of many well known citizens of the past and present, Part 133

Author: Chapman Publishing Company, Chicago Publication date: 1903 Publisher: Chicago, The Chapman Publishing Company Number of Pages: 1622

Author: Chapman Publishing Company, Chicago
Publication date: 1903
Publisher: Chicago, The Chapman Publishing Company
Number of Pages: 1622