The Most Famous
American Mother
^Constructed
Fort Dearborn
’"V ' Whistler's Portrait of His Mother
Self-Portrait bij Whistler Cl 859)
■
By ELMO SCOTT WATSON
HKN the special Mother's day
stamps were placed on sale re
cently, there was added another
chapter to the romantic story of a
woman who Is undoubtedly Amer
ica’s most famous mother. For
the stamps bear the reproduction
of James Abbott McNeill Whistler’s
famous painting which Is called
“Arrangement In Gray and Black,”
but which Is more familiar to his
fellow-Amerlcnns as “Whistler’s
Portrait of His Mother,” or, more
simply still, “The Mother.”
Although Anna Mathilda McNeill
Whistler needs nothing more than
la painting to guarantee her Immortality, yet
e choice of her portrait for reproduction on a
i ecial commemorative stamp Issue this year
' le first time. Incidentally, that such notice has
en taken of Mother's day) Is an additional
nor conferred upon her. In all of our history,
ly three other women have had that distinc
n. They were Pocahontas, the Indian prin
ts; Isabella, the Spanish queen; and Martha
ashtngton, wife of our first President But
na Mathilda McNeill Whistler Is not the only
e who Is honored In this year’s Mother’s day
imp. It was Issued also to commemorate the
e hundredth anniversary of the event which
>k place In Lowell, Mass., on July 10, 1834—
> birth of the son who was to achieve such
rld-wlde fame himself and to bring a similar
rld-wlde fame to her by his portrait of her.
t Is doubtful If any other painting ever put
canvas Is so well known to so many people,
productions of It, running up Into the millions
numbers, have been printed and these prints
ve gone to every corner of the earth. During
> last year and a half, whllie It was In this
mtry under a loan agreement from the French
rernment. It was exhibited In 12 leading cities
oughout the United States and It Is estimated
it during Its triumphal tour more than 2,000,
• persons viewed IL Several hundred thou
lds more will have been added to that number
'ore It Is sent back to Paris late this month
r the agreement with the French government
Is for Its return by June 1) to resume Its
lored place In the Louvre.
' or nve monuis or me ume rnac me painung
s on a tour of the country it was exhibited
the Chicago Art institute in connection with
Century of. Progress. But among the thou
ids who saw it there and who also saw the
dica of Fort Dearborn on the exposition
>unds it Is doubtful if one in a thousand
Used that there was a historical, If not a
tural, link between the world-famous paint
, the highest exemplification of a man’s skill
the line of fine arts, and the crude architec
e of a building which had only the very utill
lan purpose of preserving the lives of Its ln
iltants from savage hatred. That link Is the
me of this story.
'he story has its beginning in Ireland more
n 175 years ago. In the year 1758 there was
n to an English family named Whistler, llr
there, a son to whom was given the name
John. Long before he had reached his majori
young John Whistler ran away from home
I Joined the British army. In 1777 he came to
erica as a soldier in the expedition with
Ich “Gentleman Johnny” Burgoyne Intended
deal a crushing blow to the American colo
s. But the rapier thrusts of Daniel Morgan
I Benedict Arnold warded off that blow at
atoga, and the end of the year saw John
Istler a prisoner of war along with the rest
“Gentleman Johnny’s” army. Mark that fact
1, for it has a curious aftermath !
lefore the end of the Revolution, Whistler, as
tnroled or exchanged prisoner, was back in
'land where ne soon arterwaras was dis
rged from the army. Then he fell In love
h the daughter of one of his father's friends,
ted with her, came to America a second time
settled at Hagerstown, Md, In 1791 this sol
• who had worn the scarlet uniform of Old
'land put on the nondescript uniform of a
tenant adjutant In the levies which made up
art of the army of the new republic. From
t time on he served continuously on the
•thwestern frontier under St. Clnlr, Wayne
others who were trying to break the power
he savage tribes that were resisting the west
•d push of the American frontiersmen.
1 1797 It was “Captain" John Whistler and
803 he was stationed at Detroit. The LoulsI
„ Purchase had flung our frontier from the
slsslppl back to the Rocky mountains, but If
hoped to make good our possession of this
t empire there must be garrisons In the heart
the Indian country. One of the strategic
«s for such a garrison was at the foot of
e Michigan at a place variously called Chl
>u, Chlkago, Chekakou and a half-dozen slml
spellings. So, early In 1803, the lnspector
eral of tbs army stationed at Cumberland,
, gave orders for the building of a post there
and named Capt. John Whistler ns commandant.
Accordingly the fort was built In the summer
of 1803, given the name of Fort Dearborn, In
honor of Gen. Henry Dearborn, then secretary
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
partment 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, dom
inated the little community In this lonely ont
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 ^ growing family, some of
whose members were destined for renown even
greater than his.- .— —?—‘~z—
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
1803. His name was George Washington 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 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 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 Wash
ington Whistler probably witnessed the scene
which made his father unique in American—and
perhaps in any other—history.
rur tiipu juiiu niiiBiicr uuu ms eiuer sou,
Lieut William Whistler, were officers In General
Hull’s army when that flustered American com
mander surrendered the fort at Detroit to the
British at the outbreak of the War of 1812, 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 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 dis
charged. He died September 8, 1829, 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 from West Point at the age
of nineteen and assigned to the artillery branch.
But he was not to have the satisfaction of 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 Gibbs
McNeill. It was a great brick mansion which
had been built on a plantation near the Cape
Fear river In North Carolina before the 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 case 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
McNellL Shortly afterwards young Whistler was
left a widower and early In the ’30s he again
met the motherly older sister of his classmate,
William Gibbs McNeill, and married her. In 1883
Whistler resigned from the army and the next
year to George Washington Whistler and Anna
Mathilda Whistler was born a son 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 bis paternal and maternal families, the
McNeills and the Whistlers.
After George Washington Whistler’s 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 Czar Nicholas the decoration
of the Order of St. Anne. To Russia with him
went bis 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 be
tween the mother and the son who was to im
mortalize her on canvas began during this Rus
sian experience.
She nursed him during those bitter yean ana
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 carter 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 1800 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 mother 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 1884
came word from her son that he had returned
to London and established himself there. 8o
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
only reply 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 tt
arrived safely In England.
There she lived to the end of her days, the In
separable companion of the man who came to be
hailed as one of the greatest painters In the
world.
• by We»t«rn Newspaper Union.
Air View of jClreat Stock Yards Fire in Chicago
—. 1111111 11 111 "«*•“**...
This excellent airplane photograph vas taken during the progress of the terrible conflagration that
lestroyed a considerable part of the Union Stock Yards In Chicago. The damage was about $8,000,000 and many
aoted buildings In “Packingtown" v were burned.
“AD Aboard for the Juvenile Bus Special”
A wooden bus, drawn by a tricycle and Jammed with gleeful youngsters, made Its appearance In Central
Park West, New York City. The bus was constructed entirely by six and seven-year-old children at the
Walden school. It has seats for six, straps for “sardines” and a place to hang on behind.
Commissioning the Minneapolis
'.-WW!..,,I.. ■■■■— j I ..MIJ'. Li .. ... .......W
View of the ceremony by which the D. 8. 8. Minneapolis, latest of
the 10,000-ton treaty cruisers, was commissioned at the Philadelphia
nary yard.
Cubans Greet an Ex-President
Itamon Urau San Martin, former provisional president of Culm, was
carried on the shoulders of the welcoming committee as he arrived at
Havana from Mexico on the liner Slerre Vertana. Although 19 refrained
from a formal declaration, be Intimated that he would accept the nomi
nation of the Revolutionary party to run for the presidency In the next
election. Gran San Martin was so affected by the reception that he had
he hate medical treatment.
YOUNGEST CHAMPION
Betty Jameson, flfteen-year-old
girl of Dallas, Texas, who won th<
Southern Woman's golf champion
ship at the tournament in New Op
leans. She Is the youngest chant
plon of a major golfing organlza
tlon In the world. Betty Is a sopho
more in Sunset high school, Dallas
At thirteen years of age she won
both the Dallas municipal and Texai
public course titles. This spring sh<
won the Dallas city title.
HER GOLD SEIZED
Helen Black, teacher of eoclnl
science In an Oklahoma City public
school, whose small supply ol
hoarded gold was seised by govern
ment agents. Miss Black’s safety
deposit box at a local bank was
broken open after she refused te
accompany officers to the bank with
her key.
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