Lady Randolph Churchill (1854-1921), née Jennie Jerome in a Worth Parisian Costume, as Empress Theodora, while attending the Devonshire House Ball, 1897 via
Capturing Beauty
by
John Presco
Copyright 2021
My man, Argyle Smyth, rang me up to inform me yesterday was ‘Mary Magdalene Day’. Five days ago on the Smithsonian series on American women marrying English Lords, I heard a teenage Jenny was being snubbed by the Knickerbockers, a phrase coined by Henry Brevoort and his good friend, Washington Irving. My jaw dropped! I understood this rejection made Jenny a Mary Magdalene Type – and a very wealthy WHORE! Once she got the wedding ring on, she began to Whore Around – BIG TIME! She did – everyone! She wore costumes -to attract her prey. She put a snake on her wrist – and did Cleopatra! Who else did Cleopatra? Hint, she married Sir Richard Burton!
Rena Easton married Commodore Sir Ian Easton, who may have had some money, but, what he wanted was a American Trophy Wife – because he knew about Jenny Churchill and all the other American Beauty Roses that Lords hunted after in order to save the Family Legacy! Rena was my Mary Magdalene – who replaced Marilyn. I had to rescue my First Love who Rosemary Rita Rosamond was beating up!
“No one tells me how to raise my son!”
If Rosemary were alive, what do you think Mary Magdalene Rosamond’s daughter would do to Tom Snyder – and the law firm of Rose, Buck, Heisinger, and Morris – for sliming her daughter – Christine Rosamond, and her brother? Where did THE GET the permission? For – art’s sake?
I think I can handle the lawsuit against Robert Brevoort Buck, whose ancestors allegedly snubbed Jenny Churchill. I will stand before a giant poster made of the Rosamond Women of Ventura by the Sea.
“This is my grandmother and her four daughters. There is no one on the internet that goes by the name MARY MAGDALENE ROSAMOND. No one! The Rose of the World made all the hats you see her. She raised her daughters – and her sister’s two sons – by herself. She was a haberdasher. This is my mother in a green dress she made. She was put in charge of the Rucker Company picnic every year. She helped put men in space. She came home furious, telling her four children – who were virgins – that Mr. Rucker chased her around his desk again, after asking her to take notes in Gregg’s short hand.
One day, Rosemary Rita Rosamond, gathered her eldest children, and in tears told us she is a prostitute for the Mafia, and, she is afraid her two sons would come across one of her porno movies she made for Big Bones Remmer. Whenever Steinbeck’s movie ‘East of Eden’ was on T.V. we Children of The Roses held a religious service. We should have lit votive candles as Cal brings his brother, Aaron, down the dark hall….to meet his mother.
How angry is Mary Magdalene Rosamond, as she looks down from heaven on Tom Snyder, Pierrot, and Morris? Allow me to read the vile things said about her beloved daughter, Rosemary, who died an alcoholic – half out of her mind! Now, the rule is – I get to tell you these things, and, write about these things, but, a HIRED GHOST WRITER – who never met Rosemary, is not allowed, as is giving sanctuary to those who slander us all, in the Superior Court of Monterey? Consider how much TROUBLE Harry and Meghan are in, and, they are kin to the Queen of England, and Jenny Churchill who with a British title – was accepted by the Astors, who made a fortune coming behind Lewis and Clark, whose statue was just torn down. There were Native American Women on e-groups – who worshipped Mary Magdalene in never unique ways. Too bad their contribution got wiped out when e-groups were disappeared. Were Mary’s Women – targeted? They have many enemies – today!
With this famous scene starring Rosemary’s cousin, Elizabeth Rosemond Taylor, I rest my case!
“but they were not accepted by the ‘old’ money of New York; the Knickerbockers were the Astors and the Roosevelts (yes, those Roosevelts) – a real life ‘Great Gatsby’ scenario. “
Later, he wrote the Secret History. The work has sometimes been interpreted as representing a deep disillusionment with the emperor Justinian, the empress, and even his patron Belisarius. Justinian is depicted as cruel, venal, prodigal, demonic and incompetent; as for Theodora, the reader is given a detailed portrayal of vulgarity and underage sex, combined with shrewish and calculating mean-spiritedness. Alternatively, scholars versed in political rhetoric of the era have viewed these statements from the Secret History as formulaic expressions within the tradition of invective.
I met Elmer ‘Big Bones’ Remmer when I was fifteen. He and his wife (or girlfriend) looked like Mr. and Mrs. Santa Claus, they both having white hair. They walked into our home on San Sebastian Avenue, our benefactor wanting to meet the children of their employee. Rosemary ( a made woman?) was working for Rucker hydraulics in Emmeryville and met Remmer in the Oaks or Menlo Club located in mob-owned town. She started editing porno movies for Remmer, then starred in them. Many nights Rosemary did not get home till after her four children were asleep. We would find a doggy bag from a restaurant in the fridge. Vicki sees her three older siblings as her real parents.
Remmer was bigger then I thought. He is named along with Mickey Cohen and Frank Sinatra. He ran the Cal-Neva Lodge and took his case to the highest court in regards to his card rooms in Emmeryville and San Francisco. It looks like Remmer was trying to make gambling legal in all of California which would put the Mob out of business in Nevada. However, Remmer was the Mob.
There was a brawl and arrest in LA involving the actress, Vicki Raaf. Here, Hollywod make-believe, meets real reality!
Jon Presco
Copyright 2012
Known as a dark beauty and called ‘the panther’, the young Jennie had a snake tattooed on her wrist.
Jennie was a renowned beauty, and her family was wealthy, making her an ideal bride. However, the New York elite, the so-called Knickerbockers who lived in Manhattan, shunned the Jeromes and their ‘new’ money. Leonard Jerome may have been worth $10 million, the family home on Madison Avenue may have had a 600-seat opera house, and a fountain flowing with real champagne at parties, but they were not accepted by the ‘old’ money of New York; the Knickerbockers were the Astors and the Roosevelts (yes, those Roosevelts) – a real life ‘Great Gatsby’ scenario.
Mary Magdalene remains prevalent within Christianity and popular culture. A mysterious and enigmatic figure, she continues to capture people’s imagination as ‘a mix of lust, loyalty, belief, prostitution, repentance, beauty, madness, and sainthood’ (Shaberg. 2004. P.9). Mary Magdalene’s complexity is in no small part due to the ambiguity and controversy of her various representations. Her continual and varied presence within the Christian tradition demonstrates her resistance to attempts, made by various patriarchal structures such as the Bible, Hebrew society, the early church, and medieval church and society, to diminish her importance. She resists such attempts by retaining her role as a close, learned and authoritative disciple and apostle to Jesus. This essay will look at three representations of Mary Magdalene from different Christian traditions: the canonical gospels,
Gospel of Mary and medieval legends. I will then attempt to displace the patriarchal structures which have tried to suppress her role, to extract her resistant and persistent character traits. Around the roles highlighted in this essay, Mary Magdalene can then be reconstructed by feminist theologies of liberation to provide a leadership figure for women who are oppressed by today’s patriarchal structures.
Following Fiorenza’s (1992) methodology of feminist historical reconstruction, I will attempt to displace, or deconstruct, the ‘androcentric reconstructions of … Christianity’s origins that marginalize or eliminate women and other non persons from the historical record’ (Fiorenza. 1992. P.93). This will allow me to show how history has managed to marginalise female characters, in this case Mary Magdalene, in order to suppress female power within Christianity (Fiorenza. 1992. P.96). In the absence of the suppressive patriarchal structures (defined as part of ‘a pyramidal system and hierarchical structure of society and church’ which enforces oppression based on men’s domination of women) it will then be possible to extract consistencies which various androcentric institutions have not been able to remove (Fiorenza. 1984. P.5). This creates a space in which to reconstruct a Mary Magdalene, from a feminist liberation perspective, who can act as a leadership figure for women today.
This approach challenges the traditional, patriarchal, ‘universal-objectivist preconceptions of academic theology’ (Fiorenza. 1992. P.44) which continue to dominate the world of Biblical studies today (Shaberg. 2004). The androcentric discipline of Biblical Studies is evident in the literature, where there is a clear distinction between the content of mainstream biblical studies commentaries, which hardly mention women as more than a narrative tool, and the feminist companions and Mary Magdalene specific sources which not only view women centrally but also question the role of women in the Christian tradition. To remain objective and value-free, as traditional theology does, abstains its support from women’s liberation and therefore advocates the passive continuation of patriarchal oppression. As theology should always be engaged with the oppressed, to act on their behalf involves partiality – stated allegiance to an explicit advocacy position (Fiorenza. 1992). A historical, feminist reconstruction of Mary Magdalene is partial because it advocates the liberation of oppressed women. For this reason, when displacing patriarchal structures and extracting a feminist reading of Mary Magdalene’s role within the Christian tradition, there is no claim to historical accuracy. The historical Mary Magdalene has been far too conflated and distorted to be retrieved. This means that it is neither possible, nor beneficial, to attempt to do so. Instead my central commitment is to provide the basis for a reconstruction of the role of Mary Magdalene that rings true for many women, around the world, who share in her struggle to resist patriarchal oppression.
s the 19th century ended, the great aristocratic families of Britain began to struggle. A number disappeared, ruined by their expensive lifesetyles, and the depression in agriculture – an estate’s lifeblood – while others clung on for dear life.
For a few hundred families, a miracle came in the form of an American heiress, also known as ‘Dollar Princesses’. By 1895, when nine Dollar Princesses became Ladies, Countesses, Marchionesses and Duchesses, the system had developed into mothers and daughters visiting London for the duration of the social season (April to August).
By the 1930s, some 350 US heiresses had married into the British aristocracy; it’s estimated that they brought (in today’s money) £1 billion with them. Here are some of their stories.
Jennie Jerome in 1880, shortly after her marriage to Sir Randolph Churchill. Robert Huffstutter
Jeanette ‘Jennie’ Jerome was born in Brooklyn in 1854 to Clara and Leonard Jerome. Her father’s fortune was made in stocks, and he was nicknamed ‘the King of Wall Street’.
Jennie was a renowned beauty, and her family was wealthy, making her an ideal bride. However, the New York elite, the so-called Knickerbockers who lived in Manhattan, shunned the Jeromes and their ‘new’ money. Leonard Jerome may have been worth $10 million, the family home on Madison Avenue may have had a 600-seat opera house, and a fountain flowing with real champagne at parties, but they were not accepted by the ‘old’ money of New York; the Knickerbockers were the Astors and the Roosevelts (yes, those Roosevelts) – a real life ‘Great Gatsby’ scenario.
Jennie’s mother took her daughters, Jeanette, Clarita, and Leonie, also known as ‘the Good, the Witty and the Beautiful’, to London and Paris for parties, to help them learn the European way, and mingle with the society elite. Something of a trend for the time, they knew it was a way to marry into the British aristocracy, or at least make new and important connections.
The Jermone mansion in New York. American Buildings Survey – Library of Congess HABS Collection.
Jennie’s mother took her daughters to live in Paris in 1867, following a scandalous escapade involving their father and his numerous mistresses, whom he paraded in his house. The Jerome girls’ education and introduction to society, therefore, followed the manner of the European upper classes.
Known as a dark beauty and called ‘the panther’, the young Jennie had a snake tattooed on her wrist.
Following the invasion of France by Germany in 1870, the Jerome quartet moved to London. Whilst in the English capital, Jennie met The Prince of Wales, future Edward VII; she became a Royal mistress for a short time before he introduced her to Lord Randolph Churchill, son of the powerful Duke of Marlborough. The meeting took place in the summer of 1873 at a sailing regatta on the Isle of Wight, and it was love at first sight. Just three days later, Jennie and Randolph were engaged, in a whirlwind romance.
Jesus and Mary Magdalene are alleged to have had a daughter, that the age of fifteen is assigned to. I am having arguments with Ian Sinclair on egroups, about whether he was of Mary Magdalene’s Holy Bloodline – when my daughter appeared to me in a dream! I asked executor, Sydney Morris, to help me find her. I am sure he, and Robert Buck had a good chuckle, they going to the bar to celebrate their good fortune, that they have absolute proof I am insane! Here is Heather and my granddaughter, Ember Dew, who I am not allowed to see, she taken from my by my daughter ‘The Prostitute’ who founded a Women’s Empowerment Group who helped her in the latest Child Abduction – with Mary Magdalene Curse! When I first met Heather and her Mom, I showed them a Holy Grail book by Lawrence Gardener!
“Poleeeease! Just show us the money. We already got OUR Women’s Plan. We know Rosamond had allot of Art Money. Why hide it from us? Don’t lie. You and your family is rolling in doe!”
I hope Netflix will chomp down hard on my idea for a series, and, film my candidacy for President as background noise for the New Mary Magdalene Craze!
The daughter I didn’t know I sired, came into my life in April of 2001. She answered a call her mother found on the Rosamond webpage, for those who knew Christine Rosamond, to contribute. Patrice Hanson never knew Christine, but, – she had her niece! When I saw Heather for the first time, she auditioned for me. Her mother left us alone in the living room as she played her guitar and sang. She was not that good – at doing either! A couple of weeks later she told me in a phone call that she had to get off in order to watch ‘American Idol’ with her utterly untalented mommy. I asked if I could be a part of that. No answer.
I believe Heather was disappeared from my life just before her graduation, so we could…
At 3:30 P.M. I read the last chapter of Martin Eden. At 4:35 P.M. I found another e-mail from my daughter that I believe was written by my daughter’s mother. This has to stop – for the sake of world literature! It was my friend, Ed Corbin, who said Heather Hanson did not write the first letter I got. Ed majored in English at Harvard and was a editor at Double Day. He wrote on of General Eisenhower’s bios. I asked for an explanation.
“This is a two party one person removed composition.”
I may have misquoted Ed, but – HERE IT IS! Note the “anyhow” that appears in other e-mails. No teenager would ever say this. Keep in mind that Patrice is a Stage Mother and wants my sister’s bio to be about her, and..HER daughter! This, witch…
I want my muse, Rena Easton, to choregraph my Artaud Joyce Fashion Show that must premiere in Bozeman Montana in order to fulfill prophecy. I insist she wear a mask. I want to remember her beauty as it was, so long ago!
I want Niesha Calkins to play the Gamelan, and the actor, Paul Drake to read ‘The Man Suicided by Society, as Lara Roozemond, leads off ‘The Lunatic Line’ in a freeze-framed dance down the runway..
My fashion show will be dedicated to all cowboys and wanna-be rednecks, who chose death over wearing a mask and getting a shot. Rena Easton will close the show with her Dance Macabre of Lunacy, she coming to the end of the runway, and declaring;
“I salute you, those who are about to die, making the greatest fashion statement, of all time! To honor you, I rip off my mask – and die with you – in the greatest artistic statement – ever!
” One can speak of the good mental health of Van Gogh who, in his whole adult life, cooked only one of his hands and did nothing else except once to cut off his left ear, in a world in which every day one eats vagina cooked in green sauce or penis of newborn child whipped and beaten to a pulp, just as it is when plucked from the sex of its mother. “
Rena Victoria’s return in a more fleshy form (ink and paper) is equivalent to Eve returning to Adam in Paradise. A New Genesis is under way, as I own four pages of divine suggestions worthy of the Sistine chapel, such as this one;
“I see you are quite left-leaning. Please do not, in your urban world, be too hard on cattle producers and red-neck women. We are human too!”
Perhaps this is not a commandment from the omnipotent pedagogy, but, it is a wished for course correction that points the prow of my ship towards a more feminine, thus peaceful star. If I don’t want the source of my inspiration flow, to be cut-off, I will do my best to write the most profound apology in the history of the English language. James Joyce, move over.
For a warm up I am going to author a short story about two French lunatics who escape from the booby hatch and hop a steamer to America in 1872. Going West, they buy a cattle ranch in Montana, and are pleased that they fit right in. Here, scary psychotic folks carrying a big gun are held in high esteem. In no time Vince and Art have acquired a reputation.
“Don’t get in these guys way, because they are bad-ass hombres – even though they’re from France.”
Just put a cowboy hat on Gough and Artaud, and we got one hell of a psychological western thriller that tells the world Artists and Mad Men – are human beings too!
Do you think there is a Cultural Shootout coming, between me and my Muse, at the ‘I’m O.K. You’re O.K. Coral’? I think this is exciting as all hell!
A few days before the opening of a van Gogh exhibition in Paris in 1947, gallery owner Pierre Loeb suggested that Antonin Artaud (1896-1948) write about the painter. Challenging the thesis of alienation, Artaud was determined to show how van Gogh’s exceptional lucidity made lesser minds uncomfortable.
Wishing to prevent him from uttering certain “intolerable truths”, those who were disturbed by his painting drove him to suicide.
In 1947, one year after having spent nine years in psychiatric hospitals, Antonin Artaud published a beautiful book as an apologia of Vincent Van Gogh, “suicided by society” like every other visionaries that has been categorized as mad. Artaud, fifteen years before Michel Foucault, affirms that madness has been created by psychiatric medicine and not the other way around. He accuses doctors and Van Gogh’s brother Theo, to have, not only ignored, but actively suppress the expression of the painter’s art. The invention of the adjective suicided illustrates exactly the process of psychiatry. By having elaborated this medicine method, society did not want simply to kill those that it could not assimilate (like it would do for prisoners for example), but it wanted them to recognize themselves their vision as a pathology and therefore to make them commit a social suicide.
Just like Heliogabalus or the Crowned Anarchist (we’ll see it in another article sometimes), Antonin Artaud’s literary style is magnificent and untranslatable. One of the most illustrative example of that is Artaud’s obsession for Van Gogh’s “coup de pinceau”, which literally means paint brush’s strike and therefore express the painter’s power but the same expression is the correct expression to talk more simply of any painter’s action on the canvas… Nevertheless, I attempted to translate by myself several excerpts and I already apologize for providing such badly transcripts in English (the original version in French is below):
Antonin Artaud One can speak of the good mental health of Van Gogh who, in his whole adult life, cooked only one of his hands and did nothing else except once to cut off his left ear, in a world in which every day one eats vagina cooked in green sauce or penis of newborn child whipped and beaten to a pulp, just as it is when plucked from the sex of its mother. And this is not an image, but a fact abundantly and daily repeated and cultivated throughout the world. And this, however delirious this statement may seem, is how modern life maintains its old atmosphere of debauchery, anarchy, disorder, delirium, derangement, chronic insanity, bourgeois inertia, psychic anomaly (for it is not man but the world which has become abnormal), deliberate dishonesty and notorious hypocrisy, stingy contempt for everything that shows breeding. insistence on an entire order based on the fulfillment of a primitive injustice, in short, of organized crime. Things are going badly because sick consciousness has a vested interest right now in not recovering from its sickness. This is why a tainted society has invented psychiatry to defend itself against the investigations of certain superior intellects whose faculties of divination would be troublesome. …In comparison with the lucidity of Van Gogh, which is a dynamic force, psychiatry is no better than a den of apes who are themselves obsessed and persecuted and who possess nothing to mitigate the most appalling states of anguish and human suffocation but a ridiculous terminology, worthy product of their damaged brains.
Where disorientating shapes bring out the emotion in Artaud’s drawings, Van Gogh’s portraits focus on a revolutionary use of multitudinous colour and barely concealed motion. From afar, his paintings look harmonious, learning from the pointillists that shades blend at a distance. Up close, they reveal themselves to be rough seas of flowing colour. In Self-Portrait with Easel (1888), the humanity of his stare, with his eyes as deep wells, contrasts with the agitated brush strokes that form the shape, texture and contours of his coat and continue on to his skin. By the time of his self-portrait of the following year, the forms have changed dramatically. The blues swim and swirl. There is little to distinguish his clothes from his environment. His face and stare are bold and defined suggesting a much sturdier physiognomy, yet the world around him is in unstoppable flux. Though it suggests our faces change radically as our moods do, there is also more than a stark suggestion that the artist is suffering from malnutrition. Even the Portrait of Père Tanguy (1887), often taken at face value as a tranquil pseudo-Buddhist pose, seems skewed and on edge. The fact that Van Gogh was aiming so desperately at serenity suggests something was manifestly not right. In Artaud, the unease is explicit; in Van Gogh it is implicit.Artaud was right to identify this tendency in his would-be mentor. “For a long time, pure linear painting drove me mad until I met Van Gogh, who painted neither lines nor shapes, but inert things in nature as if they were having convulsions,” he wrote. This would be expected in a place of hedonistic abandon such as The Dance Hall in Arles (1888), much less in the placid wallpapered surrounds of his Augustine Roulin portrait, but it is there still. Even painting landscapes, especially painting landscapes, these “convulsions” are evident. As attempts at tranquillity, they are failures just as much as they are monumental triumphs of art. The whirling, churning effect of the wind on the clouds, trees and wheat fields (best shown in Country Road in Provence By Night, 1890) is wonderful until we consider that those days may have been entirely free from any breeze. After all, Van Gogh’s Church at Auvers (1890) is similarly sublimely warped. What hope did mere humans have when the mind could do this to cathedrals of solid stone?
Now that I discovered a Real Rose Line, Rose Grail, and Sword, I am going to conquer the Fashion Industry by founding Mary Magdalene Rosamond Fashions. Millions of women identify with Mary Magdalene, the love of Jesus’s life, and some say, his wife.
I also found Rosamond Western Wear, inspired by the clothing my kin, Elizabeth Rosemond Taylor wore in the movie Giant, and the art of my kin Thomas Hart Benton who illustrated Steinbeck’ Grapes of Wrath. I will do a Tortilla Flat line, and a Newsom line. I want to do a line based upon the Million Dollar American Princess. Of course my later sister, the artist ‘Rosamond’ will be an an inspiration. Christine made many of her clothes, and did our mother, and our grandmother, Mary Magdalene Rosamond. My first love, Marilyn, played my Mary Magdalene and made clothes for her friend, the actress, Maggie Trett. My wife, Mary Ann, the lover of Thomas Pynchon, wore Marilyn’s ‘Train Dress’ at our wedding. She was photographed by her friend, Steven Silverstein who studied under Sarah Moon. I will be introdcuing the Brevoort ‘Night Owl Line’ next.
Getty’s first forays into collecting began in the late 1930s, when he took inspiration from the collection of 18th-century French paintings and furniture owned by the landlord of his New York City penthouse, Amy Guest, a relation of Sir Winston Churchill.[21] A fan of 18th-century France, Getty began buying furniture from the period at reduced prices because of the depressed art market. He wrote several books on collecting, including Europe and the 18th Century (1949), Collector’s Choice: The Chronicle of an Artistic Odyssey through Europe (1955) and The Joys of Collecting (1965). His stinginess limited the range of his collecting because he refused to pay full price. Getty’s companion in later life, Penelope Kitson, said “Paul was really too mean ever to allow himself to buy a great painting.”[22] Nonetheless, at the time of his death he owned more than 600 items valued at more than $4 million, including paintings by Rubens, Titian, Gainsborough, Renoir, Tintoretto, Degas, and Monet.[10] During the 1950s, Getty’s interests shifted to Greco-Roman sculpture, which led to the building of the Getty Villa in the 1970s to house the collection.[23] These items were transferred to the Getty Museum and the Getty Villa in Los Angeles after his death.
In addition to helping fund Newsom’s early business ventures, the family has been a mainstay as he pursued his political ambitions. Eighteen Gettys — including Gordon, Ann and actor Balthazar Getty — have collectively donated more than a half-million dollars to Newsom’s nine campaigns, starting with a total of $750 to his 1998 campaign for supervisor. Members of the family have spent more than $362,000 supporting his current gubernatorial bid.
A spokesman for the Gettys did not respond to a request for comment.
In addition to helping fund Newsom’s early business ventures, the family has been a mainstay as he pursued his political ambitions. Eighteen Gettys — including Gordon, Ann and actor Balthazar Getty — have collectively donated more than a half-million dollars to Newsom’s nine campaigns, starting with a total of $750 to his 1998 campaign for supervisor. Members of the family have spent more than $362,000 supporting his current gubernatorial bid.
A spokesman for the Gettys did not respond to a request for comment.
Here is the testimony of Steven Silverstein who met and worked for the real Sarah Moon. Marilyn Reed was a friend of the Silverstein family and posed for a photographic shoot on Malibu Beach, where Steven honed his skills that would make him world famous. I did a painting from this image and gave it to my childhood sweetheart.
“I was broke when I returned but a month later got a call from Sarah Moon whom I had met while in Paris. She asked if I would help her crew with a production in Los Angeles. With the money I made, I bought a new 35mm Nikon and launched the testing I hoped would take me back to Paris. I worked hard at it, working twice a month with two models, Amy and Pam. To support myself I took a job as a waiter but was so bad at it I only lasted a week! As luck would have it, the very day I was fired, I got a call from Warner Bros. Records to do an album cover. I started picking up freelance jobs with more record labels and magazines – A&M Records, Capitol, Playboy and others.”
Here is the real SaraH Moon with the H put back in her name.
Last night I discovered Steven has become an artist. His art resembles the work I did inspired by Stefan Eins. I am going to e-mail Eins – of FasHion Moda – this post and have him go to the June Bateman Gallery in New York.
I suspect Red Baron publishing was founded by Ira Cohen who owned Ira Roberts Gallery. I believe 1979 was the year Christine went with Circle Gallery, and did very well. Was Ira jealous? Did he want revenge? After all, he claims he developed her style. Rosemary told me Ira wanted me in his stable of artists, before Christine sued him. Marilyn did take some of my work to his gallery, but, they were not what he was looking for. He wanted Fashion Portraits, like Christine and Sara Moon were cranking out.
So…..will the real Sara Moon, and Christine Rosamond…..please stand up!
Here is a photo of Rosemary with her doves. Throw some roses around her and you got the faux Sara Moon. The name – works! From Rosemary was born a world famous artist like Leonardo Da Vinci, and a pre-Brown solver of mysteries, as my letter to Lillian proves. But, here is the clincher. Belle’s parents conducted Labyrinth rituals that are linked to the name Rosamond, thus the Legend of Fair Rosamond, who was the subject of several Pre-Raphaelite portraits, that can be linked to Grail Lore. Fair Rosamond has been making a fashion statement for hundreds of years. She is the archetype lineage of beautiful women, who suggest they have good genes. No one can handle a Ugly Jesus! Why? Because, he’s like a Muse – and the Republican party has got him.
The well-to-do Republican hands his wife a Gold Card and a pic of the blue-eye Chefon Jesus and bids her to go shopping. Gone is the wealthy Catholic feeling of worshipping Mary ‘Rose of the World’ Queen of Heaven with crescent moon.
My plan was to have Belle Burch come to my home where several empty canvases await. But, on the way here a wicked witch and demonic fairy, captured her, put her under her spell, and she fell asleep! Right on que! Now there grow a mountain of thorns and roses, maintained by the Rose Baron.
Let us not forget about Marilyn, who makes a living sewing, and went to Paris to learn how to be a fashion designer. Rosemary wanted to be my muse, but, Marilyn would no let that happen. Why do artists and writers capture beautiful women and shut them away in a tower and labyrinth? Is it so their mothers can’t get at them?
Hey! Where did Leonardo go? M – for Mother! We all got one!
Red Baron Art Publishing, Inc. filed as an Articles of Incorporation in the State of California and is no longer active. This corporate entity was filed approximately thirty-six years ago on Tuesday, May 1, 1979 , according to public records filed with California Secretary of State.
THE story of “Fair Rosamond” and her mazy Bower, though it cannot lay claim to that standard of authenticity which is generally required of historical data, has for so long occupied an honoured position in the realm of popular romance that, in a book professing to treat of mazes from a broad point of view, we cannot dismiss it quite as briefly as we might perhaps do in a book on English history.
Catherine brought Javanese gamelan music to Eugene in 1992 with the founding of Gamelan Nuju Laras, well known for accompanying labyrinth walks.
Steven SILVERSTEIN has gained a significant reputation photographing fashion and beauty for over thirty years and began shooting abstract fine art in 2013. Known throughout his career for conceptual work, lighting and a graphic simplicity that allow for an instant read, his images – whether fashion or fine art – often draw the viewer in for a closer look. Born in Los Angeles, SILVERSTEIN began his accomplished fashion photography career with help from photographer Sarah Moon and her husband, publisher Robert Delpire, who introduced his work to Peter Knapp, the legendary art director at French Elle in the 1970s. Based primarily in Paris, he went on to work with other major fashion magazines, advertisers and designers. In addition to shooting portraits of Catherine Deneuve, Carol Bouquet, Charlotte Rampling, Isabelle Adjani, Thierry Mugler, Christian Lacroix and many other luminaries, he has created over 50 covers and nearly a thousand editorial fashion pages for international publications such as Elle, Vogue, Marie Claire and Harper’s Bazaar. SILVERSTEIN has also shot campaigns for some of the most prominent brands in the world including Yves St. Laurent, Givenchy, Ungaro, Carolina Herrera, Helena Rubenstein, Lancome, L’Oreal, among many others. His fashion photography has been in group exhibitions including Living the Bon Chic Life (BCBG) in Los Angeles (2014) and Moda in Italia, 150 Anni Di Eleganza (Vogue Italia) at the Venaria Reale in Turin, Italy (exhibition catalog, 2011), as well as published in numerous books including Elle Mode: 600 covers de 1945 à nos jours (Lagardère/Glénat, 2011), Style Elle: Nos Années 80 (Filipacchi, 2003) and Style Elle: Nos Années 70 (Filipacchi, 2002). One of his portraits was chosen in the top 200 from 200,000 images in People Magazine’s history for People: Favorite Pictures (Time Inc., 2000). In addition, SILVERSTEIN has been featured in NPA Pro Spotlight video (2011), Nikon World Magazine (2009) and PhotoArt – Hong Kong (1985), as well as garnering press in other art, design and mainstream media outlets.
Ed Corbin introduced me to the Poet, Tom-Tom, who married into the Schlumberger family. Ed stayed in their estate in Texas. I hope Tom is at the Life Celebration. Katrine was married to a Rockefeller. I am kin to the Getty family, via Elizabeth Rosemond Taylor. I read Tom’s poetry in Springfield with Kenny Reed backing me up. Marilyn Reed was photographed by Silverstein who studied under Sarah Moon. I am going to become a Fashion Designer under the assumed name….John Rosamond Presco. I’m going to do the Hugo Gambler Line, named after my grandfather, Victor Hugo, the professional gambler of the Barbary Coast.
Pierre Schlumberger was born in 1914, the son of Marcel Schlumberger, a mechanical engineer, and his wife Jeanne Laurans.[1] Marcel co-founded Schlumberger in the 1920s with his brother, Conrad, a physicist.[1] Pierre was the brothers’ only male heir.
Schlumberger worked for Schlumberger for 25 years, rising to president and CEO in 1956 (Henri George Doll, Conrad Schlumberger’s son-in-law, was the chairman), until he retired in 1965 and was succeeded by Jean Riboud.[1][2] Under Pierre, the company ceased to be a family business, expanded into electronics, centralized its operations in Houston, Texas, and became a publicly traded company.[2]
Schlumberger acquired a “superlative collection of modern art”, including works by Pierre Bonnard, Henri Matisse, and Piet Mondrian; then with his second wife, São, they expanded to include contemporary artists, adding works by artists including Mark Rothko, Ad Reinhardt, Andy Warhol, and Robert Rauschenberg.[3] Their collection was auctioned by Sotheby’s over four days in November 2014, who called them “two of the most visionary collectors of the Twentieth Century.”[3]
Schlumberger’s first wife, Claire Simone Schwob d’Héricourt (1917–1959), was a French aristocrat, the daughter of film producer Jacques Schwob d’Héricourt [fr]; they were married for two decades and had five children before she died from a stroke in 1959.[4]
In 1961, he married Maria “São” da Conceição Diniz (1929–2007), who had been married to Pedro Bessone Basto, a Portuguese “boulevardier”, for less than a year.[4] He was 47, she was 32.[4] They lived in Houston until he was ousted as CEO in “a family coup” in 1965 and moved to New York City and then Paris.[4] His house in Lazy Lane in Houston was designed by the family’s French architect Pierre Barbe.[5] Barbe also restored a holiday home for them on the Normandy coast and designed a new house at Tourrettes-sur-Loup on the Riviera.[5]
In 1964, he bought Quinta do Vinagre [pt], a 16th-century manor with 103 acres (42 ha) near Sintra, Portugal, built for the local bishop.[6] From 1965 to 1975, Barbe restored and updated the 18-bedroom property.[5] In 1968, Schlumberger and Antenor Patiño both held parties at their Portuguese estates with over 1,000 guests including Gina Lollobrigida, Audrey Hepburn, Zsa Zsa Gabor, Douglas Fairbanks Jr., and Henry Ford II.[6][7] The singer Madonna was thought to have bought it for €18 million in 2017, but instead chose a smaller more “manageable” house nearby.[8]
They had two children, Paul-Albert in 1962 and Victoire in 1968.[4] Schlumberger, an invalid from an earlier stroke, died in Paris in 1986.[1]
In 1984, Dominique de Menil staged an enormous exhibition at the Grand Palais in Paris, offering art lovers, for the first time, an in-depth look at the vast collection she and her husband, John, had assembled. The more than 600 works on view ranged from a paleolithic bone carving dating from 22,000–15,000 BC to 20th-century masterpieces by Pablo Picasso, Andy Warhol, and Georges Braque. But when it came time to choose an image to represent the show on the posters that would be plastered around the city, Dominique passed over the blue-chip names and dramatically ancient artifacts in favor of a piece by the virtually unknown 19th-century artist Joseph Sacco. Called Oeil de Jeune Femme, it’s a tiny painting of an eye, framed by a brass oval and dark crimson velvet, and placed in a rough leather box. A surreal object made decades before Surrealism, it elegantly summed up, for de Menil, the idea of perception—on the part of the artist, the collector, and the audience.You’ll Also LikeA Must-See Art and Design Exhibition in a Restored Philip Johnson BuildingGetting to the Heart of ‘Provence Style’Email Sign UpW DailyYour daily digest of the biggest stories in style, film, TV, music, and more.In & Out WeeklyThe ultimate cheat sheet to what’s trending this week.SUBMIT
It is fitting, then, that precisely 30 years after the Grand Palais show, the miniature work is sitting in the gloved hand of the actress Tilda Swinton, a woman who has made a career out of playing with perception: transcending time and gender in Sally Potter’s 1992 film Orlando, passing as an octogenarian dowager in Wes Anderson’s 2014 The Grand Budapest Hotel, and becoming a buck-toothed villain in last year’s sci-fi thriller Snowpiercer. Today, Swinton has come to the Menil Collection, the museum Dominique de Menil founded in Houston, to create a portfolio for W with the photographer Tim Walker. “An object that had such a powerfully inspiring effect on Madame de Menil holds a special frisson,” she says as she stands in a bright white corridor examining the eye.
This shoot is the third collaboration between Swinton, Walker, the art director Jerry Stafford, and the stylist Jacob K. As a team, they have already traveled to Iceland (“Planet Tilda,” W, August 2011) and to Las Pozas, the Surrealist sculpture garden built by the British poet and art patron Edward James in a Mexican jungle (“Stranger Than Paradise,” W, May 2013). “The majority of my life as a photographer is about persuading people to do things on account of my imagination,” Walker says. “Working on these projects is much more of a creative commune—I’ve been led up pathways I wouldn’t necessarily have approached.” Stafford, who initiated the series, explains what attracted him to this latest subject: “The de Menils were true visionaries whose influence remains fascinating and far-reaching. There is one common goal and desire of this series: to challenge and seduce the eye.”
That’s just what Swinton is doing later that morning. Wearing a painted metal corset by the London designer Johanna O’Hagan, a pair of black boots by Versace, and little else, she is conjuring a key moment in the history of Surrealism. In 1923, Max Ernst painted a full-length female nude with a large white bird at her crotch, titled La Belle Jardinière. In 1937, the work was confiscated by the Nazis and featured in the notorious exhibition “Degenerate Art.” (There is a photograph of Adolf Hitler looking upon the painting disapprovingly.) The original was never seen again and is assumed to have been destroyed, but Ernst painted a second version in 1967 called Retour de la Belle Jardinière, which the de Menils, close friends of the artist and ardent collectors of his work, bought. “This is the special magic of these collaborations,” Swinton says as she poses as the gardener. “There is not just a vague referencing of de Menil but also an immersion into her world. We’re crossing into a no-man’s-land between history and imagination, in an attempt to evoke her spirit, and the spirit of the world she inhabited.”
And what a world it was. John de Menil was a 26-year-old Parisian investment banker when he met Dominique Schlumberger, a 22-year-old scion of a leading French industrialist family, at a ball at Versailles in 1930. They married the following year and, during that intoxicating time in Paris between the wars, took their first steps toward becoming collectors—importing from Moscow an early 16th-century Russian Orthodox icon of St. George slaying the dragon, commissioning a portrait of Dominique by Ernst, buying a painting of Othello by Christian Bérard, and acquiring a pair of painted bark cloths from New Guinea. But their real artistic education began in 1941 in New York, where they landed after fleeing occupied France. There, they met Father Marie-Alain Couturier, a Dominican priest who would go on to commission the Matisse Chapel in Vence, France, and Le Corbusier’s chapel in Ronchamp, France. He introduced the de Menils to the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Museum of Modern Art, and to the leading galleries in Manhattan. Around that same time, the couple met Alexander Iolas, a ballet dancer–turned–art dealer, who helped them acquire some of their most important works; and the designer Charles James, who created an astonishing, pragmatic wardrobe for Dominique.
Once the war ended, they settled in Houston, where the American headquarters of Schlumberger Ltd. were located. John eventually became chairman of the board. Finding themselves in a new city that had little cultural context, they set out to create one. In 1948, the de Menils hired Philip Johnson to design them a modernist home, giving the young architect one of his first commissions—and then made an even bolder decision by selecting James to finish the interior. Johnson had designed a straightforward 5,500-square-foot International Style house in brick, steel, and glass. Into this rigid frame, James injected a sense of history and voluptuousness. “Philip felt that we should have a Mies van der Rohe settee, a Mies van der Rohe square glass table, and two Mies van der Rohe chairs—on a little square musty-colored rug,” Dominique once explained. “We could see right away how we would get bored.” Instead, James brought in a “lips” sofa inspired by a Man Ray painting, a swooping chaise longue in wrought iron and gray raw silk, an 18th-century Venetian settee covered in bright green satin, and a rococo Louis XV desk. Johnson was incensed, but James’s interventions gave the house a layer of elegant complexity.
The de Menils spent decades assembling their art collection, curating scores of shows in Texas, and building ambitious showcases for the work. In 1971, they inaugurated the Rothko Chapel, a windowless octagonal structure filled with 14 monumental dark canvases they’d commissioned from Mark Rothko. From the chapel, it is just a short walk to the Menil Collection, through allées of enormous live oak trees, a small park, and blocks of bungalows all painted the same shade of soft gray. Opened in 1987, the museum—the first building in the United States designed by Renzo Piano—is a long, low structure of white steel, glass, and gray cypress siding. The light-filled interior, in keeping with the de Menil house, has glistening black floors and walls of windows that openonto lush tropical gardens. On display are Cycladic idols, Byzantine relics, and African and Oceanic totems, as well as modernist masterpieces from Paul Cézanne, Pablo Picasso, Georges Braque, René Magritte, Alexander Calder, Robert Rauschenberg, Andy Warhol, and Jasper Johns. There is no admission fee; the bookstore has been banished to a bungalow across the street. It is one of the most universally praised art institutions of recent decades.
In addition to their Houston residence, the de Menils always kept a place in New York, an apartment in Paris, and a country house north of Paris. John was a trustee of MoMA, and Dominique played a pivotal role in the establishment of the Centre Pompidou. Yet the vast majority of their artistic activities, until John’s death in 1973 and hers in 1997, were in their adopted hometown. “Our first responsibility is in Houston, and that is where our efforts must be concentrated,” John de Menil wrote to Dorothy Miller, the legendary curator at MoMA. “Because here we are almost alone.”
Their commitment continues to bear fruit for the city and all who visit,including—if Swinton is any indication—Academy Award–winning actresses. “They presumed art to be good for human dignity,” Swinton says of the de Menils as she makes her way around the museum’s Oceanic galleries dressed in a full-length Delpozo coat. “There is a practical magic that shows itself in the exquisite simplicity of each installation; there is nothing to get in the way of a direct relationship between the viewer and a work of art.”
Before leaving the gallery, she takes the time to stand before some of the pieces on display: a 19th-century Melanesian club from the Solomon Islands; a towering slit drum from Vanuatu carved from the trunk of a breadfruit tree; and a 19th-century Polynesian club from the Cook Islands, more than eight feet high and crafted from exceptionally hard wood. She observes them individually, in silence, slowly and deliberately. Much like the de Menils, she is fully engaged with the art—and the world of artists—around her. It is an outlook well summed up Dominiquede Menil: “Art requires action. Passivity is fatal.”
Tilda Swinton: The Surreal World
Joseph Sacco’s Oeil de Jeune Femme, 1844.Photographer: Tim Walker
In the de Menils’ dressing room, with doors painted by Charles James. Tilda Swinton wears a Zac Posen gown, $13,990, Bergdorf Goodman, New York, 212.753.7300; Francesco Scognamiglio corset, francescoscognamiglio.it; Gaspar Gloves gloves, $24, gaspargloves.com.Photographer: Tim Walker Styled: Jacob K
In the de Menils’ Houston residence, Chanel muse Lady Amanda Harlech, evoking Maria Ruspoli, the Duchess of Gramont (a great friend of the de Menils who introduced them to Charles James), wears Carolina Herrera blouse, $990, and skirt, $1,990, Carolina Herrera, New York, 212.249.6552; Mikimoto gold and cultured pearl earrings, $860, Saks Fifth Avenue, 877.551.SAKS; Prada scarf, $285, prada.com; LaCrasia Gloves gloves, $500, lacrasiagloves.com. Swinton wears Carolina Herrera blouse, $1,690, and skirt, $2,490, Carolina Herrera, New York, 212.249.6552; Assael gold and South Sea cultured pearl necklace, $8,800, select Neiman Marcus stores, 888.888.4757; Prada scarf, $285, prada.com; LaCrasia Gloves gloves, $250, lacrasiagloves.com.Photographer: Tim Walker Styled: Jacob K
In the framing department of the Menil Collection, Swinton wears Calvin Klein Collection cape and dress, prices upon request, Calvin Klein Collection, New York, 212.292.9000; Oscar de la Renta pumps, $750, oscardelarenta.com.
In the entrance of the Menil Collection, Swinton wears Balenciaga custom jacket and trousers, prices upon request, balenciaga.com; Balenciaga sweater, $995, Bergdorf Goodman, New York, 212.753.7300; Sermoneta Gloves gloves, $99, Sermoneta Gloves, New York, 212.319.5946; Reebok sneakers, $65, reebok.com. She’s flanked by Charles James’s March of Dimes dress, 1949, and Edward Ruscha’s Indecision, 1982.Photographer: Tim Walker Styled: Jacob K
Swinton wears Schiaparelli dress, price upon request, Maison Schiaparelli, Paris, 011.33.1.76.21.62.59; Ben-Amun by Isaac Manevitz necklace, $670, and brooch, $395, shopbop.com; (right wrist, from top) Dominic Jones bracelet, price upon request, by special order, Barneys New York, New York, 212.826.8900, Monserat De Lucca bracelet, $120, monseratdelucca.com; (right hand, from left) Dominic Jones ring, $370, Barneys New York, New York, 212.826.8900, Dominic Jones ring, $260, Barneys New York, New York, 212.826.8900; (left wrist) Dominic Jones bracelet, price upon request, by special order, Barneys New York, New York, 212.826.8900; (left hand) Monserat De Lucca rings, $65, $55, and $58, monseratdelucca.com; Christian Louboutin pumps, $675, christianlouboutin.com.Styled: Jacob K Photographer: Tim Walker
Mark Rothko’s The Green Stripe, 1955, in the living room of the de Menil house; Ladle in the Form of an Eagle Head, from the Kwakiutl tribe, sits on the piano.Photographer: Tim Walker
A “lips” sofa in the living room.Photographer: Tim Walker
The bar, tucked in a corner of the living room.Photographer: Tim Walker Styled: Jacob K
Another shot of the living room.Photographer: Tim Walker
Rolls of vintage fabrics in a closet.Photographer: Tim Walker
Swinton, among 19th-century Oceanic works, wears Delpozo cape coat, $5,750, modaoperandi.com; Delpozo collar, price upon request, delpozo.com; Julien d’Ys for Comme des Garçons wig, juliendys.com; LaCrasia Gloves gloves, $250, lacrasiagloves.com; J.W. Anderson shoes, $1,050, theline.com.Photographer: Tim Walker Styled: Jacob K
Max Ernst’s monumental bronze Capricorn, 1964, in the garden of the de Menil house.Photographer: Tim Walker Styled: Jacob K
Swinton brings Max Ernst’s 1967 Retour de la Belle Jardinière to life, wearing a Johanna O’Hagan corset, price upon request, johannaohagan.com; Cosabella catsuit, price upon request, shop.cosabella.com; Versace boots, $1,675, select Versace stores, 888.721.7219.
Swinton wears Chanel jacket, $4,250, dress, $4,400, necklace, $4,000, brooch, $475, bracelet, $2,500, and shoes, price upon request, select Chanel stores, 800.550.0005; Perrin Paris gloves, $625, perrinparis.com. Lynn Wyatt, a Houston socialite and friend of the de Menils, wears her own Chanel jacket, shirt, skirt, hat, earrings, brooch, and pumps; a Chanel jumpsuit, $8,300, select Chanel stores, 800.550.0005 (underneath); Sermoneta Gloves, Chicago, 312.915.0694. Lady Amanda wears a Chanel jacket, $7,350, jumpsuits, $8,250 and $10,250, earrings, $1,650, ring, $950, and shoes, $895, select Chanel stores, 800.550.0005.
Swinton wears Proenza Schouler jacket, price upon request, at stores: for similar styles, Proenza Schouler, New York, 212.420.7300; Proenza Schouler top, $1,380, skirt, $1,250, and pumps, $650, Proenza Schouler, New York, 212.420.7300; Sermoneta Gloves gloves, $99, Sermoneta Gloves, Boston, 857.284.7788; hat and foot adornments by set designer Rhea Thierstein; Charles James hat from the Menil Collection (in hand).
In the Rothko Chapel, Swinton stands before a canvas by Mark Rothko, wearing a Valentino Haute Couture dress, price upon request, Valentino, New York, 212.355.5811.Photographer: Tim Walker Styled: Jacob K
Dominique de Menil (March 23, 1908 – December 31, 1997) was a French-American art collector, philanthropist, founder of the Menil Collection and an heiress to the Schlumberger Limited oil-equipment fortune. She was awarded the National Medal of Arts in 1986.
Early life
Dominique de Menil was born Dominique Isaline Zelia Henriette Clarisse Schlumberger, the daughter of Conrad and Louise Delpech Schlumberger. She studied physics and mathematics at the Sorbonne and developed an interest in filmmaking, which took her to Berlin to serve as script assistant on the Josef von Sternberg production of The Blue Angel. She also published articles on film technology in the French journal La revue du cinéma.
In 1930 she met the banker Jean de Menil (who later anglicized his name to John), and they were married the next year. Raised a Protestant, Dominique converted to Roman Catholicism in 1932. The de Menils’ Catholic faith, especially their interest in Father Yves Marie Joseph Congar’s teachings on ecumenism, would become crucial to the development of their collecting ethos in the coming decades. They had five children: Marie-Christophe (who was married to Robert Thurman and the grandmother of artist Dash Snow), Adelaide (a photographer who is married to anthropologist Edmund Snow Carpenter), Georges (an economist), Francois (a filmmaker and architect), and Philippa (co-founder of the Dia Art Foundation).
Following the outbreak of World War II and the Nazi occupation of France, the de Menils emigrated from Paris to the United States of America. They maintained residences in New York and France but settled in Houston, where John would eventually become president of Schlumberger Overseas (Middle and Far East) and Schlumberger Surenco (Latin America), two branches of the Houston-based oilfield services corporation.
Collecting Art
John and Dominique de Menil began collecting art intensively in the 1940s, beginning with a purchase of Paul Cézanne’s 1895 painting Montagne (Mountain) in 1945. With the guidance of the Dominican priest Marie-Alain Couturier, who introduced the de Menils to the work of artists in galleries and museums in New York, they became interested in the intersection of modern art and spirituality. They ultimately amassed more than 17,000 paintings, sculptures, decorative objects, prints, drawings, photographs, and rare books.
The de Menils were particularly interested in modern European art, and a core strength of the collection was the many Cubist, Surrealist, and other Modernist works they acquired. By the 1960s the de Menils had gravitated toward the major American post-war movements of Abstract Expressionism, Pop Art, and Minimalism.[6] Over the years the family enjoyed close personal friendships with many of the artists whose work they collected, including Victor Brauner, Max Ernst, Jasper Johns, Yves Klein, René Magritte, Robert Rauschenberg, Dorothea Tanning, and Andy Warhol.
The de Menils, however, did not limit their acquisitions to modern art, and their eclectic tastes became a hallmark of their collecting practices. As modernists, they recognized the profound formal and spiritual connections between contemporary works of art and the arts of ancient and indigenous cultures, broadening their collection to include works from classical Mediterranean and Byzantine cultures, as well as objects from Africa, Oceania, and the Pacific Northwest. Influenced by the teachings of Father Couturier and Father Congar, the de Menils developed a particular humanist ethos in which they understood art as a central part of the human experience. Their collection was motivated by their shared interest in the many ways individuals over different cultures and eras reveal through art their understanding of what it means to be human.
Art Patron
After moving to Houston, the de Menils quickly became key figures in the city’s developing cultural life as advocates of modern art and architecture. In 1949 they commissioned the architect Philip Johnson to design their home in the River Oaks neighborhood in Houston. One of the first International style residences in Texas, it generated controversy not only by standing out amongst the mansions of River Oaks but also by pairing Johnson’s clean, modernist lines with a bold color palette and eclectic interior design by Charles James. The de Menils filled their home with art and hosted many of the leading artists, scientists, civil rights activists, and intellectuals of the day.
Spurred in part by the lack of a real arts community in Houston, in the 1950s and 1960s the de Menils promoted modern art through exhibitions held at the Contemporary Arts Association (later the Contemporary Arts Museum Houston), such as Max Ernst’s first solo exhibition in the United States, and the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, to which they gave important gifts of art.[10] They were instrumental in the Contemporary Arts Association’s decision to hire Jermayne MacAgy as its director, who curated several groundbreaking exhibitions, including “The Sphere of Mondrian” and “Totems Not Taboo: An Exhibition of Primitive Art.” In 1954 they founded the Menil Foundation, a non-profit organization dedicated to the “support and advancement of religious, charitable, literary, scientific and educational purposes.”
That same year they provided the University of St. Thomas, a small Catholic institution in Houston, with funding to build Strake Hall and Jones Hall, designed by Philip Johnson per their recommendation. In an effort to provide a strong art history curriculum in Houston for students and adults, they founded the Art Department at the University of St. Thomas in 1959, inviting Jermayne MacAgy to teach courses and curate exhibitions held at Jones Hall. They established the university’s Media Center in 1967. The de Menils often personally recruited faculty members for the departments and brought many renowned artists and art historians to Houston, including Marcel Duchamp, Roberto Matta, and James Johnson Sweeney, whom they convinced to serve as museum director for the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston from 1961 to 1967. After Jermayne MacAgy’s death in 1964, Dominique de Menil took over her classes and became the chairperson of the Art Department at the University of St. Thomas, curating several exhibitions over the next few years.
After being met with increasing resistance by the more traditional Basilian clergy at the University of St. Thomas, in 1969 the de Menils moved the Art Department—including the art history faculty—and Media Center to Rice University, where they founded the Institute for the Arts to manage the exhibition program at Rice Museum. Notable exhibitions at Rice Museum organized with the help of the de Menils were “The Machine as Seen at the End of the Mechanical Age,” curated by Pontus Hulten for the Museum of Modern Art, New York, and “Raid the Icebox 1 with Andy Warhol,” an exhibition of objects selected by Warhol from the storage vaults of the Museum of Art at Rhode Island School of Design. At Rice John and Dominique de Menil also cultivated their interest in film, working with such noted filmmakers as Roberto Rossellini, who made several trips to Houston to teach Rice University students and create television documentaries. Other filmmakers who visited the Media Center included Ola Balogun, Bernardo Bertolucci, James Blue, Jim McBride, and Colin Young.
John and Dominique de Menil also shared an interest in photography, inviting photographers to come to Houston to document events in the city and exhibit their work. They commissioned Henri Cartier-Bresson to photograph the 1957 American Federation of Arts convention, held in Houston that year, and worked with photographers such as Frederick Baldwin and Wendy Watriss, who went on to establish FotoFest, and Geoff Winningham, who served as head of the Photography Department at Rice Media Center. Photography became an important component of the collection, which includes works by Eve Arnold, Henri Cartier-Bresson, Danny Lyon, Hans Namuth, and Eve Sonneman.
Civil and Human Rights
In addition to becoming known as collectors and patrons of art, John and Dominique de Menil were vocal champions of human rights worldwide. Their actions in Houston focused on civil rights in particular. In 1960 they launched the ambitious scholarly research project “The Image of the Black in Western Art,” directed by art historian Ladislas Bugner. An ongoing project that seeks to catalogue and study the depiction of individuals of African descent in Western art, it is now under the aegis of Harvard University.
Their most controversial action on behalf of civil rights was their offer of Barnett Newman’s Broken Obelisk as a partial gift to the city of Houston in 1969, on the condition that it be dedicated to the recently assassinated Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. The city refused the gift, sparking a controversial debate that ended only when the de Menils purchased the sculpture themselves and placed it in front of the newly completed Rothko Chapel.
The de Menils had originally made plans to build the Rothko Chapel in 1964, when Dominique de Menil commissioned a suite of meditative paintings by Mark Rothko for an ecumenical chapel intended for the University of St. Thomas as a space of dialogue and reflection between faiths. After undergoing revisions by several architects, including Philip Johnson, Howard Barnstone, and Eugene Aubry, the non-denominational Rothko Chapel was dedicated on Menil Foundation property in 1971 in a ceremony that included members of various religions. It was established as an autonomous organization the next year and began hosting colloquia, beginning with “Traditional Modes of Contemplation and Action,” which brought together religious leaders, scholars, and musicians from four continents.
The de Menils also organized exhibitions that promoted human and civil rights, including “The De Luxe Show,” a 1971 exhibition of contemporary art held in Houston’s Fifth Ward, a historically African-American neighborhood. Coordinated by civil rights activist and later U.S. Congressman Mickey Leland, it was one of the first racially-integrated art shows in the United States.
In 1986, Dominique de Menil deepened her involvement in social causes, establishing the Carter-Menil Human Rights Foundation with former president Jimmy Carter to “promote the protection of human rights throughout the world.” The Foundation offered a prize, sponsored by the Rothko Chapel, to organizations or individuals for their commitment to human rights. She also established the Óscar Romero Award, named after the slain El Salvadoran bishop.
Plans for a Museum
Plans to create a museum to house and exhibit John and Dominique de Menil’s collection began as early as 1972, when they asked the architect Louis I. Kahn to design a museum campus on Menil Foundation property in the Montrose neighborhood of Hoston near the Rothko Chapel. Kahn did produce some preliminary drawings, but the project was suspended in 1973 after John de Menil’s and Kahn’s deaths less than a year apart.
In the 1980s Dominique de Menil again began looking for an architect to design the museum, eventually commissioning Renzo Piano, a renowned Italian architect known for his provocative Centre Georges Pompidou building in Paris, to come up with a design that would fit her vision for the museum. “I dreamed of preserving some of the intimacy I had enjoyed with works of art,” she wrote. “We would show only portions of the Collection at a time, but displayed in generous and attractive space… The public would never know museum fatigue and would have the rare joy of sitting in front of a painting and contemplating it… Works would appear, disappear, and reappear like actors on a stage.” Piano’s understated design for the Menil Collection echoed the architecture of the surrounding bungalows, which had been painted gray by the Menil Foundation, and featured a roof of canopy leaves that allowed filtered natural light to fill the galleries. The result was a museum that appeared “small on the outside, but…as big as possible inside.”
Dedicated on June 7, 1987, the Menil Collection exhibits objects from John and Dominique de Menil’s collection, including selections of African Art, a vast collection of Surrealist pieces, and the work of a number of contemporary American artists such as Jackson Pollock, Barnett Newman, Clyfford Still, Robert Motherwell, Cy Twombly, and Mark Rothko. It also features temporary exhibitions. It is often cited as one of the most significant privately assembled art collections, alongside the Barnes Foundation and the J. Paul Getty Museum.
The nearby Cy Twombly Gallery, opened in 1995, houses more than thirty of Twombly’s paintings, sculptures, and works on paper. Designed by Renzo Piano, the permanent gallery echoes some of the architectural features of the Menil Collection, such as the use of diffused natural light, while retaining its own, separate identity.
The Menil campus also includes the Byzantine Fresco Chapel. When Dominique de Menil learned that a group of 13th-century Byzantine frescoes had been stolen from a chapel in Lysi, Cyprus, and cut up by smugglers, she paid the ransom and funded their restoration. In return for her efforts, the Holy Bishopric of Cyprus allowed the works to remain in Houston on a long-term loan. The frescoes—a dome with Christ Pantokrator and an apse depicting the Virgin Mary Panayia—are currently installed in a reliquary-like space interior. The building was designed by architect Francois de Menil and mimics the original Lysi chapel.
Dominique de Menil’s final project was a 1996 commission of three site-specific light installations by Minimalist sculptor Dan Flavin for Richmond Hall, a former Weingarten’s grocery store in Houston. The Dan Flavin installation consists of two horizontal green fluorescent lights on the eastern and western sides of the building’s exterior, two sets of diagonal white lights on the foyer walls, and a large work in the main interior space featuring pink, yellow, green, blue, and ultraviolet lights. Also on display in Richmond Hall are four examples of Flavin’s “monuments” to V. Tatlin, created between 1964 and 1969.
Dominique de Menil died in Houston on December 31, 1997.
The Queen’s Bank was purchased by J.P. Morgan for a billion pounds. The Cazenoves were there with the Rothschilds and Rougemonts who are Karl Marx’s memoirs. Hottinger and Cazenove are Huguenot families who made a fortune as weavers, as did the Rosamond-Rougemont family of Canada.
Jesus was born in a Sukkoth booth, and not a manger, and never had any money, even though all his rich relatives had more then enough! This was deliberate, as he knew who he was going after as God’s Go’el Redeemer.
I have been a poor man all my life, and have given away the crux of my novels so no one can accuse me of having a price – especially my Rougemont ancestors – who may have been the remnant if Israel that fled to the Swiss Alps.
Thatcher and Richardson were Privateers, Deregulators who robbed America with the help of Reagan and the…
“We know when we are not wanted, Mr. Buck. We got enough oil, water, tree, and agriculture trouble. We are cashing in our chips. You tell Miss Pierrot – we want nothing to do with that damn gallery. What do we know about art, anyways? When the bank took our land, we knew we were licked!“
I awoke with a spiritual hangover – and my blood-sugar reading was 115. Wow!
“He lives!”
Have I done Herman Melville? Stevenson is lurking on the Carmel Horizon with the New Ark of California?
“All aboard!”
.Our native State – is dying! Seeing I own the Rose Line Grail, I talked about making Two Avalons….one on the Isle of Man, and the other in Carmel, which is depicted as an Enchanted fog-bound Isle, that in the other reality, is not connected to the rest of California, somehow. C.L. Lewis is going to be employed – and J.R. Tolkien, in what can be described as a Another Back To The Land Movement, that Ed Corbin and Katrine took part in. Consider the naming of their tree sons; Cosmos, Freeman, and Eden.
There is going to be a Life Celebration, and I will be there with my grandfather’s self-published Arcadian books. He was a Back-to-the-Lander! How he got to California from Montana or, Missouri, was not captured. All who may have known, are dead. His wife came to California on the back of a motorcycle – all the way from Iowa! I want to do a painting of that. If Christine had -lived – we could have painted side by side in the Rosamond Gallery Courtyard, while tourists applauded. The truth is, Christine adored me. I was the love of her life.
I was going to take a week off to start my portraits of my Reluctant Muse, Lara Roozemond, whose ancestor was FLORIS ROOZEMOND, a name synonymous with the Rose Grail I found three days ago. But, I peeked at the news, and saw this image. I am doing something right, and, I am very reluctant to take – any credit – because there is a history of me being hammered when I go to take something for myself. Their is a ancient Greek Tale about a very wise man who made the gods jealous, so he is cursed. The powers that be set a banquet for him, and, when he sit down to enjoy it – DOWN SWOOP TWO HARPIES!
There is no rest for the wicked. I challenged the owner of the Carmel Pine Cone to go to Rocky Point with the staff photographer, but – HE CLOSED HIS EYES! We all want to dine on the truth, but……The Harpies ate your baby!
“Behold california, colossus of the West Coast: the most populous American state; the world’s fifth-largest economy; and arguably the most culturally influential, exporting Google searches and Instagram feeds and iPhones and Teslas and Netflix Originals and kimchi quesadillas. This place inspires awe. If I close my eyes I can see silhouettes of Joshua trees against a desert sunrise; seals playing in La Jolla’s craggy coves of sun-spangled, emerald seawater; fog rolling over the rugged Sonoma County coast at sunset into primeval groves of redwoods that John Steinbeck called “ambassadors from another time.””
“Come! Get on the Ark I and God has made for you!”
This is why Trump – could not have lost the election, because, they were in the middle of a mass evacuation.
Ed graduated from Harvard and was a very intelligent man. He dropped out of his Country Dream, and was heading to where I just came from. I did not tell Ed where I lived, because he would have become very jealous. It looked like I would die – CHILDLESS! Ed, studied me, what that was like. When my daughter came into my life, my best friend, was very unhappy, and, not supportive at all.
Last night, it dawned on me Ed and I were Hans and Otto, two German twins that are walk-ons. Alas, my novel that got me sober – has an ending! I hope to stand at a podium, and, tell Ed’s family the secret of who Ed was, and, who we were. This will be a literary ending. I was Ed’s discovery, one day, riding my bicycle – in Broken Alley! I am, the Un-published Broken One!
Unto the poor, blinded king of Thrace,With broad wings, human neck and face,They flew swiftly and cawedLeaving Phineus awed—Unable to give meaningful chase. To his Court came spirits of the wind,Sharp and sudden gusts—no man’s friend.Harpies, as they are known,Make men reap what they’ve sown,And little can be done to defend.
“We know when we are not wanted, Mr. Buck. We got enough oil, water, tree, and agriculture trouble. We are cashing in our chips. You tell Miss Pierrot – we want nothing to do with that damn gallery. What do we know about art, anyways? When the bank took our land, we knew we were licked!“
The artist, Thomas Hart Benton, did illustrations for John Steinbeck’s ‘Grapes of wrath’. Had my niece, Drew Benton, seen them? Drew needs to do a painting of how she escaped death, when she ended up in the ocean next to my sister. Did she feel afraid down in that cove, in the ‘Jaws of Death’? How much does she know about Dunken The Frog? She can end the Fraud!
Bill and I had a love affair with the work of John Steinbeck when we were in our early teens. We emulated him and the lifestyle he promoted. We were artists and writers at thirteen. We did get drunk several times. There was trouble. The Carmel Artist, Rosamond, loved Bill, and her biographer says so. Tom Snyder also says I am responsible for my best friends suicide, and, I suggested my sister was murdered. Tom agreed, at first, not to employ our Sobriety in AA to improve the waning interest in Christine Rosamond Benton’s ART. But, this is not her story, but Executer Sydney Morris’s story. He approved of this vile book being written ignoring my objections – and my miraculous sobriety that I began a book about in 1992. Then my daughter appear in 2000 as my reward for being sober for fourteen years. Add twenty more years – today! It’s……A MIRACLE I AM ALIVE!
Yesterday I thanked my nutritionist for helping get my blood sugar readings way down from where they were. In December they were 10.6. In July the was 6.8. My health was in dire trouble. I had overcome prostate cancer. I told her about discovering Ken Kesey died of alcoholism due to drinking as a diabetic. I thanked N for not giving up on me, because I had become despondent about my struggles without family support, while Dead Drunk Rosamond was getting much posthumous attention – she did not want – and would sue Stacey Pierrot if she was alive – for making money off our family tragedies and disease, that my newfound daughter believed was – NOT APPLICABLE to her and her family. She humiliated me! I was a NOBODY in her eyes!
Thanks to searching for, and my finding the Grail and the Sword of Roses, I have the best example of what I have been up against – you can get! It grieves me to see that the novel Tortilla Flat is a celebration of alcoholism – that does diminish this story – and the credibility of the author. Was Steinbeck a secret drunk? Is Robert Buck concerned about Tortilla Flat being seen as a haven for Alcoholics? His family is on the board of the Jeffries Tower, and, Robert is responsible for Alcohol Justice coming to be a thorn in the side of PlumpJack wine, owned by my Getty kin. Did AJ hurt the reputation of the Getty family and Governor Newsom – on purpose? Will they steal this post – and go with it? Buck’s law firm is in Carmel and his partners are steeped in Carmel History. Here is AJ in bed with Wells Fargo.
Anyone who read Snyder and Morris’s book, then went to Carmel to visit the Rosamond Gallery, had to see this billboard…
“HOME OF DRUNKEN ROSAMOND”
Did this slanderous book put the final nail in Rosamond’s Struggle to save her fame? No, it was not her struggle, but the struggle for the law firm of Buck, Rose, Heisinger, and Morris. In my lost blog, I posted extensively on the fact Gerald Rose was a politician who lost his bid to be the Mayor of Carmel. He became a Councilman, and is serving as City Manager where he talks about the building of a Carmel Museum. If this museum is built, will it include a few Rosamond’s in the collection? Will Stacey Pierrot be called upon to give her expert testimony as self-proclaimed “caretaker” of our art and sobriety?
As a reporter for my registered newspaper, Royal Rosamond Press, I am protected from any lawsuit from Rose Buck, because I asked if these two men were concerned about their reputation being HURT, in regards to my inquiries about the death of my beloved sister, and, the mishandling of her Artistic Estate – that reeks of a COVERUP – on many levels. Here is Mr. Rose reciting a line – he first practiced on me? Did he sell it to other politicians in trouble?
“ Deputy City Attorney Gerard Rose went as far as stating that Calkins was a “failed journalist who has a reputation for publishing phony stories and false statements about public figures,” and accused him of “carrying on a one-man crusade to besmirch the reputation of Glen Mozingo.”
Glen Mozingo, a name right out of Tortilla Flat! I will reuse it over and over again! Consider ‘Mozingo’s Flat’. a secret place where crooked politicians go – to get good and drunk! I just saw that Rose was/is Deputy City Attorney. I have wonder if his law firm was asked to intervene in the Rosamond/Benton probate because two famous artists had tore each other up in Divorce Court. The rough draft of Christine’s autobiography – was disappeared! After ten years of battling the Adult Heir, Buck&Rose did not charge a dime for fees. How many art galleries are there in Carmel? Did Rosamond’s Drunken Battles, threaten to corrupt Art Town?
I am going to send this post to NETFLIX! I will contact Calkins – who got his reputation slimed! Christine drowned on her first sober birthday. We are bid to keep a sober diary. Rosamond formed seven silent partnerships, and was in trouble with the IRS. Did she date any officials? Her favorite movie was ‘Chinatown’.
I will be making a comparison between Steinbeck, Kesey, Rosamond, and my late friend Edward Corbin, whose ex-wife has asked me to speak at my friend’s memorial. This is proving very difficult, because Ed chose to keep drinking after Mark Gall and I got him into Serenity Lane. I have composed several approaches to my testimony, that keep turning out to be about me, and my miracle of Recovery – that saved my life! I tried applying the comradeship found in Tortilla Flat, but out of the Four Friends, only Ed drank – allot!
Here are his children and grandchildren, who are begging for an explanation as to why Ed, who was an editor at Double Day, did not write his Great American Novel. I can not refer to My Recovery Novel, or the evil biography of my famous sister, as Great Examples of – HOPE! Christine and my Twelfth Step, never…..HIT THE MARKET! Our REPUTATIONS were utterly destroyed! Who would believe us? My daughter will not be with me when I honor Ed, because she came to believe her father….WAS A BIG LOSER!
When Jack Kerouac came to Harvard to speak, Ed Corbin was assigned by his English Professor to show Jack, his room, and – the town! The next morning, they both walked on stage – DRUNK! Jack announced Ed would me speaking for him, because, “he knows everything about me and my writing.’ The Dean, pulled Mr. Corbin off stage. Mr. Kerouac spent much time staring into the bright faces of Harvard English Majors – all but mute! In several public displays, Jack chose to drink himself to death.
Ed Corbin published a pictorial biography of President Eisenhower, that may contain photographs of my and Elizabeth Rosemond Taylor’s kin, Howard Young, who was the art dealer of his friend, Augustus John, who held a Tortilla Flat scene in England. Ed had a art show at the Smithsonian. You could shuffle Ed’s work in with the art of my ex-wife, who lived with Thomas Pynchon, and you have a Creative Comradeship that has bound us to the Same Creative Family – before we ever met!
Bryan MacLean sang at my wedding. I had a year of sobriety I threw away, as Robin Williams led a hundred of us down Columbus Ave in a Snake! Bryan and Christine were lovers in High School. The three of us went to University High School as did Ed’s ex-wife. Bryan lived in a castle with Love, and it was a famous Tortilla Flat. Jim Morrison and Hendrix were inspired by Love. Bryan was killing himself with alcohols and drugs. I inspired this song he wrote. He asked me for advice about being in love with several women – at the same time! He almost went to dinner at Sharron Tate’s home the night the Manson Monsters showed up. Bryan was clean and sober when I last saw him. When I learned he had died, I was walking to the University of Oregon Library, past the Pioneer graveyard. I fought back tears, as I heard myself say;
“They’re all gone. The gifted people God gave me to accompany my gifts – in the world!”
I was wrong. Ed Corbin, was still alive, until eight days ago.
When I stand up to talk to Cosmos, Freeman, and Eden, I will say…
“Gentleman. I have an announcement that concerns us all. I have found The Grail – and the Sword of Roses! We have not lived, and died….in vain! I have….persevered!
Bryan was a gifted song writer. I let him speak eloquently for me as a sober creative brother. In AA we do not honor Dead Drunks, but all newcomers who want to get off the multiple train wrecks. One is never enough!
“MacLean also fell from grace. “I don’t think I could cope with even the minimal amount of fame that I experienced. It was difficult to stay balanced. To be honest, it almost killed me just to have the notoriety that I had. To have my face more well-known would have been pathogenic. I don’t know if I could have lived through it,” he later admitted.
“I’ve had a lot of experiences that would have killed most people: drug overdoses, felony arrests. I was invited to Sharon Tate and Roman Polanski’s house the night that the Mansons showed up. I had a penchant for putting myself 100 per cent in whatever I was doing, wrong or right. And there are consequences. If you have the greatest drug and what you feel is the most euphoric experience and it ends, then you’re in trouble. You think you’re getting on to the train and you’re gonna get off at the next stop. But before you realise it, you’re strapped to the front of a runaway train until it crashes. And when it crashes, you don’t even know if you’re gonna come out. I just simply didn’t have another runaway train experience left in me.”
EXTRA! I just posted this on my kin’s Facebook – after consulting the Spirit of Ed with my Ouija Board. Even though he is half-sober (God personally hands out thirty-day chips) my old paisano, now has way more clarity than us mere mortals. If things go badly, from here on, I will blame it all on Ed. How many times did he leave me – holding the bag? Netflix already approached August about doing a series.
We are kin via Elizabeth Rosamond Taylor. We are kin to Ian Fleming. I am authoring my own Bond book starring two women lovers. One gets into fashion modeling. I got some history with Sarah Moon. I made up my mind to contact Netflix to see if they want to do a series on my late famous sister, the artist Rosamond. I suggest we join forces. We can play the enemy like a ping-pong ball. We got the paddles. My enemy set up Alcohol Justice who went after Newsom and all the PlumpJack Partners.
Ariadne Getty is the sister of the late Getty III. He was kidnapped by the Italian mafia when Ariadne was just 11. In Trust, Getty III is depicted as complicit in his own kidnapping, whereas in ATMITW, he is completely innocent. Ariadne hired lawyer Marty Singer to take on FX over her brother’s portrayal on Trust. Singer called it a “cruel, mean-spirited, and defamatory” depiction in a letter to FX.Ariadne’s son, August Getty, echoed his mother’s statement, calling the projects “demonizing” in the New York Times piece. Ariadne’s daughter Nats Getty, who is engaged to YouTube star and trans activist Gigi Gorgeous, revealed she found the works “disgusting” as well.
Deputy City Attorney Gerard Rose went as far as stating that Calkins was a “failed journalist who has a reputation for publishing phony stories and false statements about public figures,” and accused him of “carrying on a one-man crusade to besmirch the reputation of Glen Mozingo.”
Advise city leaders on matters related to ethics, personnel, ordinances, contracts, land use, taxes, and finance
Stay informed on changes to state and federal laws that impact the city
Inform the appropriate elected officials and city staff as laws are being debated in the state legislature or Congress
Draft city laws and contracts
Review all contracts and memoranda to ensure that the city’s legal interests are not compromised
Jason Burnett, the 33-year-old challenger to incumbent council members Paula Hazdovac and Gerard Rose, received 46.7 percent of the vote in Tuesday”s City Council election, easily besting both opponents and earning one of two contested council seats.
Mayor Sue McCloud edged out challenger Adam Moniz to secure a sixth term in Carmel”s highest office.
With 27.9 percent of the council vote, Hazdovac retained her seat. That left out Rose, who received 25.4 percent of the vote.
Suzanne & Steve Diamond’s Proposal to Privately Finance the Building of a Museum in the City of Carmel-by-the-Sea?
ABSTRACT: Whatever happened to Suzanne & Steve Diamond’s proposal to privately finance the building of a museum in the City of Carmel-by-the-Sea? The City Council agenda item and minutes of the 1 November 2005 meeting are presented. The City Council unanimously voted to form a two-person committee consisting of City Councilman Gerard Rose and Mayor Sue McCloud to proceed with “the development of a proposal.” Comments are made, including an Update related to communications from Monterey Museum of Art Executive Director E. Michael Whittington. Apparently, E. Michael Whittington expressed “collegial” support to the City of Carmel-by-the-Sea and has not gone beyond that since the demise of the Diamond’s proposal.
Heisinger, Buck, Morris & Rose, Gerard A. Rose and James G. Heisinger, Jr., for Plaintiffs and Appellants.
Douglas C. Holland, County Counsel, and D. Richard Barelli, Deputy County Counsel, for Defendant and Respondent.
OPINION
ELIA, J.-
Appellants sued the County of Monterey (County) for trespass and inverse condemnation, alleging that County was liable because County intentionally breached a levee and flooded appellants’ property. fn. 1 County moved for summary judgment and the trial court granted the motion. The trial court concluded that appellants’ inverse condemnation claim was barred under the emergency exception to the just compensation requirement. The trial court also determined that appellants’ trespass
At 7:33 on July 11, 2020, I sent the following e-mail to the President of the United States.
“Dear Mr. President: May I suggest a statue of President Eisenhower be included in your proposed garden. Ike was an artist who rendered a hundred or more paintings while living in your home. He helped defeat the Nazis. He bid the Monument Men to return stolen art to rightful owners. He was a good friend of art dealer, Howard Young, who is the uncle of my kin, Elizabeth Rosemond Taylor.”
Alcoholism in Novel Tortilla Flat by John Steinbeck
Alcoholism has been the problem for almost any society due to individuals that consume it in inadequately large amounts. These people’s behavior leads to the development of a grave social problem because alcohol addiction significantly affects their lives. In the modern world, people tend to connect alcohol consumption with health problems, but it also affects other aspects of life of an alcoholic such as intellectual development, socialization, and criminal behavior. As a result, people tend to stigmatize alcoholics and use them as a negative example of morally weak individuals who suffer from addiction and harm the surrounding community. The novel Tortilla Flat by John Steinbeck explores these topics presenting a life of a small community of assimilated immigrants, some of which suffer from alcoholism. Depicting the life of a representative of one of the social minorities, the author expresses his visions of a destructive force of alcoholism. The story of Danny, his friends and community could have been drastically different and free of ridiculous and sorrowful episodes if they refused from alcohol consumption.
The most important things are usually told in a ridiculous form. Although Tortilla Flat possesses a serious message, the author speaks of the ludicrous heroism of his characters throughout the literary work. From the first page of the novel, Steinbeck mocks the epic tradition using sentimental dialogs, a lyrical tone, symbolism, and ironic characterization. In this respect, Tortilla Flat can be defined as a thought-provoking and thrilling novel that depicts a story of paisanos who live in the two houses belonging to one of them. Furthermore, the writer portrays his characters as usually drinking and dawdling people, who engage in different affairs and quests. While the story takes place after the end of the Great War, the specific attention is drawn to the drunken patriotism. In the novel, characters enjoy drinking wine, which eventually causes them to be involved in certain problems. Therefore, Steinbeck’s humorous approach to alcoholism conveys the message of the spiritual degradation of his characters, who drink wine to ease the pain of life.
Summary
The story of Tortilla Flat is set in Monterey, California where lives a specific community of mixed-race individuals that resemble Mexican immigrants or Latin Americans. They have a mixture of Caucasian, Spanish, Indian, Mexican and other bloods but recognize themselves as being of purely Spanish blood, call themselves “paisanos” and speak a mixture of Spanish and English, the paisano accent (Steinbeck). Their description by the author resembles a mockery due to the ironic portrayal of their language, customs, and behavior. For instance, in the preface, he compares their presence in California with the Ancient Britons embattled in Wales, living in old wooden houses, and surrounded by pine trees, grass and various kinds of bushes (Steinbeck).
The image of paisanos contrasts with the image of the American culture because they represent a social minority of mainly unemployed individuals stuck in the past. Moreover, there is one critical factor, namely wine, that serves as a catalyst in the novel and inevitably leads to its consumption by paisanos, thereby causing alcoholism. The inhabitants of Tortilla Flat seem to consume and produce alcohol of various types in large quantities because its protagonists buy, steal or share with each other different drinks. Sometimes, their behavior is ridiculous, as in the case with one of the men Pablo Sanchez who was going to steal a goose but failed because the goose bit him to scream (Steinbeck). Moreover, he was incarcerated but released on parole because, as he said, “The judge said the sentence did me no good, and the police said I ate more than the allowance for three men” (Steinbeck). The cases similar to this one occur quite often, and the author’s irony makes the protagonists more appealing to the reader than they are. Therefore, Tortilla Flat ironically depicts the destructive power of alcohol, which dooms the life of a small community to endless decay and degradation.
The protagonist of the story is a paisano man aged about thirty named Danny, who used to drink wine and sleep on the streets surrounded by his friends that shared a similar lifestyle. The author compares them to the knights of King Arthur or the brotherhood of Robin Hood mainly focusing on the spirit of joy and union that made them “one thing” (Steinbeck). However, instead of any brotherhood or knight code, their intentions and the way of life were united by wine, making them a union of alcoholics. The life of Danny full of street adventures suddenly met an obstacle, namely the two houses he inherited after his rich and reputable grandfather died. For any adequate person, such property could have been a great luck, but Danny accepted it as a heavy burden as soon as he recollected this fact after a drinking bout. The author highlights this idea, “No more in life would that face be free of care. No more would Danny break windows now that he had windows of his own to break” (Steinbeck).
Throughout the novel, this idea returns to Danny many times, making him missing the old days when he slept anywhere he could and could drink as much as his body allowed. His numerous friends, with the two main ones Pilon and Pablo, respect his memories but do not refuse to rent his house. From time to time, they think about paying rent to Danny, although they had never had the required sum of money except when serving in the army (Steinbeck). Hoping to obtain rent for Danny from his friend Pablo, Pilon decides to rent him the house; however, Pablo is only another local alcoholic without money. Gradually, the tendency of renting the rented house to friends progresses until they all represent a community of marginalized individuals, creating a mess in the neighborhood and being a kind of a local evil. Although Danny’s story is delivered with irony, it has a sad final because he dies during one of numerous drinking bouts, and his friends burn his house to the ground. No one attempts to cease the fire, but everyone is observing as it catches a wooden house with a smile because “this symbol of holy friendship” has to die with Danny (Steinbeck). Therefore, in a joyful manner, John Steinbeck depicts a story of the rise and fall of an alcoholic community, implicating a deep moral context behind jokes and metaphors.
Morale of the Novel
Although the author presents Danny’s life in a joyful manner, he demonstrates the destructive force of alcoholism, which leads an authentic community to dismay. The first issue connected with alcohol in the novel is that the inhabitants of Tortilla Flat cannot control themselves when the possibility of having a drink emerges in their mind. For example, after renting Danny’s house, his friend Pilon manages to find a job, get a payment of two dollars and even thinks about paying a part of the rent. However, on the way to Danny, he buys two gallons of wine willing to demonstrate “how warmly” he feels towards his friend, meets another friend Pablo, and drinks all the wine with him (Steinbeck). Thus, the question of absence of money is present all the time in the novel when talking about any Danny’s friend and Danny himself as well. This absence of finances depresses them, but they quickly find consolation in alcohol, forgetting their problems, duties and the norms of adequate behavior.
One of the outcomes of being poor alcoholics presented in the novel is that they steal food, different products, and domestic animals and consume or trade them for wine. As a result, the book is full of episodes such as with Pablo being imprisoned for the attempt of stealing a goose, Pilon killing someone’s rooster for dinner, and others (Steinbeck). Another aspect of the novel is that it demonstrates that alcohol ruins adequate human relationship and behavior. For instance, it is an ordinary case for paisano alcoholics to sleep on the street or be imprisoned for disrespectful behavior when being drunk or forget the place where they live. Moreover, although all of them are friends, they feel free to cheat each other, argue over money and severely punish each other. In one of such fights with Danny, Pilon, and the two girls, “Danny lost a tooth, and Pilon had his shirt torn off,” and one of the girls was hit in the stomach (Steinbeck). Similarly, the sense of friendship among the three individuals is lost when Danny asks Pilon and Pablo to pay at least some part of the rent. Immediately, Pilon rises with anger and cries about unjust Danny’s decision calling him “miser” and “Jew” (Steinbeck). He uses this trick hoping that Danny would forget about this fact or feel uncomfortable and never ask this question again. Constantly, in the novel, alcohol kills human conscience and leads people to decisions and actions that cause spiritual and physical self-destruction, thereby harming others.
The end of the book is also the end for Danny and the story of his house and numerous alcoholic friends. One night, when the whole house celebrates an opportunity to become a firm and earn money, Danny is deeply depressed by the absence of a sense of his living. Although the friends are talking about money, wine and girls, there is no consolation to him. Danny drinks too much wine, gets enraged, goes to search for an opponent to fight and falls into a gulch getting fatal injuries. If there was no alcohol in his life and the lives of his friends, he would have been a prosperous man that lives in one of the houses and gets rent for the other one. Probably, he would have had a respectable job, a wife, and children, and his death would have been not that miserable. However, it was alcohol that spread its destructive force around Tortilla Flat, demonstrating drastic outcomes of its uncontrolled consumption.
While the plot of the story unfolds during the Great Depression, the time when people’s hopes for bright future have been paltry, each of the paisanos deals with their depression in a similar way. In this respect, Steinbeck’s both romantic and ironic characterization has a specific role in the novel. Throughout the literary work, all the characters are confronted with drinking habits. Enjoying their life to the fullest, Danny, Pilon, Pablo, Jesus Maria, Pirate, and Big Joe Portagee do not notice that they transform into social outsiders. For example, the main character, Danny, who is the owner of the house where all friends live, lacks responsibility and cold sense. He constantly drinks wine, disappears from the home, or goes on a crime, which witnesses the character’s foolish behavior. At the same time, Danny’s friend, Pilon, is an idealist, who attempts to pay the rent for Danny; but he always fails. Even when Pilon has money to give to his friend, he chooses to buy wine; and instead of returning home, he visits an old friend. According to Steinbeck, “It is just as well that we do not take two gallons of wine to Danny,” said Pilon. “He is a man who knows little restraint in drinking” (4). The specific moral message behind Steinbeck’s satire can be observed in this particular quote (Tavernier-Courbin 51). This pseudo awareness of the dangers of alcoholism is quite ironical because none of the friends know anything about restraint in drinking. Hence, Pilon was searching for an excuse for his behavior. Therefore, drinking obscures characters’ minds and forces them to act recklessly.
Furthermore, Steinbeck uses a specific tone to convey the atmosphere of drunkenness. The author’s portrayal of wine jugs can be regarded as an entire science of alcohol consuming. Thus, the writer compares wine bottles to graduated flasks used in chemistry, “Spiritually the jugs may be graduated thus: Just below the shoulder of the first bottle, serious and concentrated conversation. Two inches farther down, sweetly sad memory. Three inches more, thoughts of old and satisfactory loves” (Steinbeck 40). To measure thoughts and feelings of the characters, the author applies the amount of alcohol they drink. Steinbeck argues that every human emotion can be read according to how much wine has been consumed. To convey the specific idea of gradation, the writer applies a lyrical and sentimental tone. While Danny and the company constantly drink alcohol, it is no surprise that they are usually in depression. According to Steinbeck, “Bottom of the first jug, general and undirected sadness. Shoulder of the second jug, black, unholy despondency. Two fingers down, a song of death or longing” (40). Thus, to portray the dark side of addiction, the writer employs a sentimental tone to depict the vicious state of drunkenness.
At the same time, the author makes an allusion to the times of King Arthur and his knights at the Round Table. To be precise, Steinbeck’s characters themselves symbolize the knights who are bonded together as well as dependent on each other (Gladstein 82). Sharing the same dwelling, Danny and the company share the same habit – consuming wine. Furthermore, while the knights are a personification of courage and bravery, Danny and his friends are also depicted in a humorous way as great patriots. To fight an enemy or sign up for the army, the characters get drunk, “As the wine went down in the bottles, patriotism arose in the three men” (Steinbeck 8). Their courage rises under the influence of alcohol, and eventually, it can be hardly called a courageous decision to join the armed forces. Moreover, alcohol-fueled actions do not lead to any good consequences. On the contrary, constant wine consuming causes men to become engaged in different unpleasant events.
Ultimately, the troubled lifestyle of Steinbeck’s characters leads to the tragic death of the protagonist, Danny, as he leaves his home in search of drunken adventures. One of the friends, Pilon, claims, “I know what you mean. And there are plenty of people who die through abuse of wine” (Steinbeck 87). Although Pilon comically attempts to justify himself for keeping the wine, his words can be regarded as a foreshadowing of tragic consequences. Furthermore, when the friends were partying together, they attempted to cheer Danny and bring him back from depression. In this respect, alcohol is equated with celebration and fun, “I gave Danny the last of the wine, and it did him good. What Danny needs is lots of wine, and maybe a party” (Steinbeck 166). Instead of saving their friend, the men actually push him to the tragic ending. Although they realize that Danny is in depression, the only cure they know is alcohol and a party. Thus, drinking can be regarded as a symbol of escape from social problems and reality.
Moreover, the author uses an ironic tone to describe the sadness of the protagonist’s funeral. Although the paisanos cannot attend, the day of Danny’s funeral is very important to them. The friends do not go to farewell because of poor clothes that would be a dishonor to their friend’s memory. The irony is that they remind homeless social outsiders because of the constant drinking. If the characters had not been addicted to wine, they would have attended the funeral of their close friend. Nevertheless, the company found a specific way to commemorate Danny. Drinking alcohol and singing songs, the friends say goodbye to Daddy in their characteristic tradition. According to Steinbeck, “Danny liked wine,” they said. “Danny was happy when he had a little wine” (186). Thus, even in such a tragic moment, the comrades speak of alcohol. At the same time, the author’s lyrical ‘translation’ from the Spanish adds certain sensuality and poetics to the novel. Steinbeck uses such tone to convey his sympathy for people he depicts and compassion for the drinking choices they make (Gladstein 81). Thereby, the writer concerns for the sufferings and misfortunes of his characters with the help of the tone.
At the same time, when Danny dies, the house where he has lived with his comrades is accidentally burned. In this respect, the burning of the house can be observed as a symbol of purity. While fire has been regarded as an element of clearance, it is not strange that the author has applied this image to portray Danny’s transition to the hereafter. Furthermore, the burning of the house together with the funeral of the main character symbolizes the end of an inseparable bond the friends have had. Thus, the writer presents the destruction of the place where Danny and the company lived to claim that there is a period in people’s life when they need to separate and move on. At the same time, the fire destroys the place where the friends gathered and drank. Hence, the characters do not have an opportunity to consume alcohol, which will force them either to find a new location for their abusive habit or review their life purposes. Additionally, the characters’ bond is also burnt, and they have to depart alone. Thereby, the author allows the readers to ponder on the fate of Danny’s friends after his death.
Conclusion
Tortilla Flat is an ironic but sad novel of the lives of people, who have charisma and life opportunities, but destroy them with their hands by abusing alcohol. Danny and his friends are charismatic and creative individuals, which is evidenced by their solutions to the financial problems. However, their uncontrolled consumption of wine leads to the loss of their human nature and almost transforms them into animals as they have no self-respect, job, or stable positive relationship. Although the book Tortilla Flat is full of jokes and irony, John Steinbeck clearly depicts that alcoholism leads to spiritual and human destruction. Therefore, people should not consume alcohol if they want to have a life full of natural pleasures, opportunities, and positive relationship.
Tortilla Flat is an informative novel that possesses a significant moral message. While Steinbeck’s characters constantly drink wine, they can be regarded as social outcasts who lack responsibility for their lives. Thus, the author uses characterization to depict each of the paisanos as typical drunkards who do not fight against their abusive habit, but they fight against depression and social problems by consuming alcohol. Using both lyrical and ironic tone, the writer conveys the atmosphere of drunkenness that attracts every character. At the same time, Steinbeck applies allusion to the times of King Arthur and his knights and such symbols as fire and the burning house to show the characters’ tight connection and final purification of the dark tradition. In this respect, Steinbeck uses humor, irony, and satire to portray alcoholism as a destroying habit that causes a person’s degradation. In spite of the struggle against social challenges, the characters drink wine to ease life problems. Thereby, Steinbeck’s moral message is a warning about the destructive power of alcohol that eventually leads to poor consequences.
My childhood friend, Bill Arnold, got picked up by John Steinbeck while hitchhiking on Highway 101. John was driving a red Ford pickup truck with a bale of hay in the back. This truck would appear in my book ‘Elfine’. It is driven by Ivan (John) who has fathered a daughter on the planet of Felinia, and, at sixteen, she is coming to Earth to see her father for the first time. Ivan owns a lettuce ranch. He ended the cold war so he could live in Steinbeck County. I started this un-finished novel in 1986, and is the reason I go sober. I wanted to live – to finish it. The four Presco Children were famous for our poverty – and ingenuity! We raised ourselves – and our friends! Come the Weekend, we had as many as ten children in our home on San Sebastian Ave. in Oakland. Steinbeck lived on a boat during the depression. I sent a letter to executor Sydney Morris asking his help in finding my daughter – I had a dream about. Two weeks later, Patrice Hanson calls me and says we have a sixteen year old daughter.
On this day, July 19, 2021, I declare Royal Rosamond a Grail Author, and Chrisitne Rosamond, a Grail Artist. All members of the Rosamond Family – are connected to King Arthur and the Grail. John Steinbeck – prepared my way! He was so close to the Grail Rose! He could feel the presence of the Rose Sword. He became – dismayed. He never finished his book, his quest. On this day, I declare John Steinbeck a Grail Arthur, and Knight of Rosey Round Table! We are one with the truth! We are at home – with the Grail!
King John
Nobel Prize winning novelist John Steinbeck (1902-1968) had been fascinated by Malory’s tale since childhood. As he noted in the Introduction to the Acts of King Arthur, it was a version of Malory designed for youngsters from which he developed ‘my sense of right and wrong, my feeling of noblesse oblige, and any thought I may have against the oppressor and for the oppressed.’ Thus Malory’s Morte helped to shape all of Steinbeck’s work, even his novels of social concern.
In Tortilla Flat, Steinbeck translates the Arthurian realm into the modern world by creating an overlay of Arthurian allusion to ennoble the lower-class characters of the novel. Steinbeck himself said in a letter written in 1934 that Tortilla Flat, ‘has a very definite theme. I thought it was clear enough. I have expected that the plan of the Arthurian cycle would be recognized, that my Gawaine and my Launcelot, my Arthur and Galahad would be recognized. Even the incident of the Sangreal in the search in the forest is not clear enough I guess. The form is that of the Malory version, the coming of Arthur and the mystic quality of owning a house, the forming of the round table, the adventure of the knights and finally, the mystic translation of Danny [the King Arthur figure in the book].’ To make the link more obvious, Steinbeck added chapter headings that imitated those in the Caxton edition of Malory. Steinbeck also added a sentence to the preface to make the Arthurian connection more explicit: ‘For Danny’s house was not unlike the Round Table, and Danny’s friends were not unlike the knights of it.’ Danny, who shelters his friends, takes on the role of Arthur in medieval romance by providing a focal point for his followers and a starting point for all their adventures. Danny’s companion Pilon, who advises him, is the story’s Merlin. Despite the use of the Arthurian material to ennoble his characters, Steinbeck never idealizes or overly romanticizes them—although they do have their own code of ethics and do champion those in distress.
In his first commercially successful novel, Tortilla Flat (1935), John Steinbeck creates his own modern day version of Camelot and King Arthur’s roundtable; it is “the story of Danny and Danny’s friends and of Danny’s house” (1). As a twist on local color fiction, Tortilla Flat records semi-mythic events from the lives of the paisanos from Monterey County. Episodic in nature, the tales recount the escapades of Danny and his group of ragged and drunken friends as they drink, fight, engage in random acts of petty theft and, occasionally, do good deeds. Throughout their many adventures and misdeeds, the one thing that remains as constant as their desire to avoid doing any real work or live respectable lives, is their loyalty to one another. Steinbeck creates a story about epic friendship, and yet, just like the original round table, “this story deals with how the talisman was lost and how the group disintegrated” (1). The hilarious, drunken adventures of the kind-hearted yet misguided paisanos makes for a rousing, seemingly frivolous little novel. Under the comedic surface, however, is a provoking picture of alcoholism and poverty that reminds readers of the substandard social status of Mexican-Americans in California in the 1930s.
Tortilla Flat was first published by Covici-Friede in 1935. The novel was adapted into a play in 1937 and released as a film in 1942.
Floris and Blancheflour is the name of a popular romantic story that was told in the Middle Ages in many different vernacular languages and versions.[1] It first appears in Europe around 1160 in “aristocratic” French. Roughly between the period 1200 and 1350 it was one of the most popular of all the romantic plots.
The following synopsis is from the original Old French “aristocratic” version (Floire et Blancheflor) of the late 12th century.
The Middle English version of the poem derives from an Old French “aristocratic” version but differs somewhat in details. The opening section concerning how the two are born is missing from the English versions. Originally it dates to around 1250 and was called Floris and Blanchefleur.
Felix, King of Al-Andalus (MuslimSpain), on one of his ventures into Galicia in northwestern Spain attacks a band of Christian pilgrims en route on the Way of St James to the famous medieval pilgrimage shrine of Santiago de Compostela. Among the pilgrims are a French knight and his recently widowed daughter, who has chosen to dedicate the rest of her life to the sanctuary. The knight is killed, and his daughter is taken prisoner to Naples, where she is made lady-in-waiting to Felix’s wife. Both women are pregnant, and the children are born on the same day, Palm Sunday: Floris, a son, to the Muslim Queen, and Blanchefleur, a daughter, to her lady-in-waiting.
Floris (“belonging to the flower”) and Blanchefleur (“white flower”) are raised together at the court and grow close. King Felix fears his son may desire to marry the “pagan” girl and decides that she must be killed. However, he cannot bring himself to do the act and instead sends Floris away to school, then sells Blanchefleur to merchants traveling on the way to Cairo (called Babylon in the story), where she is then sold to the emir. Felix constructs an elaborate tomb for Blanchefleur and tells Floris she has died. Floris’s reaction is so severe that Felix tells him the truth. Distraught but encouraged she is still alive, Floris sets out to find her.
Floris eventually arrives outside Cairo where he meets the bridge warden named Daire who tells him about the emir’s tower of maidens. Each year the emir selects a new bride from his tower and kills his old wife. Rumour has it that Blanchefleur is soon to be his next chosen bride. To gain access to the tower, Daire advises Floris to play chess with the tower watchman, returning all winnings to him until the watchman is forced to return the favor by allowing him entrance to the tower. Floris outplays the watchmen at chess, and according to plan, Floris is smuggled in to the tower in a basket of flowers, but is mistakenly placed in the room of Blanchefleur’s friend Claris. Claris arranges a reunion between the two, but they are discovered two weeks later by the emir.
The emir holds off killing them on the spot until he holds a council of advisers. So impressed are the advisers at the willingness of the young lovers to die for one another that they persuade the emir to spare their lives. Floris is then knighted, he and Blanchefleur are married, and Claris marries the emir (who promises Claris she will be his last and only wife, forever). Soon after, news of Felix’s death reaches Cairo and Floris and Blanchefleur depart for home where they inherit the kingdom, embrace Christianity, and convert their subjects as well.
The poem tells of the troubles of the two eponymous lovers. Blancheflour (“white flower”) is a Christian princess abducted by Saracens and raised with the pagan prince Flores (“belonging to the flower”). The two fall in love and separate. Blancheflour gives Flores a ring that will reflect her state, so that it will tarnish if she is in danger.
Blancheflour is in a different caliphate from Flores, and there she is accused falsely and sent as a slave to a Tower of Maidens. The Emir has within his garden a “Tree of Love” that determines a new wife for him every year. Its flower will fall on the destined maiden from the harem, and yet he can also magically manipulate the tree to cast its flower upon a favorite. He has decided to make it fall on Blancheflour, for she is the loveliest virgin in the harem. Flores, knowing that Blancheflour is about to be taken by the Emir as a wife, comes to rescue her from her peril. The reunited lovers are found in bed (though they were chastely together) by the Emir the next morning. When he hears their whole tale of chaste love and long promises to one another, he demands proof of her virginity by having her put her hands in a water that will stain if she has been with a man. She is proven pure, he pardons both lovers, and all is well.
The story contains elements of both older heroic sagas and romance. Unlike the usually bloody and martial Romances earlier in the period (e.g. Havelok the Dane), this Romance is, indeed, romantic. The older original “aristocratic” version does not contain knightly combat but the “popular” French version that would come later does contain some elements. The story contains themes of conflict between paganism and Christianity. Additionally, unlike other Romances, each section of the story is dependent strictly upon the previous section, so this poem has a linear plot. The poem also emphasizes the power of romantic love (rather than courtly love or divine favor) over force of arms to preserve life and ensure a good end.
The Middle English version of the poem derives from an Old French “aristocratic” version (Floire et Blancheflor) of the tale. The story has analogs in Indian literature, particularly the Jatakas of the early fifth century. Many of the details, such as the Tower of Maidens (i.e. harem), eunuch guards, and the odalisques derive from material carried to the west via The Arabian Nights. The tale could be originally French, or possibly of Oriental origins, or a synthesis of motifs.
Boccaccio wrote a version of the same tale in his “Filocolo”, in 1336, while he was in Naples. The tale has been a popular subject for later retellings, and it was treated by Swedish poet Oskar Levertin in the romantic ballad “Flores och Blanzeflor” in the collection Legender och visor (Legends and Songs) in 1891.
After finishing this post, and woke up from my old man nap, my spirit guide was telling me to hop on Amtrak and take a train to visit the grave of your grandfather that you found. It was lost. Here is the marriage certificate of the parents of Frank Weseley Rosamond who was born of two Roses. I am going to try to make a loop up to Montana, then home to Oregon. I will put a down payment on my final resting place. I sent my Burial Broker this e-mail.
Dear Debow;
I have decided to make a historic stand next to my grandfather, as close I can get, in what looks like a structure salvaged from a NASA contender in a space race – gone wrong? Your founder saw it sitting in a junkyard on route 66 and, freshened it up? What a deal! Put it on a concrete launch-pad, and away we go! I was concerned about permanence, that it fall into massive disrepair before I take occupancy, and thus I will not be able to sell it to another sucker. But, being kin to Robert E.Lee and other gentleman who have had their monuments attacked, then I must accept this truth’ “There are no guarantees in life – and death!” So, I am betting on getting in my niche before the mob with torches and sledge hammers arrive in a foul mood. How will I know what fate has befallen me, then? My time to worry about my fate – will be at an end.
Yesterday I tried my monolith on for size and may have written my best stuff. I own the right stuff. Read this post and the next to see if I do? I am worthy. Will contact you again when I – get the gov. check.
When I heard this tune by John Fahey, I wanted to learn to play it on a guitar, so I bought me one. A couple of months later, my best friend, Bryan MacLean is teaching me basic chords. Bryan sang at my wedding. I married Mary Ann Tharaldsen a good friend of Richard an Mimi Farina. She lived in Mexico with Thomas Pynchon. Here is some of the history of Lerona.
In Christ there is no east or west, in him no south or north, but one great fellowship of love throughout the whole wide earth.
William Arthur Dunkerley,
Lerona Rosamond says we descend from Rosamond Clifford. She is very much like the fictional character, Scarlett O’Hara.
“The Rosamond family, of which Mrs. Morris is a member, trace their lineage back to the early Norman families that settled in England and were members of the nobility, there being among them “Fair Rosamond,” whose life has been written as one of the “Immortal love stories” of history. In this country the family first settled in South Carolina before the first United States census was taken. Captain Samuel Rosamond’s name is in the first census taken in the United States and won honors in the Revolutionary War. He was the great-great-grandfather of Mrs. D .C. Morris. Lerona (Rosamond) Morris, herself, is a gifted lady with decided talent for writing, which she has used to good advantage.”
Royal Rosamond’s photograph of a cabin, appears in the history of the Ozarks that Otto Rayburn is the caretaker of. There are several photographs of the Thomas Hart Benton family, the regional artist that my niece Drew Benton, is kin to, as are the Prescos. Before Christine and Garth Benton met each other, the history of their creative ancestors merged, and can be considered National Treasures, because these men created an art form from whence a well spring of American Culture has sprang – as well a the American Tree of Life. I own letters that will be sent to the University of Arkansas where thy will be deposited in the Raybrun collection, which is the National Archives for the History of the Ozarks that were populated by Scotch-Irish who fled England because their religion was being oppressed. They did most of the fighting in the War of Independence – because they were experienced in killing Red Coats who were forcing folks to become members of the Church of England, that Queen Elizabeth is a zealot to promote. Any member of her family who makes wrong moves, is attacking the Church of England – especially if you are an American. It is the Colorful Liberty Coat that Meghan Markle wears that has got the Queen’s full attention, for she may be in league with that Presbyterian Devil, John Knox, and his kin, Signer, John Witherspoon.
When I declared “I will never be placed on a pedestal!” Those who know American History, let go a hardy laugh, for you can not make a more nobler pronouncement as a descendant of the Scotch-Irish, whose leaders did have royal blood in their veins, but, at what a price? We take no bribes. We do not have a price. Our liberty is secured by spitting on all crowns!
Above is a photograph of the Black building with Native American designs. Get a gander at that roof line. This could be a monument to Lerona Rosamond whose ancestors lived in Mississippi and co-mingled with the Choctaw. My grandfather owned baskets, Ozark quilts and a fiddle upon which he played Scotch-Irish jigs. Royal is reading from his magazine ‘Bright Stories’ published by his self-publishing company ‘Gem Publishing’. Below is a news article about him that appeared in the Oklahoman, that I will transcribe. Kingdom in an Attic – is a gem! The fate of his ‘Copper Indian’ is a real tragedy.
In 1825, in the village of Fenagh in county Leitrim in Ireland, a gang of Catholic youths attacked the Rosamond home. The Rosamonds were staunch Protestants. James, aged 20 (born 1805) and his brother Edward, aged 15, attempted to protect their mother. A shot was fired by Edward and a youth was dead. The boys fled to Canada. James went to Merrickville where he worked for James Merrick as a weaver. Edward, still fearing arrest, worked his way eventually to Memphis, Tennessee.
My Burial Broker had to mention some kind of service, and I was forced to reveal the wretched fight over the prints of Rosamond’s Fair Ladys. But, dag-namit! If I go to Oklahoma, I’m going to see if Hillary Klug and some Cloggers will meet me at the train station. I swear that’s my great-grandmother, Dorothy Hodges, on the wall of this classic. We’re going to give Royal a real humble sendoff. Yeeehaw!
“I walked on, for I had yet a long way to go before nightfall. Now it was but a mite after mid-day. After leaving the train at Winona, I could have perhaps caught a ride to Eminence had I stayed with the wagon road instead of footing it up the spur-track leading northward to cross Jack’s Fork at the Hodge place where I left to journey up Possum Trot toward Little Wonder Schoolhouse and Tucked Away Church House, above which in the ride to the north, I lived – the place where I was born and which I called home, where my parents had settled in their youth and planned some day to die.”
I am excited about my new James Bond book because I can bring all I want to do – together.! I have found my McGuffin. The world’s most famous womanizer is tooling around in a 1970 Corvette, he on a road trip, because he lost his beloved wife, and his lover. Alas, we get to see how James deals with real bona fied relationships – and how he uses casual sex to get his mind off his grief. Of course he is going to meet villains along the way! He will have more than one showdown to protect his woman, like King George did! He never forsake Ms. Wallace. I have placed Ian Fleming with the Black Mask authors.
“The eleven story Black Hotel, constructed in 1930 by Lucian Black at a cost of $600,000, was only one of several ornate hotels constructed in Oklahoma City after the oil boom of 1928. Luring guests with a daily rate of $2 to $3 a day, the hotel for years competed with the Skirvin, Huckins, and Biltmore as the most appealing hotel in Oklahoma City. One feature which distinguished the Black from other hotels was its blend of geometric and Indian-design ornamentation. This unique design was continued on the American Motor Hotel directly to the north. Built by Oliver P. Kernadle, who pioneered the automobile hotel business in Oklahoma City, the eight-story structure housed automobiles for surrounding businesses, including the Black Hotel.” (Blackburn, Henderson and Thurman 76)
When King Charles I attempted to force these Presbyterians into the Church of England in the 1630s, many chose to re-emigrate to North America where religious liberty was greater. Later attempts to force the Church of England’s control over dissident Protestants in Ireland led to further waves of emigration to the trans-Atlantic colonies.[11]
Scholarly estimate is that over 200,000 Scotch-Irish migrated to the Americas between 1717 and 1775.[53] As a late arriving group, they found that land in the coastal areas of the British colonies was either already owned or too expensive, so they quickly left for the more mountainous interior where land could be obtained cheaply. Here they lived on the first frontier of America. Early frontier life was extremely challenging, but poverty and hardship were familiar to them. The term hillbilly has often been applied to their descendants in the mountains, carrying connotations of poverty, backwardness and violence.
Here is the Historian Lerona Rosamond Morris claiming the Rosamond family descends from the Normans and Fair Rosamond. She is my kin. I take her educated word for this. My long quest for ‘The Rose of the World’ bloodline, is at an end. Royal Rosamond lived and died in Oklahoma, and owned Gem Publishing.
Jon Presco
President: Royual Rosamond Press Co.
Copyright 2016
The Rosamond family, of which Mrs. Morris is a member, trace their lineage back to the early Norman families that settled in England and were members of the nobility, there being among them “Fair Rosamond,” whose life has been written as one of the “Immortal love stories” of history. In this country the family first settled in South Carolina before the first United States census was taken. Captain Samuel Rosamond’s name is in the first census taken in the United States and won honors in the Revolutionary War. He was the great-great-grandfather of Mrs. D .C. Morris. Lerona (Rosamond) Morris, herself, is a gifted lady with decided talent for writing, which she has used to good advantage.
DAN CURTIS MORRIS. As a high-class salesman in this territory, representing the Fuller Brush Company of Tulsa, Oklahoma, Dan Curtis Morris puts the full force of his rich experience as merchant into his work and thereby is able to keep a record above those of less knowledge of human nature, its requirements and potential purchasing power. He is the son of a Methodist minister, John Harvey Morris, and his wife Sue (Crawford) Morris, both of whom were natives of Georgia.
Rev. John Harvey Morris is of a line of distinguished ancestry, among them the famous Robert Morris, of Revolutionary days. He moved from his native State to Texas when he was a young man, and for a time was engaged in the cattle business. Rev. Morris is perhaps one of the best loved men in Jones County, Texas, as his charming personality, his witticisms, his fund of rich episodes gathered from colorful days of the old South on a Georgia plantation in his boyhood; his Civil War experiences, his wild days when he roamed the cattle ranges, and his later years of civic and church leadership, all gain for him a welcome wherever he goes. His own Christian life is so sincere and God-like, his expressions of sympathy so beautifully and aptly spoken, that in times of sorrow he is much in demand, and in times of sorrow he is much in demand, and in times of rejoicing the gayest and youngest in the crowd, though recently turned eighty-two. He drives, alone, his own car over four hundred miles to Oklahoma to visit his son twice a year. Rev. John H. Morris and his wife, Sue (Crawford) Morris, had two children, Dan Curtis, of whom further, and a daughter, Willie, who is now deceased, as is also Mrs. Morris.
Dan Curtis Morris was born in Hamilton County, Texas, August 12, 1879, and after he grew to manhood entered the furniture and drygoods business, in which he learned the general principles of merchandising and had opportunity to study the fundamentals of salesmanship. He moved to Tulsa, Oklahoma, in 1922, where he was a department manager in the big Hunt Company store, now the Brown-Dunkin Company. Mr. Morris later became associated with the Fuller Brush Company, of Tulsa, as has been stated.
On January 6, 1903, Dan Curtis Morris married Lerona Rosamond, daughter of William James and Martha (Cooke) Rosamond. Mr. Rosamond was a native of Mississippi, and his wife a native of Texas. They were the parents of ten children, of which family Mrs. Morris is the fifth child. Mr. and Mrs. Morris have five children: 1. Evelyn Rosamond. 2. James Harold. 3. Jack Gordon. 4. Robert Cecil. 5. Margaret Ruth.
The Rosamond family, of which Mrs. Morris is a member, trace their lineage back to the early Norman families that settled in England and were members of the nobility, there being among them “Fair Rosamond,” whose life has been written as one of the “Immortal love stories” of history. In this country the family first settled in South Carolina before the first United States census was taken. Captain Samuel Rosamond’s name is in the first census taken in the United States and won honors in the Revolutionary War. He was the great-great-grandfather of Mrs. D .C. Morris. Lerona (Rosamond) Morris, herself, is a gifted lady with decided talent for writing, which she has used to good advantage. She has completed one literary work, “Tulsa, the City Beautiful,” and is now busy with the preparation of another which will be entitled “Oklahoma, Yesterday, To-day, Tomorrow,” and is to be the history of Oklahoma told in story form. She has already won thirty-six prizes for writing in different contests. Mrs. Morris took up magazine subscription work to earn her church pledge toward the Baptists’ $75,000,000 campaign. She has ever used originality in her unique way of securing subscriptions and has made of it an interesting as well as profitable business. Since moving to Tulsa six years ago, she has built up a substantial clientele, who have remained on her list through the years, many of them calling her, when it is time to renew subscriptions, or if they desire to send gifts.
Mrs. Morris is accused of having a charm of manner that easily makes friends. She, herself, says, “people are so lovely to me—I just love folks. They give me so many new ideas, which, with a little originality and imagination on my part, can be turned into a money-making device.” She has been quite successful in advertising, and is now editor of a Transportation leaflet, “Whenuride,” in which she prints cleverly written jokes which are made into designed advertisements, and also stories and interesting information about the “Ins and Outs” of Tulsa. Her love for school work (she having married before she took up teaching as a profession) makes her a real help to her children in their studies. Mrs. Morris became a Christian at the age of ten years; was baptized in Ardmore, Indian Territory, by the Rev. Stubblefield, a pioneer Baptist minister, still living in Oklahoma, and she has ever been a devoted member of the Baptist church, being active in Eunice Sunday school class, in First Baptist Church, of Tulsa, and is a member of the choir, having come from a musical family—the Rosamonds of Texas. Her seven brothers and two sisters, with their father (her mother deceased) are valuable citizens in Dallas, Denison and Central West Texas towns. (Source: Oklahoma, A History of the State and Its People, by Joseph B. Thoburn and Muriel H. Wright, Volume IV; Lewis Historical Publishing Company, Inc. New York, 1929; transcribed by Susan Geist)
The Rosamond family which resides primarily in southern half of the United States is said to be descended from Sergeant Rosemond’s son Thomas. According to the legend, Thomas Rosamond arrived in South Carolina from County Leitrim, Ireland in 1740 with his wife Sarah and son Samuel. Samuel Rosamond, his brother James Rosamond and their sisters are well documented in South Carolina in the late 1700s, but current research has shown that their father was a John Roseman who came to South Carolina from Augusta County, Virginia about 1765. It is believed John Roseman’s father-in-law, his wife Sarah’s father, was named Thomas, and that Sarah Roseman had a brother named Nathaniel. This could be the reason for the confusion in given names.
No one has been able to document the origin of John Roseman of Virginia. One possible origin is that he came from Maryland. In December of 1725 a John Roseman arrived in Annapolis, MD aboard the ship Forward. He came to the colonies as an indentured convict having been found guilty of committing highway robbery back in England. He has been dubbed “John, The Highwayman”. His period of indenture was fourteen years so he would have been free to pursue life as a free man around 1739-1740. John Roseman of Virginia first appears in the records of Augusta County, VA in 1749, so there is a possibility that John of Virginia and John, The Highwayman are one and the same. However, a will was recorded in Maryland in 1787 for a John Roseman. If the will is that of John, The Highwayman, then John Roseman of Virginia can’t be the same person because we know John of Virginia was in South Carolina at that time. He could perhaps be a son of John, The Highwayman, or the reverse could be true. The will could be for a son, and John, The Highwayman may have gone to Virginia. Without further research the question of the origin of John of Virginia remains open. A famous descendant of this line of the Rosamond family is the artist Christine Rosamond who signed her paintings simply as Rosamond. Christine was actually born Christine Rosamond Presco. Her mother’s maiden name was Rosemary Rosamond, the daughter of the writer Royal Rosamond.
The Northern US and Canada The northern U.S. and Canadian branches of the family are said to be descended from Sergeant Rosemond’s son whose given name is not known. This son supposedly never left Ireland, although one researcher has claimed that this son’s given name was William, and that William came to the colonies for five years and then returned to Ireland. What is known is that this son of Sergeant Rosemond with no known given name had a son named James who was born in County Leitrim, Ireland. This James Rosamond, the grandson of the elusive Sergeant Rosemond, had a number of sons who migrated to the United States and southern Canada. At least one of these descendants, another James Rosamond, lived in Lanark County in Ontario, Canada and founded the Rosamond Woolen Mill there. Records of the Canadian James Rosamond show that he is descended from Rosamonds in County Leitrim.
The most famous descendant of this branch of the Rosemond family, and arguably the Rosamond family as a whole, is the actress Elizabeth Rosemond Taylor whose grandmother was Elizabeth Mary Rosemond from Guernsey County, Ohio.
John. Here is information I’ve found on your line of the family. This begins with your mother Rosemary Rosamond. Didn’t know how muchy of this you have so I figured I’d send it to you.
Jimmy Rosamond
Ancestors of Rosemary Rosamond
Generation No. 1
1.Rosemary Rosamond, born 26 Sep 1922 in California.She was the daughter of 2. Frank Wesley “Royal” Rosamond and 3. Mary Magdalene Weineke.
Generation No. 2
2.Frank Wesley “Royal” Rosamond1,2, born 18 Dec 1881 in Missouri3; died Abt. 26 Nov 1953 in Prob Oklahoma.He was the son of 4. William Thomas Rosamond and 5. Ida Rose.He married 3. Mary Magdalene Weineke Abt. 1911 in California4. 3.Mary Magdalene Weineke, born Abt. 1882 in Iowa.
Notes for Frank Wesley “Royal” Rosamond: From: Jon Presco yahoo.com> Subject: Rosamond Newsgroups: gmane.culture.templar.rosemont Date: 2004-05-31 12:28:27 GMT
My grandfather, Royal Rosamond, authored several books, numerous short stories, and countless poems that were published in ‘Out West’ ‘Liberty Magazine’, and several Romance magazines. He was good friends of Dashiel Hammet according to my mother Rosemary, and my Aunt Lillian recalls falling asleep to the sound of her father, and the author Earl Stanley Gradner, typing away in their home in Ventura California, they honing up on their literary skills. Dashiel and Earl were members of the ‘Black Mask’ a society of mystery writers.
Royal was born in a log cabin on the Missouri River, the only known child of William Rosamond and Ida Louisiana Rose. He met my grandmother, Mary Magdalene Wienke while working in Brakey’s Cash Bizaar in Ojai, and would later own the first general store in Ventura. A short biography of Royal is found in my link to my newspaper ‘Royal Rosamond Press’.
Royal was a good friend of Otto Rayburn, the Ozark historian, they meeting when Royal returned to the Ozarks to become a Regional writer. Royal published in Rayburn’s ‘Arcadian Magazine’ “A Journal of the Well-flavored Earth” printed in Eminence Missouri. Royal would later found ‘Gem Publishing’ in Oklahoma City, and publish his books ‘Bound in Clay’ and ‘Ravola of Thunder Mountain’.
I have corespondence between Royal and Otto. I wonder if he met the Regional artist, Thomas Hart Benton, who was also good friends of Otto Rayburn, there photographs of both men in Volume 1. of Rayburn’s ‘Enchanted Ozarks’ an archives of Ozark Folk Life found at the University of Arkansas.
More About Frank Rosamond and Mary Weineke: Marriage: Abt. 1911, California4
Children of Frank Rosamond and Mary Weineke are: i. June E Rosamond, born Abt. 1914 in California. ii. Bertha M Rosamond, born Abt. 1916 in California. 1 iii. Rosemary Rosamond, born 26 Sep 1922 in California. iv. Lillian J Rosamond, born Abt. 1924 in California.
Generation No. 3
4.William Thomas Rosamond5,6,7,8,9, born 1860 in Mississippi10.He was the son of 8. Samuel Rosamond and 9. Frances C. Morrison.He married 5. Ida Rose 16 Feb 1881 in Bates County, Missouri11. 5.Ida Rose, born in Louisiana; died Abt. 1890.
More About William Thomas Rosamond: Name 2: William Thomas Rosamond12,13 Date born 2: Abt. 1860, Mississippi Residence: 1900, Duke, Greer, Oklahoma14
More About William Rosamond and Ida Rose: Marriage: 16 Feb 1881, Bates County, Missouri15
Child of William Rosamond and Ida Rose is: 2 i. Frank Wesley “Royal” Rosamond, born 18 Dec 1881 in Missouri; died Abt. 26 Nov 1953 in Prob Oklahoma; married Mary Magdalene Weineke Abt. 1911 in California.
Generation No. 4
8.Samuel Rosamond16, born 1815 in Abbeville District, SC.He was the son of 16. Benjamin Rosamond and 17. Susannah Hill.He married 9. Frances C. Morrison. 9.Frances C. Morrison17, born Abt. 1822 in South Carolina.
More About Samuel Rosamond: Occupation: Farmer
Children of Samuel Rosamond and Frances Morrison are: i. Benjamin F. Rosamond, born Abt. 1844 in Mississippi. ii. John J. Rosamond, born Abt. 1846 in Mississippi. iii. Frances J. Rosamond, born Abt. 1852 in Mississippi. iv. Nonimus Nathaniel Rosamond, born Jul 1854 in Lowndes County, Mississippi; died 01 Jan 1908 in Lurton, Newton County, Arkansas; married Rosalie A. Bennett Abt. 1875 in Chicago, Illinois.
More About Nonimus Rosamond and Rosalie Bennett: Marriage: Abt. 1875, Chicago, Illinois
4 v. William Thomas Rosamond, born 1860 in Mississippi; married (1) Ida Rose 16 Feb 1881 in Bates County, Missouri; married (2) Mildred A. ? Abt. 1898. vi. Laura Rosamond, born Abt. 1862.
Generation No. 5
16.Benjamin Rosamond18, born Abt. 1790 in South Carolina19; died Bet. 1850 – 1860 in Attala County, Mississippi.He was the son of 32. James Rosamond and 33. Lettice Tillman.He married 17. Susannah Hill. 17.Susannah Hill, died 20 Oct 1828 in Abbeville County, South Carolina20.She was the daughter of 34. John Hill Sr. and 35. Susannah ?.
Notes for Benjamin Rosamond: Benjamin Rosamond, R255, M. Born in 1790 in South Carolina. Was on the census for Attala County, Mississippi in 1850. Benjamin died in Attala County, Mississippibef 16 May 1859, he was 69.
In “Greenwood County Sketches” Benjamin, Susannah and son Thomas are mentioned as members of the Walnut Grove Baptist Church located near Ware Shoals in 1834.Before 1850, Benjamin had remarried to Jane Rogers Mays.
A number of records from the Walnut Grove Baptist Church were published in a series of newspaper articles in the “Greenwood Index-Journal” in the early 1940s. The text of these articles, written by Harry L. Watson, are contained in Volume 2 of “Greenwood Historical Society Scrapbooks”. These were later reprinted in a book titled “Our Old Roads” by Margaret Watson, daughter of the author. Benjamin and his family are mentioned several times in these records as detailed below. Each article was numbered based on date of publicatiion, not the date of the church record.
———- From “Our Old Roads” ————–
No. 101, Year referenced in text 1826. Newspaper article 6 November 1943. (Regarding the Walnut Grove Baptist Church) “The original minute book begins with this entry: A Record of the proceedings of the Baptist Church of Christ at the Walnut Grove on Mulberry Creek in Abbeville District, S. C., constituted on the 24th day of June 1826 by the Rev’d Arthur Williams and Chesley Davis, both of the district aforesaid and teh Rev’d Moses Holland, of Pendleton District.”
The names of the members constituted are as follows: Samuel Hill Nancy Hodges Richard Gaines Mary Youngblood William Graham Peggy Henderson Valentine Young Dicey Sharp Thompson Hodges Jincy Gaines Benjamin Rosemond Susanna Roseman Robert Gaines Francis Roseman William Hodges Jane Huskerson James Hodges Tabitha Hodges
It will be noticed the names of the male members are in the first column and the names of the female members are in the second column. And that was the way the members in all the churches sat in the early days and even within the recollection of people of middle age and better today, the men on one side, usually the right side after entrance, and the females on the left side after entrance.
No. 157, Year referenced in text 1837. The church was again involved in neighborhood and individual difficulties. In one meeting in which the members were voting on the matter of fellowship with a former member who was now an officer of another church, it appeared after a vote that this former member would be “excluded” and this would embarass the sister church in which he was now an official. Whereupon, an old member, B. Rosamond who was also a charter member, got up and told the members voting to “exclude” that if they could not vote to keep the former member in good standing, to “sit still and not vote at all” so as to bring about harmony. His suggestion was followed and the record says twenty members “sat still and refused to vote” and this saved the day for the former member who was now an official in another church.
No. 164, Year referenced in text 1828. Newspaper article 4 December 1943. The “Church at the Walnut Grove on Mulberry Creek” as it was always described by the clerk, did not show any gain in membership by the end of its third year. Beginning with eighteen charter members, it lost within two years two of these by letters of dismission and on Oct. 20, 1828 Susannah Rosmond died, the first loss by death. This brought the membership down to fifteen, but the addition of “Polly Hodges”, wife of James Hodges by letter from Turkey Creek about this time, brought the membership up to sixteen. Then on Jan. 4, 1830 after a sermon by the Rev. Nicholas Ware Hodges, the first two members to be received by baptism are named. These were “Polly Hodges, sister of, and Mahala Hodges, the wife of Thompson Hodges.” (This made the total membership eighteen again.) Incidentally, there are three “Polly Hodges” already noted in the record.
…(also from No. 164) “On Christmas Eve, the Rev. Thomas A. Rosamond, “a member of the Methodist clergy” (a member of the Rosamond family of this section and many members of it were members of the Walnut Grove), preached and the following joined: John and Thomas Rosamond (sons of B. R.) and this notation by the clerk must have meant they were sons of Benjamin Rosamond, one of the charter members in 1826,…”
No. 165, Date referenced June 23, 1832. At this meeting Valentine Young was granted the privilege of “a public gift of prayer within the bounds of the church”. It was explained that this was the same privilege which had been granted to Richard Gaines and Benj. Rosamond, …
—————- End records from “Our Old Roads” ———————-
Benjamin is also mentioned several times in “Abstracts of Old Ninety-Six, Abbeville District Wills and Bonds” as witness to wills and deeds.
According to an article in J.P. Coleman’s “Choctaw County Chronicles” under New Zion Baptist Church, organized December 1842, Benjamin ws one of the first two deacons. Also among the organizers was a Rosander Rosamond (don’t know who he/she is).
By 1850 Benjamin had sold his South Carolina property which was located somewhere near the Mulberry Creek/Saluda River area. He divided the profit with his sons and was living near his brother Samuel in Atalla County, Mississippi. In the same time period his other brother Thomas and all his sons except Thomas and Joseph were also in Mississippi. In 1850 Benjamin was listed in the Mississippi census as owning 9 slaves and being married to Jane. Census Ed. 126, 495/495.
In November 1858, James Rosamond (Benjamin’s son James ??) was appointed guardian of Jerusha W. (who is this?) and Tilman J. Rosamond. Then on May 16, 1859, Jane is named as guardian of Tilman J. and Marion F. Rosamond. These are her sons by Benjamin. On this date she gave her annual accounting regarding her sons.
On 12/20/ 1858, William T. Wright, referred to as the guardian of Jantha Rosamond (presumably Jantha Mays who was under guardianship of Benjamin and Jane), gave his final accounting. Jantha at this time was married to John F. Temple.
1850 Census Data, Attala County, MS Page 126 & 127 495/495 Rosemon, Benj., Age 60, farmer, value 400, born SC = means b. ca. 1790 Jane, Age 44, born 1806, SC = Jane Rogers Mays Lucretia, age 14, born SC Daniel, age 12, SC Jantha, age 11, female, SC Marion F., age 2, born 1848, SC – – -Contradicts Carroll County, MS birth. Mayse, Abner, age 18, male, born SC–Question-when did Benjamin get to MS?
The above record is not the only that contradicts the birthplace of Benjamin’s son Marion Francis Rosamond. The 1880 census of Montgomery County, AL which also lists his wife and children records his birthplace as Alabama. Any of these are possible since he could have been born just before the family left SC for MS, enroute between SC and Mississippi, or shortly after the family’s arrival in Mississippi. However, the death certificate of Marion Francis Rosamond who died July 8, 1935 shows his birthplace as Mississippi, this information being provided by his son Joseph Franklin Rosamond with whom he was living at the time of his death.
One handwritten note from Ruth Menhel indicates that Benjamin was on the tax roll in Attala County in 1847. Since there is a probate record for Benjamin and Jane in 1845 in SC, that would date the move to MS between 1845 and 1847. And this would mean that Marion Franklin was born in Mississippi. But if Benjamin was on the tax roll in Attala County, that would indicate that Marion Francis was born there rather than in Carroll County.
Benjamin first married Susannah Hill, daughter of John Hill, Sr. and Susannah ? Hill. In John Hill Senior’s will, he named his children as well as Benjamin and Susannah’s seven sons to receive Susannah’s share since she had already died. From the the will it says, “Susannah, who intermarried with Benjamin Rosemond, now dead, leaving as her only heirs her said husband Benjamin Rosemond, and seven children to wit, James, Benjamin, Samuel, John, Thomas, William and Joseph.”
After the death of his first wife, ca 1843 when Benjamin was about 53, he married Jane Rogers daughter of Daniel Rogers Jr., & Lucretia Harris, in Abbeville County, SC. Born on 4 Oct 1803 in Edgefield Co., South Carolina, Jane died in Mississippibef 1870, she was about 66.
Following his marriage to Jane, Benjamin was made guardian to three Mays children, Abner Mays, Jr., Aletha Mays and Jessee Mays. I believe these are Jane’s children from her first marriage to Abner Mays, Sr.The children are listed as neices and nephew of Benjamin’s son Thomas and Sarah Mays Rosamond. “Mays Minors, Box 68, Pack 1658 – On Oct 14 1840, Benjamin, John Rosamond, Felix Rogers bound to Moses Taggart Ord., Abbeville Dist sum $2,000. Benjamin Rosamond made guardian of Lethe, Jessy and Abner Mays, minors of Abner Mays, decd. 1841. Rec’d of Mathew Mays, Admn. of S. Whitley, Decd., who was guardian of above children.”
There is some confusion regarding children adopted by or under the guardianship of Benjamin and Jarne Rogers Mays Rosamond. I believe that the three Mays children to whom Benjamin was made guardian after his marriage to Jane were her children by Abner Mays, Sr. Their names were Abner, Jr., Aletha and Jessee.
In the 1860 census, Ally Wright, daughter of Althea Mays Wright is listed as living in the household of Jane Rogers Mays Rosamond.
Personal note: I can remember my dad, Ennis Herman Rosamond, and my Aunt Christine Rosamond Stedman referring to Benjamin’s second wife Jane as the Widow Mays. Also, Dad said on several occasions he remembers his grandfather, Marion Francis Rosamond (son of Benjamin and Jane) referring to his brother Daniel. This must be Daniel Mays who was under Benjamin and Jane’s guardianship after the death of his father.
In an email from Ruth Menhel, she said she had a record from the probate court in Edgefield County, SC that shows Benjamin and Jane Rogers being married in 1845.
Per “Attala County Pioneers” by Betty Couch Wiltshire: Kosciusko, Attala County, MS Probate Book 1, 1858-1863. Page 35: (Is this the page in Probate Book, or in “Attala County Pioneers”?? “James Rosamond, Guardian of Jerusha W. and Tilman J. Rosamond.(Note: Tilman is the brother of Marion Franklin Rosamond. Also, what is the date of this record? It can be assumed that Benjamin Rosamond died prior to this event, so it could help date Benjamin’s death.)
Page 105: May 16, 1859 – “Jane Rosamond, guardian of Marion F. and Tillman J. Rosamond presented her annual account”.
Note: According to birth date of 1803 from Rogers book, Jane was forty-five years old when Marion Franklin Rosamond was born (making her age 48 at the time of the 1850 census), and about 47 when Tillman Jasper was born.This conflicts with birth date in 1850 census which shows her as 44 years old, i.e. born in 1806.
More About Benjamin Rosamond: Census: 1850, Attala County, Mississippi
Notes for Susannah Hill: From “Equity Records of Old 96 and Abbeville County, SC”; re children of John Hill Senior. Susannah, now dead, who intermarried with Benjamin Rosemond, leaving as her only heirs and distributees her husband, the said Benjamin Rosemond and seven children to wit, James, Benjamin, Samuel, John, Thomas, William and Joseph.
Children of Benjamin Rosamond and Susannah Hill are: i. James Rosamond, born Abt. 1808 in Abbeville District, SC; married Tobitha ?; born Abt. 1802 in South Carolina.
More About James Rosamond: Occupation: Miller
ii. John Rosamond21, born Abt. 1809 in Abbeville District, SC; married Sarah Graham Abt. 1831 in South Carolina; born 23 Jun 1811 in South Carolina.
More About John Rosamond: Occupation: Farmer, Landowner
Marriage Notes for John Rosamond and Sarah Graham: Date based on birth dates of children
More About John Rosamond and Sarah Graham: Marriage: Abt. 1831, South Carolina
iii. Thomas Henry Rosamond, born 19 Oct 1811 in Abbeville District, SC; died 1886; married Sarah Mays Abt. 1846; born 03 Apr 1825 in Abbeville District, SC.
More About Thomas Henry Rosamond: Occupation: Merchant/Flour Mill Owner
More About Thomas Rosamond and Sarah Mays: Marriage: Abt. 1846
iv. Benjamin Rosamond, born Abt. 1814 in South Carolina; married Elizabeth ?.
More About Benjamin Rosamond: Occupation: Farmer
8 v. Samuel Rosamond, born 1815 in Abbeville District, SC; married Frances C. Morrison. vi. William Addison Rosamond, born 17 Sep 1819 in Abbeville District, SC; died 29 Nov 1900 in Weldon, Houston County, Texas; married Martha Canzada Coleman Abt. 1848 in Kosciusko, Attala County, Mississippi; born Abt. 1828 in South Carolina; died 02 Sep 1898 in Weldon, Houston County, Texas.
Notes for William Addison Rosamond: Antioch Cemetery
More About William Addison Rosamond: Burial: Lovelady, Houston County, Texas Occupation: Mill Operator
Notes for Martha Canzada Coleman: Antioch Cemetery
More About Martha Canzada Coleman: Burial: Weldon, Houston County, Texas
More About William Rosamond and Martha Coleman: Marriage: Abt. 1848, Kosciusko, Attala County, Mississippi
vii. Joseph Rosamond, born 1825 in South Carolina; died Aft. 1870.
More About Joseph Rosamond: Occupation: Hotel Keeper / Cotton Merchant
viii. Nancy Narcissus Rosamond, born 20 Oct 1828 in Abbeville County, SC; died 17 Jun 1921 in Chester, Choctaw County, Mississippi; married William Wright Bowie 1844; born 03 Oct 1822 in South Carolina; died 02 Feb 1910.
Notes for Nancy Narcissus Rosamond: Salem Methodist Cemetery
More About Nancy Narcissus Rosamond: Burial: Chester, Choctaw County, Mississippi
Notes for William Wright Bowie: Salem Methodist Cemetery
More About William Wright Bowie: Burial: Chester, Choctaw County, Mississippi
More About William Bowie and Nancy Rosamond: Marriage: 1844
Generation No. 6
32.James Rosamond, born Abt. 1754 in Augusta County, Virginia; died Bef. 10 Jul 1806 in Abbeville District, SC.He was the son of 64. John Rosamond and 65. Sarah Willson.He married 33. Lettice Tillman Abt. 1778. 33.Lettice Tillman, born Abt. 1757; died Bef. 1793.
Notes for James Rosamond: ((birth was between 1750 and 1760 when John and Sarah were still in Virginia))
James Rosamond, R255, M. Bornca 1754 in Augusta County, Virginia. James died in Abbeville District, SCbef 10 Jul 1806, he was about 52. Occupation: Farmer.
James served in the Revolutionary War in the Ninety-Six District before and after the fall of Charleston. The Siege of Charleston occurrend in 1780 by the British Army led by Sir Henry Clinton. James furnished 150 lbs. of pork to the militia in 1782. He obtained land grants as a result of his service in the war. An abstract of his service in the Revolutionary War is on file at the Historical Commission in South Carolina.
James may have been married to a Dorothy/Norah Hodges (daughter or John Hodges and Elizabeth ?) prior to marrying Mary Daugherty. No one has been able to find any record of this. Barbara Morgan lists a Lettice Jones as a possibility for James’ first wife. Much depends on when his first wife died, and the date he married Mary.
In the first national census in 1790, James, his brother Samuel, and his mother Sarah were the only Rosamond Heads of Household listed in South Carolina.
From info received from Ruth: “The census listing shows him as living in the Ninety-Six District 1 male & 1 female age 40-50, 2 males under 16 years and 9 slaves.” This can’t be the 1790 census data as that census didn’t break down the ages except the males, and that only younger and older than 16. Also, there is no 40-50 age group for the 1800 census. This breakdown didn’t occur until at least 1830, so where did this data come from? I think this refers to a different James. Probably Samuel’s son James, the nephew of this James.
A transcripted copy of his will is located in the SC Archives in Columbia, SC.A copy also appears on a separate page within this web site. James’ will was recorded in Abbeville County, 10 July 1806.
He and his brother Samuel are mentioned in their sister Jean Rosamond’s will.
From “Mississippi Ancestors” “ROSAMOND, James, Soldier, S.C., b. Abbeville, S.C., d. aft 8 June 1805, Abbeville, S.C., m ca 1778-79, wf Mary Dohorty, Abbeville, S.C., d aft 15 July 1795; ch,Thomas (Rev.), b 1788, Abbeville Dist., S.C., d. prob Jan 1862 Yalobusha Co., Miss., m Elizabeth A. Williams, ca 1820-21, b 20 Apr 1805, Kershaw Dist., S.C., d 23 Apr 1857, Yalobusha Co., Miss.; Nathaniel, b ca 1786, m (1) Mary Lighon, (2) Amy Powell; Benjamin, b ca 1784; Samuel b ca 1782; Mary, b ca 1780.
ca 1778 when James was 24, he first married Lettice ?, F. Bornca 1757. Lettice diedca 1793, she was 36.
The big question is who was James’ first wife???? One record shows her as Lettice, others speculate that she was Dorothy Hodges, sister to Sarah and Richard Hodges who married Samuel and Sarah F. Rosamond respectively, and some still believe it could be Mary Doherty (Daugherty), although that now seems very unlikely. If her name was Lettice, she might have been a Jones.
Notes for Lettice Tillman: It is not certain that Lettice Tillman was the name of James Rosamond’s wife. However, records in Mississippi indicate that this was her name although the person holding the records has not agreed to provide copies.Further research is needed.
Email from Ray Isbell <isbell2@hotmail.com>28 January 2004: … the maiden name must have been in some family papers I received years ago from my grandmother’s cousin, Vera Rosamond Schults Phillips of Indanola or Grenada, Miss., … It Vera said she BELIEVED but couldn’t prove Lettice was a Tillman, or that she was THOUGHT to be a Tillman, I can’t tell you without going through those old letters and papers, … I’m descended from Mary Turley Williams Mayhew, whose sister Elizabeth A. Williams married Rev. Thomas A. Rosamond, son of James Rosamond and Lettice.
More About James Rosamond and Lettice Tillman: Marriage: Abt. 1778
Children of James Rosamond and Lettice Tillman are: i. Mary Rosamond, born Abt. 1780.
Notes for Mary Rosamond: 1820 Census of Abbeville County shows a Mary Rosamond over 45 years old as a Head of Household with no one else living with her. This is probably her as she is right next door to James’ sons Samuel and Benajmin, and only 11 houses away from Nathaniel Jones Rosamond.
ii. Nathaniel Jones Rosamond, born Abt. 1784 in Abbeville District, SC; died Bef. 1840 in Abbeville County, SC; married (1) Amy Powell; born in Laurens County, South Carolina; died 1855 in Northport, Alabama; married (2) Mary Lighon 1808; died 1809.
Notes for Nathaniel Jones Rosamond: Nathaniel Jones Rosamond, R255, M. Bornca 1784 in Abbeville District, SC. Nathaniel Jones died in Abbeville County, SCca 1840, he was 56. Occupation: Farmer.
Nathaniel Jones Rosamond and second wife Amy Powell were second cousins.
Listed in the 1810 thru 1830 census and is shown owning six slaves in 1810.
Nathaniel Jones first married Amy Powell (41) , P400, F, daughter of Ezekiel Powell, M & Margaret “Peggy” Rosamond (20), F. Born in Laurens County, South Carolina. Amy died in 1855 in Northport, Alabama.
Family group sheet from LDS Archives shows Amy’s father’s nane as William Powell and mother as Nancy Bobo. Her date of birth shown on this sheet would make her age inconsistent being the daughter of Ezekial Powell and Margaret Rosamond.
A short biography of William Capers Rosamond, written before 1904,says that his mother, i.e. Amy Powell was born in Kentucky. This again contradicts Ezekiel and Margaret being Amy’s parents.
Another mystery here.
More About Nathaniel Jones Rosamond: Occupation: Farmer
iii. Thomas A. Rosamond, born 05 Jun 1787 in Abbeville District, SC; died 30 Nov 1861 in Yalobusha County, MS; married Elizabeth A. Williams Abt. 1820 in Kershaw District, SC; born 20 Apr 1805 in Kershaw District, SC; died 23 Apr 1857 in Yalobusha County, MS.
Notes for Thomas A. Rosamond: Williams Family Cemetery, 8 miles east of Grenada, MS
Thomas A. Rosamond, R255, M. Born on 5 Jun 1787 in Abbeville District, SC. Thomas A. died in Yalobusha County, MS on 30 Nov 1861, he was 74. Buried in Yalobusha County, MS. Occupation: Minister / Farmer. Religion: Methodist.
It is believed that Thomas came to Mississippi between 1842 and 1845.
Thomas is mentioned in his father James’ will.
Thomas’ will was written 2/8/1860 and probated in February 1862, probably in Yalobusha County (now Grenada County).
At least two descendants have joined the DAR thru Thomas’ line to his father James Rosamond. Mrs. Mabel Martin Moorehead, #542939 and Vera Schulz Phillips, #490096.
Per an article written by Thomas’ great-granddaughter Vera Rosamond Schulz Phillips: “Thomas A. Rosamond was born in Abbeville District, SC on 5th June 1787 and died in Yalobusha County, MS Nov. 30th, 1861 in his 73rd year. He was converted and joined the M.E. Church in early life; became a member of the SC Conference in 1817; traveled as an itenerant for five years; retired from the Conference in 1824 and located in Abbeville District where he served the church as a local preacher, as circumstances would admit, until in 1841 he moved with his family to Mississippi where he labored faithfully for the church of his choice and it’s interests until infirmity confined him home. The gospel proved a solace and comfort in all his afflictions, and enabled him to say when apprised of nearing dissolution, “All is well.” During his sickness no murmur of complaint fell from his lips. He retained the gift of speech and reason till near his end. As a man he was domestic in his habits, exact in all his dealings, attentive and liberal to the poor, and always ready to contribute freely to the support of the gospel and it’s instrumentalities. As a neighbor, kind and accomodating; he shared the respect and confidence of all who knew him. And he thus died as he had lived the faithful servant of his blessed Master, in bright prospects of the resurrection of the just.”
The 1850 census valued his personal estate at $28,000.
ca 1820 when Thomas A. was 32, he first married Elizabeth A. Williams, W452, F, daughter of Robert Williams, M & Mary Turley, F, in Kershaw District, SC. Born on 20 Apr 1805 in Kershaw District, SC. Elizabeth A. died in Yalobusha County, MS on 23 Apr 1857, she was 52. Buried in Yalobusha County, MS. Religion: Methodist.
More About Thomas A. Rosamond: Burial: Yalobusha County, MS Occupation: Minister / Farmer Religion: Methodist
Notes for Elizabeth A. Williams: Williams Family Cemetery, 8 mi east of Grenada, MS
More About Elizabeth A. Williams: Burial: Yalobusha County, MS Religion: Methodist
More About Thomas Rosamond and Elizabeth Williams: Marriage: Abt. 1820, Kershaw District, SC
16 iv. Benjamin Rosamond, born Abt. 1790 in South Carolina; died Bet. 1850 – 1860 in Attala County, Mississippi; married (1) Susannah Hill; married (2) Jane Rogers Abt. 1843 in Abbeville County, SC. v. Samuel E. Rosamond22,23,24, born Abt. 1792 in Abbeville District, SC25; died Abt. 1862 in Attala County, MS; married Frances E. ‘Fannie’ Hill 1812 in Abbeville District, SC; born Abt. 1785 in Abbeville District, SC25; died Abt. 1867 in Attala County, MS.
Notes for Samuel E. Rosamond: Rosamond/Sweaney Cemetery Page 127, 14 R6E
In 1860, Samuel E and Frances Rosamond were living in a house with Elijah Little and his wife Nancy.
More About Samuel E. Rosamond: Census: 1850, Attala County, Mississippi
Notes for Frances E. ‘Fannie’ Hill: North Union Cemetery
More About Frances E. ‘Fannie’ Hill: Burial: Holmes County, MS
More About Samuel Rosamond and Frances Hill: Marriage: 1812, Abbeville District, SC
34.John Hill Sr.26, died in Abbeville County, SC.He married 35. Susannah ?. 35.Susannah ?, died Aft. Jan 1824.
Notes for John Hill Sr.: The following is quoted from “Equity Records of Old 96 and Abbeville District” by Willie Pauline Young, as on file in the Abbeville Courthouse, S.C., Volume , pgs. 94-98. —————- ESTATE OF JOHN HILL SR. PACK 3375 BILL FOR ACCOUNT CLERK OF COURTS OFFICE, ABBEVILLE, S.C.
The State of South Carolina, Abbeville District In Equity to the Honorable, the Chanellors of the said state, humbly complaining show unto your honors your orator Robert C. Richey & oratrix Nancy his wife, and your orator William C. Hill as follows:
Many years ago John Hill Senior departed this life having made his last will and testament. By his will the said John Hill Senior gave to his wife Susannah the plantation whereon he lived with all his moveable property together with the following negros, to wit, Sylla, Cessa with five boys, Lewis, Silas, Gabl?, Willis, and Wiley during her widowhood, but provided that if his wife should marry again that then she should have Cessa, one horse and saddle, one bed and furniture and household and kitchen furniture during her life, and at her death the same to be equally divided amongst his children. And upon termination of the life estate he gave to his son Samuel the negro boy Lewis, to his son William the negro boy Silas, to his son John the negro boy Gabl?, to his son Joseph the negro boy Willis, and to his son Bluford the negro boy Wiley.The testator also directed that the said slaves should remain in the hands of the executors until each of the sons should severally be married or come to the age of 21 years, and in case any one of the said slaves should die before the said sons should be entitled to receive thence that out of the increase of Sylla or Cessa the deficiency be made up. The said John Hill Senior at the time of his death left as his only heirs & legatees, a widow Susannah and twelve children to wit,
Betsy who intermarried with David Hilland by him had several children only two of whom are now living to wit, Jane or Jincy? now the wife of James Dodson; and Joycey now the wife of ____ Cogburn, she afterwards married Patrick Germain? and had one son Thomas, and then died.
Nancy, then and now the wife of William Mays.
Polly then and now the wife of Jesse Rainey.
Sally, then and now the wife of David Vines.
Susannah, who intermarried with Benjamin Rosemond, now dead, leaving as her only heirs and distributees her husband, the said Benjamin Rosemond and seven children to wit, James, Benjamin, Samuel, John, Thomas, William and Joseph.
Fanny, now the wife of Samuel Rosemond.
Samuel Hill, now dead, who left as his only heirs and distributees a widow Elizabeth, who has since intermarried with William Hodges, and two children to wit, Nancy your oratrix who has intermarried with your orator Robert C. Richey, and Elvira who has since died unmarried and quite young. Administration of Samuel Hill’s estate was granted to William Barmore.
William Hill who attained the age of twenty-one years, married and then died leaving as his only heir and distributee William C. Hill.
John Hill who died leaving a will of which mention is hereafter made.
Joseph Hill who died intestate, leaving as his only heirs and distributees a widow Eliza now the wife of John Graham, and three children Susan, Jane and Frances.
Bluford Hill who died in his minority and unmarried.
About the year 1824 John Hill Junior died after having made his last will and testament, by which he bequeathed to his mother during her life or widowhood the said slave Gabriel, or Gabe?, and upon her marriage or death to be sold and the proceeds to be divided between his brothers Samuel, Bluford and Joseph and his sister Rebecca; all the residue of his estate, he gave to the three brothers and sister above named. He appointed Reuben Hodges, Samuel Hill and William Barmore Executors of his will of whom William Barmore was the acting executor. Most of the property given to Susannah Hill as aforesaid soon after the death of John Hill Senior passed into her possession, and some of the negros for a number of years were hired out. About the year 1838, the negro Gabe or Gabriel, was hired to David Vines and Nelia Vines under a contract that he should be returned at the end of the year, and delivered up to the said Susannah Hill or her agent.But the said David Vines and Nelia Vines having failed to return the said slave Gabe at the end of the year, about the twenty-fifth of February 1839 an action of trover was brought by the said Susannah Hill against the said David Vines and Nelia Vines to recover damages for his commission and about the seventeenth of October a verdict was rendered in the favour of the said Susannah Hill against the said David and Nelia Vines to the amount of nine-hundred and eighty-three dollars, which was the full value of the said slave Gabe. ————————— There are only elven children mentined above. Omitted was John and Susannah Hill’s daughter Rebecca Hill. She is mentioned in the will of John Hill, Jr.I need a full transcription of the wills of John Hill Sr. and Jr.I have a copy of the original will of John Hill Sr. in my files copied at the Abbeville County, SC courthouse in the year 2000.
Children of John Hill and Susannah ? are: 17 i. Susannah Hill, died 20 Oct 1828 in Abbeville County, South Carolina; married Benjamin Rosamond. ii. John Hill Jr., died 1824.
Notes for John Hill Jr.: From “Equity Records of Old 96 and Abbeville District” About the year 1824 John Hill Junior died after having made his last will and testament, by which he bequeathed to his mother during her life or widowhood the said slave Gabriel, or Gabe?, and upon her marriage or death to be sold and the proceeds to be divided between his brothers Samuel, Bluford and Joseph and his sister Rebecca; all the residue of his estate, he gave to the three brothers and sister above named. He appointed Reuben Hodges, Samuel Hill and William Barmore Executors of his will of whom William Barmore was the acting executor.
iii. Samuel Hill, married (1) Mary E. Mathis; married (2) Elizabeth Barmore in Ninety-Six District or Abbeville District, South Carolina27; died Bef. 1805 in South Carolina.
Notes for Samuel Hill: from “Equity Records of Old 96 and Abbeville District, SC” Samuel Hill, now dead, who left as his only heirs and distributees a widow Elizabeth, who has since intermarried with William Hodges, and two children to wit, Nancy your oratrix who has intermarried with your orator Robert C. Richey, and Elvira who has since died unmarried and quite young. Administration of Samuel Hill’s estate was granted to William Barmore.
Notes for Elizabeth Barmore: From “Equity Records of Old 96 and Abbeville District, SC” Samuel Hill, now dead, who left as his only heirs and distributees a widow Elizabeth, who has since intermarried with William Hodges, and two children to wit, Nancy your oratrix who has intermarried with your orator Robert C. Richey, and Elvira who has since died unmarried and quite young. Administration of Samuel Hill’s estate was granted to William Barmore.
William Barmore was probably the father of Elizabeth Barmore Hill Hodges.
Marriage Notes for Samuel Hill and Elizabeth Barmore: “7500 Marriages …” shows their source as Probate Court Records (PCR), ref. B-1799. This is probably the date of the court record and not the marriage date.
More About Samuel Hill and Elizabeth Barmore: Marriage: Ninety-Six District or Abbeville District, South Carolina27
iv. William Hill
Notes for William Hill: From “Equity Records of Old 96 and Abbeville District, SC” re the children of John Hill Senior. William Hill who attained the age of twenty-one years, married and then died leaving as his only heir and distributee William C. Hill.
v. Polly Hill, married Jesse Rainey. vi. Joseph Hill, married Eliza ?. vii. Blueford Hill, died in Abbeville County, SC. viii. Betsey Hill, married David Hill. ix. Nancy Hill, married William Mays. x. Sally Hill, married David Vines. xi. Rebecca Hill xii. Frances E. ‘Fannie’ Hill28,29,30, born Abt. 1785 in Abbeville District, SC31; died Abt. 1867 in Attala County, MS; married Samuel E. Rosamond 1812 in Abbeville District, SC; born Abt. 1792 in Abbeville District, SC31; died Abt. 1862 in Attala County, MS.
Notes for Frances E. ‘Fannie’ Hill: North Union Cemetery
More About Frances E. ‘Fannie’ Hill: Burial: Holmes County, MS
Notes for Samuel E. Rosamond: Rosamond/Sweaney Cemetery Page 127, 14 R6E
In 1860, Samuel E and Frances Rosamond were living in a house with Elijah Little and his wife Nancy.
More About Samuel E. Rosamond: Census: 1850, Attala County, Mississippi
More About Samuel Rosamond and Frances Hill: Marriage: 1812, Abbeville District, SC
Generation No. 7
64.John Rosamond32,33,34, born Abt. 1710 in Poss County Leitrim, Ireland; died Abt. 1789 in Prob Abbebille County, South Carolina.He was the son of 128. James “Jacob?” Rosemond and 129. Ann d’Orr.He married 65. Sarah Willson Abt. 1740 in Augusta County, Virginia. 65.Sarah Willson, born Abt. 1726 in County Antrim, Ireland; died Bet. 1790 – 1800 in Prob Abbebille County, South Carolina.She was the daughter of 130. Thomas Willson and 131. Elizabeth Dinwiddie.
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