Allie (Alice E. Daniels Bryant) the Artist

Alice E. Daniels, known as Allie, was the pretty younger sister of my dad's maternal grandmother, Louise Daniels. Here are the girls in their teens. (For more info, see Sister Alice.)

Allie was born in Hudson, Michigan in 1870. Her family moved west, settling in Denver around 1900. In just her 14th year, she apparently had an illegitimate child, named Harry. The family kept the child but apparently denied that it was Allie's, due to her age. Her father Colonel Henry Daniels merely listed Harry as his grandson on the census.

 That is not the only mystery ... there are records listing a marriage between Alice and a Robert Mitchell (or, suspiciously, Hale -- Allie's grandmother's surname ... could there be some incest involved?), but despite no record of a dissolution, she nonetheless married again in 1908 to a Delmar D. Bryant, 12 years her senior, in Salt Lake City (despite his listing his home as Michigan on the wedding certificate).

Perhaps, like so many others, Delmar was in the far west to seek his fortune. At any rate the couple appears to have ended up in Los Angeles by 1920, although residing as lodgers at different addresses. (Harry remained with his grandparents.) Her occupation is listed as "artist." After that, the trail petered out.

 But lo and behold, while researching this intriguing relative this evening, I discovered that she had in fact emerged from her reclusive life to become a painter and illustrator, using the name Alice Daniels Bryant!

The pieces below have been up for auction here and there over the recent past and showed up on the Web.

Allie provided six watercolor drawings for this little book by Mary Dale, published in 1916 by Warren T. Potter, "Publisher and Bookmaker."

The following article reveals that Allie apparently studied at the Art Institute of Chicago sometime before 1910.

Allie died in 1944 in Los Angeles at the age of 74. However, her death certificate claims she was born in 1879, not 1870. Various censuses consistently place her as 5 to 10 years younger than reality.

Oddly, her artwork greatly resembles that of my wife's great-grandmother, Mary Wealthy Kimball.

Sister Alice

This week I manage to fulfil the Sepia Saturday theme of Sisters. Alice E. Daniels, known as Allie, was born in Lansing, Michigan in 1870. She was the younger sister of my great-grandmother Louise, whom I spotlighted in my last Sepia Saturday Eff-Stop post.

 I believe that of these three girls, the far-right one is Allie (there's a telltale birthmark on the bridge of her nose) and the far-left Louise, born in 1868. I have not as yet determined the identity of the older girl. The picture thus would have been taken around 1873, a few years before the family moved a tad south to Lenawee County, Michigan.

Here's Allie with what must be a favorite doll. She has some sort of adornment on her head, unless it's a hairdo of some sort, and appears to be in front of a painted backdrop.

A couple of years later, Allie (left) has a very similar dress -- perhaps the same one but let out -- and a different collar. The backdrop is rather sickeningly tilted! Interestingly, her sister appears in a similar photo wearing the same dress, though without the necklace.

 

Here is what appears to be a teenage Allie -- looking, I have to say, rather wistful, though I think she's the more beautiful of the sisters.

One mystery is that in the 1900 census, there is a Harry Daniels, aged 6, living with his grandparents Henry and Martha Daniels, along with Alice. Alice, now 30 (although being listed as 25), does not have a married name. Harry, noted as a grandson, not a son, is not the son of Louise, who was by this time married to Gaylord Orr, with her own children. He is listed as being born in Arkansas -- a state the Danielses never lived in, as far as I know. Was he born out of wedlock? Did Alice marry, move to Arkansas, and then divorce and return home?

For more about Louise and the Orrs, see The Irish Side.