Once Upon a Time in the Skagit Valley

Bricks, wood, and wriggly tin

Summer scenes spotted while social distancing.

Oakridge Oregon

A quick stroll around Oakridge oldtown, which is rather in a state of disrepair.

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.

Here's a news blurb about her:

"Beautiful Butte Girls Used as Subjects By Noted Los Angeles Artists"

The same pose of Miss Harrington and also one of Miss Katherine O’Leary, 419 North Jackson, done in water colors by Miss (sic) Alice D. Bryant, also of Los Angeles, is on exhibition in the window of Mr. Carney’s store and these likewise are winning general approval.

Miss Bryant enjoys the same high position in the world of water color art as her colleague, Miss Sharon. She studied for two years at the Chicago Art Institute, one year with the great American master, William Chase, in New York City and one and one-half years with leading watercolor masters in Paris.

Upon her return to America she became associated with Marshall Field’s in Chicago, and her work there attained the greatest popularity. Some years ago she moved to Los Angeles and took up portrait work. Many examples of her art have been shown heretofore in Butte and her pictures are on the walls of scores of homes here and throughout the state.

Among her popular works sold here were scenes in the Glacier National Park and reproductions of the beauty spots of California. As a result of the exhibition in the Carney store, many Butte People have given their commissions through the local art dealer for portraits.

Source:

The Montana Standard (Butte, Montana) 16 March, 1919.

Submitted by Edward P. Bentley, Art Researcher and Historian, Greenville, Michigan.

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.

The Good, the Bad, and the Unemployed

Three years ago this month I was unsuccessfully job hunting in Portland (put up at the McMenamin's Crystal Hotel). Now I'm retired in Eugene having purchased a small woodsy condo. Changing times.