Photographs: ‘Lusannah and Francis Wadsworth Hubbard, Wadsworth Hall, Hiram, Maine; and Moat Mt and Saco River, North Conway N.H.’

September 2020

Lawson (American)
Spinning Days (Mrs. Lusannah Wadsworth Hubbard of Hiram, Maine)
Nd, presented 1927
Tipped in silver gelatin print
Image: 22.5 x 17cm

These special images are a bit of a mystery. I purchased them as a lot from an op shop (charity shop) here in Melbourne, Australia.

How such quintessential, historic American photographs come to be in Australia is beyond me.

With their links to the American Revolution, Brigadier General Peleg Wadsworth of the Revolution, Wadsworth Hall, Wadsworth-Longfellow house, General Peleg Wadsworth Jr., and the daughters and granddaughters of the Republic, they could turn out to be very important images.

After research I can find no birth and death dates for George Wadsworth Davis, and no information on the photographers “Lawson” or “Huntings Studio, North Conway N.H.”

I believe the photograph Spinning Days to be earlier than the text on the back of the photograph which is dated Dec. 26th 1927, mainly because Brigadier General Peleg Wadsworth died in 1829, and taking 30 years per generation, the photograph of the granddaughter would place the image c. 1890-1900 (her dates are 1830-1908). The type of frame and the silver, patterned paper on the rear of the frame would support this supposition. I also believe that the beautiful photograph Moat Mt and Saco River, North Conway N.H. dates to the late nineteenth or early twentieth century due to the nature of its original frame. This looks to be a platinum palladium print as well.

The poem by the son George Wadsworth Davis about his mother Francis Wadsworth Davis is just delightful: his feelings for his ageing mother captured in a picture of her – tender, romantic, loving.

If anyone has more information on these images, please email me at bunyanth@netspace.net.au. Thank you!

Dr Marcus Bunyan

.
Please click on the photographs for a larger version of the image.

Lawson (American)
Spinning Days (Mrs. Lusannah Wadsworth Hubbard of Hiram, Maine)
Nd, presented 1927
Tipped in silver gelatin print
Image: 22.5 x 17cm

The subject of this picture was Mrs. Lusannah Wadsworth Hubbard of Hiram, Maine – the granddaughter of Brigadier General Peleg Wadsworth of the Revolution – and daughter of General Peleg Wadsworth of the ? Militia.

Mrs Hubbard posed for this picture – in the hall of the Wadsworth Home – to please our artist-friend who was with the family for the summer.

The braided rug on the floor was made by her mother many years before the picture was painted.

The spinning wheel is one hundred and twenty five years old, and always in the Wadsworth family.

Presented by her mother – Mrs Francis(?) W. Davis – W her daughter – Mrs. D. Davis Skinner

Dec. 26th 1927

.
Text from the verso of the framed photograph

Lawson (American)
Spinning Days (Mrs. Lusannah Wadsworth Hubbard of Hiram, Maine) (verso detail)
Nd, presented 1927
Tipped in silver gelatin print

Lawson (American)
Spinning Days (Mrs. Lusannah Wadsworth Hubbard of Hiram, Maine) (details)
Nd, presented 1927
Tipped in silver gelatin print

Lawson (American)
Spinning Days (Mrs. Lusannah Wadsworth Hubbard of Hiram, Maine) (verso)
Nd, presented 1927
Tipped in silver gelatin print

Lawson (American)
Spinning Days (Mrs. Lusannah Wadsworth Hubbard of Hiram, Maine) (verso details)
Nd, presented 1927
Tipped in silver gelatin print

LUSANNAH W. HUBBARD (Osgood) (American, b. March 28, 1830 – died April 14, 1908)

Many will learn with deep regret the death at Hiram, Me., of Mrs Lusannah Wadsworth Hubbard on Wednesday, April 15, at the old Wadsworth homestead where she has made it her home since 1867. She was 78 years of age or nearly so. Many who have partake of her hospitality at Wadsworth hall will remember her with much pleasure. She had all the graces of her gently blood and was one who had the esteem and respect of all who knew her. She was a woman among women.

Mrs. Hubbard was the daughter of Gen. Peleg Jr., [1793-1875] and Lusannah (Wadsworth) Wadsworth [1797-1879] [Mrs. Hubbard died 1908 – ? of Francis Wadsworth – Rounds(?) mother of Francis Wadsworth Davis, mother of Dora Davis Skinner(?)] and their home was that in which she died. Her father and mother were cousins. The mother was the daughter of ?ura and Lydia (Bradford) Wadsworth of Hiram. Her father was the youngest of the 11 children of Peleg Wadsworth, who built the Wadsworth-Longfellow house and where he was born in 1792. He also had 11 children. Mrs Hubbard’s grandfather, Gen. Peleg Wadsworth [1748-1829], was one of the most prominent men in the State in his time. He was a major general in the Revolution, member of Congress 14 years and the founder of the town of Hiram, with all that implies. He built the house at Hiram in 1800 and moved there six years later. Many with recall the enjoyable centennial celebration at Wadsworth hall in 1900, when Mrs. Hubbard was the hostess, assisted by her sister, Mrs. Louisa Rounds of Minneapolis. The father was a major general in the militia and a very prominent citizen in his time. Mrs. Hubbard was a descendant of eleven Mayflower Pilgrims and a cousin of Henry W. Longfellow [1807-1882]. Lieut. Henry Wadsworth, who as on the Constitution and perished at Tripoli in 1804, and Commodore Alexander Scammel Wadsworth [1790-1851], who was a mid-shipman at Tripoli, with his brother and a lieutenant with Hull, when he fought the Guerriere in 1812 with the Constitution, were he uncles. She was a Wadsworth of the Wadsworths.

Mrs. Hubbard married in 1849 J. E. Osgood and in 1853 John P. Hubbard. She survived Mr. Hubbard. They had children and with her during the later years has been her daughter, Mrs. J. B. Pike, and her children. She was buried with her kindred at Hiram on Friday afternoon.

Mrs. Hubbard was proud of her ancestry and she had sufficient reasons for it. She was much interested in the preservation of the birthplace of her father, built by her grandfather in 1783 and 1786, now the precious possession of Portland, the Wadsworth-Longfellow house. She was a generous contributor of family relics to the collection and visited the house every season. Her gratitude to the people of Portland for what they have done for the old house seemed without limit and she often referred to the world of the ladies. The Elizabeth Wadsworth chapter, D. A. R., was named for her grandmother. The epitaph of this grandmother could well be hers:

“A woman of eminent piety.
Blessed are the dead
Who died in the Lord.”

N.G.

.
Text from the verso of the framed photograph, no attribution or source.

George Wadsworth Davis (American)
Francis Wadsworth Davis, Hiram, Maine
Nd
Toned silver gelatin print(?)
Image: 36 x 25.7cm

Francis Wadsworth Davis (1852-1940), Photo taken by her son George Wadsworth Davis in Hiram, Maine.

George Wadsworth Davis (American)
Francis Wadsworth Davis, Hiram, Maine (detail)
Nd
Toned silver gelatin print(?)
Image: 36 x 25.7cm

George Wadsworth Davis (American)
Francis Wadsworth Davis [1852-1940], Hiram, Maine (verso)
Nd
Toned silver gelatin print(?)
Image: 36 x 25.7cm

Tho her hair is streaked with silver
and she has stouter grown

I fair would fancy her thoughts
have backward turned
in the flight of time

To tho days of forty years ago,
when her dark-haired southern love
came up the winding road.

And today her son comes up the shaded pathway
And sees his mother here at the bar, standing
With the wistful eyes, the tender smile
of girlhood days.

As the sun sends its level rays around the
fragrant earth to light her silvered hair
with the golden sheen of youth again

It is this view of mother
Taken as I saw it that afternoon
that I have tried to picture here.

GHD

.
Text from the verso of the framed photograph

George Wadsworth Davis (American)
Francis Wadsworth Davis [1852-1940], Hiram, Maine (verso detail)
Nd
Toned silver gelatin print(?)
Image: 36 x 25.7cm

George Wadsworth Davis (American)
Francis Wadsworth Davis [1852-1940], Hiram, Maine (verso detail)
Nd
Toned silver gelatin print(?)
Image: 36 x 25.7cm

Francis Wadsworth Rounds Davis (American, 1852-1940)

Born Peoria, Peoria, Illinois, United States June 24, 1852
Died Bridgton, Cumberland, Maine, United States November 23, 1940 aged 88)

George Wadsworth Davis (b. 1870?)

Frances Wadsworth Rounds Davis and the Wadsworth memorial
Wadsworth Cemetery
Hiram, Oxford County, Maine, USA

From Huntings Studio, North Conway N.H.
Moat Mt and Saco River, North Conway N.H.
Nd
Platinum palladium print(?)
Image: 27.5 x 36cm

Photograph in it’s original 1890-1920 frame.

From Huntings Studio, North Conway N.H.
Moat Mt and Saco River, North Conway N.H.
Nd
Platinum palladium print(?)
Image: 27.5 x 36cm

From Huntings Studio, North Conway N.H.
Moat Mt and Saco River, North Conway N.H. (verso)
Nd
Platinum palladium print(?)
Image: 27.5 x 36cm

From Hunting’s Studio, North Conway N.H.
Moat Mt and Saco River, North Conway N.H. (verso detail)
Nd
Platinum palladium print(?)
Image: 27.5 x 36cm

Label

From Hunting’s Studio
North Conway N.H.
Moat Mt and Saco River
North Conway N.H.

I cannot find any information about this photographic studio online.

W. Woods
North Moat Mountain, looking southwest from Intervale. Cathedral Ledge cliff is in right middle ground
2006
CC BY-SA 3.0

North Moat Mountain

North Moat Mountain is a mountain located in Carroll County, New Hampshire. North Moat is flanked to the south by Middle Moat Mountain, and to the west by Big Attitash Mountain.

North Moat Mountain stands within the watershed of the upper Saco River, which drains into the Gulf of Maine at Saco, Maine. The northwest side of North Moat Mtn. drains into Lucy Brook, thence into the Saco River. The east side of North Moat drains into Moat Brook, thence into the Saco. The southwest side of North Moat drains into Deer Brook, thence into the Swift River, a tributary of the Saco.

Text from the Wikipedia website

Ken Gallager
The Saco River in Conway, New Hampshire
2006
Public domain

Saco River

The Saco River is a river in northeastern New Hampshire and southwestern Maine in the United States. It drains a rural area of 1,703 square miles (4,410 km2) of forests and farmlands west and southwest of Portland, emptying into the Atlantic Ocean at Saco Bay, 136 miles (219 km) from its source. It supplies drinking water to roughly 250,000 people in thirty-five towns; and historically provided transportation and water power encouraging development of the cities of Biddeford and Saco and the towns of Fryeburg and Hiram. The name “Saco” comes from the Eastern Abenaki word [sɑkohki], meaning “land where the river comes out”. The Jesuit Relations, ethnographic documents from the 17th century, refer to the river as Chouacoet.

Text from the Wikipedia website

North Moat Mountain map showing Portland and Boston

Map of Hiram, Maine showing North Moat Mountain and Saco River

Wadsworth Hall, Hiram, Maine
CC BY-SA 3.0

Wadsworth Hall

Wadsworth Hall, also known as the Peleg Wadsworth House, is a historic house at the end of Douglas Road in Hiram, Maine, United States. A massive structure for a rural setting, it was built for General Peleg Wadsworth between 1800 and 1807 on a large tract of land granted to him for his service in the American Revolutionary War. Wadsworth was the leading citizen of Hiram, and important town meetings took place at the house. He was also the grandfather of poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, who visited the estate as a youth. The house remains in the hands of Wadsworth descendants. The house was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1974.

The main block of the house is a rectangular 2-1/2 story wood frame structure set on a massive granite foundation, with a gabled roof. Its main facade is seven bays wide, notably larger than the five more typically found in rural settings. The main entrance is centred on this face, sheltered by a 19th-century portico. A pair of small windows are above the doorway, with larger paired windows on either side on the second level. The left side of the house has three windows on each of three levels, and a doorway leading to the cellar. The right side has two windows on each of three levels. A two-story ell extends to the rear of the house, with a later two-story addition extending it further. There are a number of farm-related outbuildings, including 19th-century barns, behind the house.

The interior of the house is rustic and relatively simple. Its main feature on the first floor is a large chamber with a high ceiling, which was used by General Wadsworth for public meetings. The house is finished in plain pine boards, with modest Federal styling.

General Wadsworth’s primary residence, now known as the Wadsworth-Longfellow House and a National Historic Landmark, is located on Congress Street in Portland, and was built in 1785-86. Wadsworth was granted 7,800 acres (3,200 ha) by the state in 1790 for his war service; this property extended from the Ossipee River to the Saco River in what is now the town of Hiram. The house was built between 1800 and 1807 by Stephen Jewett, a carpenter, and Theophilus Smith, a mason, both of whom were from nearby Cornish. After its completion, Wadsworth gave his Portland home to his daughter Zilpah and her husband Stephen Longfellow, parents of the poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. Longfellow is known to have frequently summered at his grandfather’s estate as a child.

Wadsworth, in his role as a leading citizen in Hiram, opened his house for meetings and town functions, and even used the large hall for militia drills during bad weather. The house and surviving property retain a rural setting, accessed via a narrow dirt road.

Text from the Wikipedia website

LIKE ART BLART ON FACEBOOK

Back to top