As far as we can tell, Annie Fellows Johnston never mentions the Van
Horne-Ross House in any of the “Little Colonel” stories. However, both she
and her daughter, Mary G. Johnston, were
friends with the Ross family who lived in the house from 1903 until the late
1970s. Annie Fellows Johnston mentions “The Ross Place” in passing in
Chapter IX of the “Little Colonel’s House Party".
The house once sat on 40 acres at the intersection of Central Avenue and
Peace Lane, near Edgewood,
Twigmore and The Beeches, where Annie and
Mary Johnston lived from 1911 until their respective deaths in 1931 and
1966. In the 1970s, the property was developed to form the Rosswoods
subdivision. The house was saved and still sits in its original location.
A Statement of Significance submitted to the National Register of
Historic Places by Historic Pewee Valley provides the following information
about the property, the house and its owners:
The Van Horne-Ross
House occupied a small portion of what was originally
a forty-acre property first developed in 1856
by William H. Walker, a Louisville businessman. Walker’s house burned in
1863. Between 1866, when Walker sold the land, and 1870, when John D. Van
Horne bought it, the property changed hands at least three times. It is
presumed that Van Horne built the present house, although possibly one of
the interim owners, Jonas H. Rhorer and Charles B. Cotton, both Pewee
Valley land speculators, or Dr. J.E. Helm was responsible.
John Van Horne, a
wealthy businessman who served as general superintendent of the Western
Union Telegraph Company in Louisville, commuted to work from his Pewee
Valley residence during the early 1870s. He served on the Pewee Valley
Council from 1871 to 1874…
The 1880 Census lists the following as occupants of the
house:
·
John Van Horne, age 56, born in new Jersey, Vice President of
Western Union Telegraph
·
Mary Van Horne, his wife, age 57
·
Nellie Van Horne, daughter, age 23
·
John Van Horne, son, age 19
·
Elsy Barber, domestic servant
John Van Horne’s obituary, published December 18, 1902
in the “Courier Journal,” provides a good idea of just how important he was,
and how much he was esteemed, by the Western Union Telegraph Company:
The funeral of Mr.
John Van Horne, former vice president of the Western Union Telegraph
Company, was held yesterday afternoon at 2 o’clock at Christ Church
Cathedral, and after the reading of the simple and impressive burial
service of the Episcopal Church, the body was taken to Cave Hill and laid
in its final resting place.
Among those who came
to pay the last sad tribute to their friend and colleague were a number of
the highest officials of the great company with which he was connected for
so many years. All of them started in the work to which their life had
been devoted when they were boys and the days of the telegraph as a factor
in commercial America had not dawned. It was in these struggles that they
came to know John Van Horne, and when the news of Mr. Van Horne’s death
reached them, they hurried to this city to pay tribute to him.
The body was brought
to Louisville from Pewee Valley yesterday at noon, and was taken from the
First-street depot to the church, where it rested until the time set for
the funeral.
The services were
conducted by the Rev. Dr. Mortimer Benton, and consisted of the reading of
the burinal service, before which Miss Anita Muldoon sang “Lead Kindly
Light.”
When Dr. Benton
concluded, Miss Muldoon sang “Nearer, My God, To Thee,” after which the
body was taken to the cemertery and interred by the side of Mr. Van
Horne’s wife.
There were many floral
designs, among them being one sent by Gen. Thomas T. Eckert, formerly
president of the Western Union; Mr. James Merrither, formerly general
superintendent of the Southern division, and Mr. Robert C. Clowry, the
president of the company.
There were handsome
designs from the superintendents of the Southern and Western divisions, as
well as every official present. Among those present were the following
representatives of the Western Union Telegraph Company: T.F. Clarke, vice
president, of New York; T.P. Cook, general superintendent of Chicago; F.H.
Tubbs, superintendent, and W.J. Lloyd, assistance superintendent of
Chicago; T.B. Tree, superintendent, of Richmond, Va.; J. M. Stephens,
superintendent, of Atlanta; I.N. Miller, superintendent, of Cincinnati; J.
Compton, superintendent, and J. Terhune, assistant superintendent, of
Nashville; G.J. Frankel, superintendent, of St. Louis; M.T. cook,
secretary to the general superintendent; H.G. sickles and Mr. C.S. Rhodes,
superintendent of the Cincinnati division of the Big Four railroad.
The Postal Telegraph
Cable Company was represented by J.W. Kates, superintendent, of Richmond,
Va., and W.J. Slater, manager of the Louisville office.
John Van Horne and his wife, Mary L., who died in 1898, are buried in
Cave Hill
Cemetery, Section A, Lot 700, Graves 8 and 5. Buried with them are their
son, John Douglas Van Horne, who died in 1927, and we presume his wife, Mary
K., who died in 1948.
In 1903, the house was sold to the “William Ross family, who intended to
use it for a summer home but soon moved there permanently,” according to the
Statement of Significance submitted to the National Register of Historic
Places:
William Ross, an
executive with a Louisville Seed Company, served intermittently on the
Pewee Valley City Council from 1904 to 1908. A son, Herbert Ross who
continued to live in the house until the late 1970s, was an accomplished
painter who studied in Chicago, New York and Paris with other artists of
note.”
Two self portraits by Herbert Ross (1895-1989)
The following interview with Herbert Ross is from a February 17, 1985
“Courier-Journal” story by Gregg Swem, titled “Painters for All Seasons.” He
was a day shy of his 90th birthday at the time, living in
Jefferson Manor nursing home in Louisville and was one of 18 Kentucky
artists being featured at an upcoming show called “Painters for All Seasons”
in Frankfort:
…Ross, a native of
Louisville who worked so methodically that in 75 years he turned out only
about 100 oil paintings, hasn’t exhibited in Kentucky in many years. His
work has been shown in Louisville’s J.B. Speed Art Museum, Little Gallery
& Arts Club.
He lived abroad for 10
years and spent most of his life in Pewee Valley, where he painted
portraits of such residents as Annie Fellows Johnston, author of “The
Little Colonel” books, and her stepdaughter, Mary Johnston.
But Ross says, “I’m
perfectly satisfied now not to paint. I don’t have enough vitality. I know
my limitations.” He was interviewed in his simply finished room that was
dominated by two of his still lifes and a portrait.
|
Annie Fellows Johnston
photographed from an oil painting by Herbert Ross |
As recently as
December 1983, he was studying painting at Jefferson Community College and
taking brush to canvas in his apartment in The 800, where he lived until
last summer.
Ross, a bachelor,
loves to talk about art and the people who influenced him. He studied in
Louisville, at the Art Institute of Chicago and the Art Students League in
New York before going to Paris in 1922 to learn from two disparate
painters –
Andre
Lhote and
Richard E. Miller.
“I wanted to expose
myself to both sides – to Lhote and the modern school which didn’t take
root, and to Miller, the traditionalist.” Two Ross nudes painted during
that period reflect the two schools.
After he returned to
the Louisville area, he met Susanne Henning, daughter of James W. Henning,
a Louisvillian who was governor of the New York Stock Exchange. She
married a Frenchmen and was the Marquise de Charette. (She was later
divorced.)
Ross painted her
portrait in his Pewee Valley studio and in the 1920s and ‘30s was a
frequent visitor at her Paris apartment and the family estate in Brittany.
He often accompanied her to European resorts.
He painted a portrait
of her daughter, Susanne, now Mrs. Ronald R. Van Stockum of Shelby Co.,
Ky., in a Villa at Capri. The mother’s portrait was exhibited in 1930 at
the annual Paris Salon, organized by the Societé de Artists Français at
the Grande Palais de Champs Elysees, and the daughter’s portrait was shown
there the next year.
Ross said, “It was a
great honor to be exhibited in that gallery. One of the reviewers said
there is a very beautiful portrait – the daughter of the Marquise de
Charette. Her mother was so jealous, because her daughter’s portrait got
this lovely newspaper criticism and her picture wasn’t noticed.”
Ross had a studio in
Paris for seven years. When he and the marquise returned to the Louisville
area in the late 1930s, she helped find models for him and he worked on
several portraits of her. She died in 1964.
Another force in Ross’
life was his mother, Gertrude Doherty Ross. When Ross was 15 and a
sophomore at Louisville Male High School, his mother decided he should
study art. He had been “good at graphics” as a student at
Miss Fanny Craig’s private school in
Pewee Valley.
So mother and son took
classes at Charles Sneed Williams’ studio, which “was right on Fourth
Street in an office building across from Kaufman’s” (now part of the
Galleria). One of the students was
Dean Cornwell,
a Louisvillian who became a famous illustrator and with whom Ross shared a
roof while attending the Art Institute of Chicago.
When Williams left
Louisville to paint portraits in Chicago, Ross and his mother rented a
studio in the same building.
Ross painted several
portraits of his mother, whose family had been in the whiskey business in
Louisville. His father, William Ross, who helped run the now-defunct Ross
Seed Co., died when Ross was a young man.
Herbert Ross said he
never had to paint for a living; his mother supported him. He lived with
her and younger sister Alice at the family home in Pewee.
“I was so happy there
in the country,” he said. His studio was a converted carriage house with a
stone fireplace and skylight. The family home was sold and the acreage
subdivided in the late 1970s. (Note: his studio has been razed. The
unattached garage at the rear of the property was built in 1984.)
Two works from Ross’
early years are on display at a Louisville antiques store, Curiosity Shop,
1565 Bardstown Road. One is a 1925 portrait of Katherine Shelman, daughter
of the Pewee Valley postmistress who moved to Chicago and became a doctor.
(Note: Her mother, Anne D. Shelman,
was postmistress from November 4, 1920 – February 22, 1922.) The other is
a still life – an elaborate box and candlestick resting on velvet drapery.
Ross also painted
portraits of a number of Louisvillians, including Mrs. Mary (Mary Miller)
Furnish and the late A.L. Noe, president of the Lincoln Income Life
Insurance Co.
Ross sold some
paintings but most were given away. He said he wasn’t interested in
promoting himself and marketing didn’t appeal to him.
He explained the
time-consuming way in which he worked. He got the perspective of the
person or object by outlining it on a piece of glass, traced this onto
paper, then started painting on canvas. Some artists have said his method
was too mechanical, but he found it essential to get the proper
proportions.
Ross never stopped
learning. In the summer of 1977 he returned to the Arts Students League
and also studied with portraitist
Robert Brackman in Connecticut...While living in The 800, Ross
took classes in philosophy and religion at nearby
Spalding University. He was active
in the Arts Club and gave the club one of his works that won a prize
there…
Herbert Ross died four years after this interview in 1989.
Herbert Ross Late in Life
In addition to Alice, Herbert Ross had another sister, Genevieve, living
on the property with her husband, Alfred Chescheir. Their home is still
standing, but is now located on a four-acre lot at 120 Peace Lane. According
to Pewee Valley Town Historian Gin Chadouin, Gertrude Ross built the
two-story Neoclassical-style residence in 1923 as a wedding gift to her
daughter. The Chescheir home, shown below, may or may not be the “Spring
Glenn” house pictured on the ca. 1930s
movie map
and Little Colonel game board.
It was not, however, associated with any of the “Little Colonel”
stories.
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