Part 525: Thomas G. Moses and “By-Paths in the Mountains”
Yesterday, I examined the artistic career of Charles Graham. During 1879, Graham went on a sketching trip to gather information for Rebecca Harding Davis’ article series “By-paths in the Mountains.” Her three papers were published Harper’s Magazine during 1880; they described a fictional trip in the mountains of Virginia and North Carolina.
In 1927, Thomas G. Moses submitted several tales about stories past sketching trips under the heading “Tom Moses’ Trips.” One series described Moses’ sketching trip to West Virginia during 1885. His trip followed the same path as Graham’s. Moses first met Graham I 1874 when they were both working at Hooley’s theater in Chicago; Moses was gilding the opera boxes while Graham painted the drop curtain.
The “Green-Mountain Freeman” reported “The experience of Charles Graham, one of Harper Brothers’ artists, who has just returned from a sketching tour in the south strongly illustrates the lawless antagonism which every northerner may expect to encounter who attempts to live there. Mr. Graham started out in August to make sketches for the illustration of a series of articles by Miss Rebecca Harding Davis, which are to appear in Harper’s Magazine, and returned to New York a few days ago. As a northerner he was looked upon with extreme suspicion, and his movements were so closely watched as to impede seriously the progress of his work. It was even pretended that he was mistaken for a revenue officer, and he was once shot at by moonshiners”(Montpelier, Vermont, 29 Oct. 1879, page 2).
“The Macon Republican” reported that ‘By-Paths in the Mountains’ was “beautifully illustrated by seventeen drawings by Charles Graham and Miss Jessie Curtis” (Macon, Missouri, 8 July 1880, page 1). Curtis’ contributions were mainly depictions of local residents, whereas Graham illustrated the landscape. “By-Paths in the Mountains” explored the landscape and history of West Virginia through the eyes of its fictional adventurers. Scenes included the falls of Blackwater and Dobbins House. Her fictional travelers traversed in the same country that Thomas G. Moses, John H. Young and Henry C. Tryon would explore on a sketching trip five years later in 1885. Moses’ tales of this West Virginia journey was published in the Palette & Chisel newsletter during 1828. Moses’ article borrowed from Davis’ publication.
Here is one example in Davis’ 1880 article: “The wilderness upon whose edge our travellers had just entered, runs back for hundreds of miles, and is as yet literally unexplored by civilized people. There is a house name Koesson’s somewhere on it, where a German by that name, with four other families, settled fifty years ago. They never appear in the settlement, live upon game and a few pigs, dress in skins, and according to Jerry, have all property in common. “They took nyther law nor decency nor God in thar with them,” said the shrewed hunter, “an I reckon they haven’t found any to speak of since.” An energetic explorer of this range of mountains, from Pittsburg succeeded in the summer of 1878 in taking a boat and launching it to then Blackwater. It was the first that had ever insulted that untamed little savage of a stream. He proposes to venture in it this summer up into the heart of Ca-na’an, and to unearth this barbarous tribe.”
Here is the same information presented in Moses’ article years later: “The wilderness runs back from the river hundreds of miles and is, as yet, literally unexplored by civilized people, according to the word of our landlord Davis. There is a house named Koesson’s somewhere in the wilderness, where a German of the name, together with four other families, settled fifty years ago. They never appeared in the settlement, lived upon game and a few pigs, dressed in skins and had all property in common. “They took nyther law, decency nor God in that wilderness,” said the landlord, and I reckon they haven’t found any to speak of since. An energetic explorer of this range of mountains, from Pittsburg, succeeded, in the summer of 1878, in taking a boat and launching it in Blackwater. It was the first one that had ever insulted that untamed little savage of a stream. He proposes to finish his work by venturing into the heart of Canaan, as the natives call the wilderness, and unearth this barbarous tribe.”
There are more other similarities between Rebecca Davis’ 1880 article and the article written by Thomas G. Moses. It may have been Moses’ writing about Graham in “Stage Scenery” that prompted him to discover the old article.
To be continued…
