Copyright © 2020 by Wendy Waszut-Barrett
Yesterday, I explored the 1884 antics of Horace H. Buell when he shipped himself in a crate from Chicago to Manhattan, Kansas. His strange journey made headlines across the country. At the time he was married to Fannie B. “Nina,” future head of Buell Scenic Co.
Buell was born in 1857, one of four boys born to Cyrus A. Buell, a hatter. At the age of thirteen, Buell moved with his family to Wabaunsee, Kansas and then Manhattan, Kansas. At the age of 18, Buell was sent to Brooklyn to live with his uncle, where he worked as barber. Eventually he returned Manhattan, Kansas, initially working as a barber and later an artist. In Manhattan he established his own art studio by the age of 22 years old. On May 30, 1879, the “Manhattan Nationalist” included an advertisement for H. H. Buell’s “new photograph gallery” (page 2). Located over the post office, Buell’s services included tintypes, photographs, crayon portraits and oil portraits. By the early 1880s, Horace opens another art store in Topeka, Kansas. On April 15, 1882, “The Topeka Daily Capital” reported, “H. H. Buell, a telented [sic.] young artist of this city, proposes giving an art drawing at an early day in Union hall. He has a number of beautiful paintings and artotypes to dispose of” (page 8). Interestingly, in Topeka Buell was active in the Knights of Pythias, Topeka Lodge No. 38, (Daily Commonwealth, 29 Jan. 1882, page 1).
By the summer, however, Buell sets his sights on better opportunities in Chicago and left Topeka. “The Topeka Daily Capital” announced, “H. H. Buell went East yesterday to take a position under Geo. Pullman, of the palace car company” (13 June 1882, page 8). It was purported that Buell met his future wife there, as she was a Pullman relative. By the end of the year. Buell married Fannie B. “Nina” Giles on Dec. 1. The Buell’s were encountering financial difficulties in the Windy City by 1884, and work was not a plentiful as Buell had hoped. On May 31, 1884, the “Salina Semi-Weekly Journal,” reported, “Manhattan is just now enjoying the excitement of a novel romance. Saturday night a large box of express matter was rolled out at the station, and on being opened was found to contain a young man who figured quite prominently here two years ago, a crayon artist, society blood and capital guard. H. H. Buell is his name. He was in Chicago, got broke there, wanted to get home, so shipped himself C.O.D., by express. Lawrence Herald” (page 4). Note there is no mention of his wife, at all. Buell did not return to Chicago and was still living in Manhattan the next year. The “Manhattan Nationalist” reported, “H. H. Buell has been doing some nice work in his line lately. All who have ever seen anything from his brush recognized unusual ability. The battle scenes that added so much to the impressiveness of the opera house were his latest works” (5 June 1885, page 1). This was the first mention that I have located to date that mentioned Buell as a scenic artist.
By 1886, both Buell and his wife were living in Kansas City, Missouri, at 1328 Lydia Ave. Not much is known of their life in Kansas other than nearby familial ties. Soon, they headed west, settling in California by early 1890s and welcoming two children to their home – Horace, Jr. (1892) and Mabel (1896). In regard to their daughter, sources vary about a birthdate. 1896 is Mabel’s birthdate on census reports and the gravestone that she shares with her daughter. However, newspapers and the social security administration list consistently list Mabel’s birthday as 1900. Keep in mind that newspaper articles give Mabel’s age as four years younger than she actually was at the time. So, working as a sixteen-year-old scenic artist by herself in 1916 really meant that she was twenty; this puts a slightly different take on her wunderkind status in retrospect.
By the turn of the twentieth century, the Buell family moved Portland, Oregon. The 1900 US Federal census lists a 41-years-old Horace Sr. working as a portrait and landscape artist and living in Portland with his family. Nina Giles Buell, was still listed as “Fannie B.” in this census, but the children remain the same Horace C. and Mabel A., ages 8 and 6 respectively. Both children were attending school.
The Buells returned to Kansas in1904, the same year that Buell’s father (Cyrus Augustus Buell (1820-1904) passes away. Until 1904, Buell artistic endeavors are primarily absent from print, as he was working as a portrait artist and not connected with any theatrical productions. There are mentions of his checking into hotels and visits home to Manhattan, Kansas. In 1904, the “El Paso Herald” announced, “H. H. Buell of San Francisco, has completed the work of painting a large oil painting of the city of Alamogordo, 12×21 feet, for the Alamogordo Townsite company, to be displayed at the World’s Fair. It is a beautiful piece of work” (3 June 1904, page 2).
In 1905, a snapshot of the Buell’s life was again captured in a state census report. Horace H. Buell, Fannie B. (Nina) Buell, Horace C. Buell and Mabel A. Buell are listed and living together in Manhattan. The “Manhattan Nationalist” included a Buell advertised: “Portraits and frames. Studio at residence, southwest corner of Fifth and Houston. –H.H. Buell, Artist” (31 March 1905, page 4). Later that summer, Buell’s advertisements noted that his studio was located on North Second Street, opposite of the Manhattan Marble Works. The second advertisement announced, “We make portraits and photographs at the summer school of painting and photography, Positions furnished to students in photographic retouching as soon as qualified” (Student’s Herald, Manhattan, Kansas, 8 June 1905, page 2).
Not everything went well for Buells in Manhattan. The “Manhattan Nationalist” reported an unfortunate incident at the Buell home: “The other night, after H. H. Buell had installed water pipes in his house, he felt water dripping on the bed where he slept. He got up to investigate just in time to avoid a large mass of plastering which fell from the ceiling. As the ceiling is high, he probably made a lucky escape” (30 June 1905, page 4). This just made me think of the crate story.
The family left Manhattan and moved from Kansas City to Wichita in 1908, presumably for better employment opportunities. In Wichita, Buell became the scenic artist for the Wolfe Stock Company, providing scenery for their production of “The Princess and the Girl” at the New Auditorium that summer (Wichita Daily Eagle, 18 June 1908, page 12). He also painted the scenery for “Salomy Jane” that fall. Of the production, the “Wichita Daily Eagle” reported, “Mr. Horace H. Buell, the Wolfe scenic artist, and his assistants, have made a record for themselves painting the life-like reproduction of the famous California redwoods in which the Bret Harte stories are laid” (11 Nov 1908 page 10). Buell’s son, Horace C. Buell was sixteen years old at the time. Buell’s scenic work in Wichita continued with the help of his children and wife. By December 1908, the scene painting work for Manager Wolfe at the New Auditorium was credited to Messrs. Horace H. Buell & Son (6 Dec. 1908, page 15). Horace Sr. and Horace Jr. painted scenery for “The Eternal City”. The “Wichita Daily Eagle” reported, “For the past two weeks the scenic artists of the New Auditorium, Messrs. Horace H. Buell & Son, have been busy preparing the backgrounds for this richest of all plays, and they will show the Holy City as true to life as it is possible for brush and colors to depict on canvas.” In 1923, Mabel would recall, “Of course I learned much from my father, though even he was more often than not loath to have me around. It was my brother who used to act as his ‘paint boy,’ cleaning his brushes and mixing his paints. But I made the most of my opportunities. I hung around and picked up what information I could, and always kept in mind that some day I was going to climb to the bridge and do scene painting all by myself.’
The Buell’s were still living in Wichita in 1911 when Buell began working for the Wichita College of Music’s art department. The “Wichita Daily Eagle” reported, “The art department, under the direction of H. H. Buell, late of Paris and London, will be a success…H. H. Buell, who is a thorough artist, will be in a position to give very valuable instruction as well as produce some specially artistic work” (22 Jan 1911, page 6). Little is known of his trip abroad, the timeline or purpose. However, his trip to Paris was again sited when Buell received the contract to design electrical floats for the Peerless Prophet’s Parade that year too. The “Wichita Daily Eagle” reported “Paris Man to Design Electrical Floats. Contract Let to H. H. Buell for $2,000 Feature of October Jubilee” (23 July 1911, page 3). In the “Hutchinson News,” Buell was actually noted as the “well known scenic artist” (9 Sept. 1911, page 1). It is uncertain when Horace H. Buell & Son became known Buell Scenic Co.
By 1912, Horace was working as an itinerant artist and mentioned in a few newspapers across the country, including Jacksonville, Florida. Four years later, his wife and daughter were working in Sioux City, Iowa at the Princess Theatre, with not mention of Horace H. Buell. This is the same year that Horace Jr. passed away.
The notice of Horace H. Buell’s own passing was brief, and appeared in only few papers. The “American Art Annul” reported, “Buell, Horace Hervey. – a painter and head of the Buell Scenic Company, died in New York, December 22, 1919” (Vol. 16, page 266).
To be continued…
