Copyright © 2020 by Wendy Waszut-Barrett
There is one last person in the Buell Family that I have not covered yet, Horace Cyrus Buell. tHorace C. Buell was the he son of Nina Giles and Horace H. Buell.
[I was recently emailed by Mark Trainor who offered the following correction: Horace Cyrus Giles Buell’s grandfather was Cyrus Augustus Buell (1824-1904). His great grandfather was Horace Buell (1791-1837) of Troy, New York. I have no research showing Horace’s middle name was Cyrus].
Named after his great grandfather, Horace Cyrus Buell (1793-1870) of New York, he came from a theatrical family. His father was a portrait and landscape artist who also worked as a scenic artist. Buell & Son scenic studio was established in 1908, and the two painted many productions at the New Auditorium in Wichita, Kansas.
Horace C. Buell was born on April 29, 1891, in Santa Monica, California. He followed in his father’s footsteps as a scenic artist, but very little is known about him. The younger Horace remained relatively absent from print, other that a few brief mentions in Kansas newspaper; the polar opposite of his younger sister. Horace C. only appears in a 1900 US Federal Census, a 1905 Kansas state census, and a few Wichita City directories and newspaper clippings.
In 1908 Horace C. Buell was enrolled at the Wichita School of Music, the same institution where his father Horace H Buell briefly taught art classes (Wichita Daily Eagle, 6 Sept. 1908, page 12). In 1911, Horace C. Buell was listed as a student in Wichita, Kansas, residing at 1012 Lawrence Av. This was his parents home at the time.
While looking for artworks by his father Horace H. Buell, I stumbled across one painting by Horace C. G. Buell. The “G” was for his mother’s maiden name of Giles. Like the rest of his family, he was quite an accomplished artist. Unfortunately his career was snuffed out the early age of 24. Horace Jr. died on Sept 3, 1916, in Cleveland, Ohio, and was buried at the Brooklyn Heights Cemetery there.
In 1915, Horace C. G. Buell enlisted in the New Work Guard, becoming a private in Co. F, 71st Inf. A year later he was dead, gone without any obituary or published memorial. I have no idea what happened, but the family had already splintered the year that he passed. Mother and daughter were working as scenic artists and Rapid City, Iowa, and his father was working elsewhere.
To be continued…
