Monday, February 19, 2018

Nella Fontaine Binckley: "Odds and Ends from an Artist's Life," Chapter II, Part 3

[Nella Fontaine Binckley, "Odds and Ends from an Artist's Life," Chapter II, part 3. From a transcription annotated by Patricia D'Arcy Binckley of typewritten original, February 25, 2005. Original "written some time after 1941 by Nellie F. Binckley, 1860-1950 or 51." Notes in brackets are mine, unless followed by the initials "P.D.B." Occasionally, additional paragraph breaks inserted for easier reading. 

Many thanks to William Myers, Mary Davy, Sally Young and Sue Davis for their ongoing research collaboration; specifically to William for providing a scan of the original document (and of the photograph of Harvey Mitchell/Harvey Michel), and in turn many thanks to Peter Binckley and Patricia D'Arcy "Trish" Binckley (1951-2007), at the source.]


We spent a month in Tazewell County one summer and Mother made sketches of the quaint sunbonneted women with their slimpsey (calico) dresses. Mother liked the mountain people, but found them shy with city folk, till they got acquainted. One day, we saw a woman hiding behind some bushes near the house. Mother invited her over to the porch, but she wouldn't come. When Mother urged her, she bashfully faltered, "I'm too timorsome to be venturesome." Mother picked up a queer old folksong they sung around there, and after we went home amused the family by singing mountain fashion, through her nose, her lovely contralto voice changed into a twang.

Uncle Willie had become engaged to Miss Maynard of Virginia. [Old family tree says "Lucy Dennis." Maybe she was a widow, Lucy Maynard Dennis since their son was named William Maynard Michel per the family tree -- M.J.B.]* When black Henry in the galley of the Mississippi River steamboat got word of the approaching marriage, he vowed that nobody [should] cook "Marse Willie's" wedding breakfast but himself. So back he came to Virginia and cooked it, to the eminent satisfaction of everyone concerned. Uncle Willie and his bride went to California to live. [Died 1908 in Ferndale near Eureka -- per M.J.B.]

Then Aunt Sue married Major William Taliaferro, a very handsome man who had fought gallantly and been wounded in the Confederate army. He belonged to an old and distinguished Virginia family, which had originally come from Italy. The name had been spelled Tagliaferro.

Every summer we spent much time with Grandmother and Aunt Charlotte, Mother's half sister. Grandfather had been married twice. His first wife had been Miss Griffin of Salem, Virginia. She died when Aunt Charlotte was born. Her sister took the baby. She [Charlotte Griffin, born circa 1808-1810] married Judge Wingfield [Gustavus Adolphus Wingfield (1808-1888) in 1831]. (I don't suppose he was a judge then). So Aunt Charlotte was brought up in their home. Seven children were born and then Mrs. Wingfield died. Aunt Charlotte brought up the Wingfield children. 

About six [three] years after he lost his [first] wife, Grandfather married my grandmother. Aunt Charlotte was devoted to her stepmother and visited her father now and then. But her home was always with the Wingfields. She was independent, having inherited a small fortune from her mother. We were much attached to the Wingfields and called them cousin, though of course they were not blood kin of ours, in spite of being first cousins of Aunt Charlotte.

The old Wingfield mansion was in a Bedford County [town] called Liberty. The name was changed some years later to Bedford. It faces the famous Peaks of Otter, those beautiful twin mountains which form the western edge of  the Blue Ridge range. 

The Wingfield house stood on a hill about three quarters of a mile from town. It was surrounded by magnificent trees, with a glorious view of the Peaks, and was appropriately named Bellevue.

Virginia was settled by the British mostly, so Virginians named their estates after the English fashion. I always loved the Peaks. They were a part of my life in my childhood and early youth. In later years I have seen some of the great mountains of our country: Pike's Peak, the Rockies, Mount Shasta, and the High Sierra. But for sheer loveliness I have never seen any mountains to surpass the Peaks of Otter. The big mountains are magnificent, epic. The Peaks are lyric.

When I knew it, Bellevue was much the same, I fancy, as it had been in earlier years. In the huge bedrooms upstairs, the great [bedsteads] were all four posters and some even still had their curtains -- are relic of bygone days. It is [an] art to make up a feather bed. But the darkie maids were experts, and their resulting roundness and smoothness were a joy to behold. Each bed had a tiny set of steps beside it, so small folk could mount to its towering height and sink into its downy depths. It's many a long year since I slept in a feather bed, but I still remember its luxurious softness -- like sleeping on a cloud. I wonder if any feather beds still survive anywhere?

[Ellen/Nellie/Nella Fontaine Binckley (September 1, 1860-April 27, 1951). Family names and dates were whimsically tweaked by their owners during their lifetime, adding mystery and sometimes causing confusion. For Binckley's "Artist's Life," I'm opting for the full artist's signature name, Nella Fontaine Binckley. 

Grandfather = Harvey Mitchell/Michel (1799-1866).
Grandmother = Jane Johnston Mitchell/Michel (1811-1892).

Mother = Mary Louisa/Louise Mitchell/Michel Binckley (1838-1930).

Father = John Milton Binckley (circa 1831-1878).


*I moved this internal note to its proper position, based on context.
Uncle Willie = William Manning Mitchell/Michel (1839-1908).
Miss Maynard = conflated with an aunt of Lucy's, apparently. See this 1869 letter written by Mary Louisa mentioning the Maynard name. Lucy A. "Lulie" Dennis (1845-1923) married Willie on August 23, 1867.
Harvey/Harry Maynard Michel (1869-1959).

Black Henry = formerly enslaved, emancipated by Harvey Mitchell/Michel before the American Civil War. 

Aunt Sue = Sue Henry Mitchell/Michel (1845-1940).
William Taliaferro = William Meade Taliaferro (1840-1913); married Sue on October 16, 1867.

Aunt Charlotte = Charlotte Elizabeth Griffin Mitchell/Michel (1829-1921).
Aunt Charlotte's mother = Elizabeth Hook Griffin Mitchell (1801-1829), who married Harvey in 1828.]

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