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Connecting Clues
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The West
My great-grandfather Andrew Adair Cummins was born in Cawker City, Kansas on October 20, 1887. Like the other three great-grandparents...
svanderschaaff
May 4, 20212 min read
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Harvard with the Roosevelts
A few posts ago I wrote about my great-grandfather Wallace Brockman Porter, the son of a railroad tallyman who won a scholarship at age...
svanderschaaff
Apr 27, 20212 min read
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...And She Became a Widow
I've traced two out of four great-grandfathers so far, identifying where my relatives where in comparison to The Judge's children. I know...
svanderschaaff
Apr 25, 20212 min read
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My Own Family: When Opportunity Knocked
My great-grandfather on my mother's side was born in 1892--part of the same generation as The Judge's children. His father worked for the...
svanderschaaff
Apr 22, 20211 min read
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My Own Family: A Different Story
In some ways, the story of The Judge's house is one of criss-crossing family fates. A family resides in the house until their fortunes,...
svanderschaaff
Apr 22, 20212 min read
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What Happened to Polly?
On her deathbed, The Judge's daughter begged her parents..... The Judge’s only daughter, Pauline, died in 1912. On her deathbed, she...
svanderschaaff
Apr 18, 20211 min read
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Surviving The War But Not Spanish Flu
Connecting the clues at library across the street The library across the street from The Judge’s House is The Louis T. Graves Memorial...
svanderschaaff
Apr 14, 20213 min read
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Lost Painting Found
Does the brother's painting reveal more about his life? The Judge's brother was an artist. We know that from newspaper articles and a...
svanderschaaff
Apr 12, 20212 min read
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His Daughter a Star
I invite you to imagine life as it might have been in the 1900's. The Judge's oldest child and only daughter, Pauline, graduates from...
svanderschaaff
Apr 1, 20211 min read
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The Librarians Didn't Like These Books
What books do you think might have irked the American Library Association in 1881? Women's fiction, according to an essay by Dee Garrison...
svanderschaaff
Mar 31, 20211 min read
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Step Into The Gallery--It's 1891
1.) Pamphlet from the 1891 show including Frank Luques, The Judge's younger brother 2.) Exterior of the Boston Art Club at circa 1892...
svanderschaaff
Mar 26, 20211 min read
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The Death of a Brother--The End of his Art
"Luques had come to that point in his development where he was about to express in the terms of his art what he had it in him to say."...
svanderschaaff
Mar 25, 20212 min read
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Searching for the Artist
What do I know about the man who painted the murals in The Judge's dining room, Louis D. Norton? After my essay on the murals and the...
svanderschaaff
Mar 18, 20211 min read
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A Secret History-in Plain Sight
I've been reading about Victorian Culture to better understand the world The Judge was shaped by. With most of my research, I am...
svanderschaaff
Mar 17, 20214 min read
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Death of a Daughter
The Judge's daughter, Pauline Luques, may have worn a costume much like the one below when she starred in the title role of PATIENCE, the...
svanderschaaff
Mar 16, 20211 min read
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The Judge and Art
This stunning painting is by Abbott Fuller Graves. The artist trained in Boston and Paris but would eventually call Kennebunkport home....
svanderschaaff
Mar 2, 20211 min read
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The origin of the murals
The Judge hired Louis D. Norton to paint the walls of the dining room, creating murals that tell a history of the house and the town. I...
svanderschaaff
Mar 2, 20211 min read
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