The Woodsman of Holywell Reins ...

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This morning was to be devoted to Other Things, but I came upon this chappie and strayed to Northumberland ...

The vendor classed the photo as circa 1860. I guessed, a wee bit later? 

Well, the picture is faultlessly inscribed on the verso: T White, woodman, Woolsington. Well, Woolsington was, in the 19th century a pretty small township --  so I assumed this would be easy. Seventy-four inhabitants in 1841, 65 in 1861, 75 in 1891 and this last including the, then, ten servants at the big house, looking after the lords of the manor, the Bell family .. who were some half-dozen ... plus gamekeeper, woodsmen ... of which Thomas White was one. And was for something like a hundred years. Because they were three: father (b 13 December 1806; d 1867), son (b 16 April 1837; d 1902) and grandson (b 26 July 1868; d 1941). Seems like the job was hereditary. And maybe the home, too. Holywell Reins. The Whites occupied it for at least sixty years ... 

They were, of course, employees of the Bell family, and father, alone, from his early teens, to his death, nearly half a century later

But the White family found their way into the local newspapers for more just than the odd court case -- witnessing against poachers on Mr Bell's land -- for they had a talent with more than just a pick and a saw. They grew flowers. And Mr Thomas White (sr or jr) was frequently to be seen at the Ponteland, Kenton or other Horticultural gatherings, carrying off first prize in the Cottagers Section -- or even the all comers section -- for his geraniums, his roses or his calceolaris

Even little Simon (1840-1861) scored with his wildflowers ..

On a rare occasion, one of the family married into the farming class ..

I think it fairly likely that our photo is Thomas II ... maybe about the time of his marriage to Matilda Cook .. so the vendor would be right, 1860s.

Anyway, here are the Thomases of Holywell Reins (variously classed under Newburn, Woolsington, Dinnington, Newbiggin):

I: 1802-1867. Married Hannah Marquis. Children Mary Bell, Hannah, Thomas and Simon 

II: 1837-1902. Married Matilda Cook. Children William, Margaret, Thomas, Hannah M, Mary Elizabeth, Matilda, Annie and a Frederick Charles who died as a baby

III: 1868-1941. Married Ann Isabella Riddell. Children Thomas, John, Walter Riddell, Martin

Looking at the map, I see that Woolsington has a 'Holywell Grove'. Maybe the White's home is buried thereunder. It looks very 1960s ...

I imagine it also, now, has more than 75 inhabitants.

Mathhew Bell's beautiful home ...

with its forestland, that the Thomases tended, passed into the unsympathetic hands of biggish business, until it was 'accidentally' largely destroyed by fire ... 

And to think that, before today, I had never heard of Woolsington ...

Various Victorians: an heedless dip into the photo box ...

I'm clearing my desktop, before the dumb new gadget on microsoft tells me, again, that it's nearly full and I should pay, to have more ...  chuckle, they don't know that I don't own a credit card!  So here is a little packet of photos of the chaps I have visited briefly in the past days, and put to one side. Most of them had a bit of something to say ...

Two doctors, an Essex apple-grower, a Leicestershire lawyer, an architect and a real gent ... with their vendor's labels

Cuthbert Chapman Gibbs MD

Alban Henry Sharp and Alfred Dalton Sharp

Isaiah de Zouche

H McCrea Worley

Edwards

I don't know why folk can't correctly read the writing on the back of these photos. De Zouche is blessedly labelled in copper plate (I must investigate the other pix inscribed by the same hand) but some of the others need a touch of intelligent decipherment ...

Dr Gibbs wasn't Gibbs, he was GIBBES, Mr Edwards was labelled in faint pencil, but it was possible to decipher 'Basil W', and Mr Worley? He wasn't Mr Worley at all. Firstly the word was WARLEY, and that's where he came from. His actual surname was McCREA.

So, who were they. 

Cuthbert Chapman GIBBES (b Sidmouth 5 September 1850; d Albany Hotel, Ifield 25 August 1927) was one the clergy-sized family of Heneage Gibbes, incumbent of All Saint's Sidmouth. He studied medicine in Aberdeen, married (1878) May Lucy Gransmore ('daughter of Frederick Gransmore Esq RN of Ilfracombe), settled in Kingston on Thomas (medical officer of the Kingston on Thames Rural Sanitary Authority), had a couple of daughters ... I see him noted in the diphtheris outbreak in Kingston,  and giving a paper on Prognosis of Aortic Regurgitation .. and in his pre-married days practising in Plymouth where his success as a swimmer won him a mention in ... the Australian Papers. I also see him Freemasoning, being made a fellow of the Linnean Society, at the Chemical Society, and in 1919 go into legal battle on behalf of a wealthy old lady who seemed to have been swindled by her trustees ... he evidently  wasn't just a quiet country G.P. Upon leaving Kingston, the Gibbes moved into a flat in Barkston Garden, Brompton, and he apparently had rooms at 89 Harley Street. 

Alban Henry SHARP (b Highgate 15 June 1861; d Cox Green, Church Yard, Ramsden Heath, Billericay, Essex 11 November 1848)

Arthur Dalton SHARP (b North Grove, Highgate 16 March 1863; d Greenwich 14 June 1940)

were the fruit grower and the architect. I see Arthur attending King's College and Alban attending Gloucester House, Highgate ... and then they disappear for a while and I wondered why. I think I have found 'why'.

The boys were among the children of Mr Martin Richard Sharp, a newspaper editor, and his India-born wife Olivia Sophia McKie (b Berhampore, 19 December 1832; d ). Mr Sharp is not difficult to follow ... 

but why are photographs of Mrs Sharp, the two boys and one sister, enshrined  in the archives of Trinity College, Toronto? I suspect they may have been 'over there' during the decades I fail to find them in England. In 1881, Arthur is living with his elder brothers, Martin and Thomas, who have both qualified as lawyers ... in 1891 Mama Olivia is at home at Colvelly, Eastbourne, a widow with seven of her children, but not these two! ...  in 1911, Arthur is with Mama Olivia 'private means' and three unmarried siblings ... Alban, whom I find nowhere, also remained single. I pick him up, finally, growing apples and being a country gent in Essex. Thomas's maiden daughter Dilys Miranda moved in with him ...

When Olivia died in 1918 (11 July) at Blackheath, she named Martin jr, Thomas and Arthur as her executors. Not Alban. Hmmm.

Isaiah de ZOUCHE (b 30 July 1839; d Clinton Springs, NY 4 November 1894) turned out to be of local (to me) interest. From 1875 until just before his death, he was a doctor in Dunedin, New Zealand. He died in America, whence he had gone for treatment, after a nervous collapse, aged just 55, but he had lived the larger part of his adult life in Otago, and is liberally featured in local papers ... 

He certainly looked better without the beard!

I don't know where he was born, but it would seem to have been in the land of his father and mother: Ireland. But maybe after their emigration to New Jersey. I pick him up in 1865 at Queen's College, Galway, 1866 as 'one of the medical officers of the workhouse, Crosby', 1870 in Liverpool, then in 1875 in New York. His widowed mother had died in Albany (26 September 1872), but members of the large family were still there. His movements over the next years seem many and varied. I spot him in New Zealand in 1875, superintendant surgeon of an emigrant ship, in Australia in 1876, getting married and photographed in Liverpool in 1877, before settling down in Dunedin's Moray Place to produce a large number of children, and make himself a reputation as an expert on 'diseases of children' and as a staunch adocate of the theory that alcoholism was a disease (Inebrity and the Duty of the State in Regard to Inebriates). 

Much, much later I came upon this photo. Daughter Beatrice Margaret (b Rochdale House, Moray Place, Dunedin 7 August 1878; d Gloucester 19 May 1960) aged 4 months ... 

Beatrice married a cotton salesman from Rock Ferry ..

had sons ... the elder of whom, Robert, became governor of Sierra Leone and a Sir .. and lies in a grave at Gisborne, New Zealand ..

Henry Charles McCREA (b Dublin 17 May 1910; d Warley House 4 June 1901) is the gent of the bunch ...

There's no use my pretending I've looked far into him. As soon as I had sussed that he was 'of Wartley', I googled him and ... there was the whole story.   

https://story.theholdsworths.org.uk/people/others/HCMcCrea.html

What can I say more? Except I hope they can match this photo with their excellent article!

Which leaves our Leics lawyer. He is, obviously a tad more modern, but he lived at 160 London Road, Leics, which is right near my brother and his friend, Jane. So ...

Basil Wynn EDWARDS (b Cefn, Denbighshire, Wales 13 July 1883; d 160 London Road, Leicester 19 March 1948)

'eldest son of the Vicar of Rhyl', but also at times rector of Llanycil, Wales and Misterton, Yorks ..  

His partners don't seem to haves lasted: married Winifred Stafford Brook in 1918, but she seems to have bowed out briskly and become Mrs Birkinshaw instead; in the solicitor business with Raymond Guildford Frisby, partnership dissolved ...

That's all. He don't LOOK very exciting, do he ....

London Road, Leicester

Could this be he as well ..

Oh well, you win some and you lose some ...

End of episode, who knows upon whom I shall stumble next ...

Garn .. here's one that was hiding in the corner. I wish I knew why this lady was in a wheelchair. It apparently wasn't a from birth thing. And look at her eyes. And the lifeless hand on the book of which she hardly seems aware. A stroke? Surely it's not a post-mortem photo. She died at the age of 49.

Ellen Harriett FOOT (b Long Bredy, Dorset 28 July 1829; d 12 Catharine Place, Bath 27 February 1879) was -- one could have guessed -- a clergyman's daughter. A rather well-off clergyman whose fortune came from an extensive empire of tobacco and snuff emporia known as 'Lundy Foot',  established by his father, Jeffrey Foot of Dublin (and London), who had christened his son by the name of the firm. 

Rev Lundy Foot seems to have spent his entire career at Long Bredy. He married (1) Elizabeth Vicars - sons, then (2) Harriet Cunningham 'granddaughter of a baronet' who gave him six more children before her death, aged 31. Which meant eldest daughter Sophia Elizabeth brought them all up. With the help of seven servants. I haven't followed the boys -- although I see that eldest son became Chaplain to the Asylum for the Blind, and later Vicar of Hanbury -- just the girls. Eldest daughter Sophia married wealthy Montague Williams Esq, and duly supplied him with a bundle of sons, but Ellen, Jane Olivia and Fanny Louisa stayed at home. In 1861 they can be seen holidaying in Torquay together (plus servants and a page boy); in 1871 they are at home, at Long Bredon rectory .. but part of the household is a Miss Johnstone, 'trained nurse, Devonshire Square sisterhood'. Ha! I thought: what has happened to Ellen? But it may not have been Ellen. Four months later, the youngest of the trio, Fanny, died. Less than two years later, it was father .. 

So Ellen and Jane left the rectory where they had been born, and removed to the comfort of 12 Catharine Place, Bath, where Ellen died in 1879 and Jane, after a quarter of a century living alone with cook, lady's maid and housemaid, in 1906.

FOOTE, Jane Olivia …
last surviving daughter of the Rev. Lundy Foot, died at 12 Catharine Place, Bath, co. Somerset, in her 77th year, on Wednesday, 8 January, and was buried in Locksbrook Cemetery, Bath, on Saturday, 11 January 1908, after first part of service at St. Andrew’s, Walcot, Bath. Will dated 17 June 1907, with
codicil dated 4 December 1907, proved in the Principal Registry 31 January 1908, by Richard Mildmay Foot of Berkhampstead, co. Hertford, formerly Major in H.M's Regiment of Royal Inniskilling Fusiliers, and Colonel Robert Williams of Bridehead, co. Dorset, M.P.

E-BAY: I stumble on an amazing family ...

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Morning cuppa. Not very energetic today. Bit damped by failures of last night. So instead of leaping into Carteland or Leicestershire gravyards (Johnny is 'doing' Bardon churchyard on his bike today, notepad at the ready), I went for a wander in ebay. Disappointing. The 'new items' are nearly all old items, recycled. A great failing of ebay. Whenever I get to that naff sketch of Peter Paul Rubens, listed under 'actor', I switch off. Today's 'new' items were pretty naff too. Though I spotted one rather cute picture .. the little girl (age 5) looks as though she has personality and a backbone, the little boy (age 8) looks as if he may be condemned to a future as a rather feeble lad-about-town or a Bunthorny poet. What do you think?

Well, since someone had been kind enough to inscribe 'Eleanor and Ernest' on the back, I thought I'd spend an hour or two looking for them. In Hanley, where the photo was taken. Maybe there would be a wee story ... 

A WEE story. These are the two youngest of a family of nine, who, yes, lived for some time in Hanley. Eight boys and, at the last, this little girl. A bundle of those children made their way -- on their own merits -- into the DNB (I don't have a copy to hand, they never sent me one), knighthoods proliferated in the generation, and one of the two here pictured became a memorable history scholar and a CBE, the subject of a biography ... And -- I was right -- it was little Eleanor Constance Lodge (b Hanley 16 September 1869; d Wolvercote 19 March 1936). 

Brother Ernest Octavius (b Wolstanton 24 January 1866; d Shrewsbury 3 December 1941) ran away to Australia and became ... an actor! Ernest found himself a job, in later life, as librarian at the Shakespeare Memorial Library, Stratford-on-Avon.

Oliver J

The lives of Sir Oliver Joseph Lodge, scientist; Alfred Lodge, mathemetician; Sir Richard Lodge, historian and many of the other Lodges have been recorded largely, so I sha'n't go into them here ...

Maybe the next book on them will include this little photo ... which, I should tell folks, is currently available for a fiver from ebay vendor 1990-russel ...

Oh! I see papa Oliver there too, amongst this gent's stock! Photographed the same day (4 November 1874). Who is selling off the Lodge family history?

And brother Frank (Francis Heawood Lodge) ...

The Three Tenors, or Oh! Oh! Ohio!

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Yesterday, I posted on my blog the sad tale of the American tenor Wallace McCreery, and in reponse I received, from David Stone of the G&S archive, this great photo ...

It came from the G&S archive, because it is a picture from the New York production of Princess Ida. Hilarion, Cyril and Florian. Original cast? Well, Princess Ida wasn't exactly a hit. It only played for 48 performances. So you wouldn't think the cast would have changed. But the leading lady was replaced, and, for reasons sufficiently explained in my McCreery article, (http://kurtofgerolstein.blogspot.com/2020/07/cartesians-body-in-hudson-river.html) 

he was also removed from the cast. Charles F Lang, who had been playing Florian was upped to Hilarion, and first Edward P Temple, then Arthur Wilkinson took over his part. Only W S Rising played his part through the run. But ... which one is he? Lockdown has closed temporarily my priceless American source for photos, and I have no idea.

However, David has labelled the shifty one in the middle as McCreery, and the one with the indecent hemline and the dimple as Lang. I know, I thought it was Marie Desclauzas in drag, too. Which makes the one with the skinniest legs and the dangerous elbow, by elimination, Rising (not too far, I hope). If anyone has photos of these guys from the 1880s (I have Lang and Rising in old age, and it's no help). I will hopefully be able to firm up this identification later.

So, three tenors. Only two to deal with today, as McCreery is already done and drowned. Both had fairly good careers in the comic opera theatre ... oh, and both were born to German fathers, in the state of Ohio. 

Charles F LANG (b Canton, Ohio October 1847; d Saint Augustine, Florida 5 March 1914) was the son of Jacob or Jacques Lang and his wife Magdalena or Madeleine. The reason that they had alternative names is that they came from Schirrhofen, Alsace, so when they weren't being French they were being German, until they became American. They were married in Canton in 1840, and I see, in the 1850 census, that Jacob is a teacher and that in the past decade they have managed to produce half a dozen children, 4 boys and two girls. Then Magdalena died (1853). Jacob swiftly remarried, a younger wife, Caroline ?Bechel, and, by the 1860 census, all but one of the children are gone, replaced by Caroline, her mother and a new daughter. Where are they? Well, Charles is with the nuns, in their Cleveland orphanage. Is this a case of 'wicked stepmother'? A year later, he actually was an orphan, for Jacob died. His 1855 will left everything to Caroline, with nary a mention of the children.

Charles's fairly-approximate obituary skates over the next years, merely saying that his voice 'attracted attention' when he was young, and that he went 'abroad' to study 'when under twenty'. Nebulous. Under twenty? Before 1868? But there he is in Cleveland, an amateur performance of Fra Diavolo, with another striving local, Juliette Somerville (Cleveland 15 April 1872), and billed as 'the new American tenor' in 1874. Usually, when a young American (normally female) went to Italy in pursuit of operatic glory, the subject was given centimetres in the local press. There was usually a 'farewell concert' and the subject's progress (even if there were none) was thereafter charted in exaggerated detail. But I see nothing. At all. The obituary claims for him a debut at La Scala, performances in 'prominent companies' in Europe, a concert for Queen Victoria ... to all of which I, having combed the concert and opera notices of that period, say 'bunkum'. Unless he was calling himself 'Mario' or 'Rubini'. Oh, I'm pretty sure he went overseas, maybe even to the Milan Conservatoire (perhaps the nuns paid?), for when he returned and played his 'first appearance since ..' it was announced as such. It was a concert at the Cleveland Opera House (1 June 1877) .. tiens! after La Scala! ... and the press commented that his voice 'possesses a peculiar sweetness and evenness of tone that is more notable than any great power, and his articulation is especially clear and distinct'. In other words, small, light tenorino voice. He wasn't going to sing anything heftier than Fra Diavolo, and he wisely didn't try.

Annie Pixley as Josephine

His first job, soon after, was with Catherine Lewis, touring in Titus Tracy's Comic Opera Company (Les Cloches de Corneville). The French tenor music suited this German tenor admirably, but Miss Lewis was pregnant and the tour folded. However, thereafter, light and comic opera jobs followed in succession: I see him playing 'The Prosecutor' in Trial by Jury and Rackstraw in Philadelphia, The Bohemian Girl with the Rubens Opera Company, an HMS Pinafore with Annie Pixley, The Contrabandista and The First Life Guards at Brighton at Philadelphia et al. In 1880, he spent time with Alice Oates's comic opera company and played in Dudley Buck's Deseret, and in 1881 he appeared as Valentin in Olivette at the Park Theatre. His notices had been fairly satisfactory till now, but not this time: 'there is but little merit in Charles Lang's performance of the soldier-lover ... his diminutive tenor voice appears at times in danger of cracking as he attempts more than it is capable of'. Washington didn't agree and found that 'the new tenor' had a fine sympathetic voice and is a very clever actor'.

Over the next years he spent much time with Charles E Ford's good touring troupe (Patience, Billee Taylor, The Sorcerer, Iolanthe, La Mascotte, Manola) and with Madeleine Lucette (Les Mousquetaires au covent, Patience, Madame Boniface, Niniche), played at Uhrig's Cave (Claude Duval) and took part in the attempt to float Alfred Robyn's musical Manette, as well as his experience in Princess Ida.

But, after that, it was back to the touring circuits with Lillian Conway (La Fille de Madame Angot), Adelaide Randall (Fra Diavolo, Le Serment, La Princesse de Trébizonde, Giroflé-Giroflà, Billee Taylor, HMS Pianfore as Corcoran), or for Hans Conried (Der Zigeunerbaron, Der Hofnarr) until their ship ran aground at Norfolk, Va ...

Rosa

I don't think that was the cause of Lang's ending his performing career, but he went back to Ohio, to his littlest sister, Rosa Clara Klorer, and took a job in her husband's Berger Manufacturing Co. Rosa, who became a decidedly prominent local figure in Catholic, charitable and hospital affairs as well as an adept at business, can be seen sharing her home ('manufacturer') with Charles ('manufacturer') and elder brother Edward ('labourer') in North Cleveland Avenue, Canton in 1900.

In his mid sixties, he developed motor ataxia, and he died in Florida, where he had gone for his health, aged 66.

Our third tenor, I have a feeling, was probably the best performer of the three. But, after a grand start to his career, he rather faded away into less resounding projects. Because he was one of those people who had a lot of fingers, and found a lot of plumpuddings into which to plunge them: usually with at least some success: singer, actor, comedian, producer, playwright, lyricist, investor, film scenarist ....

William S RISING [REISING, William Starling] (b Lancaster, Ohio 11 August 1852; d NYC 5 October 1930) was the son of Bavarian-born American immigrant Philip Reising (later Rising). Philip arrived in America in 1845, joined the army in 1846 to fight in the Mexican war, married an Irish lass, Susan Starling, in 1848, began a family, and went into the drygood business, at MacCracken Room, High Street, Lancaster, making a speciality of the newfangled ready-to-wear clothing. In quick time, he lost his wife, took over the next-door business, remarried (Caroline McBride), re-bred ... and was on a determined 'rocket to the moon'. He would end up President of the Fairfield County Bank ...

Will was another who went to Italy to study. His teacher was Tito Palmieri, the tenor husband of prima donna Mary Ann Croft, who was indeed based in Milan, and he seems to have studied from 1878 -- after a 'farewell' concert at Chickering Hall (6 May, hugely puffed by Frank Leslie's Illustrated Paper, alas, without an illustration) until early 1882, when he turned up in England. England welcomed 'the American tenor' enthusiastically and his 1882 credits -- Fritellini to the La Mascotte of Violet Cameron, Pietro to her Boccaccio, Hans van Slous in Rip van Winkle -- immediately propelled to him to a place among London's favourite comic opera tenors. His next engagements, however, were less strong -- a feeble production of Prince Methusalem, the dogged Estrella, a couple of indifferent operettas -- and 'after two years', he returned to America, under contract to the Casino Theatre to play in The Beggar Student. The Casino production was cast to the hilt -- Fred Leslie, Rose Leighton, William T Carleton, Mathilde Cottrelly, Bertha Ricci -- and Will played Janitsky, teamed with Madame Cottrelly. He took time out to repeat his role in Estrella at the Standard, but the theatre burned down after three nights, and John Chatterson got the tenor part in the Casino's Merry War, while Rising was cast in Princess Ida and the local fairytale piece Madame Piper (1884). At the same time, he began to indulge his liking for management, and, in tandem with Signor Brocolini organised comic opera performances in Montreal.

Later the same year, he appeared for Augustus Pitou in a boneless musical comedy Off to Egypt, or An Arab Abduction (Arch Street, Philadelphia 17 November). The music was said to be by George LeJeune, but Will sang Tosti's 'Goodbye'. For a few weeks. He was recalled to the Casino to play Nitschano in Apajune, the Water Sprite, and then cast in the title-role of the Philadelphia musical The Little Tycoon (4 Janury 1886, Temple Theatre). The piece proved popular on the touring circuits, and avidly promoted by its author, played 91 performances in New York. It would be a wee while, oddly, before 'one of the most popular tenors and one of the best fellow in town' would be seen there again.

It appears that, at some stage, Will had married, for, in 1888, the trade press announced the birth of a 'twelve-pound son'. The babe would die aged four. I have searched for mother and child in New York's documentation with no luck, but when this article was done, I did manage to more or less identify her. 

He also had no luck with his next projects. He went to St Louis to play HMS Pinafore on the lake (Loie Fuller, for heaven's sake, as Josephine), and in the Pompeian Amphitheatre, and announced his plans to produce two new America comic operas at Atlantic City. He also got involved with Miss Vernona Jarbeau (Mrs Jeff D Bernstein) and her husband, and invested $1500 in their production of Starlight. Starlight was to be the lady's vehicle for many years, but Will had to go to court to get any sort of accounting ... or a return on his investment.

Miss Jarbeau

Jarbeau: mode demure

He took the theatre at Howard's Pier, Atlantic City for a summer season and there produced, with the similarly inclined William Hamilton, the first of his new musicals. Florette (Thomas P Westendorf/J N Fort, 19 July 1888) was set in Virginia, in colonial times (please note, those parrots who give the date of 'the first recognisably American musical' half a century later!), and Rising, Hamilton and Miss Fuller played the leads for the short term of its existence. The promised 'new Planquette opera' didn't appear, but 19 December Will and his 'Columbua Opera Company' tried again, at the Academy of Music Philadelphia, with a piece called America (Ernest Peilor/William Augustus Smith). Philadelphia was offended: 'a melange of music rot and literary drivel ... the plot is inexplicable, the situations absurd, and the lines put in the actors' mouths ridiculous. A large but bored audience watched it'.

Will retreated to John Mackay's company, and then got involved with another amateurish musical. The two ladies who wrote, and effectively produced, Dovetta clearly had cash, for they inveigled not only Will but Emily Soldene to play their piece. Briefly.

In the 1890s, I see Will touring a foreign comedy, Tangled Up adapted Rising, starring Rising, with Loie Fuller and a repertoire of small pieces including Charity Begins at Home, I see 'Will Rising's Entertainers' travelling a Percy Gaunt operetta Love on Wheels and a programme of the 'Illustrated Songs' he favoured. In 1897 the press wrote '[he] sings high class descriptive and classical songs in a very capable manner for a salary of $125 a week. His clear tenor voice is always in demand and he is never out of an engagement. 

He took over the comedy lead in Miss Philadelphia, sent out tours of The Strange Adventures of Miss Brown, played in vaudeville with a Miss Lilian Kemble, staged summer seasons at Koerner's Park, St Louis, produced and played in a drama At Valley Forge, mounted 'the Rising Stock Co' star: Miss L Kemble ...  The press said they were married. Maybe. Maybe she's the 'Jennie Rising' from Wisconsin (age 22) 'married 1898' with him, in Salt Lake City, in 1900. Well, if they were wed, it didn't last. Will writes a firm 'divorced', in the 1920s census. Of course, he may mean his first wife ...

In the early twentieth century, Will -- ever chasing something new -- became active in in the motion picture world. I see him referred to as chief scenario-writer for the Edison Film Company. He would act in some films, too, and, as his links with the theatre loosened, I see him in 1911 directing a production of HMS Pinafore at Asbury Park (and filiming 'the Asbury Park Baby Parade' ... as well as 'in Bermuda producing films for the Yankee Film Co' ..

The advertising departments of the various film companies had him 'formerly ataché to the American ambassador in Paris', 'of the Bostonians' ... as he turned out patriotic one-reelers during the war ...

Footnote: bloody minded persistence pays. I have come upon this article in The Moving Picture World of July 1915.

The maternal side ....? Back to the drawing board ... Omigod! Philip Rising son of W S Rising and Elizabeth born 22 October 1879 ... Italy! During the Palmieri years! Died 29 December 1933. Retired salesman .. why is he listed as 'Philip Rising Gardner' and living with the Gardner family in 1900. Mother: Eliza J Badgely or Mother: Elizabeth Conner. Along with William Gardner aged 10. That's William Starling Rising. Born 1 February 1890. Stock clerk for underware company. Mrs Eliza J Gardner is obviously ex-Rising ... but she says she has been Gardner since 1880 ... enough! VSE! 

Will collapsed and died in the street in 1930.

He left behind him a colourful tale. And just a few little mysteries ...  Did he ever get his money from the bloodsucking Bernsteins ...? Ah, well, I have to leave something for the next generation of researchers to research ... right now, I gotta let go!  

Hoping the tenors in the Ida photo are identified correctly ..

Bye-bye, Ohio!

Postscriptum: the G&S world has supplied me with these photos of our Ohio tenors, so the identification looks confirmed

Rising

Lang