VENANGO COUNTY News

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VENANGO COUNTY

14 Apr. 1984
* 1915-06-17

Bluffton in Indiana

Last Name: Dehaven First Name: Nathaniel
Date Printed: 1915-06-17 Age: 86 Residence: Bluffton
Paper: Evening News Page: 1 Column: 7
Maiden/Married/Previous Name/Notes: Fannie Reilly
The death of Nathaniel DeHaven, a former Wells County sherrif, who served in that office more than 50 years ago, occurred on Monday evening, June 7, 1915, just ten days ago, at Oil City, PA but the news of his death was first received by relatives in Bluffton Wednesday afternoon of this week, when a newspaper, a copy of the Oil City Derrick was received by a sister, Mrs. Nancy Wood of East Market Street, widow of William Wood, and now the only survivor of the generation of the DeHaven family to which the ex-sherrif belonged. The news of his death came a quite a shock to Mrs Wood for she had cherished a hope that she and her brother would see each other again before death.The funeral and Burial took place in Oil City and since relatives in Pennsylvania had not informed Mrs Wood of his death until 10 days after his death there was no opportunity for her to attend the funeral. [note: another 1/2 sister who married Melsheimer also living]
Nathaniel DeHaven was the 11th sherrif, in chronological order, elected to that office in Wells County, his term being from 1863 to 1865. He left Bluffton about the time of the close of his term of office in 1865, more than 50 years ago, and never returned to Bluffton during the half century intervening before his death. Mrs Wood had not seen him during that long period. During about thirty years of that time Mr. DeHaven was living in the West. Reports reached here that he became wealthy as a gold miner.
Mr Wat DeHaven, for many years the superintendent of the light plant and water works, was a brother of the deceased, and in addition to Mrs Wood there are a number of nephews and nieces living in this city. His own family, including his noted artist son, Frank, all live in the East.

According to the newspaper account in Pennsylvania, Mr DeHaven also served as sherrif of Weston County, Wyoming. This is a matter of news to friends in Bluffton. Only a few of the older residents here will remember Mr. DeHaven.

The Oil City Derrick tells of Mr. DeHaven's death in the following article: Nathaniel DeHaven, Widely known among the oil men's fraternity in the early Oil Creek, Clarion, Butler, Armstrong and Bradford Developments.died suddenly at the home of his son-in-law, Mr. E. J. Wagner, 110 Seeley Ave., at 8:15 o'clock on Monday evening.Dissolution was due to his advanced age of 86 years. Mr DeHaven, who had been in Wyoming for the past 30 years, came here early last December on account of his health breaking, but his condition was not alarming on Monday until soon after he had eaten his supper. He then complained of feeling tired and went to sleep on the lounge. His heaving breathing alarmed members of the household who called Dr. A. W. Goodwin, but the patient ws beyond medical aid.
The deceased, who was born in Indiana, was married in that state to Miss Fannie Riley. They came to Oil creek in the early 60s. Mr DeHaven followed his trade as a blacksmith as well as an oil well driller in Pithole Petroleum Center and other centers of the early developments, including Rouseville, of which he was a resident for nearly 15 years. From Rouseville he went to the oilfields of counties south of here, going from there into the McKean County field. In 1885 he went to Newcastle, Wyoming where he was at various times engged as a gold miner and oil well driller, serving his time as sherrif of Weston County, Wyoming.
Besides his wife, he leaves 2 daughters, Mrs. Anna Arters and Mrs E.J. Wagner, all of this city, and one son, Frank DeHaven, the well known landscape painter of New York City.
He was a member of the St. Joseph's church, where the funeral will be held at an hour to be determined following the arrival of his son from New York.

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DeHaven Nathaniel New Castle, WY
1895 Deh Club

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his son was an artist AND violin maker
Landscape Painter, Violin Maker

Born in Bluffton, Indiana, Franklin De Haven arrived in New York in 1886. He studied with George Henry Smillie who, having made a reputation as a poetic landscape painter of Rocky Mountain and Florida subjects, was concentrating upon rural New England and Atlantic shoreline scenes, especially around East Hampton, Long Island, which had by the mid-1880s achieved the status of "The American Barbizon." It is not surprising to find latter-day Hudson River School influences and an intense Barbizon or, perhaps more specifically, Tonalist sensibility in much of De Haven's work. For nearly three quarters of a century Hudson River School painters had transformed on-the-spot studies into large, emotionally charged studio pieces which combined accurate topographic detail with an idealized, transcendental vision of landscape as direct evidence of the hand of God on earth. Light, as an aesthetic and a divine element, became increasingly important by mid-century, especially among the group of artists often referred to as Luminists. Emerging from this cultural milieu, American artists like William Morris Hunt, who traveled in France in the 1850s, were almost inevitably fascinated by the French artists Theodore Rousseau and Jean-Francois Millet, who were painting moody, low-keyed, protoimpressionist landscapes around the village of Barbizon. Hunt's influence as a teacher and painter was instrumental in creating an American Barbizon aesthetic, as was the work of George Inness, Alexander Helwig Wyant, and Dwight Tryon. Tonalism, a stylistic refinement of the American Barbizon manner in the 1880s characterized by static composition, color schemes of closely related tones, and a quiet, misty reverie, is evident in the work of all three painters. A number of Tonalist painters were attracted to the New England coast between Newport, Rhode Island and Mystic, Connecticut, where Charles H. Davis settled in 1892, subsequently organizing the Mystic Art Association in 1913. Silvery Waters was painted from a study made near Mystic, Connecticut at 4:00 p.m. on a November afternoon. Framed between the dark browns and grays of the foreground and the lavender-mauves of the lowering sky, the silver-white water is layered with golden ochre reeds and crossed by the calligraphic silhouettes of trunks and branches in a tightly composed evocation of the Japanese screens which had been such a pervasive influence on American painting and decorating for decades. The brushwork is loose and impressionistic, as are the individual touches of orange, olive, lavender, and ochre which enliven the fallen leaves in the foreground and those still attached to the branches above. Scumbling and impasto further enrich the painted surface. The patterned repetition of verticals and horizontals, the closely controlled tonality, and the pale, cold light which casts no shadow all contribute to the calm atmosphere of wistful melancholy that pervades Silvery Waters. As Whittier Montgomery noted with reference to De Haven's total oeuvre, "one feels in all not merely the mans ability as a draughtsman and technician, but the scope of his sympathies and the genuine character of his interpretation."

Residence - Born in Bluffton, Ind.; moved to New York City in 1886; lived at 257 West 86th Street, New York City; summer home in Tolland, Conn.

Temperament - His independence in thought and style gave him distinction. He was retiring and shunned publicity. He was musical � he played and made violins. One of his violins won first prize in a contest at which a "Stratavari" and a "Joseph" were played, no one of which was previously named. He lived with nature and loved it; his happiest days were those spent with his wife as they travelled about the country in search of unpainted nooks and rare vistas.
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Style 0- As a painter he is said to have belonged to "the school that Brush and rounded out the classic period in landscape work." Whittier Pencil; May 1906 Montgomery. Another critic said he was unlike his master, Vol. IVII, No. 5 Smilie, in that he was an apostle of the new school.

Honors - As a youth he studied under George H. Smilie in New York.

Member - Salmagundi Club, New York City, 1899; he was its president 1926-7. During his later years there he was affectionately called "Pop." Reports of N.A.C. and He was elected Associate of the National Academy of A.A.A. Design in 1902; Artist Life Member of the Artists Life Club in 1913; Academecian in 1920; and member of the Allied Artists of America, Inc. in 1921.

Represented - in the National Gallery, Washington, D.C. by his "Castle Creek Canyon, South Dakota;" in the Brooklyn Museum of Arts and Sciences by his "Indian Camp near "Custer" and "The Gleaming;" in the Butler Art Institute, Youngstown, O., by "Silvery Waters."

Awards - Inness prize, 1900; Shaw prize, 1901; Plimpton prize 1925; and a cash prize ($50) awarded a few hours before his death, all from the Salmagundi Club. Honorable Mention at the Pan American Exposition, Buffalo, N.Y. in 1901; Silver Medal at the Charleston (S.C.) Exposition in 1903; Silver Medal at the St. Louis Exposition, Mo., 1904; Versia prize 1920; Silver Medal and cash prize National Arts Club 1921; Brown and Bigalow Gold Medal at the exhibition of the Allied Artists of America in 1930.

References - "Brush and Pencil," May 1906; "Art Digest," Dec. 1, 1930; Who's Who in America 1901-1934; American Art Annual 1935 (Vol. 30- p. 487); Dictionary of American Painters, p. 91.

Contributor
Joe Patterson
jpatter@comcast.net