OHIO STATEWIDE FILES - Lindsay Portraits *************************************************************************** OHGENWEB NOTICE: All distribution rights to this electronic data are reserved by the submitter. Reproduction or re-presentation of copyrighted material will require the permission of the copyright owner. *************************************************************************** File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by Ellie Kilpatrick jimellie@pinehurst.net January 11, 1999 *************************************************************************** Lindsay Portraits The pictures of Dr.William Lindsay and his first wife, Rhoda A. Smith Lindsay were located in 1986 in West Liberty, Ohio. For several years my sister, Carolyn Chapman, and I, had searched for any clue that they even existed. We wrote letters to relatives, made trips to historical museums and libraries in the area and then, when we had about given up, out of the blue came a telephone call from an unknown distant relative, Elizabeth Coulter, who had seen one of the postings we had left at the Darke Co. Ohio Garst Museum. She informed us that she had personal knowledge of these portraits from the years preceeding 1954 when another 'cousin' died unexpectedly. That lady had owned and lived at the Mac-O-Chee Castle near West Liberty, and had them hanging on the wall there. She even sent me a photograph of the portrait of Rhoda, that she had herself taken at the castle. My sister and I made plans immediately to visit the castle as it was open to visitors certain hours each week. At the time we were living in the Dayton area, so it was not a long drive. The tour over, we had not seen the portraits, but we did recognize the wallpaper that was still in one room as the very same paper that showed behind the old portraits snapshot that we had in my purse. The guide suggested that she knew of some old paintings that were in a locked storage room, but we were not allowed to view them that day. It was about a week later when we got word that the present owner of the castle, a Mr Piatt, who lived in California, would let us see and photograph the paintings if we would make an appointment. We did just that, but our amateur attempts only gave us fuzzy reproductions. Very dissapointed, we found a man, Carl Boese of Troy Ohio, who was a very knowledgeable photographer, and he volunteered to accompany us on an another attempt to film the old portraits. We knew that Rhoda had died in Oct. 1840 so we knew how old they had to be. This time we had our pictures of Wm. and Rhoda, but what we really wanted was the portraits. Mr Piatt said they were not for sale, he was planning to transport them to San Francisco, and sell them at his antique shop. We had to wait almost a year until he relented and allowed us to buy them, only the actual canvas, he decided to keep the old wooden frames! We were not in any position to argue, so we got the money together, quite a bit of money he demanded, about half of it coming from descendents, the other half from the Indiana Historical Society. We were pleased that the IHS would give the paintings a home in their humidity and temperature controlled environment, since Dr Lindsays original medical journals were there in the medical history department. The portraits were in deplorable condition, the oil paintings had become cracked and discolored from years of sitting in that damp and unheated storage room. They are not on view in Indianapolis since they have not been restored yet, we hope someday money will become available for that process to begin. In the mean time, we have some nice reproductions and our mission was accomplished. Eleanore S. Kilpatrick 1999