One Times Three

 

 Sharp eyes and self-assured poise.

In a child it's a face that always inspires
affection, love, and pride
from parents and teachers.

 

 

 

Today it's common to see it
in children involved with sports or athletics.
But once upon a time it was more often found
in kids with musical talent.

 

 

It's a first sign of maturity and independence.
So parents cherish this expression in a child
because of its promise for a bright future.
And teachers treasure it because it reveals
talents they predicted were there along.

 

Today I'd like to introduce a young lady
who once posed for three beautiful portraits
that shine with this wonderful quality
that I'm sure pleased her parents as much
as they charmed me.

Unfortunately I do not know who she is.
But I've given her a name anyway
that I think suits her.
 

This is Katie, who once lived in Kansas.

 

 

 

 

The first photo shows Katie standing in a photographer's studio and holding a violin. Her dark long tresses frame her lovely face and flow onto the folds of her plaid dress. The balletic position of her feet gives her a graceful stance and lowering the camera lens makes her seem taller than she actually is.

 

All three photos are cabinet cards produced by 4d's Photos of Leavenworth, Kansas. The back of the cards are blank, though two photos have a very faint ghost image transferred from the other photos showing that they have been kept stacked together in the same drawer or box. The style of card and the embossed lettering seem to me more like those from the 1890s than the 1870s or 1880s which were the decades when cabinet card portraits were most popular. Katie's knee length dress, high button shoes are fashions that also seem more 1890s than 1880s but dating children's clothing is always tricky.

 

 

 

The photographer's location is the best clue for dating the photo, but the logo left out the state. In the United States there are three incorporated places named Leavenworth in Washington, Indiana, and Kansas, but only Leavenworth, Kansas was really a thriving community in the era of the cabinet card. In the 1890 census its population was 19,768 citizen which at the time was a good size for any city west of the Mississippi. The city and its county of the same name are situated on the Kansas side of the Missouri River about 25 miles northwest of Kansas City, Missouri/Kansas. 

 

The name comes from Fort Leavenworth which is a U. S. Army post established in 1827. It is the second oldest active United States Army base west of Washington, D.C., and the oldest permanent settlement in Kansas. It has a long history with the 24th and 25th Infantry Regiments and the 9th and 10th Cavalry Regiments which were formed for African-American soldiers in the segregated post-Civil era. Fort Leavenworth is also known as an important military training center for soldiers and officers, notably the School of Application for Cavalry and Infantry established in 1881 by General William Tecumseh Sherman. In modern times that school has evolved into the U.S. Army Command and General Staff College.  

 

In 1885 the Western Branch National Military Home ("old soldiers' home") was established in Leavenworth as a residence for disabled or retired soldiers. Leavenworth is also the location of the U.S. Army's maximum security prison.

 

With this military base in the heart of the continent, Leavenworth was a hub of activity for thousands of soldiers. There were railway lines north, south, east and west. Soldiers liked to have their picture taken. 

 

 

 

1892 Leavenworth, Kansas city directory

I expected to find 4d's Photos in Leavenworth's city directory. But was disappointed that the business was not listed in any directory from 1870 to 1900. However after several futile searches I noticed an interesting arrangement of the seven photographers in the 1892 directory. Four of them, C. E. Ford, Josepe Haag, E. E. Henry, and Harrison Putney had studios on Delaware St. and three were on the 400 block. The coincidence seems a good reason for a cooperative name if these photographers sometimes shared work. It's also possible that this 4d's was a traveling railroad photographer like the one I wrote about in October 2018, The Haynes Palace Studio Car. In any case the photographer was quite skilled and had an excellent camera.

 

 

 

 

 

The second photo shows Katie slightly turned with her violin in playing position, her feet having remained exactly in place. It's a classic pose very similar to other photos I have of child violinists, yet her right wrist and left fingers demonstrate a confident understanding of the instrument. It doesn't imply that she was a child prodigy, only that she looks very capable of making a good sound on the violin. In other words, she does not look like an awkward beginner.

 

 

 

1894 Leavenworth, Kansas city directory
Kansas Conservatory of Music & Elocution, advertisement

Old city directories are my favorite source of information on people and places. In addition to the long lists of names, occupations, civic groups, institutions, and government bodies, there are advertisements by all kinds of businesses that were once an important aspect of a city's heritage and culture. In 1872 a pastor in Leavenworth started a small private academy for teaching music and elocution. It was still in business in 1894 directed by the pastor's son, Alexander B. Brown as the Kansas Conservatory of Music & Elocution. 

 

The advertisement in the 1894 city directory included an endorsement by Ede or Eduard Reményi  (1828–1898) a Hungarian violin virtuoso then living in the United States. Reményi was a celebrated concert artist and teacher who was a friend of composer Johannes Brahms and rival to violinist Joseph Joachim. In the mid-1800s Reményi had great success as a concert artist in Europe and later in the 1880s in North America. In 1886 he made a grand concert tour of the world which included Japan, China, Cochinchina (Vietnam), and South Africa. 

 

In 1894 Reményi was back in America and evidently performed in Leavenworth. He visited Prof. Brown's Kansas Conservatory and praised Brown's "Prismatic Charts of Music and Elocution" as textbooks that "will revolutionize present methods of instruction, and especially facilitate a knowledge of ryhthm—the very soul of expression—yet so generally omitted or but partially presented in most works of elementary instructions."

 

The few references I could find on the Kansas Conservatory describe it as an academy for music instruction on piano, reed organ, violin, and voice, either in singing or oration. I don't think it included any band instruments. Lessons were $3 a month. It did call itself a "college" so its students came in ages from elementary school age to young adults. In this era many parents signed up their daughters for music lessons as proficiency in music was considered essential for hooking a good husband. Every fall and spring the conservatory would present a recital of its students, but reviews suggest the music was not exceptional. The Kansas Conservatory in Leavenworth remained in business almost 30 years until the death of Alex Brown.

 

In addition to the music conservatory there were at least a dozen or more music teachers in Leavenworth so it seems likely that Katie had a music teacher in this city. However there was one business heading missing from the city directory—Theatres. This is surprising as most towns this size in the 1890s would have had several theatres or an "opera house".

 

In this third photo, Katie lounges on the 4d's photographers' upholstered corner chair. She has a different expression that is equally familiar to parents and teachers. It's the look of a smart but bored child waiting, patiently perhaps, for this event or lesson to be over. In ten seconds the photographer will probably hear, "Mother! Can we pleasssse go now?"

 

 

Leavenworth, KS Times
28 January 1897

 

 

In January 1897 the Leavenworth Times ran a review of an afternoon entertainment put on by the Fort Leavenworth Century Club at the home of a woman "noted for her entertaining qualities." While enjoying "delicious punches and bon bons" the guests listened to seven musicians from the 20th Infantry "orchestra" who performed in the smoking room. Mr. R. B. Kanouse, "who possesses a very fine baritone voice rendered several solos. 

 

"Little Miss Katherine Phister played several violin selections which were loudly encored.  Although only eight years of age, Miss Katherine's future career as a musician is very promising." 

 

Katherine Phister was the youngest of two daughters to 2nd Lieutenant Nat P. Phister and his wife Mary Phister. Lt. Phister was a native of Maysville, Kentucky, a graduate of West Point, and in 1897 a regular army officer then assigned to the 1st Infantry Regiment at Fort Leavenworth. Previously he had been stationed in California at the Presidio of Monterey where Katherine was born in February 1887, and in Arizona where Katherine's older sister Belle was born in 1884. In the 1900 census Mary Phister and her daughters were living at Fort Thomas, Kentucky while Capt. Phister was serving in Cuba. Later he would take the family to the Philippines where he was posted during the American occupation. 

I could continue with much more on the Phister family history. I found it interesting to research because Katherine grew up the daughter of an army officer whose career was not unlike my father's 25 year service in the U.S. Army, except my dad never had to deal with horses or invade Cuba. And when I was Katherine's age my dad was stationed at Fort Riley, Kansas, about 110 mile west of Fort Leavenworth, so I already knew about its importance to an officer's advancement.

 

Finding little Miss Katherine Phister's name in this brief two sentence review is by no means a positive identification of the girl in my three photos. At best it is a coincidence, since even the approximate date of these photos can't be determined. But it does offer a very slim possibility that I might be correct which is why I've named this charming young lady Katie. 

 

Sometimes all that is left in an old photo is what we imagine we see. I see someone I would have happily listened to and shouted bravo just to see her smile.

 

 

 

 

 

This is my contribution to Sepia Saturday
where no one really minds
if they get sand in their shoes.