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Identified from left to right: Lizzie Wells (a visiting neighbor); Mary, Hennie, Robert J., Frank, Michael, Nora, Will, Anne holding Alice, and Robert G. Ferritor. About the Picture of the Robert Garrett Farritor Homestead - Custer Co. Nebraska by Charles F. Farritor Mr. Solomon Butcher was something of a celebrity in his time. There was much talk of the book he was planning to do on the settlers in Custer County. When he came into the valley in 1892, he put up at Bob's place for a week, or more, while he traveled to the neighboring ranches and homesteads taking and selling his pictures. His wagon was heavily loaded with glass plates in crates, plus chemicals and other tools of his trade, so he traveled with two teams of horses. These teams had celebrity size appetites as did Mr. Butcher. To my knowledge, the story I'm going to tell you now has not been told before outside the family. It seemed to be the single exception in the free telling of the stories coming out of 'the early days'. It was very likely Grandpa himself who put the lid on it. His reasoning possibly stemmed from a genuine reluctance to expose Mr. Butcher for the raging piker that Bob knew him to be. The question has to arise as to why I didn't tell the story correctly in my book 'Buffalo Grass and Tall Corn'? ------Recently, while talking to a friend, Jack Manion, at a seminar on an aspect of the 'Battle at the Little Big Horn' I gained an insight that had 'till then, eluded me. Jack was commenting on the inexplicable reluctance of families to divulge, so called 'family secrets' even after a hundred years or more have passed. --- Reflecting on Jack's words, I realized I had been a party to the thing he was talking about, this in my treatment of the photograph of the homestead in my book. I have since, by correspondence, discussed the matter with John E. Carter (Butcher's biographer). His comment was, 'The story you tell of the incident at Bob's place provides an insight into this important photographer's character, and not, I think, to his detriment. In working on his biography I found him to be quite quirky, quite idiosyncratic, and quite lovable. He is all of those things in Bob's story. ----Thank you for sharing it, I will treat it as confidential. I would though, encourage you to make it public.' Mr. Butcher had held off taking Bob's homestead picture until he had pretty well covered the area south of the river, from New Helena to Gates. ----When the day dawned for the picture to be made, there was no wind and the sun was screened by high thin clouds. Mr. Butcher declared it to be perfect weather for the picture. He was very articulate and demanding as to Just how he wanted everything and everyone placed. ----At last everything seemed to suit him, except that Anne (Grandma) was in the soddie tending to the thousand and one things she had to do there, daily. At last with baby Alice on her hip, she hurried out to take her place, --- forgetting to take off the flour-sack apron thatshe had put on to protect her 'best' dress. Mr. Butcher had them all in a line, standing on the buffalo grass, to the east of the windmill. They were, from the left, Lizzie Wells (a visiting neighbor girl), Mary, Jennie, Robert J., Frank, Michael, Nora, Will (partially behind Nora), Anne, holding Alice, and Robert G. The actual shoot went off with out a hitch, except as Frank, (the ten year old boy with the blurred face) explained later, 'A horse fly was bothering me so I had to move my head some.' Early the next morning Mr. Butcher, was all packed and ready to leave, Anne had prepared a basket-lunch for him to take with him on the road. The whole family, anxious for the unveiling, had gathered at the photography wagon. At last, after much thumping and moving about within the covered wagon he appeared at the rear flap, hopping down onto the grass with the, still wet, photograph in his hand. The family loved the picture! ---- Bob, however was feeling a bit put upon, considering he'd been feeding four head of horses and a celebrity for more then a week, and he couldn't see any credit showing on the bill that Mr. Butcher had handed him. Bob was several things, but timid was not one of them. He said, 'Mr. Butcher, it's been our pleasure keeping you and your teams this past week. Could it be you've plum forgot that I sell stock feed like you sell pictures. I'd like you to show me some credit for the hay and oats your horses et off me.' Having had no previous experience with the temperament of an 'artist', what happened next took the family totally by surprise. Mr. Butcher grabbed the picture out of Anne's hand and ripped it in two, throwing the pieces down in the grass at Bob's feet. Seeing the look on Bob's face, he quickly jumped onto the spring seat of his wagon, slapping the teams with the reins. They lunged into their collars, and as the heavy wagon reeled away he shouted back over his shoulder. 'Bob Farritor, no one'll 'er see y'r damm. picture, ----I'm go'na break the plate.' The family was stunned. The assumed privileges of the 'artistic temperament' were a factor with which they had never before had to deal. Everyone was of course angry at Bob for his having 'upset' Mr. Butcher. Bob said nothing, but after he launched a shot of spit toward the departing photographer and his well fed teams, he quietly and carefully picked up the pieces of his picture. The next time he went to Grand Island he had a shop there fit the pieces together as best they could. Unfortunately, Mr. Butchers rip in the print made little Will all but vanish. In later years, this caused a problem for viewers of the picture in getting a correct count of the children. As good luck would have it, a close examination of the damaged area shows Will standing very close to, and seemingly partially behind his sister Nora. His face is missing----. Years later Grandpa had a green tinted copy made of the original battered print. ---- That green tinted copy, with the rip across it showing unobtrusively, was hung proudly on the wall in the dining room of the new frame house that Bob and Anne built on their homestead. Edward L. Farritor, Bob and Anne's youngest surviving grandson, lives in Ravenna, Nebraska with his wife Vicki. That 'green tinted picture' hangs proudly on their dining room wall ----- A copy of that treasured print can be found in homes in at least a dozen states and a foreign country or two, where descendants of Bob and Anne live. Some of these homes shelter families with names like Bartunek, Kleeb, Rourke, Hickman, Haselroth, Patrick, Ayers, Olmstead, Hubble, McMurray, Accord, Williams, Omiecinski, McGowan, Ryan, Grice, Moore, Ables, Gorman, Wheat, Kieffer, Panzer, Garner, Annable, Powell, Shaffer, Wilks, Osborne, Sonnier, Adams, Cooksley, Randolf, Jacobsen, Ballcana, Speer, Haslow, Collins, West, Hansen, Keays, Town, Vifquain, Spohn, Cook, Donahue, and, I'm sure, some others whose names I do not know - ----- All of these folks, when looking into their beginnings, come face to face with the brave but gentle people who stand, looking straight into Mr. Butcher's lens, as they quietly hope for the best in a picture, ---and in their lives. The Nebraska State Historical Society is now the owner and caretaker of the Butcher Collection and John E. Carter is the Curator of Photography. John has assured me that there is no trace of Bob's picture in the collection. He presumes that Mr. Butcher made good on his promise to destroy the glass plate negative. The one picture in the collection identified as a 'Ferritor homestead' is our Uncle Jim's place in the upper New Helena valley ------- -- Buffalo Grass and Tall Corn" readers will recall Jim, as the resolute man who looked death in the eye, striking out across the open prairie, in a blizzard, to Bob's place where he might borrow lantern fuel to dispel the horror of around the clock darkness for his family in their snowed over, dugout home. There is no question that Grandpa loved his homestead picture, and he was proud of the efforts he had made toward saving it for his family. Considering it's rather remarkable history, --no small wonder the family has always considered it a very private and priceless possession. ---By the way, Grandpa waited the balance of his lifetime for Mr. Butcher to come back for his money. Contrary to Mr Butchers's shouted prediction, (that no one would ever see Bob's picture), three quarters of a century later a Mr. Donald B. Hyatt and Mr. Gary Cooper would team up to show it to tens of millions of people as part of a movie called 'The Real West'. That movie and Bob's picture were real, sure enough!! |
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Contributors |
Farritor, Robert, (Family); Farritor, Robert G.; Wells, Lizzie; Farritor, Mary; Farritor, Jennie; Farritor, Robert J.; Farritor, Frank; Farritor, Michael; Farritor, Nora; Farritor, Will; Farritor, Anne; Farritor, Alice |
