My Own Old House (Part 3): The Whitteker Family

The Whitteker family lived in our home during the 1880s. They were a middle class Cincinnati family that lived in suburban Wyoming for a few years, and spent much of the rest of their lives in the Walnut Hills neighborhood of Cincinnati. The father, a salesman, paved the way for his children to get excellent educations and go on to have interesting careers--minister, nurse, artist--which took them across the country and the world.

In 1887 there was a county directory published which listed the residents of Wyoming and the street they lived on—but not house numbers, because they had not yet been assigned to homes in Wyoming. Because only two homes had been built at this point on East Mills Ave. (then called Wiley Ave.), and because Chalres S. Fay is listed as living at the corner of Wiley and Elm, it is my conclusion that the family of William and Mary Whitteker was living in our house in 1887. They may have moved there as early as 1882, when the Golden family moved out.

William Aaron Whitteker, Jr. (1852-1926), was born in Charleston, West Virginia, and was the son of a merchant. In 1878 he married Mary L. Fry (1851-1939); she was born in Florence, Alabama, daughter of Sarah and Thomas Fry. Thomas was a cabinetmaker, according to the 1860 Census.

William Whitteker came to Cincinnati from West Virginia sometime before 1875. His early jobs included florist and milliner clerk (selling ladies’ hats). While living in Wyoming, his occupation was listed in the county directory as traveling salesman. On later censuses he was reported as selling coffee and seeds.

According to the 1880 Census and 1881 Cincinnati City directory The Whitteker family had been living at 584 McMillan Street in Walnut Hills. When they moved to Wyoming in 1882, William and Mary had two children, Elliot (1879-1918) and Lilian (1881-1979). Daughters Juliet (1884-1950) and Gertrude (1887-1891—died of diptheria) were born while the family was living in the house on East Mills (Wiley) Avenue. Below is young Gertrude's death notice. I love that they call her "our sunbeam."

Source: Cincinnati Enquirer, February 10, 1891.

William, Mary, and their children moved back to the Walnut Hills neighborhood of Cincinnati before 1890, when a Cincinnati city directory lists them living at 255 Hackberry. They subsequently lived at 114 Kleine, and then spent at least 20 years living at 2621 Cleinview. Two more children were born after they moved out of Wyoming: Lois (1890-1991) and Homan (1894-1972).

I haven’t found much information about the family’s life while they lived in our house on East Mills (Wiley) Ave. However, the three children who spent their youngest years in the house went on to live very interesting lives.

The eldest, Elliot Huff Whitteker (1879-1918), interrupted his college studies at age 19 to enlist and serve with Company M, First Regiment Ohio Volunteer Infantry, in the Spanish-American War, 1898-99. He went on to continue his degree at the University of Cincinnati, and in 1904 graduated from Lane Seminary. Elliot became a Presbyterian minister, serving congregations in a number of Ohio cities and then in Illinois and Iowa. He married and had three children. His first wife, Maybelle Morris, died in 1912; Elliot's second wife was named Winnie. Unfortunately Elliot died of pneumonia in 1918 at age 39.

Source: Cincinnati Enquirer, February 7, 1918.

The Whitteker’s third child, daughter Juliet A. Whitteker (1884-1950), graduated from Cincinnati’s Hughes High School in 1903. She became a nurse and worked in Cincinnati for several years. In 1918 she was working in Lincoln, Nebraska, and in the 1920s in La Grande, Oregon. In about 1931 she moved to Northampton, Massachusetts, where she worked for the Massachusetts State Board of Health. By 1940 she was living in Boston, and was a superintendent with the Massachusetts Health Department. The 1943 Boston City Directory listed her position as Nurse Supervisor for the Division of Child Hygiene. Juliet died at age 65 in 1950 on Cape Cod, but is buried in the family plot in Spring Grove Cemetery.

Source: La Grande Observer, November 2, 1922.

The eldest daughter, Lilian Eveleth Quarrier Whitteker (her name as she had it listed in the University of Cincinnati Bulletin) (1881-1979), had the most unconventional life of the Whitteker children. She studied art at the University of Cincinnati and with Frank Duveneck. Lilian was active in local and regional art organizations in the first two decades of the twentieth century, including serving as vice president and as treasurer of the Cincinnati Women’s Art Club. She also spent a few months living in Los Angeles and Pasadena California in 1917-18. She was primarily a painter in the impressionist and post-impressionist styles, but in 1918 won accolades for creating French character dolls, some of which were purchased and presented to the Cincinnati Art Museum; others were obtained by the Chicago Art Institute.

Links to webpages showing examples of Lilian's art:

Doll Illustration

Portrait

Afternoon at the Park

Flowers

More Flowers

Landscapes

Sand Dunes

In 1920 Lilian moved to New York City, where she got involved in theater design. Then in the mid-1920s she moved to France. She went there with William Perry Dudley, landscape architect, who is described as her lifelong love (and who was married before going to France and remarried once there). William purchased the Donjon de Montbazon, a castle ruin in the Loire Valley of France, which he and Lillian worked together to restore. They were often visited there by other American artists, and in the 1950s Alexander Calder was a nearby neighbor. In the late 1930s, as war approached, William Dudley returned to the United States with his wife. Lilian, however, remained in France through the war, and spent six months imprisoned by the Germans in an internment camp in France because she was a U.S. citizen.

Montbazon Castle, Loire Valley, France
Source: http://www.suttonclonard.com/Z_Castle_Montbazon_Tours.htm

After the war she continued with her art, showing it in numerous exhibitions in France. When William Dudley died in 1965, he left the castle to the French government. Locals intervened wanting to allow Lilian to continue to live there and to try to transform the castle into an art center, but after four years this fell through, and Lilian had to move. She died in 1979, and was buried in the town of Montbazon. After her death over 400 pieces of her art were auctioned. The town of Montbazon established an art prize in her name and named a street after her.

This article (in French) tells her life story, includes several pictures of Lilian (including one of her as a child), and explains how her style of painting changed over time. Link to Article