Search Results for "Hamlin Garland "
The Garland Homestead in Wisconsin ~ A Hamlin Garland Memorial – Part 2
Posted by: | CommentsHermon MacNeil’s life and works developed around a community of artists and sculptors. Many of them met and worked together during the Chicago Worlds Fair of 1893.
Hamlin Garland was one of those people —
- author, explorer, friend of Native Americans,
- advisor and friend of President Teddy Roosevelt,
- winner of the Pulitzer Prize in 1922,
- a proud son of Wisconsin, as well as, South Dakota and Illinois, and New York, too!
Therefore, his HOME has become a National Historic Landmark !

In 1973 the Interior Department designated the Hamlin Garland Homestead a National Historic Landmark. The house was purchased by the West Salem Historical Society and restoration was started in 1975.
In 1973 the Interior Department designated the Homestead of Hamlin Garland as a National Historic Landmark.
“At dedication ceremonies that fall a large stone and plaque noting its historic values were placed in front of the house. The house was purchased by the West Salem Historical Society late in 1973, but restoration did not actually begin until 1975.” https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hamlin_Garland_House
Wisconsin is proud of their historic connection to this friend of Hermon A. MacNeil. This State has also has designated a Heritage Highway, namely the …
NOTE: The previous post showed South Dakota’s historic pride for Garland as TEN miles of Brown County Highway 11 near Aberdeen in South Dakota similarly bears the name of Hamlin Garland. They call it “Hamlin Garland Memorial Highway.”~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
In Wisconsin, the
West Salem Historical Society
tells their story as follows: 
Hamlin Garland
West Salem (WI) Historical Society
Named after Hannibal Hamlin, the vice president (from 1861-1865) under Abraham Lincoln, Hamlin Garland was born on a farm near West Salem, WI on September 14, 1860. His early years were spent in the mid-west (Wisconsin, Iowa and Dakota), where he managed to acquire an education and graduating with honors from a western seminary.
His early success in writing enabled him to purchase this house and 4 acres in West Salem as a homestead for his parents.
The home was in poor condition and Garland spent much of October 1893 repairing and renovating; he eventually installed indoor plumbing, making it the first home in the area with that innovation.[7] He originally named it Mapleshade because of the three large maples on the property.[8] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hamlin_Garland_House After Garland prepared the house and his parents moved back from the Dakota Territory in time to celebrate Thanksgiving.
In 1893,[7] Hamlin moved to Chicago, where he lived at 6427 South Greenwood Avenue in the Woodlawn neighborhood. He is considered “a significant figure in the Chicago Literary Movement” and “one of Chicago’s most important authors”.[8] Moccasin Ranch Park, located near [this] address, is named in his honor.[8] SOURCE: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hamlin_Garland#cite_note-MoccasinRanchPark-8
In Illinois in November 1899, Garland married Zulime Taft, the sister of sculptor Lorado Taft, and began working as a teacher and a lecturer.[9] In his literary career, Hamlin was an author of 52 novels, several poems and short stories. He received the Pulitzer Prize for Daughter of the Middle Border (sequel to Son of the Middle Border) in 1922.
This Garland Homestead commemorates the three-generation Family home of Hamlin Garland.
A prolific writer, Garland continued to publish novels, short fiction, and essays. In 1917, he published his autobiography, A Son of the Middle Border. The book’s success prompted a sequel, A Daughter of the Middle Border, for which Garland won the 1922 Pulitzer Prize for Biography. After two more volumes, Garland began a second series of memoirs based on his diary. Garland naturally became quite well known during his lifetime and had many friends in literary circles.[10] He was made a member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters in 1918.[4]
After moving to Hollywood, California, in 1929, he devoted his remaining years to investigating psychic phenomena, an enthusiasm he first undertook in 1891. In his final book, The Mystery of the Buried Crosses (1939), he tried to defend such phenomena and prove the legitimacy of psychic mediums. [ SOURCE: Wikipedia ]
Hamlin Died in 1940, at the age of 79 in Hollywood, California. He was cremated, and his ashes were returned to West Salem for burial in Neshonoc Cemetery two miles north of West Salem where his wife, children and parents are buried.
VISIT the Hamlin Garland HOMESTEAD:

The Garland Homestead in 1971. [Source: Hamlin_Garlin_House_West_Salem_La_Crosse_County_Wisconsin.jpg ]
Address: 357 West Garland Street, West Salem Wi 54669. Free Will Donations Accepted
~~~
For MORE on Hamlin Garland check these links:
- HAMLIN GARLAND by Charles Rounds, 1918
- Wisconsin Historical Markers — Hamlin Garland Homestead #241
- Hamlin Garland Poems and Bio
Related Images:
The Hamlin Garland Memorial Highway ~
Brown County, South Dakota

Hamlin Garland https://mypoeticside.com/wp-content/uploads/gallery-images/e6845fc.jpeg
In June 1936, the Brown County Commissioners named a section of Brown County Highway 11, for a total of 10 miles, the “Hamlin Garland Memorial Highway.” This section travels past the homestead of Garland’s father, Richard, who homesteaded in 1881. In 1998, new signs were placed along this stretch of paved road noting the name of the highway.
[ Hamlin Garland Society of Aberdeen, SD http://www.garlandsociety.org/ ]
GARLAND TOWNSHIP–This township was named after Hamlin Garland, a novelist, who lived in this area with his pioneer parents, Mr. and Mrs. Richard Garland. The land south and west of Columbia [and Ordway] was immortalized by this writer in “Among the Corn Rows,” and “A Son of the Middle Border.”
Garland information on the web:

In 1895 HAMLIN GARLAND led Hermon MacNeil and Francis Brown to the four corners area (AZ, NM, CO, UT) to witness the Native American people and culture there.
-
Hamlin Garland Highway in South Dakota. [SOURCE: Information courtesy of Gene Aisenbrey ~ Hamlin Garland Society of Aberdeen, SD ~ Contact: garlandsociety@gmail.com Copyright © 2015 ]
- Hamlin Garland Biography (Wisconsin Authors and Their Works)
- A Biography of three pages
- One of Garland’s Grant Interviews with Julia Dent Grant (1826-1902) widow of General U. S. Grant
- SD Historical Society: “Hamlin Garland’s South Dakota: History and Story” https://www.sdhspress.com/journal/south-dakota-history-9-3/hamlin-garlands-dakota-history-and-story/vol-09-no-3-hamlin-garlands-dakota.pdf
- A brief Garland bio (Al Filreis)
~ A Poem by Hamlin Garland ~
“Do you fear the force of the wind,
The slash of the rain?
Go face them and fight them,
Be savage again.
Go hungry and cold like the wolf,
Go wade like the crane:
The palms of your hands will thicken,
The skin of your cheek will tan,
You’ll grow ragged and weary and swarthy,
But you’ll walk like a man!”
Their adventure in 1895 led into Native settlements in Colorado, Arizona (Moqui, Navajo), New Mexico, and Utah:
- Hamlin Garland, led the tour to the southwest in the summer of 1895. MacNeil & Browne wanted to gain direct experience of American Indians to inform their art. What the trio found reflected in their respective painting, sculpture and writing.
- MacNeil sculpted a cement statue of Chief Manuelito for trader C. N. Cotton under a tent in the dessert. His subsequent sculptures of Native Americans after that summer of 1895 continued his cultural interest. That fascination began with his friendship and sculpting of Black Pipe, the Sioux warrior. He first met Black Pipe at the Buffalo Bill Wild West Show at the Chicago World’s Fair in 1893. The Sioux modeled for MacNeil and later worked in his studio for over a year before MacNeil’s trip with Garland.
- Charles Francis Browne was a painter and friend (his room mate in Paris) who accompanied Hermon MacNeil and the author.
- Edward Everett Ayers was an art patron to both MacNeil and Browne. He had been a Civil War Calvary officer stationed in the southwestern United States. He became a lumberman who made a fortune selling railroad ties and telephone poles. He urged MacNeil to travel to see the vanishing West of the American Indian. He became an arts benefactor whose art collections are now housed by the Art Institute of Chicago, as well as, the Newberry Library. His copy of MacNeil’s “Moqui Runner” still graces the Newberry Library.
Related Posts:
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Charles Francis Browne … MacNeil … Garland ~ Part Two
Posted by: | CommentsA recent post of Aug 13, 2021, highlighted a hidden bust of C. F. Browne, an early friend of Hermon A. MacNeil:
“A 1894 Sculpture of Charles F. Browne ~ ~ ~ by Hermon A. MacNeil.” =>
Out of public view, deep in the archives of the Chicago Art Institute rests a 127 year old bust of Charles F. Browne, American artist.
Of all the thousands of talented artists, craftsmen, and sculptors building the “White City” in 1892, three gifted young men would travel in 1895 by train and horseback to the NEW American “West.” They would share life-forming experiences, there in the “Four Corners” area where Colorado meets New Mexico meets Arizona meets Utah.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
~ THREE FRIENDS on a JOURNEY ~
~ Charles Francis Browne ~
~ Hermon Atkins MacNeil ~
~ Hannibal Hamlin Garland ~
Charles Francis Brown, at 33, was the oldest of the three.
For a decade he searched to discover and develop his talents. At the Chicago World’s Fair he began by painting murals in the Children’s Building.
Charles was born in Massachusetts to parents with a long history in New England. His father was a builder and contractor. Charles had three siblings. The oldest became a headmaster; a sister died in childhood; and his younger brother a foreman in a watch factory.
In his second year of high school, Charles became sickly. For two more years he was treated for appendicitis (then called “inflammation of the bowels”). He never returned to school, but instead worked ill-suited as a clerk in a hat store. Eventually he started design work for a lithograph company.
The artistic environment and peers led him to evening classes at Boston Museum of Fine Arts. He worked in stained glass (to please his practical father). Working days with lithographs and studying nights at art school, he developed many visual skills. But entry into the Art School required passing rigorous exams in human anatomy. For which he was unprepared.
So in 1885, at the age of twenty-five he moved to Pennsylvania and enrolled in the Philadelphia Academy of Fine Arts — working full time under realist painter Thomas Eakins.

Nai-U-Chi Chief of the Bow, Zuni. 1895 by C.F. Browne – Sid Richardson Museum – Retieved at https://www.illinoisart.org/charles-francis-browne. October 30, 2021.
Completing three years of study there, he went to Paris to study with renowned figural painter Jean-Léon Gérôme. His sojourns in the French countryside, inspired many paintings of landscapes in both oils and watercolors. Returning to the U.S. in 1891, he taught briefly at Beloit College before moving south to Chicago.
The Children’s Building at the World’s Columbian Exposition became the next canvas of his murals. Browne’s work became the walls of the building. After the Fair, his skills were sought as an instructor at the rapidly growing Art Institute of Chicago. MacNeil and Garland were part of the vast community of artists assembled in Jackson Park — home to the exhibition.
His trip in 1895 with sculptor Hermon Atkins MacNeil to the Southwest yielded subjects for his portraits of American Indian and figural scenes.
Later, 1897 he founded the journal Brush and Pencil, of which he served as editor until 1900. He produced hundreds of paintings in his career ahead.
Lorado Taft, provided a moving tribute to Browne at close of a fine life and career:
“No one among us has contributed more abundantly of his time to the service of the community… All of this activity combined with earnest, unremitting and valuable aid… would seem to be enough for one man. But… Mr. Browne, the citizen, has ever been first and foremost an artist. Never have we known a man more in love with nature… When one thinks of the joy that he has been able to record and to carry over to other hearts… it seems as though the most enviable of all estates is to be a landscape painter – a landscape painter like Charles Francis Browne!” CREDIT: https://www.illinoisart.org/charles-francis-browne
~~~~~~~~
Hermon A.MacNeil
Hermon was seven years younger than Browne. Their friendship is documented by the fact that MacNeil invited Browne to share his studio, persuaded him to pose for the bust, and traveled to the Four Corners with Garland as guide.
MacNeil, with the recommendation of Augustus Saint Gaudens, went from New York to the Chicago World’s Fair to work under Philip Martiny, who was sculpting the Electricity Building. After proving himself on the edifice spandrels and ornamentals, he was assigned “two statuary figures” on the upper structure. The Electricity Building’s main entrance was dominated by an imposing statue of Benjamin Franklin. Inside were housed the Tower of Light, displays by Western Electric, General Electric, American Bell Telephone, Edison’s latest phonographs and hundreds of other electrical exhibits from around he world. The exhibit was truly a celebration of the “modern” era of “Electricity.”
In 1894 after the Fair, Hermon modeled, completed, and cast the bronze bust of of Browne. Their trip together in 1895 inspired a decade of sculpting Native American images. Four decades of memorials, monuments, statues, building pediments and facades, coins, medallions, followed from his College Point Studio.

The “Prayer for Rain” depicts the Moqui (Hopi) runner carrying the snakes to the river to activate the rain cycle of nature.
In 1931, Hermon MacNeil would again memorialize that Four Corners trip in his design for the Society of Medalists — Third Issue. Nearly four decades later that inspiration would return afresh in the “Hopi Runner” — “Prayer for Rain”
~~~~~~~~~
Garland, the leader of the adventure, was 31 years-old when he led his two friends on their tour to the west. His story and exploits have been told in many other postings on this website:
Hamlin Garland: Story in 3 Parts by Dan Leininger, webmaster
PART 1 – “Hamlin Garland ~ MacNeil’s Guide” MacNeil and Hamlin Garland
PART 2 – The Garland Homestead in Wisconsin ~ A Hamlin Garland Memorial
PART 3 – Hermon MacNeil and Hamlin Garland ~ Connections Through the Years
Hamlin Garland was an accomplished novelist
Main-Travelled Roads was his first major success. It was a collection of short stories inspired by his days on the farm. He serialized a biography of Ulysses S. Grant in McClure’s Magazine before publishing it as a book in 1898. The same year, Garland traveled to the Yukon to witness the Klondike Gold Rush, which inspired The Trail of the Gold Seekers (1899). He lived on a farm between Osage, and St. Ansgar, Iowa for quite some time. Many of his writings are based on this era of his life.
By the time of the Chicago Worlds Fair in 1893,[7] Hamlin moved to Chicago, where he lived at 6427 South Greenwood Avenue in the Woodlawn neighborhood. He is considered “a significant figure in the Chicago Literary Movement” and “one of Chicago’s most important authors”.[8] Moccasin Ranch Park, located near address, is named in his honor.[8]
- “Sell the cook the stove if necessary and come. You must see the fair”
-Novelist Hamlin Garland to his parents in 1893-
In Illinois, Garland married Zulime Taft, the sister of sculptor Lorado Taft, and began working as a teacher and a lecturer.[9]
A prolific writer, Garland continued to publish novels, short fiction, and essays. In 1917, he published his autobiography, A Son of the Middle Border. The book’s success prompted a sequel, A Daughter of the Middle Border, for which Garland won the 1922 Pulitzer Prize for Biography. After two more volumes, Garland began a second series of memoirs based on his diary. Garland naturally became quite well known during his lifetime and had many friends in literary circles.[10] He was made a member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters in 1918.[4] (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hamlin_Garland)
CREDITS:
- Wendy Greenhouse, PhD. “Charles Francis Browne 1859–1920″. M. Christine Schwartz Collection (https://schwartzcollection.com/artist/charles-francis-browne/ ) retrieved September 20, 2021. This extensive biographical summary of the life of Charles Francis Browne is the most extensive and detailed documentary piece posted of his life and career.
- Melissa Wolfe Ph.D. and Joel S. Dryer © Illinois Historical Art Project. “Charles Francis Browne (1859-1920).” https://www.illinoisart.org/charles-francis-browne. retrieved September 21, 2021.
Related Images:
INDEPENDENCE DAY ~~ 247 Years !!!
Posted by: | CommentsHermon MacNeil’s Commander-in-Chief
George Washington on Arch in NYC

General George Washington with Flags (U.S. and POW/MIA) ~ Washington Arch Greenwich, NYC (Photo courtesy of: Gibson Shell – 2011)
click BELOW for MORE.
INDEPENDENCE DAY
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Images of
Happy 4th of July
from Dan Leininger, Webmaster

The Stars and Stripes fly day and night at the home of Webmaster Dan Leininger in South Dakota. They are illuminated dusk to dawn by automatic lighting. (The tie, however, only waves on special occasions like July 4th.)
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