Miss Anne Brown

  • By Gretchen Frick Small
  • •
  • 28 Sep, 2020
  • •
Annie Brown and Mary Deere
In a previous blog post, I mentioned that Anna & Katherine Deere attended Miss Anne Brown’s School for Young Ladies in New York City.

Who was Anne Brown and why did Charles and Mary Deere select her school to send their daughters? Anne was born in Toronto, Canada, about 1854. Her parents were Mr. & Mrs. Champion Brown, American citizens who were residing in Canada. She graduated from Vassar College and two years later, in 1876, she began her career as a teacher on the Rock Island Arsenal. Her position included teaching all subjects to the children of the army officers.
Charles Deere and Annie Brown (along with Homer the Great Dane and other pets)
Brown taught at the Arsenal two years before she moved to New York in 1878. She joined the faculty of Miss Chapman’s School located on East Forty-Second Street, NY. I presume that during the two years she spent on the Arsenal, Anne Brown became acquainted with Charles & Mary Deere. Their friendship (as depicted in the photographs) led to Charles and Mary Deere providing financial aid to Anne for opening her own school in 1880. Anne Brown and a fellow teacher at Miss Chapman’s, Mille Isaline Ruel, opened their school at 22 West Fifty-Sixth Street, NY. Two years later they moved their school to 711 Fifth Avenue, NY. Shortly after the move, Mille Ruel left to found her own school.

Anne Brown’s school was successful and grew to occupy four adjacent houses on Fifth Avenue. Students were from top families and included the two Deere daughters, Anna and Katherine. Anna graduated in 1882 and Katherine in 1884. Below is a photograph of Katherine’s graduating class. Both Anna and Katherine were classmates with daughters of Erastus Wiman. Remember that the Wiman girls’ brother, William, married Anna in 1890.
Back Row l to r: Lucy Marks, Katherine Deere and Grace Henderson. Front Row l to r: Nellie Mansur and Martha Wiman

Distinguished teachers at Brown’s school included:

Ella Week – helped found Barnard College
Kate and Belle Bovee – later principals of the Bovee School for Little Boys
Clara B. Spence – founder of the Spence School for Girls
Bertha Bailey – later principal of the Abbot Academy in Andover, Massachusetts

Graduates of the school also went on to promote education. Former students established a free kindergarten in 1902, which became the Anne Brown Kindergarten and Nursery School.

In 1902 Anne Brown closed her school. Then two years later she established a day and boarding school called Highcliffe Hall, at Park Hill, Younkers, NY. Anne then chose to retire two years later in 1906 . No information has been found to tell us what she did between 1906 and her death on February 2, 1940. She was 86 years old at the time of her death.

Most of the information above, comes from Anne Brown’s NY Times obituary, February 4, 1940. The obituary begins with “Miss Anne Brown, one of the last surviving principals of fashionable schools for girls in the New York of the Eighties and Nineties…” This may sound inconsequential, but I view Anne Brown’s work as having a more profound impact. She was not just a principal for wealthy young girls. Many years ago, I corresponded with someone who was researching the development of the private schools for girls in New York City. She felt that Anne Brown’s School was instrumental in promoting higher education for women.

During this year of celebrating the 100th Anniversary of the ratification of the 19th Amendment, I can’t help but think about Anne Brown. I am betting that in 1920, she went to the polls to vote for the first time. And I am pleased that Charles and Mary Deere played a part in her success.
Mary & Charles Deere with Annie Brown

Royal Experiences for the Deere Family: Part II

By Gretchen Frick Small • 27 Jul, 2023
The experiences that Katherine Deere Butterworth and Charles and Pattie Wiman had with the British Royal family in the 1920s, 30s.

Royal Experiences for the Deere Family

By Gretchen Frick Small • 23 Feb, 2023
Americans’ fascination with the British royal family is not a recent phenomenon. With the death of Queen Elizabeth in 2022, we have been flooded with royal news. One historian places this interest back to 1776.

Alexander F. Harmer

By Gretchen Frick Small • 29 Apr, 2022
If you have not watched any of our YouTube videos at our channel Deere Family Homes, we encourage you to check out the April 2022 video. The video features the story of one painting hanging in the Deere-Wiman House. The painting’s artist is Alexander Harmer.

We are lucky to have four paintings in our collection that were created by Harmer. It made sense for us to learn more about Harmer and see if we could determine why we have so many paintings from one artist. I love all four pieces and wanted to know more about the artist and determine if there was a connection to the family. Three of the paintings hang in the Deere-Wiman House and one at Butterworth Center. So, it was not just one family member that took an interest in his work.

We know that William and Anna Wiman moved to Santa Barbara in the 1890s. Then about 1906-07, William and his sons moved back to Moline following Anna’s death. The Santa Barbara house was still owned by the family, and by 1914, Katherine and William Butterworth began to use the house. In addition to the house in Santa Barbara, the Butterworths also owned a residence in the San Marcos Pass area. Mrs. Butterworth continued to spend part of the winter in Santa Barbara until her death in 1953. We also know that Charles Deere Wiman and his family had a home in the area, as early as the 1920s.

Did any of the family know Alexander Harmer? We wish we knew. It is possible since Harmer’s life in Santa Barbara does overlap with the Butterworth and Wiman families. Or maybe the family did not know Harmer but was drawn to his art and purchased pieces through art dealers.

Alexander Francis Harmer was born in 1856, in Newark, New Jersey. One source I read said that he sold his first work at the age of 11 for $2. Then at the age of 16, he lied about his age and joined the United States Army. He was stationed in California, which I think is the time period his artistic interests changed. He turned towards painting and illustrating the Apache Nation. The year would have been 1872, and the US Army would have had a large presence in the West with the enforcement of federal Indian policy (which consisted of allotment of land and assimilation.)

After just one year, Harmer asked for a discharge and left the military. He worked as a photographer’s assistant until he was able to enroll in art school. He studied art under Thomas Eakins and Thomas Anshutz at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Art. In 1881, he re-enlisted in the Army and headed to his assignment at Fort Apache, Arizona. Harmer probably saw the Army as a cheap way of traveling West to continue his interest in the American West and the Apache Indians. During this enlistment, he was able to serve in an Army division assigned to pursue Geronimo. His studies of Indian life created an invaluable record. Harmer then returned to the academy in Pennsylvania where he turned his sketches of the Apache Nation into illustrations for Harper’s Weekly.

In 1891, Harmer returned to California, and in 1893, he married Felicidad Abadie. The Abadie family was one of the pioneering California families. The couple settled in Santa Barbara, which led to Harmer being remembered as “Southern California’s first great painter of the 19th Century." At this time, his work revolved around a series of paintings of the Old California missions under Mexican rule. They resided on De La Guerra Plaza, which included the Adabie family home. From 1908 through the 1920s, Harmer established the first art colony on the West coast. Studios were added to the Spanish-Colonial adobe home of the Harmers, where many up and coming artists worked.
Alexander Harmer died on January 10, 1925, supposedly while admiring the sunset from his backyard. This was just six months before the Santa Barbara earthquake, which left the Harmers' adobes in ruins.

All four paintings are signed Alex. F. Harmer, but only two are dated. Below are photographs of the four paintings in the collection.

 Inside the Butterworth Garage

By Gretchen Small • 25 Feb, 2022
Butterworth Garage, circa 1909, now known as the Butterworth Education Center. Let’s go inside the building beginning with the addition constructed in 2009

The History of the Butterworth Garage

By Gretchen Small • 27 Oct, 2021
The History of the Butterworth Garage’s

Deere-Wiman House 1917 Swimming Pool

By Gretchen Frick Small • 20 Aug, 2021
Click here to view a new video on our YouTube Channel featuring the Swimming Pool built in 1917 on the Deere-Wiman House grounds. https://youtu.be/NgV6XUEkrLs

The Deere Family and The Hotel Colorado

By Gretchen Small • 28 May, 2021
A trip to a hot spring was very popular during the late 1800s and early 1900s. The healing waters were a popular destination for families, the wealthy, and the famous.

Ruth Vendala Marie Moll, Part II

By Gretchen Small • 26 Apr, 2021
Ruth Moll's life at Hillcrest, both with Katherine and William Butterworth and as the first Director of Butterworth Center.

Ruth Vendla Marie Moll

By Gretchen Small • 24 Mar, 2021
Ruth Moll's wonderful stories about life at Hillcrest

Mollie and John Capris

By Gretchen Frick Small • 22 Feb, 2021
John Deere brought a family here named Capus. He built a house for them near his home. They joined the First Methodist Church.
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