Ruth Vendala Marie Moll, Part II
- By Gretchen Small
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- 26 Apr, 2021
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Last month’s blog looked at Ruth Moll’s childhood and the early years of her working for Katherine and William Butterworth. We are now turning to her life at Hillcrest, both with Katherine and William Butterworth and as the first Director of Butterworth Center. I have struggled with how to organize these two periods in Ruth’s life in a meaningful manner. Because I love historic photographs, I have decided that telling her story mostly through photos is the best option.
As I mentioned last month, soon after Ruth came to work for the Butterworth household, she made her first trip to Cuba. From her stuffed scrapbook, we know that this was the first trip of many. In 1920, she accompanied both William and Katherine to Europe on the Red Star Line on the S.S. Kroonland ship. The early pages of the scrapbook are filled with numerous playbills like the one below from the London Hippodrome. This was just the start of Ruth’s many visits to plays, musicals, operas, and concerts in Europe, New York and Chicago.
As I mentioned last month, soon after Ruth came to work for the Butterworth household, she made her first trip to Cuba. From her stuffed scrapbook, we know that this was the first trip of many. In 1920, she accompanied both William and Katherine to Europe on the Red Star Line on the S.S. Kroonland ship. The early pages of the scrapbook are filled with numerous playbills like the one below from the London Hippodrome. This was just the start of Ruth’s many visits to plays, musicals, operas, and concerts in Europe, New York and Chicago.
Back in Moline, Ruth continued her close friendship with the other staff at Hillcrest. They had so much fun together in the Hillcrest gardens, the Butterworth’s houseboat and in California at the Butterworth’s other residences.
Several photographs in our archives are marked as being used for passport photographs. It is interesting to see Ruth through the years.
You may have seen a photograph very similar to this one above. During the 1920s many people made the trip to Egypt to see the Pyramids. The Egyptians must have had a photo stop in this location. I have seen many photographs with different people posed in a very similar arrangement.
After Mrs. Butterworth’s passing in 1953, Hillcrest was converted into the Butterworth Center. In her will, Mrs. Butterworth had created the William Butterworth Memorial Trust. The Trust was to be used to fund a meeting center for local not-for-profit organizations. Ruth became the first Director of Butterworth Center and oversaw preparations for its’ opening for meetings in May of 1956.
Just before the house hosted it first meeting, Ruth held an open house. As you can see from the Moline Daily Dispatch, crowds of people lined up to see inside the Butterworth home for the first time.
This is how I remember Ruth. I came to work at the homes in 1986 and remember seeing Ruth at her desk in Butterworth Center every day. From 1953 until her retirement in 1990, Ruth lived on the third floor of Butterworth Center. The two original staff bedrooms became her sitting room and bedroom. It was in her sitting room that I sat down with her and a tape recorder to try and document her memories of a wonderful life.
During the summer of 1990, Ruth fell and was in the hospital for a period. Her doctor explained that it was time for her to retire. At the age of 93 she left the home she had known since 1916 and moved to Friendship Manor. Then three years later she passed away on her 96th birthday. Her funeral brought out many people with fond memories of her long life as “the First Lady of Butterworth Center.” One special memory for me is that a longtime Butterworth staff member was allowed to drive the hearse. During Ruth's tenure as Director of Butterworth Center, George Catterton was responsible for driving Ruth. She had never learned to drive since her first 37 years at Hillcrest the chauffeurs did all the driving.
In closing, I am sharing one of my favorite photographs. These three women, along with Kay Vogel (Director of Deere-Wiman House), would meet for lunch to celebrate their birthdays. I was lucky enough to be invited along twice. This photograph was celebrating Kay’s birthday. These three women I was privileged to know and I miss listening to them chat. Many have asked me if I know what Mrs. Butterworth was like. I answer that since I knew Ruth, I feel that I also knew Mrs. Butterworth. She spent her life with her and I think absorbed many of Mrs. Butterworth's mannerisms and morals. She felt honored to continue Mrs. Butterworth’s legacy in the community for 75 years.
The experiences that Katherine Deere Butterworth and Charles and Pattie Wiman had with the British Royal family in the 1920s, 30s.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Butterworth Garage, circa 1909, now known as the Butterworth Education Center. Let’s go inside the building beginning with the addition constructed in 2009
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
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.
John Deere brought a family here named Capus. He built a house for them near his home. They joined the First Methodist Church.
