Ellen Snyder

Printed: Wm. Echelberry, Casey, Ill.

The young woman on the left is my great-grandmother, Ellen Snyder, the compiler of this album. This looks like it was taken before she married Ben McDowell in 1879.

The McDowell Brothers?

Unidentified

Printed: M.E. Chase, Ouray, Colorado

So here's the story I was told about the McDowells. The Pater familias was one Walter McDowell, born in Venango County, Pennsylvania in 1811. He earned his living making hats and gloves. As he made his way West, through Ohio, then to Casey, Illinois, he married at least four times and each marriage resulted in children.

My line connects to marriage # 3, with Kiziah Jane Albright. That union produced two children, my great grandfather Benjamin F. (born in Casey in 1858), and his sister Ruth "Mamie" (born 1867).

Kiziah died shortly after Ruth's birth. Not long following, Walter married a fourth time.

At some point in the 1880s, according to legend, the large family had some kind of major fight. Walter, now widowed again, and some of the adult children were said to have migrated to Oklahoma and Texas where they became cowboys. Ruth married into Choctaw culture. Walter died in the Chickasaw Nation, Indian Territory, in 1892.

Meanwhile, the other half of the family moved to Ouray, Colorado and became silver prospectors. The brothers who moved there were John, Henry, Joseph, Ben, and Walter Jr.

Ben McDowell was said to have struck it rich two or three times, and lost everything at the gambling tables. He deserted the family in 1896 and lived out his life in Cripple Creek, Colorado, site of the last great gold rush in the lower 48, where he made a living sharpening tools. He died in 1910.

My Mom recalls being told this photo depicts the McDowell brothers, with my great grandfather possibly being the guy standing in the upper left. But she isn't 100% sure.   

The McDowell Family Album

The McDowell Family Album is something of a mystery. This family has never been real big on recording their history. In fact, during the 20th century family members were unable to name their grandparents for official documents like death certificates.

To illustrate this point, my Mom's cousin gave me this album when we visited him in Centralia, Washington over 30 years ago. "Here kid," he said, "Take it. I'm not into this gynecology crap."

Though the photos are mostly unmarked, they are interesting portraits of a colorful family who were part of the history of Colorado in the era of the silver boom in the 1880s-1890s. And obviously, they didn't look back.

The album was curated by my great grandmother, Ellen McDowell. She was born Ellen Snyder in Casey, Illinois, Apr. 17, 1862. She married Benjamin F. McDowell in 1879 and the young family moved to Ouray, Colorado in the 1880s. Ben deserted the family in 1896 and Ellen supported her four sons and two daughters by running a laundry-- by hand-- for the silver prospectors. She followed her sons to Centralia, Washington in the 1920s, where she died Feb. 15, 1949.

Crackpots and Visionaries

Crackpots and Visionaries was a cardset giveaway as part of a 1992 fund drive for WFMU radio in New Jersey.

The cartoonists in this project: Byron Werner, Drew Friedman, Carel Moiseiwitsch, Stephen Kroninger, Hank Arakelian, Roy Tompkins, J.R. Williams, Steve Willis, Joe Coleman, Mark Beyer, Gary Panter, Charles Burns, J.D. King, Harold S. Robins, Julie Doucet, Jim Ryan, Scott Cunningham, Mark Newgarden, Steven Cerio, Carol Lay, Mack White, Doug Allen, Lennie Mace, Sean Taggart, Krystine Kryttre, Richard McGuire, Glenn Head, Jayr Pulga, Ned Sonntag, Jim Woodring, Peter Bagge, Mary Fleener, Jonathon Rosen, Jimmy Piersall, and Kaz.

As tempting as it might be to say the title of this set concerns the cartoonists themselves, it actually refers to the content. Hank Arakelian gave us a list to choose from of various names throughout history. We then drew a portrait, and WFMU supplied the biography on the flip side of the card.

I chose William Jennings Bryan. His career from being a Populist champion and presidential candidate in his 30s to ending up as a Bible-thumping creationist clown at the Scopes Trial is a fascinating and sad descent. But through it all he was always an amazing political actor and showman.

Hank didn't particularly care for my portrait of Bryan. He thought the image was too simple-- not busy enough. But he used it anyway and I was glad to be included in the company of so many great cartoonists. I have an uncut sheet of all the cards on display in my studio.

Bryan also had an indirect role in our family names. His first, and most highly charged, run for President was in 1896. Out in the silver fields of Colorado and Nevada he was practically a God. It was in August of that campaign that my grandfather, William Jennings Bryan McDowell, was born in Ouray, Colorado, a silver boom town.

My great grandfather, Ben McDowell, had dragged his whole family up there from Illinois in the 1880s as he chased silver and gambled away two fortunes (so they say). Several of his brothers lived there too. Ben deserted the family and spent his last years chasing gold in Cripple Creek, Colorado.

Meanwhile, my grandfather's name was shortened to Bryan. The labor violence he witnessed during his formative years turned him into a lifelong Socialist in political philosophy.

The McDowells were never big on preserving family history. About 30 years ago down in Centralia, Washington one of my Mom's cousins gave me a big puffy Victorian era McDowell family photo album, saying "Here kid, I'm not into all this gynecology stuff."

Lots of pics of Ouray, plus some from the Midwest, including tintypes. We think my great grandfather Ben is in a group portrait with his brothers in one shot (nothing is marked), probably the one on the upper left.

And today the name Bryan lives on through my brother.

Sort of strayed here, eh?

State of Beings #6: Colorado

Arrived on this planet with City Limits Gazette # Look Ma, no brain! (Feb. 1992)

I picked in Ouray, Colorado in 1888 to retell Poe's Tell-Tale Heart. My great-grandfather had been a silver prospector there at that time.