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| Precinda Kimball, 1850 I discovered this oil painting in the closet of the Pioneer Memorial Museum in 1998 and verified that he was painted by William Warner Major |
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| Precinda Kimball Restored and hung in the Kimball room of the Pioneer Memorial Museum in 2012 |
In the 1990’s I was busy researching the life and art of my husband's Great, Great Grandfather, William Warner Major, one of the first artists to come to Utah in 1848. There are several pieces of art work hung in the Pioneer Memorial Museum of the International Society of the Daughters of the Utah Pioneers (DUP) that Major painted. One afternoon I was digging through the Museum's card catalogue (yes, this was before computerized data) and I discovered there was a portrait of Precinda Kimball, a small child who died in Salt Lake in 1850. There were very few artists in the new pioneer town at that time and my research showed that William Warner Major created several portraits of the Kimball family and was a close family friend who lived a few blocks from the Kimballs in 1850.
My investigations
often brought me face to face with the stunning, antique portraits hung in
the DUP Museum and I was certain I had never met this little girl in my museum
wanderings. Inquiries led me to a hall
closet of the DUP Museum, where the then museum Curator, Edith Menna, stood on
an old chair to reach the rolled up canvas from a high shelf. The gray, dirty, two pieces of canvas hand sewn together, was unevenly cut,
patched and perhaps taken right off an old covered wagon.
It was cracked and the colors were dull with age, yet I knew immediately
it was a W. W. Major portrait. Major had
a difficult time painting realistic hands and he drew narrow, small feet that no
person could possible stand on. The 1840
London Census explained this deficit: Major was a trained as miniaturist, an
artist who sketched small portraits to carry around in the same way people
carry snapshots of people today on their smart phones or in their wallets. Delicate likenesses of hands and feet were
not needed in his profession.
Precinda Kimball was the daughter of Heber C. and Precinda Huntington Kimball. She drowned in City Creek, which currently flows on North Temple, in front of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saint Conference Center. It was spring, May 8, 1850 and little Precinda was a toddler, 16 months old.
History of Elder John R. Young, "After Prests. Young and Kimball moved onto their lots, this path connected their two homes. One day Aunt Prescinda Kimball's little daughter [Prescinda] Celestia, unknown to her mother, started to go to Aunt Zina's. It was in the spring of the year, and City Creek was swollen by the melting snows. The child evidently slipped off the slab and was drowned. As soon as the family missed her, a cry of alarm was given. I was confined to the house with a painful flesh wound in my left leg. Hearing the tumult, and seeing the excited people running along the creek, I surmised what had happened. Running to the slab, I dropped into the water and was carried by the swift current to Bro. Well's lot where the fence had caught flood wood and formed a dam and eddy. I dove under the drift and finding the body, brought it to the surface and gave it to Dr. Williams, but the precious life was gone." (Journal History, 11 May 1850.)
I felt a connection to this family’s grief and I knew the portrait was financially valuable because the last known Major portraits were purchased by the Springville Art Museum in the 1980’s for an estimated $10,000. They were two small watercolors of Utah’s Native Americans.
Native American Indian Chiefs painted by W.W. Major
I wrote a letter to the DUP Museum officers explaining my discovery, but the research and the letter was forgotten; not long after my find, my husband died and I started my journey as a single mother and widow in 1999.
In 2012, I was contacted by a member of DUP Museum staff. They had restored the Princinda Kimball painting and it was hanging in the Kimball room on the main floor. Melanie, Hannah, Abbi and Kody went with me to see this beautiful art work. My feeling of satisfaction was immense knowing that Precinda Kimball and William Warner Major would always be remembered.
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Letter from me, sent to DUP Museum in 1999.
Oil painting of Precinda Kimball, 1850.
Significance:
There is strong evidence that this is a William Warner Major painting. The painting is the earliest portrait that can be historically dated which was started and completed in Utah.
Location:
Daughters of Utah Pioneers Museum (DUPM) in basement office, west end, top of closet.
Description:
A small child is holding a basket of roses in one hand, and a single rose in the other hand. There is a suggestion of a rose bush painted on a dark background. The painting is unframed and in critical need of restoration.
DUP Notes on painting:
Precinda [also spelled Presendia and Prescinda] Kimball, daughter of Heber C. and Precinda Huntington Kimball drowned in City Creek 8 May 1850, age 16 months.
Painting donated by Ethel Kimball Sargent.
Edith Menna stated that the portrait was painted after the girl's death. It was donated early in the DUPM's history and has been in storage there as long as she can remember. Because funds are scarce, the painting has not been restored.
Ancestral File Information:
Presendia Celestia Kimball
Born: 9 Jan 1849, Salt Lake City, Utah
Died: 9 May 1850 (Drowned)
Heber Chase Kimball and Presendia Lathrop Huntington bore two children: Presendia Celestia Kimball (see above dates) and Joseph Smith Kimball (22 December 1851). Joseph lived to father thirteen children from 1871 to 1897. It was his eighth child, Ethel Beatrice Kimball (married to Alexander H. Sargent) who donated the painting to the DUP Museum. She died in 1976. Since there is no other female child born in this family during the early pioneer era, and because the story of such a tragic accident would likely be passed down from generation to generation, it is safe to conclude that the painting is of Presendia Celestia Kimball, as family tradition states.
Historical information on Presendia Celestia Kimball:
Journal History: "Saturday, May 11. About 9 oclock a.m. a little girl, daughter of Heber C. and Prescinda Kimball, was drowned in City Creek. The little one slipped off the foot board while attempting to cross the creek by herself. The child was washed down stream two or three rods and found by a girl where the water was two or three feet deep."
History of Elder John R. Young, "After Prests. Young and Kimball moved onto their lots, this path connected their two homes. One day Aunt Prescinda Kimball's little daughter Celestia, unknown to her mother, started to go to Aunt Zina's. It was in the spring of the year, and City Creek was swollen by the melting snows. The child evidently slipped off the slab and was drowned. As soon as the family missed her, a cry of alarm was given. I was confined to the house with a painful flesh wound in my left leg. Hearing the tumult, and seeing the excited people running along the creek, I surmised what had happened. Running to the slab, I dropped into the water and was carried by the swift current to Bro. Well's lot where the fence had caught flood wood and formed a dam and eddy. I dove under the drift and finding the body, brought it to the surface and gave it to Dr. Williams, but the precious life was gone." (Journal History, 11 May 1850.)
Historical Evidence: W. W. Major entered Salt Lake September, 1848. He painted portraits and landscapes until he left on a mission on June 22, 1853.
Major had extensive experience painting portraits of children. In addition to the Scovil family (private collection), Kimball family (picture never completed, location unknown), and Young family (MCHA). Willard Richards mentions in his journal on 26 January 1846: "Bro Major in the office painting my children" (Willard Richards Journal, Church Archives). Rhoda Ann Richards, born 15 September 1843, was two years old and Heber John several years older.
Major was well acquainted with the Kimball family and they patronized his services frequently. It is likely they would have asked Major to paint a portrait of their child. Helen Mar Kimball Whitney, the daughter of Heber C. and Vilate Kimball, described Major in a personal way: "I had nearly forgotten our artist, Brother Major, from England, who commenced in the summer of 1845 to paint our family group. It was upon a large canvas, tastefully arranged, my father and mother sitting with baby in the center, myself at her side and by brother William with his wife and little daughter on the left, and four younger brothers made up the family group" (Women's Exponent, 15 Oct. 1883, 74).
Heber C. Kimball mentions Major several times in his diary: "Returned back to the Temple, put up the Looking glasses, and Maps and potrats [portraits]. As William W. Majors brought som up from his chop [shop] to Adorn our room" (December 6, 1845). Major painted portraits of Vilate and Heber C. Kimball (DUPM). Heber C. Kimball is also among the leaders portrayed in a group picture with Joseph and Hyrum (MCHA). In Salt Lake, Kimball and Major lived only a few blocks apart. Major's house was on South Temple and 3rd East. The Kimball home was between First North and North Temple and is a prominent feature in the 1852 sketch of Salt Lake (Church collection) by Major.
Major was on the Municipal High Council at Winter Quarters and the Great Salt Lake High Council. He often met with Brigham Young and the apostles and frequently spoke at conferences and church meetings with them. For example, general conference was held one week after Brigham Young's 1848 company arrived in Salt Lake. (Major was a counselor in the company presidency.) On October 29, 1848 the Journal History recorded, "The afternoon meeting was addressed by Pres. Brigham Young, Charles C. Rich, Heber C. Kimball, Wm. W. Major and Willard Snow." It is highly probable because of Major's frequent association with this family that he would have attended the funeral of Presendia Kimball and mourned with this family.
Later records show that Major was not only the artist for this family, but a close friend. The oldest son of Heber C. Kimball, William H. Kimball, was a missionary companion to Major in England from June 7 to August 13, 1854. In a letter to Brigham Young, Major wrote, "I am happy to shake hands with William Kimball today. Just arrived" (Brigham Young collection, Church Archives). William H. Kimball visited Major and gave him priesthood blessings during his long illness (which began August 13) and was devastated by Major's death on October 2, 1854.
William Kimball's letter to his father on October 3 hints of a strong bond spanning 10 years: "Through this bereavement I feel as lonely as though there was not a person within a thousand miles of me...Bro. Major's faith was stronger than that of all others in London" (Heber C. Kimball collection, Church Archives). Rather than bury Major in England, William H. Kimball ordered Major's body placed in a metal casket. The casket was shipped home with a group of emigrating Saints on the Clara Wheeler in December 1855. William H. Kimball wrote the often quoted history of William W. Major, which was published in the Millennial Star a few days after Major's death. (On the back of the photograph taken by the DUPM of the Precinda Kimball painting, someone wrote that William H. Kimball painted the picture. As far as I can tell, William H. Kimball was not a painter, but someone thought that he was associated with the creation of this painting, which is interesting in light of his strong association with Major.)
Physical Evidence: I compared the known W.W. Major works to the Presendia Kimball painting. The hands in the Presendia Kimball painting are almost identical to the hands in the Sarah Pea Rich and Jennetta Richards Richards paintings (DUPM). Major had a difficult time drawing hands: most look too smooth, long, and pointed. He didn't draw realistic or prominent muscles, wrinkles, fingernails or knuckles. The face of Presendia is quite round, like the faces of the children found in the Scovil Family painting (private collection, colored slide in MCHA library) and the baby in the Brigham Young family painting (MCHA). It is interesting to note that the rose is used as a symbol of death (or perhaps the beauty of eternity or our strong, living connection to the people beyond the veil, or the purity of the deceased) by Major in the Brigham Young family painting. Brigham Young, Jr. is offering a rose to is his twin sister, Mary Ann Young, who had died two years before the painting was created. Roses are also a prominent focus in the Presendia Kimball painting.
The canvas is old, sewn together and mended. My theory is that the child died and Major was called immediately to paint her portrait as a memory and keepsake for her distraught family. Requesting a picture of a deceased loved one was not uncommon. Some of the old daguerreotypes were taken after the subject died. They just propped up the corpse, opened his/her eyes, and snapped the picture. (The photographer certainly didn't have the problem of the subject moving around and throwing the picture out of focus!) Major didn't have time to make stretcher bars and apparently didn't even have a decent canvas. Supplies were difficult to purchase in Salt Lake in 1850! Possibly the canvas was quickly cut out from an old wagon cover. This was sometimes resorted to in other paintings which date even later than the Presendia Kimball painting (i.e. Lorenzo Dow Young portrait by Dan Weggeland DUPM).
It is likely that is was a portrait made at death and not painted from memory later on. Evidently, Major didn't paint well from memory. Jennetta Richards died when her portrait was only half finished. Ann Fox, Willard Richard's plural wife, modeled for the painting on two occasions so that Major could complete the portrait (Willard Richards's Journal, July 21, August 13, August 16, 1845, Church Archives). The background of the Presendia Kimball picture adds to the theory that this painting was done at death and in a hurry. It doesn't have Major's usual blend of colors or invented scenery. The background is too dark. The roses look quickly applied. The fact that it represents an outdoor picture is added evidence that it is a Major painting, since it is known that he painted scenery before Winter Quarters (Robert Lang Campbell wrote that he visited Major's home where he "saw some beautiful landscapes, also several profiles"), crossing the plains (Hosea Stout Journals), and later in Utah (Scenes of Parowan and Fillmore, 1852 and Brigham Young in the Utah Legion Uniform).
There was only one feature that did not compare well with other Major art works: the feet! Major painted feet that no human could walk on. They are too small in proportion to the body and are so narrow that they would cripple any toes stuffed in shoes that pointed (see Brigham Young Family, Brigham Young in Utah Legion Uniform, Scovil Family). The feet in this picture appear too large for the body! This is an unusual feature for Major.
Summary : The evidence is overwhelming in favor of William Warner Major creating the Presendia Kimball painting.
1) Major was available when the portrait was painted and he lived near the Kimball family.
2) As far as I have been able tell, there were no other practicing portrait painters in the area at the time of Presendia's death.
3) There were no other known portrait painters associated with the Kimball family during this time period.
4) Major was commissioned to paint several portraits of Heber C. Kimball and his family and was called, "our artist" by Kimball's daughter. He also associated with the family because of his leadership responsibilities and as a friend.
5) Major often painted children.
6) Presendia looks like the children in other Major paintings.
7) Major's style is obvious, especially the hands.
8) Roses were used as a symbol of death in the Brigham Young family painting by Major and are a central feature of the Presendia Kimball painting.
Recommendation: This portrait is extremely valuable to Utah history (because of the unique circumstances attached to the painting) and art. Funds should be obtained as soon as possible to restore it!
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