Thank you Old Stone House Museum for pictures and information. This portrait was painted of Theda Grout Wellman who lived from 1798-1839, and painted by Walter Ingalls. Theda was the wife of a well known minister, Reverend Jubilee Wellman. Jubilee was the first minister in Lowell, Vermont. Lowell, Vermont is located about 20 miles West of Brownington, Vermont, where Alexander Twilight lived at the time. There is some evidence that suggests that the Wellmans had a daughter named Theodocia. Theda had a portrait painted of her and a baby, who we suspect was Theodocia. At some point the baby was painted out of the portrait. If you look at it from the right angle you can see the shadow of the “ghost baby”. Nobody knows why the baby was painted out but we have many theories. There are some records of Theda having a baby, though we don’t know if this was Theodocia who died at 24. Maybe Theda was so sad about Theodocia that she couldn't bare to have to look at a portrait of her and her deceased baby that she hired someone to paint her out. Another theory is that it was a pre-used canvas- many canvases back then had something already painted on it, since they were hard to acquire, so the artist might have painted over someone else's prior painting. This simply could have been an accident, but this does not explain the fact that Theda certainly seems to be holding the baby. Photos and info courtesy of the Old Stone House Museum In 1827, a woman named Lydia Baxter’s husband William died. She was left widowed at the age of 48 and attempted to commit suicide when the life without her dear husband became too much to bear. Due to that failed attempt, she was not allowed to attend her public church anymore. Lydia’s public church happened to be run by Alexander Twilight at the time. Twilight agreed that suicide was not an acceptable concept at that time and signed the meeting minutes that declared Lydia to be ex-communicated. After being thrown out of her own community, she went to live with one of her children and she, eventually, passed away. To this day forward, she comes to Athenian Hall, Alexander Twilight’s dormitory* for the students at his school, and haunts the upper floors, where her husband’s painting is hung. *We will talk about this in future blog posts Subscribe to our newsletter! Happy Halloween! Esme and Gabby
1 Comment
Jennifer
11/4/2018 06:45:22 am
What a great tie-in as a platform for telling those two stories! Thanks for sharing compelling stories that also offer insight into the general mindset of 19th century Vermonters. It sounds like you two have maintained a great on-going relationship with the folks at the Old Stone House Museum! So great!
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AuthorsGabrielle and Esme have been researching Twilight thoroughly for three years. They started off working on their Vermont History presentation and eventually ended up, more recently, presenting at Boston History Camp in Boston, Mass. Archives
December 2019
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