William Threet Poe
1817-1884
Known as "Judge Poe" within the Belfast, Arkansas
community and as "Uncle Billy" among family
Judge Poe ran the one "general" store in
Belfast and served as Justice of the Peace and Postmaster.
The original was composed of
charcoal on paperboard 16 x 20 inches. It was displayed in an oak frame
with painted plaster molding. In the early 1990s the paperboard crumbled into
dust. Luckily, professional negatives were made in 1986. This digital image is
a scan of a print from the 1986 negative
This portrait, along with
the portrait of John Poe and
Sarah Threet hung in the Benton, Arkansas home of Sarah Alma Poe Walton
(1883-1969), great-granddaughter of John and Sarah. Alma likely had possession
from 1929, when her father, William Elkin Poe, died until they were given in
the 1940s to her brother (my grandfather), Samuel Arthur Poe (1882-1947). Since
that time, the images have been in my family’s possession. For Alma and my
grandfather, there was no doubt that the image of the double portrait represents
the parents of the man in the single image and that they were direct ancestors.
Given the analysis below, suggesting that the portrait of John and Sarah was
manufactured in the 1890s, I believe that my great-grandfather, William Elkin
Poe (1852-1929) had both images made by a studio Little Rock shortly after
relocating there from the Belfast Community about 1892. The portraits would
have been based on older images he possessed, the whereabouts of which are
unknown.
Given the family history of
the portraits, there can be little doubt about the identity of the people they
portray.
Analysis in March 2004, by
Maureen Taylor, a columnist with Family
Tree Magazine, suggests this image was produced in the 1890s. She bases
this conclusion on the garment worn by the woman in the image, which Ms. Taylor
states is a style worn in the 1890s. One bit of evidence that I observe, suggesting
that the garment was added to the portrait, is that the rendering around the
woman’s neckline is done in crude black lines, as if the artist did not know
how to work the shading that would result on the neck from such an outfit, or
that the garment was added to the face in a “paper doll” manner. It is possible
the artist even updated the hairstyle as the one presented is said my Ms.
Taylor to be more common to the 1890s.
Ms. Taylor describes these
types of charcoal enhanced images in her article at this link:
http://www.familytreemagazine.com/photos/may15-00.htm