2005 Year in Review

Harriet's Beautiful Bequest

John A. Toman presents Historical Society president Judy McCulloh with Harriet Schaver's bequest.

“It is…better to give unasked, through understanding,” spoke Kahlil Gibran.

Harriet Alys Schaver, longtime Fulton resident, understood this. She arranged for the bequest of an oil painting to Morrison’s Heritage Museum upon her death.

Schaver left documentation about this colorful landscape of Annan’s Mill at Unionville, now the west end of Morrison, so people would have its history after she was gone. In July, she told a friend, John A. Toman, of her intention to leave the painting to the Morrison Historical Society because of its subject matter. Finally, she made sure her grown children knew of her desire to place this painting in Morrison’s Heritage Museum.

Daughters Willa Kay Brown and Ruby Dell Feeley and son Calvin William Schaver honored their mother’s wish within a week of her passing on July 29, 2005. They gave the framed oil painting to Toman, who presented it to Judy McCulloh, Historical Society Board president, on August 5.

Titled “Down by the Old Millstream,” this signed artwork was painted by Ida Panther in January 1946. Harriet Schaver told Toman it was based on a 1911 postcard of the grist mill on Rock Creek. The colors remain bright and fresh, even though it was painted 59 ½ years ago.

Museums always enjoy knowing how and when an artifact was created or used. Brown included additional provenance: “Claus and Harriet (Green) Schaver lived on the Simpson farm in Garden Plain Township from 1947 to 1964. The farm was owned by Nettie Rowland, [of] Morrison, Illinois. Ida Panther was Nettie’s niece. Ida eventually became the owner of the Simpson farm. She gave my parents the mill painting in 1964.”

The Morrison Historical Society treasures Harriet Shaver’s generous gift, as we do all donations to the local museum. Our duty is to preserve and share items of Morrison’s heritage. We understand the importance of such a bequest and are grateful to generous donors like Harriet Schaver.

by Stephanie A. Vavra, Guest Columnist
August 6, 2005