William Dwight Wiman

  • By Gretchen Frick Small
  • •
  • 06 May, 2020
  • •
William and his father Erastus and a sister
William and his brother Harry(?) in 1881. William was about 20 years old
I do a lot of research on the Butterworth and Deere-Wiman homes. Also, on my radar is John Deere, his children and their children. On top of that, I have created files on the people who married into the family or worked for the family.

One such person that has always fascinated me is William Wiman. In 1890, he married Anna Deere, the oldest daughter of Charles and Mary Deere. That alone makes him worth studying, but I also find him interesting for some of the adventures he undertook during his life. Before we can get to some of the interesting elements, we need to go back to the beginning.

William was born May 14, 1860, in Toronto, Canada, to Erastus Wiman and Elinor Galbraith Wiman. We are lucky to have several photographs of William as a young child. We also have a lovely white linen sailor suit worn by him in the mid-1860s. 

His father, Erastus, was initially involved in the newspaper business. Then he began working for R.G. Dunn and Co. He ended up moving his family to Staten Island, NY, to become the general manager of the R.G. Dunn’s, New York office. Erastus Wiman also has an interesting history, but I will save that for a future blog.
1885 Lehigh Yearbook - cover of yearbook
William listed under Advanced Electricity
Drawing of Sir Francis Bolton

William’s formative years were in New York and he graduated from Lehigh University in 1885, in electrical engineering. Electricity was in its early heyday and this appealed to William. New inventions using electricity were constantly appearing. After graduation, he worked under several inventors using his degree in electrical engineering. Which leads me to one of the first pieces of William Wiman’s history that I find fascinating.

From an October 8, 1890 Rock Island Argus, we see: For two years, he put in 10 hours a day, in a pair of overalls, as a common working man in the Edison establishment. Quote “Mr. Edison, who has a deep interest in him declares that his knowledge of electricity is much more profound and far-reaching than that of any other young man who has gone out from that shop”.

In 1886, William also learned much from other inventors when he spent four months in Europe. One inventor was Sir Francis Bolton, who created a design for displays of colored water fountains with electric lights. One note I found, said that upon William’s return to the United States, he installed the first electric fountain in America, on Staten Island. I have not been able to verify this and have read conflicting information. This still makes for a great story.

During this same period, William began working as the Treasurer and Manager of the Staten Island Electric Power Company.

Stay tuned for my next blog that will take us to Chicago to learn another fascinating story from William Wiman’s history.

Royal Experiences for the Deere Family: Part II

By Gretchen Frick Small • July 27, 2023
The experiences that Katherine Deere Butterworth and Charles and Pattie Wiman had with the British Royal family in the 1920s, 30s.

Royal Experiences for the Deere Family

By Gretchen Frick Small • February 23, 2023
Americans’ fascination with the British royal family is not a recent phenomenon. With the death of Queen Elizabeth in 2022, we have been flooded with royal news. One historian places this interest back to 1776.

Alexander F. Harmer

By Gretchen Frick Small • April 29, 2022
If you have not watched any of our YouTube videos at our channel Deere Family Homes, we encourage you to check out the April 2022 video. The video features the story of one painting hanging in the Deere-Wiman House. The painting’s artist is Alexander Harmer.

We are lucky to have four paintings in our collection that were created by Harmer. It made sense for us to learn more about Harmer and see if we could determine why we have so many paintings from one artist. I love all four pieces and wanted to know more about the artist and determine if there was a connection to the family. Three of the paintings hang in the Deere-Wiman House and one at Butterworth Center. So, it was not just one family member that took an interest in his work.

We know that William and Anna Wiman moved to Santa Barbara in the 1890s. Then about 1906-07, William and his sons moved back to Moline following Anna’s death. The Santa Barbara house was still owned by the family, and by 1914, Katherine and William Butterworth began to use the house. In addition to the house in Santa Barbara, the Butterworths also owned a residence in the San Marcos Pass area. Mrs. Butterworth continued to spend part of the winter in Santa Barbara until her death in 1953. We also know that Charles Deere Wiman and his family had a home in the area, as early as the 1920s.

Did any of the family know Alexander Harmer? We wish we knew. It is possible since Harmer’s life in Santa Barbara does overlap with the Butterworth and Wiman families. Or maybe the family did not know Harmer but was drawn to his art and purchased pieces through art dealers.

Alexander Francis Harmer was born in 1856, in Newark, New Jersey. One source I read said that he sold his first work at the age of 11 for $2. Then at the age of 16, he lied about his age and joined the United States Army. He was stationed in California, which I think is the time period his artistic interests changed. He turned towards painting and illustrating the Apache Nation. The year would have been 1872, and the US Army would have had a large presence in the West with the enforcement of federal Indian policy (which consisted of allotment of land and assimilation.)

After just one year, Harmer asked for a discharge and left the military. He worked as a photographer’s assistant until he was able to enroll in art school. He studied art under Thomas Eakins and Thomas Anshutz at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Art. In 1881, he re-enlisted in the Army and headed to his assignment at Fort Apache, Arizona. Harmer probably saw the Army as a cheap way of traveling West to continue his interest in the American West and the Apache Indians. During this enlistment, he was able to serve in an Army division assigned to pursue Geronimo. His studies of Indian life created an invaluable record. Harmer then returned to the academy in Pennsylvania where he turned his sketches of the Apache Nation into illustrations for Harper’s Weekly.

In 1891, Harmer returned to California, and in 1893, he married Felicidad Abadie. The Abadie family was one of the pioneering California families. The couple settled in Santa Barbara, which led to Harmer being remembered as “Southern California’s first great painter of the 19th Century." At this time, his work revolved around a series of paintings of the Old California missions under Mexican rule. They resided on De La Guerra Plaza, which included the Adabie family home. From 1908 through the 1920s, Harmer established the first art colony on the West coast. Studios were added to the Spanish-Colonial adobe home of the Harmers, where many up and coming artists worked.
Alexander Harmer died on January 10, 1925, supposedly while admiring the sunset from his backyard. This was just six months before the Santa Barbara earthquake, which left the Harmers' adobes in ruins.

All four paintings are signed Alex. F. Harmer, but only two are dated. Below are photographs of the four paintings in the collection.

 Inside the Butterworth Garage

By Gretchen Small • February 25, 2022
Butterworth Garage, circa 1909, now known as the Butterworth Education Center. Let’s go inside the building beginning with the addition constructed in 2009

The History of the Butterworth Garage

By Gretchen Small • October 27, 2021
The History of the Butterworth Garage’s

Deere-Wiman House 1917 Swimming Pool

By Gretchen Frick Small • August 20, 2021
Click here to view a new video on our YouTube Channel featuring the Swimming Pool built in 1917 on the Deere-Wiman House grounds. https://youtu.be/NgV6XUEkrLs

The Deere Family and The Hotel Colorado

By Gretchen Small • May 28, 2021
A trip to a hot spring was very popular during the late 1800s and early 1900s. The healing waters were a popular destination for families, the wealthy, and the famous.

Ruth Vendala Marie Moll, Part II

By Gretchen Small • April 26, 2021
Ruth Moll's life at Hillcrest, both with Katherine and William Butterworth and as the first Director of Butterworth Center.

Ruth Vendla Marie Moll

By Gretchen Small • March 24, 2021
Ruth Moll's wonderful stories about life at Hillcrest

Mollie and John Capris

By Gretchen Frick Small • February 22, 2021
John Deere brought a family here named Capus. He built a house for them near his home. They joined the First Methodist Church.
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