| Notes |
- . Son of Judge Samuel Barnes Gookins & Mary Caroline Osborn Gookins.
Husband of Cora Donnelly Gookins.
Father of Shirlaw & Marguerite. Artist.
Samuel apprenticed himself to John W. Osborn, editor & publisher of the Western Presbyterian, the first newspaper published in Terre Haute. Samuel intended to pursue a career as a journalist & became engaged to John Osborn’s daughter, Mary, but was persuaded by Amos Kinney, a Judge of the Circuit Court, to pursue the legal profession & he entered Judge Kinney’s office.[5] Samuel served as postmaster of Ripley County in Delaware in 1851 before his election to the Indiana Legislature in 1852 & his appointment in1854 to the Superior Court of Indiana, where he served for three years.
Ref: Illinois Historial Art Project.
. 1875 Jun 25 - Wabash College of New Haven, The reunions of the literary societies followed. President of the Lyceum & Hon Newton Morgan, of the Calliopean. xx that the life-size portrait of Prof. John S Campbell to be painted by James F Gookins, of Chicago, be secured & hunt in the society hall. Campbell & Gooks are alumni both of the college & the society. The portrait will cost $1,400.
Ref: Cincinnati Daily Gazette.
. Muster: Fifer, Co. I, 11th Indiana Volunteer Infantry (3 Months Service). Remains interred in grave.
. James Farrington Gookins, b in Terre Haute, Ind., Dec 30, 1840, d at Hotel Navarre, New York city, May 23, 1904. He was educated at Wabash College, Crawfordsville, Ind., & received MA degree, 1877. He enlisted, Apr 1861, in Col Lew Wallace's 11th Indiana Regt., & was assigned staff duty in General Wallace's Hq, Apr 1862. He was artist correspondent for Harper's Weekly at various times from 1861 to 1874 in this country & abroad. James F. studied art at the Royal Academy, Munich, Bavaria as a pupil of Rab Wagner & Carl von Piloty, 1870-74, & also in Paris; London & Vienna. He was asst. commissioner of the Vienna Exposition in 1873. A charter member of the Chicago Academy of Design, he was Director 1875-78 & again 1881-83. He was founder of the Indiana School of Art in Indianapolis & director of it, 1877-80. He authored the Lakefront plan for the World's Fair in Chicago & promoted legislation therefor from 1882 to 1892. He acted as secretary of the Indiana State Soldier's & Sailor's Monument commission at Indianapolis from 1887 to 1889. From time to time he contributed articles on art & kindred subjects to many American & European newspapers & periodicals.
From 1893 to his death in 1904 his time was largely spent in preliminary work in the formulation & financing of the enterprises of the Chicago Subway Arcade & Traction Co. of which he was general manager. The claim has been made that the 53 miles of subway in place in 1926 was the result of a theft of his original plans for a freight subway in Chicago.
He has been said by critics of art to have been one of the world's greatest painters of flowers, though trained as a figure & portrait painter. He took great delight in painting flora & the illustration of legends of fair mythology. With Walter Shirlaw, he made 2 trips from Chicago to the Rocky mountains after the Civil War, for the purposes of study. He was the first to paint a picture of the mountain of the Holy Cross, & was noted for his landscapes of the Rockies, & of the Swiss & Italian Alps. Among civic interests he was instrumental in securing adoption of legislation to build the Indiana State House; induced Stuyesant Fish, president of the Illinois Central RR, to build a sea wall which made possible the creation of Chicago's lake front park; & he gave Marshall Field the idea of the great Field Museum on the Lake-front. From 1861 to his death he was afflicted with a partial lack of hearing & chronic neuralgia arising from Civil War injuries.
. 1870 June 14 at the First Congregational Church at Terre Haute, he m. Cora Donnelly, dau. of Peter Metz & Matilda Donnolly. She had the reputation of being a great beauty & was painted several times by her husband as well as several of the great Munich painters, among them Piloty.
Three of his portraits of her are now in the Sheldon Swepe Art Gallery in Terre Haute.
Cora was b July 18, 1847 & died in Chicago, Aug 1, 1917. Issue: i. Shirlaw Donnelly, b Munich, Bavaria, Sept 16, 1873, m in Chicago, Sept 22, 1917, Alto Close Chamberlin, dau of George Boyd & Mary Virginia Chamberlin of La Fayette, Ind. & Chicago.
ii. Marguerite Ethel, b Chicago, Jan 9, 1877, d in Chicago, Mar 22, 1914. M in Chicago, 1913, Benjamin J. Jorris.
iii. Samuel Barnes, b Chicago, 1880, d about July 1881.
. (Data from a MS by Shirlaw D. Gookins, dated Apr 2, 1926 - this MS is in the Terre Haute, Ind. Public Library. See also: Burnet, Art & Artists of Indiana, p 84, 115-121. 173, 371).
Ref: An historical & genealogical sketch of the Gookin family of England, Ireland, & America. Gookins, Richard N. (Richard Newton, 1921-(Main Author) 1697853 Item 11 pg. 65 22. - - -
|
1840 - 1904 (63 years)