American Friends of Puttenham
BULLETIN OF THE AMERICAN FRIENDS OF PUTTENHAM
VOLUME X, NUMBER 2
OCTOBER, 1993
IN MEMORIAM
Ralph F. Henn, M.D., husband of member Mary Gallagher Henn, M.D., died suddenly at age 45 in Wisconsin early this past summer. He is survived by his wife and five children. Dr. Henn was an outstanding young doctor and will be sorely missed by his family and by the community that he served.
It is with great sadness that we report the recent death of member Lester Putnam of Sidney, Mt. Lester was one of the first members of the AFOP in 1984 and his humorous letters were a joy to receive.
A MUCH NEEDED EXPLANATION
Publication of our Bulletin has been seriously delayed in 1993 by that well-known phenomenon, the busy life of a supposedly retired editor. This really is only the second issue for the year, a fact that is somewhat obscured by the first issue having been misidentified as the May, 1992 issue. Of more importance is the effect of this delay on the dates of membership renewals. All memberships have been extended by eight months to compensate for the missing issues.
PUTNAMS IN THE NEWS
Congratulations to Edward W. and Michele Mateo Putnam of Yardley, Pa., on the birth of their daughter, Hannah Elizabeth Putnam, on Aug. 20, 1993. Hannah is the granddaughter of member Evelyn Putnam of Austin, Pa. and the late E. Allan Putnam. She also is the fifth great-granddaughter of another Hannah Putnam, born about 1712.
The Charlotte (N.C.) Observer of May 17, 1993, reported that AFOP member Professor Jeremiah Putnam received the Hunter-Hamilton "Love of Teaching" award at Davidson College's commencement on May 16. At the award ceremony Professor Putnam was characterized as follows. "Wise, perceptive and discerning, this year's Love of Teaching Award recipient has been affectionately known by his students of the last twenty years as "The Sage." His teaching blends the wisdom of the ages, from Aristotle to Darwin, with the pragmatism, wit and humor of Texas. In the classroom, the gleam of his eyes and his contagious smile instill a love of learning and discovery in even the most skeptical students. As one student stated, 'you want to show him that his hard work and his obvious love and excitement for his field are not unnoticed, but captivating and inspirational.'"
Professor Putnam is the second member of the Davidson faculty to have been granted this award.
At an early stage in Caroline and my flying careers we helped the Ohio Soil Conservation people by conducting aerial investigation of oil wells too far back in the woods to permit easy on-site inspection. One day, upon discovering what appeared to be a marijuana field hidden inside a large corn field, we decided that this was too dangerous a game to play. The correctness of this judgement was born out in a report in the July 21st issue of an unidentified Ohio newspaper entitled: "Armored vest saved aerial .drug hunter". The first part of this story goes as follows: "Special Deputy Tom Putnam puts on his bulletproof vest when he flies his plane to search for marijuana fields in southern Ohio. He was thankful for that vest Saturday. Putnam was making a pass about 550 feet above a wooded area in Highland County to give his spotter a closer look at a marijuana field when he heard a crack and felt a sting near his elbow. It was a bullet which hit him just above the elbow and then was stopped by the vest." The marijuana field was subsequently destroyed but the gunman escaped detection.
PUTNAM GIFT TO THE NATURE CONSERVANCY
In 1991 the Nature Conservancy launched "Last Great Places: An Alliance for People and the Environment," an initiative to save 75 ecosystems throughout the Western Hemisphere and the Pacific. The following account of how this program came to be was published in the May/June, 1993, issue of their magazine, "NATURE CONSERVANCY"
"The single largest gift to The Campaign for Last Great Places - $37 million from the Putnam family of Cleveland, Ohio, through the Mildred Andrews Fund - represents the commitment of a mother and son.
Their gift is already at work at such wetlands as Little Pecan Island, La., Morgan Swamp, Ohio, and the Platte River, Ne., as well as the Gray Ranch, N.M., and the Tallgrass Prairie Preserve, in Osage County, Ok. The Putnams were especially fond of wetlands. Residual funds ftom the estate are expected to benefit a program for the Great Lakes ecosystem.
In recognition, The Nature Conservancy has set aside the more than 700-acre Sheldon Marsh preserve, at the eastern end of Sandusky Bay, in Ohio, to be known as the John B. and Mildred A. Putnam Memorial Preserve.
The mother, Mildred Andrews Putnam, who died in 1984, at age 90, was a philanthropist and wife of John B. Putnam, a prominent Cleveland lawyer. Interested in sculpture and art, she and her family were benefactors of several institutions, including Princeton University, where the John B. Putnam Jr. Memorial Collection includes sculptures by Pablo Picasso, Jacques Lipchitz and Henry Moore.
A quiet, independent woman, Mrs. Putnam had a deep appreciation of nature. Her Ohio home fronted on Lake Erie, and her husband often hunted on Sandusky Bay. Her interest in the Conservancy grew over the years through the efforts of staff and trustees.
In her will, Mrs. Putnam stipulated that if anything happened to her remaining child, Peter, before her own death, the bulk of her estate would go to the Conservancy. The son survived, however, inheriting control of his mother's estate. A Princeton-educated physicist, Peter Putnam taught at Union Theological Seminary and wrote extensively on the relationship between moral and natural law. He was also an astute investor. Applying his own strategies, he tripled the value of the estate to some $40 million.
But Peter eschewed the trappings of wealth. He lived modestly in Houma, La., where his mother also maintained a home and accompanied him on boating trips down the bayous. By then, he, too, had become interested in the Conservancy, often expressing his admiration for the organization's efficiency.
In December 1987, less than four years after his mother's death, Peter was struck by a car and killed in Louisiana (ed. note: while bicycling home from his job as a night-janitor). Carrying out his mother's intentions, he directed that the bulk of the Mildred Andrews Fund be distributed to the Conservancy.
Emboldened by the Putnam legacy, the Board of Governors set its unprecedented goal $300 million for The Campaign for Last Great Places."
I received no less than thirteen reports of this interesting story from our members. These were somewhat redundant since my wife and I are members of The Conservancy. However, one from Mrs. Cleaveland Putnam of Tucson, Az., was so interesting that it needs to be repeated here.
"Thought you might be interested in the enclosed story from The Nature Conservancy Magazine - the Putnam name jumped out at me! While I do not know these people, I felt a definite coincidence - a forebear of my husband, General Cleaveland, founded the city we know today as Cleveland. (The story goes that the 'A' was dropped for the reasons of space on a newspaper masthead!)
In any case, it occurred to me that since a Putnam legacy is doing such good work in the "Last Great Places" project, perhaps the Friends of Puttenham would like to join the ranks of donors - no contribution is too small, every little bit helps.
I have just become a Conservancy Life Member - through the Arizona Chapter - and feel that it's a real honor and privilege to help preserve the lands that made it possible for our (Putnam) ancestors to prosper"
In its Friday, June 25, 1993, edition, the Financial Times (London) reported a bizarre sequel to the above story. "Five years ago, a "Triumph of Death" was found hanging in the bedroom of Peter Putnam. The large canvas was clearly an old copy of Breughel the Elder's famous painting in the Prado - dirty, damaged, and badly repainted in the last century. Cleaning has now revealed it to be a signed and dated version by Breugel's son, Pieter II. On June 18, it went on view at the Museum Mayer van den Bergh in Antwerp until May next year." The article goes on to give a great deal of family and art information as well as an estimate of $8-10 million for the value of Pieter II's painting.
Can one of our members identify this important Cleveland family for us?
A FAMILY'S TRAGEDIES IN WEST VIRGINIA
Life in West Virginia always has been hard. It also has been quite dangerous because of a continuing dependence on the timber and coal industries. A Family Group sheet submitted by member Marjorie Mayes of Elizabeth, W. Va., illustrates just how dangerous life could be. Marjorie is a descendant of John Jeptha Putnam who removed from Sutton, Massachusetts, to Bath County, Virginia, sometime before 1796. His great grandson, Charles Francisco Putnam, was born in Bath County. in 1849 and married Keziah Rowe in 1870. The couple had eleven children all born between 1871 and 1891 in Virginia. A hint of things to come occurred in 1894 when their 10th child, Maggie Cecile, died from burns suffered when her clothes caught fire. Maggie was 4 years old. The family then moved to West Virginia where five sons were killed in accidents! In 1901 Ezekiel Bernard(age 23) was killed in a railroad derailment; in 1909 Winfield Vance(age 29) died in a coal mine slate fall; in 1925, 1944 and 1945, Walter Wiley(age 34), Charles A. (age 61) and Robert William(age 69) all were killed in railroad accidents. It is likely that all the railroad accidents involved coal trains.
KEEPING MEMORIES GREEN
Probably the most famous American bearing our name was General Israel Putnam of Revolutionary War fame. Hardly a month goes by but what your editor receives something in the mail related to the man or to his descendants. Recently two ideas have been called to my attention that need to be shared with our membership.
Member Abbott Putnam of Columbus, Ohio, suggests that Israel's life would make an excellent TV movie or documentary. To quote Abbott, "Here is a man who fought in two wars, was almost burned at the stake, traveled the Ohio-Mississippi River system, killed a wolf in its den, and freed a slave from his Spanish owner". Also, he was the subject of three very famous paintings and his part in the battle of Bunker Hill would be an especially moving climax to such a program. I wonder if our distant relative, movie producer David Puttnam, would be inclined toward the task?
Member Haven Putnam, Jr., of San Diego, Ca., a descendant of the founders of both the Putnam Publishing Co. and the Ballentine Brewing Co., has noted the following from an article in the Smithsonian. "In colonial days, inns were often named after British royalty, aristocracy, or military figures. But as Revolutionary sentiment spread, these became unpopular; one surviving sign, bearing a likeness of the Duke of Cumberland, is neatly pierced by a patriot's musket ball. The names of American heroes like Washington and Franklin began to replace the old loyalist symbols on inn signs, but not entirely; a few named for General Wolfe survive, one of them from a tavern owned by ... Israel Putnam". Haven plans to go into production of a "micro-beer" named "Israel Putnam's Continental Style Ale." As a devoted consumer of these throwbacks to the high quality of earlier days, I can see immediate success in Haven's endeavor!
FOR SALE
The following add appeared in "Country Living" for May, 1993. Thanks to member Ed Putnam of Oak Harbor, Oh., for the ad and for the suggestion that the AFOP take advantage of the offer.
"The General Rufus Putnam House"- A museum-quality 1750 residence highlights this fine 7 acre estate. The carefully updated house contains 10 rooms, 8 working fireplaces, and irreplaceable architectural details. A pool, kennel, horse shelter, workshop, and 3-car garage are on the grounds. Proximity to Sturbridge Village invites bed-and-breakfast possibility. $389,000. Margaret Lowe, Realtor, Shrewsbury, Mass."
NEW MEMBERS
New members welcomed to the American Friends of Puttenham since the May issue are:
Robert E. Putnam, Editor, 100 Alden Ave., Marietta, Ohio 45750