John B. Tisdale, Belle Tisdale's uncle, died in Kushla, Mobile County, Alabama, on February 3, 1885. His obituary appeared on page 1 of the New Orleans Times-Picayune on February 5, 1885. He was the last of B. F. Tisdale's siblings to die.
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| John B. Tisdale Obituary |
Transcription:
MOBILE
Death of John B. Tisdale.
{Special to the Picayune.}
Mobile, Ala., Feb. 4. - The old citizens are dropping off very rapidly. Several have died during the last ten days, and this afternoon another well-known name was added to the mortuary list. John B. Tisdale, a native of North Carolina, but for forty years a resident of Mobile, died at Kushla, a few miles north of Mobile, at 3 0'clock, aged 62 years. He had been sick for a long time.
Early in life he took part in Doniphan's celebrated exploring expedition into Mexico and was in that country when the United States declared war. He served as surgeon to a Missouri regiment. Afterwards returning to Mobile, he entered the cotton business and continued until the civil war. He served in the Home Guard during that struggle. Soon after he was elected Tax Assessor of the county, and was often re-elected. He was connected with the office up to three years ago. He was a man generally liked for his many admirable qualities.
Early research in the New Orleans Public Library by my mother had found that John B. Tisdale was listed in The New York Historical Society Dictionary of Artists of America, 1564-1860, by George Grace:
p.631-532 Tisdale, John B. Portrait Painter born about 1822 probably in Mobile, Alabama. Early in 1844 Tisdale became acquainted with Alfred S. Waugh in Mobile. They worked together there for nearly a year then moved to New Orleans and St. Louis. They hoped to join Fremont's third expedition as artists but were turned down and from July 1845 to June 1847 they divided their time between Independence and Lexington, Missouri. From June 1845 to June 1847 Tisdale served as a private in Doniphan's Regiment Missouri Mounted Volunteers seeing service in New Mexico and California. A sketch of "The Volunteer" which appeared in Hughes' Account of the Doniphan Expedition with the signature: J. D. Tisdell was undoubtedly the work of Tisdale. By 1855 Tisdale was back in Mobile where he seems to have spent the rest of his life. In later years he served as deputy sheriff and county assessor. His name disappears from the Mobile directory after 1855. McDermott, Travels in Search of the Elephant," Hughes "Doniphan's Expedition" xii-xiii, Information from records in the Adjutant Generals Office, Dept. of Army, National Archives. [Vera Begue Booksh papers]
Later research turned up more information about Waugh and Tisdale in American Portrait Miniatures in the Manney Collection by Dale Johnson, 1990:
Alfred S. Waugh (ca.1810-1856) p. 228
An itinerant sculptor, portrait and miniature painter profile maker, writer, and lecturer, Alfred Waugh was a native of Ireland, He studied sculpture in Dublin in 1827 and toured the Continent before coming to the United States. He was working in Baltimore in 1833, Raleigh in 1838, various parts of Alabama in 1842, and Pensacola in 1843. He painted a miniature of John C. Calhoun in Mobile in 1844. Waugh joined forces with a young artist, John B. Tisdale (ca 1822-ca 1885), in making colored profile portraits; the two took a studio in New Orleans for five months but were barely able to cover their expenses. They traveled north to St. Louis, hoping to join John Charles Fremont's expedition to the Rocky Mountains as recording artists, but their petition was not accepted. Next they traveled through Missouri taking profiles and painting miniatures in Jefferson City, Independence, and Lexington. When Tisdale joined the Missouri Mounted Volunteers in 1846, Waugh went to Santa Fe and then to Boonville, Missouri, for a year before settling permanently in St. Louis in 1848. He spent his time sculpting, lecturing, and writing articles about art. His autobiography, “Travels in Search of the Elephant: The Wanderings of Alfred S. Waugh, Artist in Louisiana, Missouri, and Santa Fe, in 1845-1846,” of which only the first part survives, was published almost one hundred years after his death (edited by John F. McDermott [St. Louis: Missouri Historical Society, 1951]) [This book is available to read at the Hathi Trust Digital Library website]
In his Journal Alfred Waugh writes about meeting John Tisdale:
"Some time in the early part of the year 1844 I became acquainted with a young man of (what is termed) smartness, he had a bold, manly, and prepossessing air, well calculated to win the friendship of most persons. He called on me one afternoon with a small picture, painted by himself, and which he wished to shew me and get some advice about the colering. It pleased me and after some conversation I invited him to renew his visits, promising to give him all the assistance I could in an art in which he seemed born to succeed. He came again, and again, and we became friends."
Waugh decided to travel for a couple of years and invited John to join him. Their first stop was New Orleans where they opened a studio on St. Charles Street. They barely made enough with their art to make expenses and began making plans to head up the Mississippi River to Missouri to join Fremont's expedition. They packed up all their "pictures and properties" and forwarded them to Jacob Magee of Mobile, John Tisdale's brother-in-law. On May 8 they boarded a steam boat for Missouri and their adventures began.
Waugh's writing is colorful and detailed and contains many stories about Alfred and John's adventures in Missouri as they proceeded on horseback to try to join Fremont. Waugh writes:
“On the morning of the first July (the anniversary of my birth day) I was awake and out before sunrise. Tisdale who prides himself on his acquaintance with camp usages, made himself quite at home, and undertook the preparation of our breakfast, with all the sang froid of a great artist......Now, Tisdale is a good hunter and extremely fond of the chase, and is, indeed, as excellent fellow in a camp hunt, as can be found, besides being a good shot with the rifle, and has no lack [of] courage.”
In spite of their efforts to join Fremont's expedition they were turned down and spent the next year in Missouri, on artistic pursuits. Waugh says, "Tisdale in the mean time had completed the miniature of Palmer and afterward painted one of a lady. Both these productions of friend Jack gave much satisfaction, and I was highly gratified by hearing them spoken of in terms of praise."
Later Waugh writes, "...during the month I had been away that Jack had exerted himself manfully in miniature painting, in fact, had been more industrious after my leaving him, then while we were together. I found that he had produced some really fine paintings on ivory, very superior to any thing from his pencil which I had before."
Waugh and Tisdale said goodbye in Lexington. Waugh writes:
"With a heavy heart I shook hands with my friends and mounting my horse bid adieu to them and left Lexington for Independence, for the last time, as I supposed. I need not say that our parting was sad, Jack and I had been companions for some time; it was principally to gratify him, that I thought of going with Fremont, and for him I would have done almost anything. We had come thus far together, and now we were separated, perhaps for ever. In future he was to paddle his own canoe, and I to continue a Wandering Artist with no relative on the whole continent of North America to make me forget that I was a stranger in the land."
In 1846 John Tisdale joined Doniphan's Regiment of Missouri Mounted Volunteers as mentioned in his obituary. In 1847 he returned to Mobile and on February 15, 1849 he married widow Virginia Tardy VanCleek Read. Virginia's first two husbands had died.
John and Virginia are listed on the 1850 US Census living in Mobile with her two children, L. A. Tisdale, age 14, (son of Henry VanCleek) and Henrietta Tisdale, age 5, (daughter of Joshua Henry Read). In 1860 the children are listed with their correct surnames, now ages 20 and 14. John and Virginia are listed in the 1870 and 1880 censuses still in the Mobile area. After John's death, Virginia applied for a military pension in February 1887, but she died in October the same year. Her obituary appeared in the New Orleans Times Picayune in a column that strangely starts with a description of the arrival of the steamship L. D. Barker.
[Virginia Tisdale obituary transcription]
Times-Picayune (New Orleans, LA), Monday, October 10, 1887, Page 1
MOBILE
A Steamer from New York – Death of Venerable Residents.
Mobile, Ala., Oct. 9.---[Special.]---The steamship L. D. Barker, from New York, came up to the wharf this morning, with a full assorted cargo, mostly for points on the Alabama river. While at the wharf, a difficulty occurred between Richard McCurdy, the mate, and one of the seamen, when McCurdy knocked the latter down. McCurdy was susbsequently arrested on a charge of assault and battery....
The funeral of Mrs. Virginia M. Tisdale occurred from the residence of her brother Edwin Tardy, Esq., at 4 o'clock this afternoon, Rev. G. C. Tucker officiating. She was a native of Augusta, Ga., and was married to Mr. John B. Tisdale, for many years county tax assessor, about thirty years ago. She was the youngest daughter of Alex. Tardy, a native of La Rochelle, France, and a sister of the late Balthazar Tardy, and Edwin Tardy, Esq., who is the only remaining member of the direct family now living. She was 66 years old, and came to Mobile when a child. A daughter, Mrs. W. G. Donovan, survives her. The pallbearers were Messrs. E. B. Lott, Price Williams, John F. Powers, C. H. Lindsey, A. H. Cain, J. H. Russell, John W. Miller and W. J. McCowan.
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