legacy will be lost. My sister is looking for a place to live close to St. Augustine, 
Florida. She will not have a place to hang these portraits that she inherited from my Dad. She had two huge gold framed pictures of our great, great or is it our 3rd/ 4th generation great grandparents. They came to our end of the Strawn/Livingston Family after my Aunt Estelle Strawn Middlemas, sister to my Grandmother Francis Strawn Livingston, passed away. The Middlemas Family used to reside in Jacksonville, Florida. She died in Asheville, NC.. Evidently, the family did not have a place to hang these paintings and sent them to Dad, Theodore Burroughs Livingston. He hung them in our living room/office at the King Cotton Motel and later at their Santee Lake house in Summeron, SC. (Now owned by Gay Buddin) Unfortunately we have lost contact with the Strawn Family. We did not know if any of the family would have been interested in these portraits, nor did we know how to contact them. They are large portraits, and I have no idea how Strawn could have preserved, much less kept them.
I do know that my sister Strawn would have gladly GIVEN these pictures to a museum or family member, but unfortunately she sold them to an antique dealer recently in St. Augustine. Unfortunately I was unaware of this until today. I wrote this initial post differently. I have rewritten it frustrated that I was too late to save these pictures."One my memories of these portraits still gives me chills. When I was in the same room with these pictures, I did not want to do anything to bug my whatever great grandfather for it seemed that wherever I moved he seemed to follow me." If the Perrys, Strawns, Middlemas', Livingstons, Parrs, Sheards see this blog you may be interested in this little bit of history.
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My grandmother, Frances Strawn Livingston was born in Ottawa, Illinois. She had three sisters: Estelle Strawn Middlemas, Del Gracia Strawn Sheard, Isabelle Strawn Perry and an older brother by twenty years, Lester Herbert Strawn. (Lester Strawn’s only son was Taylor Strawn.)
Their Father was Henry Clinton Strawn who married Mary Elizabeth Powell. Her grandfather was Jeremiah Strawn and he married Hannah Boucher. I believe the Strawn’s came to Pennsylvania around 1690 and migrated to Ottawa, Illinois. Jeremiah Strawn, at that time, was a wealthy farmer. My grandmother Frances was born in Ottawa, Illinois. 
My grandmother’s maternal grandfather was Thomas Powell from Abergavenny. Wales. 
Frances Strawn Livingston
In a single thread we cannot see
The rich design of a tapestry.
A passing life is a thread of the whole,
The timeless one, the evolving soul.
Whence do we come?--Where do we go?
Are we drawn to earth again and again,
Or from planet to planet, plane to plane?
Have we hailed from darkness, from Pluto’s shore,
Carriers of hate and global war?
Whence do we come?--Where do we go?
Does affinity shape our course to the stars?
Are happy warriors drawn to Mars?
Do bitter curmudgeons toil toward Saturn,
Their experience curdled to a sour pattern?
Whence do we come?--Where do we go?
Do the winged feet in the mind’s domain,
Flash away to the speed of Mercury’s plane?
Is the moon a magnet for those who feel
The spell of dreams, to mystics, the real?
Whence do we come?--Where do we go?
Is the rapture felt a dim reflection
Of Venus, abode of love’s perfection?
For Jupiter’s sons, does the violet ray,
A dazzling radiance, light their way?
Whence do we come?---Where do we go?
When death hails the dawn of recurring lives
Of the ethos, the essence that lives and survives,
Is the Sun the farthest goal in the flight,
The glory, the source of being and light?
Whence do we come?--Where do we go?
In a single thread we cannot see
The rich design of a tapestry,
A passing life is a thread of the whole,
The timeless one, the evolving soul.
Author’s note: The title is taken from a painting by Gauguin, in the Boston Museum of Fine Arts. Published by American Poetry Magazine, Official Organ of American Literary Association, Inc. 83rd. Street.-Wauwatosa, Wisconsin. March April 1947
Evidently, talent ran in the Powell and Strawn families. One of my grandmother’s sisters painted beautiful plates and dessert dishes. I inherited four from my grandmother along with copies of the poems my grandmother Frances wrote during her life time. (Each of my grandchildren will inherit a plate.) Earlier, in one of my posts, I published one of Grandmother France’s poems and I will add another one here.
Elsie Strawn Armstrong used to write lyrics as well. Elsie Strawn Armstrong has a book written about her “The Life of a Woman Pioneer” by her grandson James Elder Armstrong. Elsie Strawn was the daughter of Isaiah Strawn who was eighth in a family of twelve. His grandfather was Jacob Strawn who came from England as an orphan and settled in Pa. I am not sure if Jacob, Isaiah, and Elsie Strawn were my ancestors, but the book was a great read. She sure looks like one of my ancestors and the book was part of my Grandmother’s and Father’s library.
“Let’s Walk Together”---1787 and 1944
Frances Strawn Livingston
The portrait, called “Lady With a Nosegay,”
was a Copley, lovely Dolly in a violet gown.
She was a reigning beauty, in her day
the favorite toast of Philadelphia town.
Her diary recorded, in a delicate hand,
the troubled times that followed the Revolution.
Her quality of mind could understand
the vision and new concepts of the Constitution.
Her friends said change must bring catastrophe:
nonsense to say that unity may expand:
unsound to attempt to join, yet keep states free,
But here it worked! Why not in many a land?
The people doubted if men (whom all might see
were like themselves) could be great enough to plan
a united government with pliancy,
and strength, and liberty for every man.
“Impossible! Utopian dreams,” they cry,
harping on worn-out phrases of negation,
and heaping scorn on seers, they will deny
the increasing urge for a world-wide federation.
Contagious thought will spring from mind to mind:
and Dolly shared a dream with the strong who dare
to heal the wounds of war, and in unity to bind
free peoples, states, and nations everywhere.”
Author note: This poem was written after reading “U.S.W.” by Clement Wood." Let’s Walk Together" received the Volker award, shared with Clement Wood.
Published by Kansas City Poetry Magazine, P.O. Box 14, Kansas City--10 Missouri July 1944
He married Elizabeth Day. He was a Baptist preacher who founded 400 Baptist churches in Illinois during the pioneers’ days.
“D’OU VENONS-NOUS? QUE SOMMES-NOUS?
OU ALLONS-NOUS?"
OU ALLONS-NOUS?"
Frances Strawn Livingston
In a single thread we cannot see
The rich design of a tapestry.
A passing life is a thread of the whole,
The timeless one, the evolving soul.
Whence do we come?--Where do we go?
Are we drawn to earth again and again,
Or from planet to planet, plane to plane?
Have we hailed from darkness, from Pluto’s shore,
Carriers of hate and global war?
Whence do we come?--Where do we go?
Does affinity shape our course to the stars?
Are happy warriors drawn to Mars?
Do bitter curmudgeons toil toward Saturn,
Their experience curdled to a sour pattern?
Whence do we come?--Where do we go?
Do the winged feet in the mind’s domain,
Flash away to the speed of Mercury’s plane?
Is the moon a magnet for those who feel
The spell of dreams, to mystics, the real?
Whence do we come?--Where do we go?
Is the rapture felt a dim reflection
Of Venus, abode of love’s perfection?
For Jupiter’s sons, does the violet ray,
A dazzling radiance, light their way?
Whence do we come?---Where do we go?
When death hails the dawn of recurring lives
Of the ethos, the essence that lives and survives,
Is the Sun the farthest goal in the flight,
The glory, the source of being and light?
Whence do we come?--Where do we go?
In a single thread we cannot see
The rich design of a tapestry,
A passing life is a thread of the whole,
The timeless one, the evolving soul.
Author’s note: The title is taken from a painting by Gauguin, in the Boston Museum of Fine Arts. Published by American Poetry Magazine, Official Organ of American Literary Association, Inc. 83rd. Street.-Wauwatosa, Wisconsin. March April 1947
Evidently, talent ran in the Powell and Strawn families. One of my grandmother’s sisters painted beautiful plates and dessert dishes. I inherited four from my grandmother along with copies of the poems my grandmother Frances wrote during her life time. (Each of my grandchildren will inherit a plate.) Earlier, in one of my posts, I published one of Grandmother France’s poems and I will add another one here. 
Elsie Strawn Armstrong used to write lyrics as well. Elsie Strawn Armstrong has a book written about her “The Life of a Woman Pioneer” by her grandson James Elder Armstrong. Elsie Strawn was the daughter of Isaiah Strawn who was eighth in a family of twelve. His grandfather was Jacob Strawn who came from England as an orphan and settled in Pa. I am not sure if Jacob, Isaiah, and Elsie Strawn were my ancestors, but the book was a great read. She sure looks like one of my ancestors and the book was part of my Grandmother’s and Father’s library.“Let’s Walk Together”---1787 and 1944
Frances Strawn Livingston
The portrait, called “Lady With a Nosegay,”
was a Copley, lovely Dolly in a violet gown.
She was a reigning beauty, in her day
the favorite toast of Philadelphia town.
Her diary recorded, in a delicate hand,
the troubled times that followed the Revolution.
Her quality of mind could understand
the vision and new concepts of the Constitution.
Her friends said change must bring catastrophe:
nonsense to say that unity may expand:
unsound to attempt to join, yet keep states free,
But here it worked! Why not in many a land?
The people doubted if men (whom all might see
were like themselves) could be great enough to plan
a united government with pliancy,
and strength, and liberty for every man.
“Impossible! Utopian dreams,” they cry,
harping on worn-out phrases of negation,
and heaping scorn on seers, they will deny
the increasing urge for a world-wide federation.
Contagious thought will spring from mind to mind:
and Dolly shared a dream with the strong who dare
to heal the wounds of war, and in unity to bind
free peoples, states, and nations everywhere.”
Author note: This poem was written after reading “U.S.W.” by Clement Wood." Let’s Walk Together" received the Volker award, shared with Clement Wood.
Published by Kansas City Poetry Magazine, P.O. Box 14, Kansas City--10 Missouri July 1944
I have vague memories of meeting Lester and Taylor Strawn as a child at the Martin Sherwin 
Motel and the King Cotton Motel that my Father owned and operated. I remember trips to Asheville to see Grandmother’s sisters. To know that there are many cousins of Strawn, Middlemas, Sheard, Parr, and Perry families that are" kin" and unknown to each of us is sad….Genealogy is one way to bring names together, but not the faces.
Motel and the King Cotton Motel that my Father owned and operated. I remember trips to Asheville to see Grandmother’s sisters. To know that there are many cousins of Strawn, Middlemas, Sheard, Parr, and Perry families that are" kin" and unknown to each of us is sad….Genealogy is one way to bring names together, but not the faces.
Addendum: I personally would have cut those "rascals"
out of the frame. When Strawn sold the frames, they had tried to remove the pictures from the frame. You must remember that each of "the four sisters" are different, seeing things from a different view point. My husband reminded me that I had my window of opportunity to save these pictures when they were in my storage locker. Upon emptying my storage locker, I returned her pictures not realizing she would act so fast on selling them.
