Parlor - Art and Architecture and the History of Appleton and America
However, the real impression of the room is conveyed in its art. The Parlor is simply filled with beautiful, original works.
The artist J Frank Waldo, who worked closely with Hearthstone's architect William Waters, decorated many of the buildings that the architect created. The ceiling and frieze were painted by Waldo for Kitty’s wedding reception in 1889. It was the third time the Rogers had the ceiling painted in the first seven years they lived here.
The landscape over the mantle is also a Waldo as well as the oil painting over the piano. These two works help explain how Henry Rogers made his fortune.
The mantle painting depicts the Colorado Rockies. Henry left upstate New York in his twenties and went west. He began investing in silver mining and land deals in the Denver area. In Eighteen Sixty, with the start of the Civil War, silver was desperately needed to finance the Union war effort and the market explodes, creating a fortune for Henry. He then formed The First National Bank in Denver to help protect his investments. The bank still operates today.
It is in Denver that he meets his future wife, Cremora Kehler. Cremora is in Denver because her father, an Episcopal minister, is starting the first Episcopal church in the city.
Like Henry, she is from upstate New York; is very well traveled; and is exceptionally well-read although she never attended school. It is her father that makes sure she and her sisters are well educated.
Cremora is a perfect match for Henry and the two are married in 1861. Henry must have been doing something right: At this time in the Colorado territory there are 35 men for every one woman... and most of the women are already married! Kitty is born in 1864.
Cremora and Henry epitomize the Gilded Age business couple who are always looking for the next opportunity. And the next opportunity is in Cheyenne, Wyoming.
In 1867, the family moved to Cheyenne where Henry started the first bank in the Wyoming territory to take advantage of the arrival of the Transcontinental Railroad. There, he added to his fortune by financing the explosion of economic activity that followed the line.
But there was an even greater opportunity on the horizon.
