Third Life Period, second phase: Life descending   (8 years, 1899-1907)

On Januay 30, 1900, governor-to-be William Goebel was assassinated two blocks from the Sawyier home on the old capitol grounds.  Nat Sawyier’s worsening dementia, and the family’s financial distress, were becoming widespread public knowledge.    The First Baptist church invited the Sawyiers to live rent-free in the parsonage that had been built with the money donated by Ellen’s mother. They could then rent out the rooms in their big Broadway house, so they’d have a small but dependable income to live on.  Paul’s sisters had married & moved far away to the northeast, and his brother had died in Mississippi.   These times were especially hard on Ellen Sawyier, who had never before known financial hardship.  Paul was responsibly helpful during these difficult years—though he also was often out & away in a canoe for days at a time.

Around 1900, Paul painted a series of views in and around Frankfort Cemetery as a gift for Mayme. She loved poetry, and Paul’s paintings were based on a poem “The Two Villages” by Rose Terry Cooke. It alludes to a village of people at the foot of a hill, and another “village of the dead” in a cemetery on the hill high above.  The poem & paintings seem ironic in retrospect.

Paul & his mother faced hard times, plus the humiliation of legal proceedings for Nat’s unpaid loans. Ellen tried to supplement their income by baking pastries & cakes. This ended when she got up in the night to see why Nat was moaning, fell over a chair & broke her hip. By 1907 her health was in serious decline, Nat was mostly bedridden, and the cost of caretakers was a major drain on their tight budget.  Friends often bought Paul’s paintings just to help keep food on their table. It seems remarkable that Paul was able to get out & paint at all, but many of his best-known subjects from this first decade of the 20^th century are street scenes, waterways and countryside in and around Frankfort.

Nat Sawyier’s dementia kept getting worse, but he could still get out of bed and wander. This was of concern, because the river bank beside the parsonage fell steeply into the water, as it does today.  It was hard to hire people willing to care for his difficult father, and with Ellen unable to help, caregivers were needed around the clock. Paul’s overnight outings declined.

Things finally got so bad he had to commit his father to institutional care. Nat landed in Louisville’s “Lakeland Insane Asylum,” where he would die two years later. Ellen Sawyier became increasingly despondent and lost interest in living.  In February 1908 she made her will leaving her Broadway home to Paul – with proviso to not sell it while his father lived. She died just weeks later. Realizing he must now move out of the parsonage, Paul wrote his sisters to come get anything they wanted, and had a public sale for the rest. Sale proceeds were described as “meager.” At age 43, Paul Sawyier had no home and no dependable income.

But… two months later Paul signed a 1-½ year contract with C.F. Brower, a Lexington retailer who sold home furnishings.  It was Paul’s first on-the-record business deal to sell his art in a broader market. Brower got exclusive rights to all Kentucky sales of Paul’s art, and would pay Paul 25% of whatever price he put on each piece delivered.  From Paul’s viewpoint, this was a bonanza. To get paid, all he had to do was paint a picture and deliver it. Well…!   Paul delivered paintings considerably faster than Brower could sell them.  For the first time in his life Paul was actually making a decent living with his art.    From Brower’s viewpoint, this 1½-year contract couldn’t end soon enough.

 

In many ways, 1908 was truly a major year of transition for Paul Sawyier:

• In January his father entered institutional care.
• Feb: His mother made her will…and soon died.
• June: Paul signed his contract with Brower;
• August: he bought a 20-foot houseboat, a motorboat, a pontoon boat and canoe. He named his fleet “Rag, Tag, Bob & Tail”  and immediately moved into the houseboat.
• In late August: Paul left Frankfort forever, his motorboat pulling the other three craft up to Dix River.
• Nov 30-Dec 5: Paul’s major exhibition at Browers;
• And on December 25, 1908: Paul Sawyier and Mayme Bull became engaged. But they kept it secret and told no one. Here 117 yrs later, no one yet knows why.