July Fourth is my favorite holiday. Our rights and freedoms, outlined in the Constitution, come at a horrific price. Protect them.
Ned Larkin
I don’t know a lot about Ned Larkin, but I will tell you what I know. Danny looked him up for me. Ned was born in Chester in 1871. He was living on Cobleigh Street when he died in 1945. It is known he worked at the National Survey on School Street. Ned is buried in East Putney with his parents. His father was James. His mother was Nancy Peabody Larkin. Nancy was from Andover.
It was probably 40 years ago, Bob Farnsworth had an auction on upper Main Street. This was the house with porches beyond where I.J. Nichols lived. Many years have passed now, but I remember it was an excellent antiques auction. My memory fades, but it might have been the Sargent family.
At this sale I bought the unframed painting (since framed) you see with this article. There was a note with it that it was painted by Ned Larkin. I have since lost the note.
I have always collected patriotic antiques. I love the American flag and the bald eagle. When I saw this painting, I had to have it. It dates from between 1941 and 1945.
The painting
The painting is a watercolor and gouache on paper. Standing at center is an American Indian with his eagle feather war bonnet. His arms reach up to the Great Spirit. In the background are snow-covered Rocky Mountains. At upper left, three U.S. fighter planes appear in the distance.
The American flag in the painting makes the hair on the back of my neck stand up. It is prominent, as it should be. The furls are incredible. The text below says it all:
“O! Say, SHALL THE STAR-SPANGLED-BANNER Still Wave?” Can you imagine living at a time when your very existence was threatened? We have it so easy today.
As I said, I am very patriotic. Even my suspenders are red, white, and blue. These colors don’t run, they bleed.
The home front
Ned Larkin, as mentioned before, painted this patriotic scene during World War II. Americans were fighting on two fronts, in Europe and in the Pacific. Even in a small town like Chester, everyone would have known a soldier overseas, or a soldier who had been killed.
No television in those days, so you got your news from a newspaper or a radio. The entire country was behind this effort. We knew we had to win or submit to Hitler or Tojo. “Never surrender,” was often heard.
Families would listen to the radio before retiring for the night. Children didn’t understand and were frightened. This continued from December 1941 into August 1945. Many went to bed worried about family members serving.
Newspaper headlines brought the news home, including losses we endured. Still the home front kept on, everyone doing what they could to help. Chester women organized to make much-needed bandages for the war effort, making over 100,000 bandages total. This effort was repeated countless times across the country. School children collected pots and pans and scrap metal for the war effort. The Chester Fire Department on School Street scrapped their obsolete firefighting steam pumper for the war effort. There was a shortage of knives for our troops, so knife drives were held. Everyone pitched in.
Ted Spaulding told me his parents, Edward and Lou, sold Ned’s estate at auction in the summer of 1945. I had Ned’s painting framed and archivally matted at the Framery of Vermont. UV protecting glass was used to protect it from fading caused by any damaging UV light source.
There are two things I can never be. One is educated, the other a veteran. I often feel inadequate when in the company of someone educated, but more so in the company of a veteran. I never saw the elephant.
This week’s old saying: “I don’t mind if you do something that gets you killed, but I’ll be damned if I’ll let you do something that gets me killed.”