Many do not know Marionetta, most folks only know me as Cherie Lynn this, that or the other. Currently there are Cherie Lynn’s Herstory, Cherie Lynn’s Heirs And Heirlooms, Cherie Lynn’s I Identify. There used to be, back in Alabama almost 50 years ago, Cherie Lynn’s Stories and Poetry with songs and poor music. Then came Cherie Lynn’s Great Dishes Of The World (which I might revive only if anyone in Asia would like to participate), and Cherie Lynn’s Cookery Course. All along, Marionetta writes but rarely prints.
Notes will be added in a few days to the Fans and Family stories of Sherman.
Part 1 is here:
To take a person apart and put them back together with personal history research takes diligence, patience and a patron.
Sherman needed his identity back and he gained a patron in my Dai, who was as touched by his story as I was. Many people have helped through these years to find and remember Sherman. I have been using Marionetta Strung-Out (blog) to describe my intense personal feelings about his fragile and tragic life, and writing as Cherie Lynn to describe the research and discoveries about this man — my twice great uncle — both in his life as Reginald Sherman Kidd and, after he changed his name, as Reginald Sherman Winton.
I had no clue who Sherman was, I had never heard of him from any relative, but in family history research I always research the siblings of each direct ancestor as I go back through the generations. I also work to identify the siblings’ descendants; they often contribute family lore, photos or precious DNA. Sherman came into focus, along with his brother Ernest, while looking for their elder brother — my 2nd great grandfather Harry. My mother told me ages ago about Harry and that he had disappeared, and was never heard from again.
Harry left, Myrtle left and Shirley left and was a lefty and I felt abandoned and Marionetta writes and loves to write. But one must be careful about what is said and before I even knew there was such a word as “pseudonym,” I was writing – in secret. I knew what not to say but that didn’t stop me from writing it.
I still haven’t found Harry. He did leave, and I can see in records that he and 2nd great grandmother Louise did not get along. Louise sued him for support in 1918 and he was hauled into court for non-support. He could pay up or go to jail. Harry was a traveling commercial salesman and long before he married Louise he traveled the roads peddling books, tobacco, candy and anything that turned a dollar.
He dropped off the face of the earth somewhere about 1930. Louise says she is married in the US 1930 Census and by 1937 Louise calls herself a widow but I don’t have every city directory – yet – for the years leading up to 1937. She could have said the same thing earlier.
Sherman was committed in September of 1937 and the next month there was a showing of his work.
Sherman changed his name in 1926 and that was about the last time we can see Harry in a solid record. I searched everywhere. Mother said two of her uncles had gone to see Harry out west’, and yes there could easily be a death record for him that is not yet indexed or public. But I searched everyone he could have ever known in every place, and especially his brothers and eventually all his cousins, aunts and uncles and under any possible assumed names. But since most death records of the time are by county only – he could easily be anywhere and no mystery at all, just cannot be seen yet because of lack of availability. But I have paid for searches in more counties than I wish to admit, in too many states and found nothing. There is something about Harry. (Anyone who hasn’t already, should see the fun 1955 movie with John Forsythe, Shirley MacLaine and Edmund Gwenn, The Trouble With Harry. It is a must for those who love nostalgia, abhor rapid change and adore Shirley MacLaine. Here it is:)
I still ask myself, did Louise bury Harry in the basement? And with Sherman’s ills I wondered if I might find Harry dead and buried in the Palm Beaches. (Before anyone asks I did not rely only on my own research – my cousin Megan worked her fingers to the bone also and we both paid for record searches and searched ourselves.)
But when Sherman turned up he was like the Energizer Bunny and just keeps giving and giving and giving information. It was poor Harry, poor Sherman and even poor Ernest the middle brother. Ernest Evan Seton Kidd went to Colorado to seek his fortune in the latest gold mines and was victim of an explosion. He lost all the sight from one eye and barely saw out of the other; he also lost one hand and part of an arm and became a newspaper salesman on the corner of a city outside of Denver. What with Mamma saying Harry went west, I tore the state up county by county looking for him. I found nothing, but I learned so much about poor Ernest
https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/67149215/ernest-evan_seton-kidd
I have made contact with a friend of one of Ernest’s living descendants, but have never gotten the link to communicate directly with the great grandson. He is some kind of wood artist I think.
Also out west was their 2nd cousin Ernest Evan Thompson who changed his name with the same bent that Sherman later did. It all began with Sherman’s, Harry’s and Ernest’s grandmother, Annie Thompson Lee. She was the paternal aunt of Ernest Evan Thompson who became Ernest Thompson Seton.
Originally published: 1984
Author: Betty Keller
The story of the family and the fight for the right to the title Earl of Winton is very well documented. But there was none of it, the king was pissed off; who was this barking daft man to think he could go against the king? But that is a story already well told in the newspapers. There is also a print version of the story about George Seton, Earl of Winton, by cousins Joy and Karen.
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1793857-seton
and online – Part 1 of 3 all available on google books
Wikipedia has a short account of the feud
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Earl_of_Winton
But if something is not what society will allow, it is seen not as wonderful eccentricities but as madness.
The phrase in British English is “barking” as in “barking mad.” I am not talking about the sadness-for-good-reason mad, or giving-up-on-life anxious – but about the misfit kind of barking mad. These are just my kind of people and Marionetta especially loves those who can be their own person and survive or not, just be your own. Sherman did not survive, maybe Harry didn’t either, I am still kicking and so all is well, but when Sherman lost his right to be ‘part of’ and was removed from society, I still wonder if he was treated fairly. But then, who did have fair anything in the 1920s and 1930s, whether in high or low society?
In 1953 a Lake Worth artist named Sam Schlappich (Samuel Jonah Schlappich) gave a newspaper interview and in this he remembers Sherman about a year after his death. He notes only that he did not fit into the society of the day without ever mentioning that he died in the Florida State Hospital.
Sam told how Sherman carelessly stored away his possible masterpiece and how he — Sam — had restored it. He also named the Lake Worth Library as home to several of Sherman’s paintings, from his 19-foot-long mural The Spanish Armada, painted 1924-1925, to his circa-1900 self-portrait painted in Paris while studying at Julienne.
However the paintings in Sherman’s studio became damaged, much other of his art remained in the hands of friends, fans, patrons and some made its way to shops in Del Ray, Florida (A seascape now in Canada [name to come] private hands; a watercolor called Man with Change sold in Chicago that looks to me like an early work sold from Suzanin’s Antiques Auction House 2004 owner unknown. We visited Sherman’s magnificent scene of Pilgrims Landing in Massachusetts, which is at home in the fabulous Emerson Inn in Rockport, Gloucester, Cape Ann, Massachusetts.
https://www.emersoninnbythesea.com/
From the time of Sherman’s illness one person or another — family or friend or friend of family — seemed to help Flora, who was well remembered as Auntie Fola. Much of their lives centered around Lake Worth’s St. Andrew’s Episcopal Church, where we enjoyed attending this year’s Christmas Eve service.
https://www.facebook.com/StAndrewsECLW/
http://www.standrewslw.net/?fbclid=IwAR0C8QNwsZhItm3SMfiGXTLdK_zXg9FvcK9519mHZc0oyT5Pu40_Rj1Y858
Sherman painted the altar there in 1931 when the church was rebuilt after being destroyed in the 1928 hurricane. A newspaper article notes the altar was dedicated in memory of Flora’s parents George and Catherine Harriett Amabilino Lillie of Scotland in a special service held at the church.
Flora eventually moved to New York to live with her widowed sister. The family had come to the US from Scotland, and the descendants of Flora’s sister(s) are wonderful researchers. They confirmed for me with another source that Sherman had in fact changed his name. That made me confident enough to pay for a search of the Palm Beach County records for both the legal change of name and his committal in the state hospital.
I have googled Sherman and Harry and Ernest and a few hundred other people who get the deep dish Cherie Lynn treatment of research. Through that, a group of Sherman’s watercolors turned up in Paris embedded in a piece of furniture, along with a painting by another artist (the Armenian ‘Mirhan’ who also painted circa 1900 research showed).
I declare I see under the Winton the original Kidd signature. Looking closely at the “int” in Winton and if you placed an i from Kidd on that i, I believe I might see a faded “dd” where the “nt” now is. Sam Schlappich said he restored the painting. We know Sherman was using the name R. Sherman Kidd when he painted this circa 1924 and 1925. Local newspapers used the name Kidd in notices about the early exhibitions of the mural and later at Whitehall for the week of March 9th 1930 as Sherman Winton.
Is Sherman’s tale just another ‘mad muralist’ story or are these bits and pieces of his life and work going to add up to a man who became ill in a society that did not tolerate weaklings or otherlings, or those who defied the current fashion and conventions?
In his 1926 request for his name change he complained of it interfering with his life as an artist as he was the butt of jokes. Certainly every time his father and sometimes Harry were interviewed over their work they were bombarded with questions about Captain Kidd. With Sherman’s painting his Satyr circa 1900 in Paris I wonder also if he experienced some of the same jokes my mother told me of her own experiences as a child named Kidd.
Cherie Lynns Herstory will have to tell Sherman’s story; Marionetta blog can throw hints at the fables, myths and facts to come about the adventures in Kiddie Land but ‘she’ will be too emotional to be unbiased. Will I follow the rule always of – if there is nothing nice to say, say nothing?
The last day of our Sherman in Florida visit we went to Flagler Museum, the Palm Beach mansion Henry Flagler built for the “last” wife I believe, which became known as Whitehall and then… and then another and now the wonderful museum complete with Flagler’s private rail car number 91. The opulence of yesteryear is gone but Flagler’s private car is an unfair comparison to today’s roomettes on Amtrak’s east coast line Silver Meteor – New York to Miami – stopping in West Palm Beach. In the 1920s the house was turned into a hotel for a short while with some of the transformation work by the famous architect, Addison Mizner circa 1925. Sherman painted several works for Mizner’s Palm Beach buildings and homes, and later also in Miami and Boca Raton. I scoured the halls for any hints of his hand. But we know that his Spanish Armada was exhibited there in 1925. I wish they would search their archives for photos of the Armada AT that exhibit with Sherman and I bet Flora! Who covered the event? Well it was in all the papers.
The wonderful person who pointed out this sale to me has amazing research on this magnificent home and must certainly write “the book” on this Mizner creation (and many others and more he has studied in this world of art and architect). The stories of the almost a dozen major artists who worked in the 1920s and 1930s for the rich and famous and infamous. And then the man who gave me so much information of this and other homes with possible Sherman paintings and introduced me to our Mizner and Playa Riente guru has also to write and share and I am sure he will. And there is more coming for the possibilities of newly re-discovered and identified Sherman paintings. (Look for updates!) I added a couple of the maybe half dozen or so pages of the catalog with the notes and some appear to show the names of some buyers and what they paid for a few items.
January 6th 2021. I researcher has shared information with me about Playa Riente. Much thanks to Chiara!
I was directed to the wonderful Facebook page for the museum.
https://www.facebook.com/amicideimuseiedeimonumentifiorentini
Wonderful information about the Cosden house and the artists Angeli!
(Added for the above painting) Federigo e Achille Angeli – Villa La Guardiola a Palm Beach,Florida, Stati Uniti (detta anche Playa Riente), 1923. Demolita negli anni Cinquanta. Sala da pranzo
One newspaper article notes how Sherman painted a mural, a frieze for Addison Mizner’s Miami administration building lobby of his Bocan Raton project. Emailing his corporate offices in 2012 they only knew the building had been torn down. But with the possibility that Mrs Cosden did not like Sherman’s canvasses of Desoto in her house maybe Mizner took them to his Miami building lobby? A search of Mizner archives for photographs of the lobby is what I hope for.
The Flagler Museum visit yielded more local stories. The docent who gave the colorful tour about Flagler’s life and several wives and lady friends and the house, his businesses and his rail road noted that one of Flager’s wives became ill and was put away. Flagler divorced her but left an enormous trust for her which supported some of the holdings to today.
During the tour, I took off my Cherie Lynn ears and began listening with my Marionetta heart; the guide said the lady was bi-polar. I wanted to protest on the spot – how dare one put away a lady for this? Flagler paid to lock her up. How was she subdued to be held anywhere? Lobotomy? shock treatments? insulin shock? scalding hot water baths?
What was used on Sherman? Sherman must have heard stories about Flagler’s wife being put away — or as it was said once it had been done to Sherman, ‘to be away’. That was how it was said in polite society.
We also visited the historical society and the young lady at the door was lovely but could not make appointments. I had read the hours and with two weeks I thought I could visit the wonderful Addison Mizner exhibit and check on availability of the reading room, if possible, while I was there. I already knew what they had more or less and that it was a lot.
Another lady seemed to think walk-ins were not allowed and added many people brought in information. The exhibit on Addison Mizner was the draw for us. Researchers do not expect to find historical or genealogical societies open around most holidays, but one does not expect candid comments.
I also had something for the wonderful library that is home to the largest collection of Sherman’s historical paintings. The Lake Worth Library was keen to have more information about Sherman. They were welcoming and gracious and are preserving Sherman’s and other local history, culture and art.
https://www.lakeworth.org/residents/library/
Yesterday no medical care, and then, compared to now, it is a wonder humans have survived.
Sherman’s death certificate says renal failure, kidney disease, but by then he was also older. Had he been afflicted with kidney disease earlier which apparently could make him very difficult?
Hortense Myers the INS Staff Correspondent wrote in the 1953 Schlappich article…
“To his friend Schlappich, it seemed that the Coroner’s report (of) Winton’s death erred in that it did not list the cause as “inability to adjust to the world in which he lived.”
Committed in 1937, he died in 1952 — the year I was born — having spent the last 15 years of his life at the Florida State Hospital. I told the wonderful librarian that I have so much on Sherman, more than anyone could ever read, and I knew everything but his shoe size. She delightfully corrected me pointing out that if we know his height we might even guess his shoes. The 1918 World War One Draft Registration for Sherman, age 40, in Boston says: Tall, Slender, Grey Eyes and Grey Hair.
Sherman looks somewhat like his 1st cousin the orchard apple savant James ‘Hutton’ Kidd of New Zealand.
https://teara.govt.nz/en/biographies/4k11/kidd-james-hutton
Their cousin Ernest Evan Thompson aka Ernest Thompson Seton looks much more like his Thompson grandfather Enoch Donkerley Thompson, ship owner and at least third generation shipping family along the Tyne River. Without knowing for certain what the Kidds of Ireland and Craven and Giggleswick, England looked like, I believe Sherman might have favored the Logan-Seton side of the family. And I wonder what Harry might have looked like.
Whatever their looks if the family line holds up I can tell you the Kidd family line is y-DNA haplogroup R1a aka R-CTS4179
I have records of many of the signatures of Sherman, who leaves his mark on my heart. We have examples of his work from circa 1899 ish and through his later fading years. Next story are the signatures.
The state archives, with many records and photos online as the website ‘Florida Memory’, has photos taken in the mid 1940s at the Florida State Hospital, after Sherman would have been at the hospital for a number of years. There is a photo of a brick wall etched with symbols and letters and partial words and thoughts. Could this be Sherman’s hand? There are symbols somewhat like his work on the altar for St Andrew’s and like he used for his symbols of his beloved ships and sea.
Controlling treatments were in common use at the time. I am so glad today there are laws that try to make life fair for the special people. Maybe Sherman needed… the future instead of the past as Schlappich thought.
Specific: Reference collection
Rights: Public Domain. Physical Description: 1 photoprint – b&w – 8 x 10 in.
Subject Term Shock therapy
Nurses–Florida–Chattahoochee
Patients
Geographic Term Chattahoochee (Fla.)
Subject Corporate Florida State Hospital–Employees.
Shelf Number: Shelf number: 01982.
https://www.floridamemory.com/items/show/36178
I see in his paintings’ faces, the ghosts, maybe of his family? I see his early ladies and wonder if it is the face of his beautiful mother Mary Caroline Carrie Lee Kidd or her sister Harriet Alice Lee Kidd?
I grew to love the research of Sherman, Ernest and the other Ernest and Harry – like I have to and do grow to love all those I research, and research for – no matter who they are.
I make no apologies for Marionetta Strung-Out. ‘She’ says what she thinks and in today’s atmosphere and insanity one would hope anyone has the right and freedom to do that by blog or whatever means. Cherie Lynn, of course, must be careful about what she says and any impressions she might leave so if you wish for the ordinary, then you can switch back over to herstory blog. But do try to cut loose and go a bit off the rails and visit Marionetta time and again. Follow the blogs!
Cherie Lynn’s Herstory page will be the place to read all things Sherman. Sir Reg as cousin Megan and I came to call R Sherman Kidd aka Winton also deserves the heart of the matter better said here.
My heart broke for him. I hope one day to find our Harry.
Cherie Lynns Herstory
Be sure to enjoy the link to the saved pages of Jean Manco who began the end all guide to the location of ancient peoples with their DNA sequenced and the locations of where they had been buried/found
Look for y-DNA haplogroup R1a aka R-CTS4179
Marionetta Strung-Out 
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