On exhibit at Magee House in Bath are portraits of two founding fathers of our region. Curiously, had things been otherwise, they might well have fought against each other in the Revolution. The paintings are what I call Area Art Treasures… works about our region, or created by someone with strong ties to our region, and now in public hands on view in our region.
First of all is a huge oil portrait of General Steuben, for whom the county (then much larger) was named in 1796. He never visited, but the state legislature had a penchant for naming counties after heroes of the Revolution (Monroe, Tompkins, Herkimer, Schuyler, Washington, Sullivan, Wayne). And Friedrich certainly qualified.
His title has been questioned, but apparently he was in fact ennobled by a minor German prince, just before they both skipped town ahead of the bill collector. He claimed to be a general in the Prussian army (actually a captain, but on the general staff). Offering to serve without pay until and unless Congress decided he was worth the while, Steuben transformed the American army huddled at Valley Forge, turning it into a force that could win — and did win — rather than just survive. While George Washington was ordering officers to kill any man who dropped out in battle, Steuben was writing a manual proclaiming that the greatest force in any army was love. In many ways he was the father of the American army.
For centuries there has been speculation that Steuben was gay. Certainly that was no disadvantage on the staff of Frederick the Great, and in fact he never married, living out his days in the company of young staff officers, and swamped in a sea of dogs. But it’s no longer possible to sort that out through the mists of time.
The portrait is a copy of a famous piece done from life by Ralph Earl (or Earle), who painted Steuben repeatedly. It shows him just about life size, resplendent in his uniform, sash, and decoration. He has every right to be proud, as one among the select few who were indispensable in creating a great nation — as Howard Fast put it, one of the world’s first professional revolutionaries.
Just a few steps away is the portrait of Charles Williamson — captain in the Royal Army, colonel in the New York State militia. Williamson’s ship was captured when he was en route to help crush the Revolution and he spent the war as a POW, improving the time by marrying the commandant’s daughter. This conveyed American citizenship, making him an ideal front man for the Pulteney Estate, which had bought 1.3 million acres between Seneca Lake and the Genesee River as an investment… they needed an American at the head to satisfy legal regulations at the time.
“Charles the Magnificent” chose the site and cleared the land for Bath, making it the capital of his wilderness empire. He’s the one who scattered elegant European names (Bath, Geneva, Lyons) across our map, and his energetic promotion brought in buyers from Virginia, Boston, and Montreal. He had a girl in every frontier village, and a furious wife in Bath. He served as a judge, and gave away land for schools. He could do everything but balance the books, and the company eventually decided to do without him.
For the Bath centennial in 1893 local dignitaries wrote the colonel’s grandson in Scotland, asking him to have the portrait photographed. He went one better, commissioning an artist to reproduce the painting in oils, and presenting it to the town his ancestor had founded a hundred years before. The colonel recently spent a year or so on special exhibit at the University of Rochester, but has since been home again, piercingly evaluating everyone who walks by.
Baron Steuben has a town named after him in Herkimer County, where he had a land grant and spent his final years… he also has cities across the nation named in his honor. The dashing Scottish Charlie, who was never shy about blowing his own horn, named just one town for himself. But Williamsburg withered away, and the closest thing of interest now is the I-390 rest stop near Mount Morris. Unlike Steuben, he’s mostly a footnote in the grand scheme of American history. But more than anyone else, he’s the father of our region. And we remember.
