Andrew Jackson Poe (1851–1920) was an American artist of the little-known

folk art Folk art covers all forms of visual art made in the context of folk culture. Definitions vary, but generally the objects have practical utility of some kind, rather than being exclusively decorative art, decorative. The makers of folk art a ...

subset known as almshouse or

poorhouse A poorhouse or workhouse is a government-run (usually by a county or municipality) facility to support and provide housing for the dependent or needy. Workhouses In England, Wales and Ireland (but not in Scotland), ‘workhouse’ has been the ...

painters.

Early years

Andrew Jackson Poe was born on March 2, 1851, in

Columbiana County Columbiana County is a County (United States), county located in the U.S. state of Ohio. As of the 2020 United States Census, 2020 census, the population was 101,877. The county seat is Lisbon, Ohio, Lisbon and its largest city is Salem, Ohio, ...

Ohio Ohio () is a state in the Midwestern region of the United States. Of the fifty U.S. states, it is the 34th-largest by area, and with a population of nearly 11.8 million, is the seventh-most populous and tenth-most densely populated. The sta ...

. He was the sixth of eleven children born to Adam Poe and Lucy Todd Poe. Andrew and seven of his siblings survived to adulthood. The Poe family lived and worked on a farm in Beaver County,

Pennsylvania Pennsylvania (; ( Pennsylvania Dutch: )), officially the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, is a state spanning the Mid-Atlantic, Northeastern, Appalachian, and Great Lakes regions of the United States. It borders Delaware to its southeast, ...

Famed ancestors

Andrew Jackson Poe's great-great-grandfather was named George Jacob Pfau and his wife Catharine. Pfau was of German extraction and his sons were the first to

Anglicize Anglicisation is the process by which a place or person becomes influenced by English culture or British culture, or a process of cultural and/or linguistic change in which something non-English becomes English. It can also refer to the influenc ...

their surname to Poe. Pfau's sons Adam and Andrew were famed for their skirmishes with Native Americans in southern Beaver County. Both men were known as fearless fighters, and the first Andrew Poe is reputed to have slain the

Wyandot Wyandot may refer to: Native American ethnography * Wyandot people, also known as the Huron * Wyandot language * Wyandot religion Places * Wyandot, Ohio, an unincorporated community * Wyandot County, Ohio * Camp Wyandot, a Camp Fire Boys and ...

Indian Chief Bigfoot in 1781. The brothers’ exploits were detailed in volume II of

Theodore Roosevelt Theodore Roosevelt Jr. ( ; October 27, 1858 – January 6, 1919), often referred to as Teddy or by his initials, T. R., was an American politician, statesman, soldier, conservationist, naturalist, historian, and writer who served as the 26t ...

’s book, ''The Winning of the West from the Alleghenies to the Mississippi, 1777 - 1783''. Poe is a second cousin of the West Point graduate and general

Orlando Metcalfe Poe Orlando Metcalfe Poe (March 7, 1832 – October 2, 1895) was a United States Army officer and engineer in the American Civil War. After helping General William Tecumseh Sherman's March to the Sea, he was responsible for much of the early ligh ...

Adulthood

Poe was not known to have married or had children. He traveled fairly extensively, paying for food and lodgings with his paintings. From 1892 to 1893, he lived in

St. Louis St. Louis () is the second-largest city in Missouri, United States. It sits near the confluence of the Mississippi and the Missouri Rivers. In 2020, the city proper had a population of 301,578, while the bi-state metropolitan area, which e ...

Missouri Missouri is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States. Ranking List of U.S. states and territories by area, 21st in land area, it is bordered by eight states (tied for the most with Tennessee ...

. Family lore held that his decorative painting adorns portions of the Union Station in St. Louis. Little is known of his adult life other than the fact that around the turn of the century, when he was in his early 50s, he entered the Beaver County Home, a poorhouse for the destitute,

alcoholic Alcoholism is, broadly, any drinking of alcohol that results in significant mental or physical health problems. Because there is disagreement on the definition of the word ''alcoholism'', it is not a recognized diagnostic entity. Predomin ...

s and other

indigent Poverty is the state of having few material possessions or little

income

s. There he was befriended by the home's administrator, John Wesley Nippert. Nippert used his own money to buy Poe

paint Paint is any pigmented liquid, liquefiable, or solid mastic composition that, after application to a substrate in a thin layer, converts to a solid film. It is most commonly used to protect, color, or provide texture. Paint can be made in many ...

canvas Canvas is an extremely durable plain-woven fabric used for making sails, tents, marquees, backpacks, shelters, as a support for oil painting and for other items for which sturdiness is required, as well as in such fashion objects as handbags ...

es and other art supplies. By or upon Poe's death on November 11, 1911, about forty Poe paintings, mostly

oil An oil is any nonpolar chemical substance that is composed primarily of hydrocarbons and is hydrophobic (does not mix with water) & lipophilic (mixes with other oils). Oils are usually flammable and surface active. Most oils are unsaturated ...

s, were in Nippert's possession.

Artistic endeavors

Although Poe painted the occasional

still life A still life (plural: still lifes) is a work of art depicting mostly wikt:inanimate, inanimate subject matter, typically commonplace objects which are either natural (food, flowers, dead animals, plants, rocks, shells, etc.) or artificiality, m ...

, his primary focus was on

landscape A landscape is the visible features of an area of land, its landforms, and how they integrate with natural or man-made features, often considered in terms of their aesthetic appeal.''New Oxford American Dictionary''. A landscape includes the ...

s. His work usually depicted scenes of Beaver County, Pennsylvania, and the adjoining

. He occasionally noted his artistic debt to other, better-known painters by signing his own name and date in addition to the name of the artist he was copying. Several of his pieces bear the names of German-born western Pennsylvania artist Emil Bott and H. Fisher, who may have been either calendar artist Hugh Fisher or his son, famed illustrator

Harrison Fisher Harrison Fisher (July 27, 1875 or 1877 – January 19, 1934) was an American illustrator. Career Fisher was born in Brooklyn, New York City and began to draw at an early age. Both his father and his grandfather were artists.Harrison & Carrin ...

. All of his existing pieces are dated between 1905 and 1907.

Death

Poe died November 11, 1920, in Beaver County, probably at the Beaver County Home. He is buried in the Georgetown,

, cemetery.

References

*Roosevelt, Theodore. ''The Winning of the West from the Alleghenies to the Mississippi, 1777 - 1783'', volume II, 6. ISO-8859-1. *Vodrey III, William H. ''Andrew Jackson Poe: Artist'', 1971. OCLC #ocm29010094. {{DEFAULTSORT:Poe, Andrew 19th-century American painters American male painters 20th-century American painters People from Columbiana County, Ohio 1851 births 1920 deaths People from Beaver County, Pennsylvania 19th-century American male artists 20th-century American male artists