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Memorial Day Remembrance

5/30/2016

By Terri Gorney

Memorial Day was begun in 1868 to remember and to decorate the graves of the Civil War dead. Gene Stratton-Porter was born during the Civil War era; just one month after the battle of Gettysburg. Her future father-in-law was a surgeon for the Union Army, but Dr. John P. Porter would perish on November 1, 1864.

On July 24, 1882, the Dr. John P. Porter GAR Post #83 was established in Geneva. The post was named in honor of the pioneering doctor of Adams County who lost his life in the war. This was a thriving post for many years. At its peak, almost 200 veterans were members.

One man that was a long time member of the post was John G. Brenner. John fought in the 115 th Ohio Volunteer Infantry, Company D. He served the GAR Post in many capacities, including its commander in 1908. He was a trusted friend and employee of Charles and Gene Stratton-Porter. John would spend the last twenty years of his life caring for the Limberlost cabin and grounds. He lived in the carriage house. His room is part of the tour if you visit the Limberlost State Historic Site

Gene would become a great supporter of the United States Army in WWI. She had a compassion for veterans as shown in her book “Keeper of the Bees.”

Camera and Kingfisher

5/20/2016

By Gene Stratton-Porter

One year while I was making a series of pictures of some little kingfishers that were brought up in a nest in the edge of a pit about a quarter of a mile away from the Wabash [River], I decided to get pictures of the old birds. I never worked harder, and never did I have better luck.

Kingfishers have long, tiresome waits on snags and stumps above the water to catch the small fish and crabs which make up the greater part of their diet. I wanted to snap them in this position. Up and down the river on both sides and back and forth across the swamp I followed them until I located fifty stumps and branches upon which they lighted every day when they came to fish. Then I had to guess on which stump they would light the next time they came and decide where to place my camera and where to hide myself. Luck was with me. Once I got a picture of a male when he was so close that the scars he got on his big beak while helping his mate dig the tunnel for their nest were in plain sight.

Editor’s Note: The kingfisher study was done early in Gene’s career. Gene photographed a family of kingfishers on the east side of Geneva by the old gravel pit. This is by the Limberlost Creek and the Wabash River. Gene might be surprised that there are kingfishers who still perch and fish in this same area today.

A Most Elusive Moth

5/15/2016

Gene Stratton-Porter

Once when I was a child I brought a Cecropia moth home and kept it for a short time, but not
until twenty years afterward did I have one at close enough range to take a picture. I did not see it until one summer morning when a little boy brought me a fine specimen in a pasteboard box with a perforation in the top. I took it out, and found it so numb with cold that it could not cling to a twig. I knew that these moths lived only a short time, and fearing that this one was near death focused the camera on a branch and tried again to make it cling. The fourth effort was successful, though the moth crept so far away before it settled that I had to change the shutter. It took less than a minute, but when I looked around my fine Cecropia was sailing over the top of the elm trees near the orchard!

Some months later, after one of the most trying days I ever spent afield, I came home to find a
Cecropia slowly working its wings up and down on the top steps of the cabin. I reached for my
net. The moth for which I had waited twenty years was mine!

Editor’s Note: Gene studied moths while she lived at the Limberlost cabin in Geneva. A cabinet
of the moths she collected is still on display over the fireplace in the first floor bedroom where it has remained over 100 years. We think her book “Moths of the Limberlost” is one of her best
works. The Friends of the Limberlost have it for sale in the gift shop at the Limberlost Visitor
Center.

The Universal Dandelion

5/8/2016

By Gene Stratton-Porter

If the little yellow flower were imported and cost us $5 a plant, we would all be growing it in pots and exhibiting it as something rare and beautiful. But because it grows in field and wood and is the universal flower of the soil, few people bother about it or take the trouble to notice how pretty it is. It is useful too, for the roots are a fine blood purifier and the wine of our grandmothers is justly famous. Properly cooked, there is nothing better to eat than the leaves, and honey gathered from the flowers is delicious.

The leaves gave it its name. They are long and slender with a lovely rich green color and ragged edges which have reminded scientists of the tooth of a lion- dent de lion – or lion’s tooth. The bloom is a flat round disk of gold, thickly petaled and lightly dusted with pollen. After a day or two of bloom the disk folds up for the seed to ripen, and in a few days lifts itself again, except that this time it is a ball of misty white. It stands only for a little, while before the wind harvests the seed and scatters them to the four corners of the earth.

A Shy Killdeer Family

5/2/2016

By Gene Stratton-Porter

The killdeer nest was in the middle of a cornfield. It was not much to boast of. The four tan-colored eggs sprinkled with dark brown and black lay on the bare earth surrounded by a few bits of bark and cornstalk. The mother bird was young and extremely shy and nervous, and though I dreamed of having her perch on my hand like other killdeers I have known, it was only with the greatest difficulty that I was able to take a picture even of the young birds.

After a week or so of patient waiting I was compelled to miss one day’s visit to the nest and when I went back it was deserted. Before I could decide whether or not there had been a tragedy I heard a faint cry which I recognized as that of one of the young birds. We gave chase, my daughter and I, and finally, breathless, hot and disheveled, secured a picture of him as he mounted a rock.

He was the quaintest baby bird I have ever handled, with his downy black and white, pink and tan suit, his slender beak, his long legs and the big, prominent eyes, which showed plainly that he was able to fly by night as well as by day.

Memorial Day Remembrance

Camera and Kingfisher

A Most Elusive Moth

The Universal Dandelion

A Shy Killdeer Family

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