My mother has been distributing some of her larger family
furniture to my brothers and me. Last weekend, I brought home
a parlor screen painted in the mid-1800s. It would have originally
been used to shield someone from drafts. It has 3 sections hinged
together; each being about 54″x20″. The frame is made of
some dark fruit wood mounted with paintings on canvas panels.
The six paintings are by my ancestress Mary Esperandieu who came to
Knoxville, Tennessee USA in 1840 from Vevey, Switzerland. The panels tell
the story of her move to what was a lovely but relatively
primitive new country. She came to America as a young woman with her family.
Her father, Reverend Frederick Esperandieu, was a Huguenot (French protestant)
minister and teacher.
One screen panel shows a woman in white waving a hankerchief
goodbye to Lake Leman (Lake Geneva) and the Swiss mountains. Another shows
a tiny church in a field of wildflowers with hills behind. There are panels
showing lilac and sunflowers and another showing the dogwood native to the
Knoxville area. A very different panel is of a lively snow play scene with
children on sleds, a horse drawn sleigh, and a mansion in the background. This
is probably out of Mary Esperandieu’s childhood memories.
The paintings are in a Grandma Moses primitive style. My mother says this is
one of several family screens she inherited and is restoring. When she got this one,
the paintings were all crumpled up and in very bad shape. She remounted them
on new canvas with rabbit skin glue and tacked them back on the old screen frame.
Rev Frederick Esperandieu ran a French-English bilingual school in Knoxville. Both
he and his sons fought for the Confederacy during the Civil War.
Mary Esperandieu eventually married Edward Bolli. My brother Mark has her diary from
the crossing to America, including the sad story of the death of her Mother’s new baby
at sea. My cousin Rip has Mary Esperandieu Bolli’s diary from the time of the Civil War.
In it is her story of telling the soldiers who came to take her chickens that they were
no gentlemen. They slunk away ashamed.
KatysBlog 
Need a picture! 🙂 Sounds beautiful.
We are distant cousins, my great great grandfather was Theodore Chavannes, Edouard Bolli and Frederic Esperandieu’s brother-in -law. Mary Esperandieu was married to Emmanuel Bolli. Frederic and Edouard are your ancestors and my great great uncles
with best regards
Cathy
I am also a decendant of the esperandieu line. My great great great grandmother is a Constance Adele Esperandieu. Her daughter was my great grandmother Mary Brownlow, her daughter was my grandmother Mary Wood Prugh. I have done some research myself at the Knoxville Historical Society Library. There is a book about the Swiss settlers by David Babeley.
The diary sounds amazing. Is there anyway to get photocopied pages or see any of it?
To Meg Brown
I’m a member of East Tennessee historical Society and fond of genealogy, I’ve found your ancestor baptism certificate in Lausanne, it is in my computer( Constance Esperandieu)…and have at home David Babelay’s book. I’m able to send photocopies. Sorry for the mistakes…
I’mm looking for my distant cousins in the States. We were in Knoxville and visit Knoxville Historical Society Library
Best regards
Cathy Minck
Oh, how wonderful! It would be so great if you could send photocopies. I too have David Babelay’s book. If you could send photocopies of anything in the diary pertaining to my relatives -please send away! Send whatever you’re willing to photocopy to
Meg Brown, 619 Front Street, Marion, MA 02738.
Thank you so much,
Meg Brown
see: http://www.rootsweb.com/~chevaud/dutoit
you’ll find all your Chavannes and Porta ancestors ( Constance’s grandmother was a Porta ) you’ll receive a cd with all my searches for your Swiss roots
cathy_15@hotmail.com
my @
cathyminck@hotmail.fr
my email
cathyminck@hotmail.fr
cathyminck@hotmail.fr