John Sloan's New York Scene

Subject:	John Sloan's New York Scene
Date:	Wed, 9 Dec 2009 19:18:41 -0800 (PST)

John Sloan's New York Scene

Foreword by Sam Sloan

I first heard of John Sloan in my American history class in high
school, where his name was mentioned in my high school history book.

I next heard of John Sloan in a surprising way. I was reunited with my
son Peter Sloan, whom I had not seen since he was a small child
because of a divorce with his mother, and I learned that he had become
a professional commercial artist. He told me that he often told people
that he was the grandson of John Sloan, because he did the same kind
of art as John Sloan, mainly pencil, pen and ink drawings of people.
He just imagined himself to he the grandson of that John Sloan, simply
because they have the same last name and did the same kind of art.

Sloan is a common name, but this led me to wonder if we might actually
be related.

I came across this book, John Sloan's New York Scene, which has
pictures of John Sloan in it, and I could not help but notice that
John Sloan, the artist, had an uncanny resemblance to Howard Creighton
Sloan, my grandfather, plus they both came from the same place,
Philadelphia.

My grandfather, Howard Sloan, was born on March 18, 1873 in
Philadelphia but moved to Chicago, where my father was born, and died
in Illinois on March 6, 1940.

John Sloan was born in August 2, 1871 in Lock Haven, Pennsylvania,
lated moved to New York and died on September 8, 1951 in Hanover, New
Hampshire.

So, the two of them were born two years apart, in about the same
place, looked alike, had about the same life span and had the same
last name. I had to wonder if they could even have been brothers.

Of course, the question is: If they were that closely related, why
would I not know about it?

The answer is that every Sloan generation has had a break between
brothers. I am now locked in a court battle with my brother Creighton
for the last 23 years since 1986. All of the court cases have been
started by him, by the way. My father and his two brothers did not
speak to each other for the last thirty years of their lives and in
fact the elder brother of the three disappeared in 1946 after coming
back from the Invasion of Iwo Jima. Nobody in our family knew what had
ever happened to him. I later found through genealogical research that
he had died in Iowa in 1978.

Then, it came to my grandfather, Howard Creighton Sloan. We know that
he was born in Philadelphia and had five brothers and sisters but no
trace has been found of any of them. To this day, we do not know what
happened to them.

I did finally found out that the father of my grandfather was
Creighton Sloan (1842-1916) and he was "born at Sea, Irish=94. The only
thing we know about his father was his name was =93Mr. Sloan=94.

In short, we know next to nothing about my father's family.

So, I turned to John Sloan, the artist, looking for clues.

And, guess what?: We know next to nothing about the family of John
Sloan, the artist either. Had it not been for this book edited by his
second wife, Helen Farr Sloan, we would know exactly zero about the
family of John Sloan, the famous artist.

This led me to try to locate Helen Farr Sloan. I knew that John Sloan
had married her in 1944 when he was 73 years old and she was still a
young woman. She writes that she was able to marry him because 1944
was a leap year and in those years a woman is allowed to propose
marriage to a man. She proposed marriage to him even though he was 40
years older. A few days later he called her and said, =93I would be a
fool not to marry you=94.

I could not find any mention of her anywhere except for in this book.
There were no news articles about her nor could I find an obituary of
her. She seemed to have been an important person, so an obituary of
her should have appeared when she died.

It was this book that gave me the clue that helped me to find her. She
states on Page xvi of the Introduction that she met John Sloan in
1927 when he was a substitute teacher in an art class in the Art
Students League she took after she had completed high school. Assuming
that she completed high school at age 17, this would make her born in
about 1910. Therefore, I searched for persons named Helen Sloan born
in about 1910.

Next, she states in this book that she donated the art works of John
Sloan to the Delaware Art Museum. This seemed to be an odd place to
donate his works, since John Sloan had never lived in Delaware.

In my search I came across the name of a woman named Helen Sloan, born
in 1911 who died in Delaware.

Since no obituary of this person has appeared in the New York
newspapers, I searched the Delaware newspapers, and guess what? I hit
the jackpot. Helen Farr Sloan had died in Wilmington Delaware on
December 13, 2005.

I know it seems strange to be happy to find that someone had died, but
she had lived to be 94 years old and I had been searching for her for
nearly ten years. I just wish I had found her sooner, when she was
still alive.

Once I had her obituary, I was able to find out who her father,
grandfather, and great grandfather was. They were all medical doctors,
as was her brother.

What I was really hoping to find was any male line descendants of John
Sloan. DNA testing can only prove a relationship through male-to-male
testing because the test involves the y-chromosome that only males
have. So, I needed to find a son or grandson of John Sloan or a
brother to find out if we are related.

It seems there are no such persons. John Sloan's second wife, Helen
Farr Sloan did not have and children, or at least none were mentioned
in the obituary that was published when she died. The obituary of his
second wife's mother, Helen Woodhull Farr, was published in the New
York Times for March 15, 1972. It states that she was survived by
three grandchildren, but all three grandchildren were the children of
Dr. Hollon Farr, a famous cancer researcher and the brother of Helen
Farr Sloan.

John Sloan did not have any brothers. He only had two sisters.
Although he was married twice, it seems that he did not have any sons.
The obituary of his first wife, Anna Maria =93Dolly=94 Sloan was published
in the New York Times for May 5, 1943. It makes no mention of any her
having any children.

A relationship can be established through a DNA test on any relative
on a straight male line. Thus, if a brother of John Sloan or the
father or grandfather of John Sloan left any male descendants, they
could be tested. However, after going back several generations, no
surviving male relatives have been found. John Sloan did not have a
brother, nor did his father or grandfather have a brother.

However, on Page xiii of the Introduction, Helen Farr States:

John French Sloan was born in the small lumber town of Lock Haven,
Pennsylvania, ten years after the start of the Civil War. His father's
Scotch-Presbyterian ancestors had come to America at the beginning of
the eighteenth century. They were cabinetmakers by trade. The name
Sloan is of ancient Celtic origin, Scottish or Irish. During the
Revolutionary War period, two Sloan brothers married sisters of
Captain John French. While he had been christened John French in
memory of this Revolutionary ancestor (it was a name to be proud of,
going back to the days of Robert Bruce), Sloan preferred to mention
his Irish forebears when using humor to make serious points on the
lecture platform. He felt that the talent for drawing was inherited
from his father's family, but he dropped his middle name, considering
it "a romantic encumbrance," when he started to paint seriously.

John Sloan's Great-Great Grandfather, Alexander Sloan (1734-1812), had
sons who married two sisters named French. John Sloan (1767-1784)
married Elizabeth French (1773-1784) and Alexander Sloan (1771-1852)
married Jane French (born 1775, date of death unknown). There was also
a third brother, Robert Sloan (born 1769) who married Sarah McCormick
(born 1773). However, the male side of these family lines all died
out. The only surviving male descendant from all of these brothers was
John Sloan, the artist, who, in turn, had no sons.

The Sloan Family Genealogy Group is led by Frank Mitchell of Panama
City, Panama. He believes that Alexander Sloan (1734-1812) is the
grandson of Archibald Sloan (1697-1764). Archibald Sloan is believed
to be the =93Scotch-Presbyterian ancestor=94 referred to above. It appears
that Archibald Sloan is the founder of the large group of Sloans
centered in Philadelphia and that John Sloan, the artist, is a member
of that group.

Since my grandfather, Howard Creighton Sloan (1842-1916) also came
from Philadelphia, this would make me a distant cousin of John Sloan,
the artist.

This was confirmed by a DNA test done by Family Tree DNA dot com.
Their testing concluded that I was related to Ronald Scott Sloan who
is known to be a descendant of Archibald Sloan.

Thus, I was secure that I was a relative, although a distant relation,
of John Sloan, the artist.

Until last week, that is.

Last week the results of a more sophisticated 67-marker DNA test came
back and the result was that I am more closely related to a Canadian
named William Hiram Sloan (1818-1899). Egad! A Canadian! His DNA test
result is far closer to mine than any of the Philadelphia Sloans. This
does not change the conclusion that I am distantly related to John
Sloan, the artist, but it means that I am very distantly related,
probably many hundreds of years back.

Here is the result of my 67-marker DNA test:

Sloan=A0R1b1b21323141011151212121313291891011112515193013131517111019231615=
18183839121211915169101081010122223161012121581222201412111311111212

With this information, you can make a mini-me.
Here is the result of the test for a descendant of William Hiram Sloan

Sloan=A0R1b1b21324141011151212121313291891011112515193013151717111019231615=
18183838121211915169101081010122223161012121581222201412111311111212

The most recent and most sophisticated tests are on the end of the
string. As you can see we are a perfect match at the end.

However, at first it seemed that we were not related at all. This was
because of a difference at the beginning of the string, which was one
of the earliest tests.

Mine string starts with
R1b1b21323

His string starts with
R1b1b21324

As you can see, the last number is different. In fact, almost all
Sloans start with 1324. Since mine starts with 1323, it seemed that I
was not related to these people.

However, as later test results came in, it became evident that the
result of the first test was just an aberration, most likely the
result of a recent mutation. Stated differently, I am a mutant !

Now, by way of comparison, here is a person who bears the Sloan name
and is also in the same Haplogroup with us, which is Ribib2, but who
is, we believe, either unrelated or very distantly related to us:

Sloan=A0R1b1b21323141111141212121312301791011112515192915151717111119221514=
18183941121211915168101081010122325161012121581223201312111311111312

Now, compare his first 12 pairs of numbers to mine.

132414101214131212131329
132314111114121212131230

As you can see, 6 out of the 12 pairs of numbers are different between
him and me. So, we conclude that he is not a relative, except to the
extent that all humans are related to each other if you go back far
enough.

Lock Haven Pennsylvania, where John Sloan was born, is in the dead
center of Pennsylvania, which is to say that it is in the middle of
nowhere. It is unfortunate that he left no male-line relatives and
therefore we cannot determine his ancestry through DNA analysis.

His entire life might have been unfortunate had circumstances not led
him to discover this wonderful artistic talent he had.

At the age of only 16, John Sloan was forced to quit high school to
support his family, after his father's business failed and an uncle
who was helping the family died. He said that he might have become a
doctor or a lawyer instead of an artist had he not been forced to quit
school. He got a job in a bookstore and, as a sideline, he started
drawing cards which he sold in the store. Imagine how much they are
worth today! It is misleading when biographers state that he was 49
years old before he sold his first painting. Actually, he was selling
his art work all along. His paintings were few. It was his drawings of
people like his famous drawing of scrub-women in New York's Public
Library that made him famous.

He drew average or lower class common working people. As a result he
became known as the leader of the =93Ashcan Artists=94.

His art was also reflected in his politics. His politics were left-
wing. He was nearly red.

Because he drew pictures, cartoons and puzzles for the daily
newspapers, his output was prodigious. No wonder his name is mentioned
in the American history books.

When the died on September 8, 1951, his death was reported on the
front page of The New York Times and his obituary filled almost an
entire page of the newspaper. A US postage stamp has been issued in
recognition of his art.

Sam Sloan
New York
December 9, 2009

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