Photo courtesy Northfield Historical Society Mary Ann Paine Dog River Crier, #56, 1992, Julia McIntire, Editor

"Mary Ann Paine was born in 1799, the daughter of Ezra Weeks, a distinguished artist and a member of the N.Y. Academy of Fine arts. Reared in an enlightened family, Mary Ann studied French and Italian classics as well as art and some sciences. In her late twenties she married Martyn Paine, a noted physician and son of Northfield's early benefactor Elijah Paine. The Martyn Paines lived on Broome Street in New York City but spent their summers in Maine and Vermont.

"In 1850 the Paines and their son Robert spent some time at Wells Beach where she painted a lovely allegorical group of flowers. Each year they spent two or three weeks at the Paine mansion in Williamstown, Vermont.

"Mary Ann was plagued by ill health all of her married life. Every summer she suffered debilitating bouts of dysentery, a condition scarcely helped by her husband's bizarre notions of nutrition. She and her only surviving son were allowed no red meat (it was too stimulating to the brain, Dr. Paine thought). They subsided principally on arrow-root and crackers. Martyn's principal characteristic, it was said, was an unshakeable belief that what he thought was right was right because he thought it was. Nevertheless, Mary Ann idolized him and spent much energy painting botanical illustrations of Materia Medica to be used in his classes at N.Y.C. Medical School. She asserted her own personality through her paintings and sketches. She was always accompanied by a nurse on her visits to Williamstown and Northfield."

The painting appearing on Page 1 was done in oils and is labeled "Northfield, Vermont, sketched by Mrs. Martin (sic) Paine from the back of Mr. Randall's house in 1837."

It shows Elijah Paine's large broadcloth mill (now empty lot across from Kenyon's) the Dog River and the dam which powered the mill, the Congregational Church, then the "Paine Meeting House", and the Old Northfield House (built by brother in law, Charles Paine) where the Mayo Block and the Northfield Saving's Bank are now located.

How did the Painting get to the Library?

Mr. Gilchrist wrote to the Northfield News, "As I remember him…Mr. E.A. Webb retired from the Hotel and moved to the Gov. Paine house on Main St., in 1865 or 6, (and)he took the old painting with him and it hung in the front hall of the 'Governor's House' where it was the last time I saw it. Some years before Dr. Nichols died (in 1907) I inquired of him the whereabouts of the painting and he informed me it was still in the Governor's House. (This house was moved one lot north in 1906 to make room for the Brown Public Library, and became the American Legion until it was purchased by the Northfield Historical Society). The property became part of the capital campaign for the expansion of the library, is now owned by the Town of Northfield and is on a 99 year lease to the Northfield Historical Society.

"Said the late Roberta Davis in an interview, 'My mother, Anna Langdon, born in 1865, married John A. Kent and they lived in the present American Legion house which they probably bought from the Paine Estate (ex-Governor Paine died in 1853). Mary Ann's painting was hanging in the front hall. My family later moved to Col. Well's house (now Theodore and Patricia Nelson's, 6 Slate Avenue) which they had built but left the painting at the Paine House. E.K. Jones, in business with Mr. Kent, may have bought the house; at any rate the Jones children grew up in the Kent house and it was probably one of these people who gave the painting to the library.

"As time went by however, a period of over a hundred years, interest in the painting diminished until the colors darkened to such an extent that a few objects would be distinguished. Some people may have noticed its sad condition but nothing was done about it.

"In 1977 the library trustees decided to restore the painting. Aided by contributions from the Vermont Bicentennial Commission and the Ladies Reading Circle, the trustees engaged Tom Clark of Perkinsville to undertake its restoration. It still needs better lighting which would require more money that is available at the present time.

"But it is now our earliest know painting of Northfield, its glowing colors and 'artistic as well as historic value,' a treasure for the people of Northfield to enjoy.

Mary Ann's husband was a prominent physician in Boston. In his will, he left a large sum of money and his numerous publications to Harvard College, in Robert Troup Paine's memory. He was deeply saddened by the death of his son, who was a student at Harvard, studying medicine. To keep the memory of his son alive, he donated a biography of him along with his portrait and essays. Many scholarships were established in Robert's name. He mentioned in his will that his sister, Caroline, had means, and he was leaving his family only jewelry and family mementos.

Martyn Paine, M.D., LL.D., of New York, was born in Williamstown, Vermont, July 8, 1794, and died in New York, November 10, 1877, aged eightythree. His father, the Hon. Elijah Paine, a graduate of Harvard College in 1781, was born in Brooklyn, Connecticut, January 21, 1757. His father was a judge of the supreme court of Vermont, and represented the State in the United States Senate, from 1795 to 1802.

Dr. Martyn Paine, the son, the last survivor of four sons, graduated at Harvard College in 1813. After studying medicine with Dr. John Warren, of Boston, father of Dr. John C. Warren, he commenced practice in Montreal and removed thence to New York City, where he acquired distinction. He was prominent in establishing the University Medical College, and was a celebrated writer upon medical subjects. He was active in effecting the repeal of the law which made it a penal offence to dissect a human body. From 1838-1841, he was professor at the University of the City of New York of the theory and practice of medicine; and from 1841 to 1850, professor in the University Medical College of the Institutes of Medicine and Materia Medica, and subsequently of Materia Medica and Therapeutics. He received the degree of M.D. from Harvard College in 1816, and of LL.D. from the University of Vermont in 1854. He was a member of many medical and scientific societies in Europe and America.

He published "Medical and Physiological Commentaries," three volumes, 1840-4; "Materia Medica and Therapeutics," 1842; "The Institutes of Medicine," 1847; "The Soul and Instinct Distinguished from Materialism," 1848 and a memoir of his son, Robert Troup Paine, 1852.

Taken from Memorial Biographies of the New England Historic Genealogical Society, published in 1907.