Fletcher Family Scrapbook

Images of Bruz's father Stoughton as a boy and an older man. He had 3 sisters, Julia, Hilda and Louisa. Hilda lived in a "boston marriage" in Saranac, New York. Louisa was a poet and had a stormy first marriage to famed playwright Booth Tarkington. Their only daughter Laurel died at age 16 and was one of the first of many tragedies to mark Bruz' s short life. Julia commited suicide in 1910 and a bitter custody battle for her children and body followed. Note that the elder Stoughton is standing on an LA rooftop near Harris & Frank's old Spring Street location. Georgia wonders if the cage could be related to the elevator he operated. A relative comments, "he looks like he's having a good day, and god knows the man lived through his share of horrific ones so it's kind of nice to know he still had that grin in him somewhere after all."

Bruz's Aunt Hilda as a girl. Later she lived in a "Boston Marriage" meaning she was a lesbian. She was frequently mentionted in the society pages of the Washington Post.

Bruz's beloved aunt Louisa, known to the family as Abbess. The first photo is probably right around the time she graduated from Smith College, in 1900. She met Booth Tarkington when they both appeared in an amateur production in Indianapolis. The second image shows her in costume for that part. She and Booth honeymooned in Lake Maxinkukee. A 1905 article reported that "after a hurried trip through the East he and Louisa Fletcher Tarkington spent the lovely month of October here alone, the long, purple, silent days they gave to rowing, sailing, driving, walking. Then at sundown they donned evening dress (Louisa and decollete creations of the country's best artists) and dined in splendor alone." That same article about the lake resort also stated, "there, also, on its wide veranda, Mrs. Stoughton Fletcher, Jr., of Indianapolis, flirted away many a pleasant Summer afternoon -- when she was May Henley and had not yet married the richest bachelor in Indiana." After the divorce, mother and daughter stayed for a while at Laurel Hall. Bruz and his aunt were very close.

One of Abbess' poems published in 1904.

Laurel, Abbess' oldest child, daughter of Booth. She was only a month older than her cousin Bruz.

Laurel Hall, 1919. Named after generations of Fletcher women, ironically repossessed by Fletcher Bank in 1923.

Bass Photo Co Collection, Indiana Historical Society.

Both women in this portrait share the same name: Louisa Fletcher. It is a name that generations of other Fletcher women also bore. Toward the end of the dock the elder aunt is dropping her "shabby old coat" - a metaphor of her past grief expressed in her most famous poem written during her divorce from Booth Tarkington:

"I wish that there were some wonderful place

Called the Land of Beginning Again,

Where all our mistakes, and all our heartaches,

And all of our poor selfish griefs

Could be dropped like a shabby old coat at the door,

And never be put on again."

She is seeking a new beginning as is her runaway neice seen in the foreground. The aunt has her back to the viewer displaying her signature long Victorian braid and dropping the shabby old coat. The landscape is otherworldly as there is no such place as the Land of Beginning Again. You cannot escape your past and remain yourself. The younger Lousia has just been expelled from a second school in 1920. In contrast to the pose of her aunt, she has her back to her aunt, is committing the then daring and shocking act of chopping off her hair and disguising herself as a man. She is about to steal a boat and ride the river to cast off the legacy of her name and family to live under the alias of Willie Sullivan. Like her mother and grandmother before her and her brother after, she will soon die young. The building clouds symbolize the change and turbulence everyone faces when choosing a new course for their life to follow.

All paintings on this site are by the author.

Below: Bruz and Casey Entertain circa 1929.

Copyright Tyler Alpern 2001 - 2007

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Laurel Hall images courtesy of Janis Baker.

May Flether's infamous bathroom.

Bruz's Music Room.