Alice Rockwell Green

Ask most of the citizens of Hancock County today if they ever heard of an artists’ commune in the county and chances are good that you’ll get laughter. “An artists’ commune in quiet, conservative Hancock County?” Then ask someone from the Social Security set and chances are you’ll get laughter again, followed by, “yes, I was there once, it was a fun place.” It was a place known as “Ivy Wild” and was inhabited by a group of talented, slightly unconventional souls who loved people and liked to entertain them. They had regular Saturday night dances and an unscheduled one if enough people dropped in, public picnics every Sunday when the weather permitted and an art showing whenever anyone came to the door. It was also reported that Alice Green, the owner of the place, on occasion held séances to get in touch with her dear departed husband or any other spirit who might be floating around the area.

No one seems to know when it all started, perhaps it just developed over a period of years. The Rockwells came to the county from New York in 1851 when their daughter, Alice, was one year old and bought 130 acres of land in the northwest quarter of section 4 in Wythe Township. In due time, Alice grew into an attractive, talented and well-educated young lady who married Augustus Green in 1878 and they took over the Rockwell farm. Not much is known about Augustus except that he was several years older than Alice and that he died in 1915. In 1935 when the Carthage Republican, in their “looking back twenty years column” reported his death as follows: “A.M.Green of Hamilton died March 4. George Upp, the artist, has made his home with Mr. and Mrs. Green for a number of years.” No one interviewed for this story remembers Mr. Green but he must have been loved by Mrs. Green very much because she was reported to have prepared his favorite meals every evening and placed a plate full of food on his grave in the front yard. She knew he ate it too because the next morning his plate was always licked clean!

Augustus and Alice had one son, Harry Green, who shared his mother’s interest in art and music. One time when he was in Keokuk at an art showing, believed to have been in the early 1890’s, he met a widely known artist by the name of George Upp. George was having marital problems and Harry invited him to the family farm. George was made to feel so welcome that he stayed for the remainder of his life.

George, born in Indiana in 1844, was no stranger to Hancock County. According to an article in the Carthage Republican, December 17, 1924, the Carthage College graduating class of 1876 had brought him to Carthage to do portraits of the faculty and while in town he did portraits of many of the leading citizens. He set up his studio in the “new” Patterson building on the south side of the square. No doubt some of those portraits remain today. In addition to portraits, he painted landscapes and still life. Several of his paintings are presently on display at the Kibbe Museum in Carthage. A number have been hung in the state capitol buildings in Springfield and Des Moines.

A while after Harry brought Upp home with him, he was again in Keokuk one evening and met Edwin Johnson, an unemployed school teacher who reportedly had a bad drinking problem. Harry and Ed got along so well that Harry invited Ed home with him too. Ed was welcomed by the family and he too spent the remainder of his life there. He wrote poetry, played several musical instruments including the hand saw, pitchforks, and some more conventional instruments but was probably best known for his ability to grow vegetables and flowers, especially dahlias.

A while later, George Upp’s daughter, Laura, joined the group as the bride of Harry. Unfortunately Harry died at an early age with cancer and joined his father in a grave in the front yard. Laura later married again and left the area.

Soon after George?s arrival, he started calling the place “Ivy Wild” because Ivy covered the east and south walls of the house, and some of the area around the house was left in a relatively natural wild state in order to attract the birds and wild animals which they enjoyed so much. It must have been a beautiful place because so many remember the well-kept grounds and the drive back to the house. In an article published in the Quincy Herald-Whig in 1928, the writer described it as the most attractive spot in the area.

Even after Harry died, the show people continued to come and most artists who were passing through the area stopped by. Somehow they always found room for all who came?in a happy carefree manner. Many returned again and again: sometimes they brought friends.

The farm didn’t bring in enough income for all the activities but an occasional sale of one of Upp’s paintings and sales from Johnson’s vegetable and flower gardens helped pay expenses. Not all of Upp’s paintings were for sale, according to two reports, his favorite was a painting of a violin for which he was reportedly offered ten thousand dollars, which was a substantial sum at that time, but he chose not to sell it. On January 22, 1922, the house caught on fire and burned to the ground, taking with it most of his paintings including “The Violin” and many of the collectables. A new house was built that summer and Alice tried so hard to get everything back as it was before the fire, but Upp was despondent and could not paint. The next Spring, when the peach blossoms were in full bloom, she asked him to put them on canvas so she could enjoy them forever. He painted the peach blossoms and continued to try to paint again all the pictures that had been destroyed in the fire. He made the remark one day that one more day of painting and work would be finished but he didn’t get that day; he died December 17, 1924, at the age of 80, of pneumonia after two days of illness. The funeral was held at the residence and he, too, was buried in the front lawn just to the side of his stone lion.

A few years before Upp’s death, an aspiring young painter from nearby Elvaston joined the commune and studied under Upp. His name was Russell Duncan and according to some reports, he showed some talent. He had inherited some land from his grandfather’s estate but because of the way the will was written, he could not get possession until his younger sister became a specified age and that would not be until 1935. At that time, he hoped to go to Chicago to study art. He was still at Ivy Wild in 1928 but beyond that time, we have no information on him. At that time, he had sold a few paintings but realized little more than enough to pay for his supplies.

A Quincy Herald-Whig reporter visited Ivy Wild in the Fall of 1928. At that time, Edwin Johnson was still an active gardener and even recited some of his poems for the reporter, but it was not long after that he died and joined the other three men in the front yard. We have not been able to locate any of his poems.

When the reporter visited her, Mrs. Green was 78 years old and was described: “She has the spirit, the voice and enthusiasm of a girl. She has a sense of humor which brings a twinkle into her eyes and a philosophy of life which has enabled her to rise above sorrow and trouble. She has a real vision of Ivywild as a center for young life. She wants the young people of Hamilton and the surrounding country to come to see the beauties of nature, and to learn to love good books, and to enjoy the pictures.”

Earlier that summer, a group of people from Chicago had spent a week at Ivy Wild while on a tour of west central Illinois and in October they had invited her to Chicago for a week, where she spent her days sightseeing and night?s at the theatres and night spots. When asked about her trip, she answered, “When I remember the scenery we passed through on the way there and all the beauties of building, boulevard and lake, I feel as if I had just returned from a trip to Paradise. And when I remember the things I saw at the night clubs, the young girls drinking and smoking, the mad pace at which youth goes, I felt like I had just returned from a visit to hell.”

At the age of 85, Alice Rockwell Green died June 29, 1935, at her beloved Ivy Wild where funeral services were held the following Sunday. But she did not join her loved ones in the front yard. She was buried in Oakwood Cemetery.

Shortly after her death, the farm was divided into three parcels and sold. Today, the lane which led to the house is still there and still leads to a group of tall trees which once shaded the picnickers on the lawn at Ivy Wild, but weeds have taken over the once beautiful lawn. Two very large urns made of cement with steel reinforcing, which once held flowers that greeted the visitors, have given up. The cement has cracked away from the steel at the stems of the urns, tipping the empty bowls, which otherwise appear to be in excellent condition, to the south. They seem to be telling the visitor that Alice doesn’t live here any more and life is empty now, but “it was once a happy place.”