Howard Pyle: Marriage

"Washington and Mary Philipse"
by Howard Pyle

"Howard Pyle, who was an excellent tenor, had been pressed to sing in a chorus for an event, and was told that the first rehearsal would take place at the Pooles', a well-known family in Wilmington. On the appointed evening he went to the Pooles', where he was the first to arrive. Miss Anne Poole met him at the door. She did not know precisely who the strange young man was, but randomly guessed that he was the new tenor, and therefore engaged him in conversation. 

When the other singers came they found Miss Poole and Howard congenially talking and supposed that they were old friends. Consequently the evening's rehearsal went by and they were not introduced. And in Wilmington society in the late 70's for two people to become well acquainted without being properly introduced was a most unconventional thing. Nevertheless, it happened in this case. The young lady had made so deep an impression that Howard Pyle found it convenient for him to call at the Poole house very frequently. In fact, his visits became more and more regular. By July, 1880, the two young people had become engaged.

Howard Pyle now found it very necessary to ascertain whether or not he could make enough money to support two in the same manner in which Miss Poole had always lived, for it was inconceivable to him to think of marrying her unless he could give her everything which she had in her present home. He went to see Parsons at Harper's, and asked him, 'do you think, Mr. Parsons, but I have made a mistake, that I have been too hasty and selfish and involved a girl who has hitherto been raised with every want satisfied in an affair with an uncertain future?' 'No,' said he, 'I don't think anything of a kind. I have seen your work from the start, and have seen it steadily improving. A man of your talents is perfectly safe, and I should be perfectly willing to trust the future of any of my daughters to you and would do so without hesitation, and then saying that, I say all that I can say.'

After this encouraging opinion, Howard Pyle started into work with redoubled energy. Everything that could possibly strengthen his position he did. Pictures, many of them the best that he had done thus far, were completed in much less time than it had formerly taken him. He thought that it would be prudent to make his relations with Scribner's somewhat more intimate than they had been of late. He wrote to them telling them that he could now do work for them, and found that he was received 'with open arms, and the blowing of trumpets.'

After an autumn and winter of strenuous work, Pyle proved to himself that he was capable of making a good living. He was amazingly happy and his future was brimming with hope. On April 12, 1881, Anne Poole and Howard Pyle were married with A.B. Frost acting as best man."

To be continued

(Excerpts from "Howard Pyle, A Chronicle" by Charles D. Abbott.)