342 AUDUBON, THE NATURALIST 



He complimented me on my drawings of birds and flowers. 

 Showing him a portrait of my Best Friend, I asked him if he 

 would like one of himself. He said "Yes, and I will exert my- 

 self to gain as many more customers as I can." 



According to a story current at Meadville long after 

 the event Audubon made the acquaintance of Mr. Bene- 

 dict, a merchant, lately come from New Haven, whose 

 attractive daughter, named Jennett, 18 was then one and 

 twenty; his family lived at the village tavern, called the 

 "Torbett House," in which Mr. Augustus Colson had 

 a store. It was Mr. Colson, to whom Audubon probably 

 refers, who responded generously to his appeal for work, 

 and called in a number of his young friends as possible 

 patrons. Among them was Miss Jennett Benedict, and 

 the naturalist, attracted by her agreeable manners and 

 pleasing appearance, asked permission to make a por- 

 trait-sketch, saying that he would pay for the privilege 

 by presenting her with a copy. This was evidently good 

 business enterprise, for, according to the story, a grain 

 bin in the Colson store was soon converted into a studio, 

 and Audubon was rewarded by a number of sitters. 

 Here is his account from the record just quoted: 



Next day I entered the artist's room, by crazy steps of the 

 store-garret ; four windows faced each other at right angles ; in 

 a corner was a cat nursing, among rags for a paper-mill ; hogs- 



18 Miss Jennett Benedict in 1836 became Mrs. Butts; the crayon por- 

 trait which Audubon made at this time was carefully treasured by her 

 daughter, the late Mrs. Frederick A. Sterling, of Cleveland, Ohio, to whose 

 kindness I am indebted for the privilege of reproducing it. This original 

 drawing, which is presumably a fair specimen of Audubon's itinerant 

 portraiture, was made on a sheet of buff, water-marked paper, 14y 2 by 

 10y 2 inches in dimensions; it was outlined in pencil, and carefully finished 

 in crayon-point; its legend "J. J. Audubon-1824," was inserted in pencil, 

 in a very fine hand at the lower margin of the sketch. The Colson 

 store was at the corner of Water Street and south of Cherry Alley. For 

 an account of this incident I am indebted to Mrs. Sterling, and to an 

 article in the Tribune Republican, of Meadville, for February 7, 1907. 



