Arizona republican., 1904-01-08
Ills LIFE A ROMANCE
A Talented Artist, Discovered by
 Friends, Reveals Interesting Past.

Friends, Reveals Interesting FdSt'
 J. Houghten von Keith. a talented
 artist, and a gentleman altogether too
 modest for his own financial good, re-
 sides with his most estimable wife at
 125 South Second avenue, this city.
 Though he has been fully aware of his
 own identity all the time he has been discovered by an interested eastern press. through that famous writer and
 friend of many years, Miss Amelia F.
 Barr. Best of an, through her inter
 est, ne is in fair way. to acquire d
 speaking acquaintance with at least
 one of two or three large fortunes to
 which he is the nearest if not the only
 heir. His life story is a most engaging
 ore, and Mrs. Barr says in g recent letter: "I have spent my life in writ inS romance while you have been liv-
 ing it; you have the better of me-,
 It would require a volume to tell ev en the important features of his story, but brief outline will itself be inter-
 esting. The term "discovered' is en- ployed because for the greater part of
 quarter of a century his whereabouts lave been unknown to relatives and ltIIlt1F lEleilCS. l lUEOu9H lLG SclliGilleIAb of a valuable estate at Cornwall-on- the-IIudson the New York papers te came interested and traced him to Phoenix through Miss Barr, a friend of
 the long ago, when she and. many oth- CTS now known to fame were frequent visitors to his well known studio.
 When asketg yesterday by reporter
 the reason for his long life of buried | identity, he was at first disinclined to l talk, saying he courted no nOtoriety and was not certain that the fortune alluded to was so nearly within his
 grasp as to occasion any excitement
 on his part. Later he proceeded to i'm part some of the details of his career
 in a most pleasing and modest manner. | He is now somewhat past middle life and was borH in cottage next door to
 the home Of the poet Longfellow. Ear 1 Iy developing a taste for aft. he ac- ' quired q good scientific knowledge Of nature and was well educated in Eng I'lish, French and German. His ances- | tors, the Keiths, came to America in an early day and most of his relatives | of that name are today wealthy. The ! family was prominent. one in Scot | land and one brother, from whom he ! later traced his direct lineage. went to | Germany where the prefix Von was attached to his name. the family be- coming Q notable one in that country. | In perfection of his art studies he went to Germany, where he adopted the pre- | fix VOn, and where he married the | good woman who is now his wife and ! helpmect, herself a linguist of rare la cor1plishments.
 1 Returning to America, he at once mingled in Bohemia ct the nations metropolis He is one of the few art istsi composing the charter mem bership
 of the Palette club of New York. none | of whom are still within that circle. | One: of his boon companions was Then
 as Mast. The club became immensely 1 popular with amateur artists of wealth and the surroundings eventually be- 1 came too thoroughbred and expens- | i've for. those who started it. Pride goes
 a long way with most artists and they were finally crowded out by circum- l stances. But in the course of these
 years, he acquired a five-acre tract,
 most beautifully situated on a rocky palsade at Cornwall on- the Hudson. ] Here, at great expense, he constructed Q cosy and delightful home 1900 feet above the water. with a studio in l connection. His art attracted Stten- ton and the demand for his pictures was liberal. He had among his pat | rOns man wealthy people of those days and among his neighbors was Amelia
 r. Farr. now famous, a man named Matthieson. now a millionaire. 2. P.
 Roe, the well known author and a long | list of literary and professional people. But the revenue was not equal to the | splendor in which he lived, so. as many
 artists have done before and since. he
 made occasional visits into the inter-
 for where his brush would yield a rev. i enue in some commercial line. Thus supplying himself with money, he would return and open his studio with
 out explanation of the manner in which he had made the raise, for art
 ists do not care to admit to their feI~ lows that they were driven by necezsi- | ty to other than their high ideals.
 He was usually successful. but he played the game once too often.
 About twenty-five years ago. accom- panied by his wife and children he left
 as before, having secured a contract
 to paint and decorate line of steam
 boats on the Mississippi At Memphis | Jne tamlly was stricken With &ellOW fever and three children died. The newspapers of the day. however. dis covered the fathers identity and sent far and wide the erroneous statement
 that he was dead. Having buried him self for pride and knowing that all his
 relatives would mourn him as dead he decided to stay dead till he had ac- lcumulated at least comparative wealth. They moved to Little Rock where yeI-
 low fever again assailed them but
 without fatal effect, then went to St. Louis and numerous other. places, fi- tnally going to California where the speculations of his wife and himself in