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Career, Romance, and FmziIy I worked very diligently the rest of my stay. And in the end I was one of the ten best chosen to contest for the gold medal for drawing. I made a mental resolve: if I won the medal I would go to Europe; if not I would remain and do whatever came next. The contest required a month to complete a full length drawing of a cast, with no criticism. About three months before this began, I noticed ditty spells coming on, followed by a terrible weight in my stomach, which was undoubtedly dys- pepsia. I would eat a small meal and in an hour or so the heavi- ness would come on with an intense desire for more food. I was in this condition during the last month and much of the time it was necessary to force myself to keep going. I completed the contest but my means ran out and I returned to Utah. My ticket expired at Ogden. I called on an artist friend there, Willis Adams,l' and he lent me the fare to Lehi, so that when I arrived I was in debt. Two days after my arrival a telegram came to me with congratulations from the school. I had won the medal. Then there was more rejoicing in my family. The Salt L&e Trithze gave me a fine headline story. Now was the time for me to start life for myself, as a full fledged artist. And I packed up my belongings, with a twenty dollar gold piece - a gift from my grandfather - besides my train fare which my father contributed. I was ready to meet the world. I located in Salt Lake City where I took a little room on Main Street, upstairs, at a rent of five dollars a month. I bought a second hand stove, a table, some old chairs, a sack of coal, and twenty-five cents worth of kindling. Then I put up my draw- 10 Willis A. Adams (18&1932), from Indiana, went into business with a local Goshen, Indiana, photographer and became the photographic tinter in the firm. Adams came West with his brother Charles arriving in Ogden in 1879. Charles Adams immediately set-up as a photographer in that town, while Willis moved on to Park City and established a second family photo gallery. Willis split his time between Ogden and Park City and practiced photography, mostly in Park City, for almost fifty years. Eventually Adams numbered "John Hafen, H. L. A. Culmer, Edwin Evans, J. T. Harwood, LeConte Stewart, Lee Greene Richards, A. B. Wright, and others" among his friends. Olpin, Dictionnry, 3-4 and Jack H. West, Jr., "Willis A. Adams," unpublished report dated 2 May 1978, in author's possession. 27 |
