Jean Mineo explains Medfield’s new downtown dog (I personally think the choices for the first Art Box were brilliant)-
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| Jean Mineo also commented on her J.A.S. Monks Art Box album. |
| Jean wrote: “At an unknown date, Jack became the faithful canine companion of then 23 year-old Dr. Arthur Mitchell who arrived in Medfield in 1887 and served as the town’s beloved doctor for the next 47 years. During a storm of epic proportions (perhaps the one from October 12-15, 1895), the young doctor fell into floodwaters of what is assumed now to be the Charles River. Caught under the rapids, with his lungs filling with water, Dr. Mitchell glimpsed his ever-faithful dog Jack who had offered himself as a canine life-jacket. With his life in the balance, all Arthur remembered was holding onto Jack for dear life as they paddled for refuge. Reaching the river bank, Arthur grabbed onto tree branches and pulled himself to safety with Jack still by his side. Dr. Mitchell never forgot his own near drowning, or the fact that Jack saved him. For this memory and honor, Mitchell commissioned Medfield artist John Austin Sands Monks to paint a portrait of Jack which later hung in the doctor’s office. It appears that the portrait was painted sometime between the 1895 storm and Jack’s death in August 1899. After Dr. Mitchell’s death in 1934, his will stipulated that the painting become property of his housekeeper, Mrs. Mary Carver Haskell. She later donated it to the Medfield Historical Society before her death in 1951. Both the good doctor and his faithful dog were buried side by side in Temple, Maine’s Mitchell Cemetery. The other images on this Art Box are 1) the 1888 Monks Block (across the street) which the artist and his wife Olive built on property owned by her parents, Orson and Olive Wales (Thayer) Young, and 2) an etching of sheep for which John Austin Sands Monks became America’s painter par excellence. This Art Box was sponsored by M.E.M.O., the Medfield Employers and Merchants Organization. The Art Boxes are a program of the Medfield Cultural District and the remaining five will be installed in the spring, each telling a different story of Medfield’s cultural history.” |
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