Portrait History by WCB, Sr.
This interesting history of the two KAIGLER family heirlooms was compiled by WILLIAM C. BELLINGER, SR
The portrait of the two KAIGLER boys has a very interesting history. It was painted by the noted artist WILLIAM HARRISON SCARBOROUGH around 1856. The boys are GEORGE EDWARD ELLISON KAIGLER (b. 4/3/1852, d. 10/20/1855) and HENRY ASBURY GAMEWELL KAIGLER (b 9/17/1854, d. 7/8/1856), sons of GEORGE KAIGLER II and CATHERINE KINSLER KAIGLER. The family resided in the section of South Carolina then known as Saxe-Gotha. This area is now the Sandy Run Community of Calhoun County.
Immediately following the death of the older KAIGLER boy, probably from Typhoid Fever, the father sent for SCARBOROUGH, the artist, who was then residing in Columbia. SCARBOROUGH made a sketch of the two boys, substituting the eyes of the younger boy for those of his dead brother. SCARBOROUGH then returned to Columbia to complete the portrait, however, before the work was finished, the younger boy also died.
The boys are buried, along with their parents and other relatives, in the KAIGLER-DAVIS Family Cemetry, located in the Sandy Run Community, seventeen miles south of Columbia on the Charleston Highway. The cemetery was a part of the flower garden at the ancestral home of GEORGE KAIGLER I and his wife, ELIZABETH GEIGER.
The portrait of the KAIGLER boys, along with a portrait of their mother, CATHERINE KINSLER KAIGLER, hung in KAIGLER home known as Pineland Park, located approximately three quarters of a mile due west of the family cemetery.
Kaigler Boys by Scarborough
In February 1865, near the end of the Civil War and during GENERAL SHERMAN'S march toward Columbia, Union troops camped at Flowery Pond, near the KAIGLER-DAVIS Cemetery. In keeping with their practice of pillage and burnings as part of SHERMAN'S strategy of "total war", Union troops burned the ancestral home of GEORGE KAIGLER I near the cemetery.
A detail of Union troops also visited Pineland Park, home of GEORGE KAIGLER II and proceeded to seize or destroy all food supplies suitable for human or livestock consumption. CATHERINE KINSLER KAIGLER was then ordered out of her home so that it could be burned. She steadfastly refused, and displayed her defiance by playing "Dixie" on her piano. The Union officer in charge of the troops in a display of compassion ordered his men not to burn the home. CATHERINE KAIGLER, it was said, reminded him of his mother.
Although the home was spared the torch, it was plundered and many items were taken, damaged or destroyed. The large portrait of CATHERINE KINSLER KAIGLER was pierced in four places by a bayonet.