Jessie L. Bartoo was born on May 19, 1863, near Niles, Michigan, to Lafayette F. Bartoo and Arabella Mahala Blood Bartoo. She grew up on a farm in Jasper County, Indiana, the fourth of six children. She attended Rensselaer High School for two years. In 1885, Jesse was employed at the Republican newspaper office, where she learned the printing trade.
In March 1890, Jessie and her younger brother, Horace, purchased the J. C. Williams photograph gallery in Rensselaer, Indiana. Jessie had learned photography from local photographers, Mr. and Mrs. Joseph A. Sharp. The Bartoo gallery could produce portraits and view work; they also offered copying and enlarging. In May, they purchased a new lens and other equipment, along with improved lighting techniques.
By the fall of 1890, Jesse was running the studio by herself. She added a new background for portrait sittings. The following year, she offered portraits on the new Aristo printing paper, charging an extra dollar per dozen. She ran a profitable business with thousands of customers.
On July 4, 1892, Bartoo opened her new photograph gallery on the north side of Washington Street, just west of The Republican office. The Bartoo Art Pavilion was also known as “The World’s Fair Art Building,” because of the excitement surrounding the upcoming World’s Columbian Exposition to be held in Chicago in 1893. She made a specialty of children’s portraits in the new space.
In the fall of 1894, she opened a new and larger operating room with an artistically patterned hardwood parquet floor and a large, elegant reception room. In July 1899, Bartoo closed her Rensselaer gallery due to poor health. She and her brother-in-law traveled to Colorado to find a suitable location for her health and to resume her photography business. They stopped in Colorado Springs, but settled on Florence, Colorado, about 40 miles southwest of the Springs. She set up her studio on Pike’s Peak Avenue, away from family and friends. Unfortunately, her health did not improve during her stay in Colorado. After an uncharacteristically cold and stormy March and April of 1900, Bartoo’s health declined.
In late April, after Bartoo had concealed the extent of her illness from her family and friends in Indiana, concerned citizens of Florence informed her family. Her brother-in-law returned to Florence, and he and Jessie departed by train for Indiana. She died about a month later at the home of her sister and brother-in-law from consumption. She was interred at Weston Cemetery.
In 1906, a stained glass window was commissioned for a new church in Jasper County. The window titled, “Easter Morning, or the Risen Christ Appearing to Mary,” was dedicated to Jessie L. Bartoo.
See other photos from Bartoo’s time in Indiana
Thank you to Sue Caldwell at the Jasper County Historical Society, in Rensselaer, Indiana, for providing the scans for this post. Marty Lamm, Secretary of the Museum Board, at the Florence Pioneer Museum and Research Center, in Florence, Colorado, provided research materials that led to this blog post.