Notes on Fred Kohlhepp and Minerva's Childhood from "Minerva Kohlhepp Teichert: With a Bold Brush"

In the article "Minerva Kohlhepp Teichert: With a Bold Brush," written by Jan Underwood Pinborough and published in the April 1989 Ensign, the following is noted about Frederick Kohlhepp and Minerva's childhood (interesting tidbits are italicized and not part of the original):

Born on 28 August 1888 in North Ogden, Utah, Minerva was the second of ten Kohlhepp children. Most of her early years were spent on her family’s Idaho homestead. Her father, Frederick John Kohlhepp, was a cultured gentleman who gave up the prosperity of his Boston family to go west in search of adventure. When he found Mary Ella Hickman and the restored gospel, he embraced both.

The Kohlhepp family was poor financially, but life on the homestead near Pocatello was rich food for Minerva’s taste for drama and romance. With no school nearby, Minerva had little formal education as a small child. But each night her father gathered the children around to read the scriptures or classics of literature. “My parents were dreamers,” she later recalled. “Oh, the fairyland we lived in.” (“Miss Kohlhepp’s Own Story,” Pocatello, Idaho, 1917.)

In a willow patch near their farm, young Minerva acted out plays with her older sister. Working in the fields with her father, she dreamed as he described faraway places and peoples he had seen. She raced the wind on Gem, the fine, fast horse she had paid for with three summers’ work in the hay fields. When a wild horse was rounded up, she ran to the corral to capture the ripples of its muscles in her sketchbook.

Throughout her life, she loved filling her canvases with the rough beauty of the desert, her palette reflecting the blues and greys of the distant mountains. She had a particular love for painting animals. “The movement she captured in horses and cattle is magnificent,” comments Nancy Webb, a writer who recently reviewed the museum exhibit for Southwest Art and whose article on Minerva Teichert appeared in the March 1989 issue.

Minerva left home for the first time at age fourteen to work as a nursemaid for a wealthy Idaho family in San Francisco. There she saw museum art for the first time and attended classes at Mark Hopkins Art School. But it was not until she had graduated from high school back home and taught school for several years that she was able to pursue any serious training in art.

By age nineteen, she had scraped together enough money to go to Chicago, where she studied at the Chicago Art Institute under the great draftsman John Vanderpoel, a master of the academic school of painting. Several times during her three-year course she had to go home to earn more money in the fields or in the classroom. But always she returned to follow her dream. With characteristic confidence, Minerva once confronted Mr. Vanderpoel, asking why he criticized her work so harshly when so many classmates were doing much poorer work. She later recalled, “I shall never forget the disappointment on the dear little man’s face when he answered in a choked voice, ‘Miss Idaho, can it be possible you do not understand; they’re not worth it, they will drop out, but you—ah, there is no end.’ ” (“Miss Kohlhepp’s Own Story.”)

By 1912, she had finished her course at the Art Institute and returned west to earn more money. During this period she spent time “proving up” on her own homestead in Indian Warm Springs, Idaho—sleeping with a revolver under her pillow for protection in her isolated cabin. She was also courted by two young men—calling off a wedding with one wealthy suitor when she learned that he didn’t want to be married in a Mormon church. The other young man, not a Church member either (she knew no Latter-day Saint young men), was Herman Teichert. Herman was a gentle cowboy whose favorite sport was chasing wild horses on the desert by moonlight. In April 1915, however, she left Herman behind, telling him to marry someone else, and went to the Art Students’ League in New York City.

There are several interesting details from this article that I italicized throughout. Those that are self-explanatory for why I noted them I will pass over. It notes that Fred's main reason for leaving Boston was for adventure; it notes nothing about his health and the "consumption" issue. Fred's reading to the kids is emphasized (perhaps even over-emphasized; I doubt he read to them "each night"). Gem is noted in the story, this time (unlike in other of Minerva's accounts) earned by her own hard work instead of as a gift. Minerva is noted as leaving home for the first time at 14; this is not correct. She left home several times before going to San Francisco, at least to visit Minerva Wade in Ogden, Utah. Lastly, it can't possibly be true that Minerva knew of no Latter-day Saint young men. Fred himself taught many young men of the church as the superintendent of the Sunday Schools. The church records for her own geographical area testify otherwise. Apparently, there weren't any Latter-day Saint young men that she wanted to know of, or whom wanted to know of her.