Artists, Poets, Authors

As music is the poetry of sound, so is painting the poetry of sight.
                  James McNeil Whistler

Teach your children poetry; it opens the mind, lends  grace to wisdom and makes the heroic virtues hereditary.
                Sir Walter Scott

Deer & Hounds, freehand scissor cutting by Henrietta (Netta) Gray Bedinger

Artistic talent in the Bedinger family has been demonstrated  through the generations.  Is artistic talent developed through environment and training or is artistic talent inherited?  Perhaps both.  We will let the reader decide, but notable artistic talent is found in the European ancestral lines of the von Schlegel and the Rutherford families.  The Von Schlegel family is noted for poetry composition through the generations, the stellar accomplishments of the brothers August Wilhelm and Friedrich von Schlegel, romanticists of German literature, and the paintings of the renowned Lucas Cranach. The Rutherford family brings into the Bedinger family the genetic inheritance of none other than the Scottish poet Sir Walter Scott, whose mother was a Rutherford.  The Rutherford and von Schlegel lines are combined in the children of Daniel Bedinger (7), a poet himself,  and his wife Sarah Rutherford.  We shall exhibit some of the poetry and art of their children and that of their offspring in succeeding generations.  The artistic talent in the American generations of Bedingers is revealed in paintings, drawings, scissor cuttings, calligraphy, prose, poetry, and musical ability.   Objects of art, poetry and writing are found in documents, memorabilia and  publications, collected by family members and held in private and public collections.  Objects of art and poetry were more amenable to being held and passed down than the work of  instrumental and vocal musical artists.  We have scarce anecdotal references to musical talent in the earlier generations, but today, with electronic  recordings, we should preserve the works of the musical artists of our family.   

 


Second Generation 
​     Henry Bedinger (4)   
     Daniel Bedinger (7)

Third Generation
     Virginia Ann Bedinger (Lucas)(43)
     Henrietta Bedinger (Lee)(44)
     Henry Bedinger III (45)

Fourth Generation
     Lawrence Berry Washington (107)
     Sarah Eleanor Washington (110)
     Benjamin Franklin Washington (111)
     Mary Elizabeth Washington (Asbury) (113)
     Thornton Augustin Washington (114)
     Anna Bedinger Cornwall (122)
     Sarah Jerusha Cornwall (123)
     Daniel Bedinger Lucas (130)
     Virginia Bedinger Lucas (131)
     Edwin Gray Lee (132)
​     Rev. Henry Bedinger Lee(136)
     Mary Bedinger (Mitchell) (140)
     Caroline Dane Bedinger (Danske Dandridge) (142)


Fifth Generation
    Henrietta Gray (Netta) Bedinger (199)
    Virginia Lucas (311)
    Rebecca Rust Lee [Styled as Rebecca Burwell Lee](338)
    Margery Bedinger (355)
    Serena Katherine Dandridge (356)
  

Sixth Generation
     Nina Celeste Bedinger (Askew) (406)
     Edward Rentfro Bedinger
     Mildred Louise Bedinger (Rhea)
     Alexandra Lee (Levin) (585)

Seventh Generation
     Thelma Celeste Bedinger (Dobson)
     William Eugene Bedinger

Eighth  Generation
     Davis Griffith-Cox
     George Michael Bedinger
     Mary Elizabeth Bedinger
​     Sally Sue Dobson (Ingram)
     ​Michelle Kirstin Fikse

Ninth Generation
     Jordan 
     Thomas 
     Katie