Rare footage offers 'moving' glimpse of Stratton-Porter

ROME CITY, Ind. (AP) - A home movie discovered in California is offering what's believed to be the first film footage of Indiana author and naturalist Gene Stratton-Porter.

Dave Fox, manager of the Gene Stratton-Porter State Historic Site near Rome City, told The News-Sentinel (http://bit.ly/19cl8fJ ) that descendants of the author found the 1-minute, 20-second film showing Stratton-Porter checking on construction of a fountain at her home on Santa Catalina Island in California. It also depicts her showing off her backyard to family members and taking a boat ride to select rocks for the fountain.

Fox said the footage was shot in 1923 or 1924 by James Sweetser Lawshe, Stratton-Porter's nephew-in-law. It is narrated by Lawshe's son-in-law, George Hoedinghaus.

"There has never been any motion pictures of Gene Stratton-Porter in existence beforehand, that we are aware of," Fox said.

Fox obtained the footage in October during a trip to California to reconnect with Stratton-Porter descendants.

Stratton-Porter was born near Wabash and lived most of her life in Indiana. She gained national fame for nature studies and novels written while she and her husband, Charles, lived from 1888 to 1913 in a cabin in Geneva near the Limberlost Swamp.

The couple moved in 1914 to a new cabin they named Wildflower Woods on Sylvan Lake near Rome City.

She died in a car crash in Los Angeles on Dec. 6, 1924.

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Information from: The News-Sentinel, http://www.news-sentinel.com/ns