Portrait of Cresswell Farm

Welcome to the estate of George and Hannah Cresswell, who settled in 1834 on this property nine miles northwest of Potosi, Missouri. In this landscape, cultivated fields spread behind the white farmhouse, which still stands today. At the left, billows of smoke rise from the smelting furnace while a large water wheel turns on the adjacent mill building. The Cresswells’ operation, powered by enslaved and free labor, transformed the raw natural resources of southeastern Missouri into processed commodities. Miners and farmers paid to use the furnace and mill to turn lead ore into ingots, wheat into grain, and wood into lumber. The identity of the artist is currently unknown, though they also painted portraits of the Cresswells as well as other families in the Washington County area.