Following is The New York Times archive obituary of Francis Wheaton, Wednesday June 24, 1942

Francis Wheaton, painter of rural scenes and people, who formerly lived among the "Jackson Whites" of the Ramapo Mountains and taught them he ways of the world and fundamentals of a religious life, died here today at the age of 93 in the Rockland County Welfare Home after a long illness. He was practically penniless at his death, but many years ago had been well-to-do, as his paintings found many purchasers.

His work among the "Jackson Whites" had so endeared him to them that they regarded him in times past as a sort of patriarch. Meanwhile, most of them have descended to the valleys, whence came their ancestors, Hessians, former Negro slaves, Indians and others. But there was a time when there were hundreds, almost all related almost all lawless, in the mountain country.

Just who called them "Jackson Whites" first and why is lost in the dim past. But people of the surrounding countryside credit Mr. Wheaton with having been the dominant influence in causing most of the mountaineers to take to new ways and new dwelling places.

Born in Valparaiso, Chile, he was the son of an official in the United States consular service. At the county home his father's name was not known nor were any living relatives recorded, although it was known that he had had a wife, whose name is forgotten.

Mr. Wheaton studied art---just where is not known---became a successful painter and exhibited a the National Academy of Design in New York and in galleries of Boston and Chicago. For a while he and his wife resided in New York.

About forty years ago the Wheatons came to the Ramapos on a sketching tour. Mr. Wheaton painted the shiftless, ignorant people who lived clannishly in small clearings in the mountains, grew interested in their plight, decided to help them.

The Wheatons, largely with their own hands, built a one-room elementary school on their forty-acre tract, taught reading, writing and arithmetic, religion, ethics, respect for the law. At the beginning their neighbors were hostile, sometimes threatening. Once to mountaineers threatened to kill the Wheatons if they didn't go away.

But the Wheatons persisted, and after a time the children of the formerly unfriendly "Jackson Whites" came to the school, learned and brought their parents and grandparents. Persons of all ages learned spelling and numbering and the spirit of living and sharing with others.

After a time the Wheatons were relieved of the burden of the school by the New Jersey Department of Education, which took over the school that, although on the Wheaton tract, was on the Jersey side of the line. The Wheatons stayed on, Mr. Wheaton painting, and on occasion they visited people of their own social status and culture in other localiteis. They were never recluses.

The Wheatons went on helping the "Jackson Whites," encouraging them to get married, have their children christened, get jobs, better themselves. Gradually the "Jackson Whites" with vistas of better times and places before them, left the hill country. Today very few remain.

Mrs. Wheaton died many years ago. For some years thereafter Mr. Wheaton remained in his mountain cottage, surrounded by his paintings, and in later years visited by many outlanders who came to see his work. In 1925 his cottage was destroyed by fire and with it some 600 paintings of his and his "log book," containing the signatures of thousands of person who had climbed Houvenkopf to his home.

Several years ago he moved to the welfare home.