Well maybe. But first, I would like to introduce you to Mrs. Frances “Fanny” Preston Root. She was the wife of Samuel Root and, like many of our central New York early settlers, she was born in Connecticut before moving to Port Byron, back in the days when it was called Bucksville. She was born in 1778 and died in 1844.

She was also the mother of a rather famous lady who made her own splash in the media about twenty years ago, when her portrait, Woman and Girl with Basket of Apples, which was painted by artist Sheldon Peck, was sold by the Cayuga Museum for a lot of money. That woman and child were Fanny Root Millener and her daughter, Frances Almira Millener. Frances Almira later married George Washington Millener, who operated a dry dock on the Erie Canal in Port Byron.

So you can imagine my surprise in 2023 when I received an email from a very nice lady asking if she might have an undiscovered Sheldon Peck painting in her garage.

You see, many years ago I had used an image of the Frances Millener painting as her profile in Ancestry, as it is always nice to be able to look at the people you are researching. The lady reaching out had seen that profile image, noticed the style of the painting, and realized that her own portrait appeared to show the mother of Frances, and naturally she wondered, “What do I have here?” It is moments like this that make a poor historian’s heart flutter.

I reached out to a friend who might know, or at least know who to ask, and together we volunteered to go see the painting in person. Unfortunately, it was located in Sarasota, Florida, and as much as I like my friend, spending four days in a car with him might strain our relationship. As luck would have it, my wife and I (who travel well together) already had a trip planned to Florida to visit my mother, so we arranged a visit and were finally introduced to Fanny. As it turns out, she has not had a great afterlife. She had been tucked away in a cellar in Pennsylvania for decades, and then relegated to a garage in Florida. She was almost tossed out entirely before her owner noticed Fanny’s profile image on Ancestry.

In addition to the painting, the owner had boxes of family documents, many of which related to Port Byron history. She kindly allowed us to borrow those materials so they could be scanned and organized. Fanny, however, stayed put in Florida. (I did ask!)

With hopes high, we reached out to a Sheldon Peck specialist, who quickly dismissed the idea that this was a lost Peck painting. I was a bit flummoxed that someone could judge a painting based on a poor cellphone snapshot, but Peck has a number of well-documented works. The expert cited the painting’s smaller size, facial features and limited color palette as key factors.

We passed this information along to the family and noted that Old Mentz would still be interested in acquiring the portrait if they wished to part with it. After all, it had nearly been discarded, and regardless of the artist, it depicted a local figure and was a lovely piece of artwork in its own right.

Then, in late December 2025, I received a call: the family had decided to donate the painting to Old Mentz. Soon afterward, Fanny made the trip home and we arranged a visit with an appraiser. He told us that even if we had a Peck, it was not worth a lot of money, Those happy days of high prices in the art market are over. In a close examination, he noticed some features that could be Peck-ish, and others that were not with the size of the painting being a key point. Peck’s are large, about three times the size of our lady.

So, if it is not a Peck, it certainly shares similarities with Peck’s style. Or perhaps Peck’s style was influenced by this artist. Peck lived locally in Jordan and may have known the painter, perhaps even trained with him, or even trained him. We have already taken the lady to West Lake Conservators for an assemssment and safe storage. Our goal is to get the wood panel stabilized and the painting cleaned. Once she has had her cleaning, we might learn more.

Do you have a family portrait that looks to be in the same style?

What I can say is that we at the Old Mentz Heritage Center are very excited to see where this story leads. I thank our members, as your support has made this possible. Our small historical society has made some remarkable discoveries over the years, and we look forward to more. An active and engaged society is essential if we are to save this history from the landfill. If you are not already a member, please consider joining us, or if you are reading this from afar, join your local society. They have some neat things too!