Part 2 - The Poorest of the Poor

John Sr. wanting to get away from the Mansion and its association with the death of his son, took the family to Europe. With his father ignoring him, Justin took refuge in museums, including the Louvre—where he found safety in art.

Shortly after the family returned to the Weatherly Mansion the following year, John McCarthy learned that his millions of dollars in investments had been lost. According current Mansion owner, Arnold Rinker - who heard it from Casper Musselman- cousin on his mother's side to Justin McCarthy, "John McCarthy climbed the stairs to the third floor and hung himself from a beam."

Mrs. McCarthy, the former Floretta Musselman, continued to live in the Mansion with her remaining son, Justin and earned money by teaching, somehow saving money, or having some hidden money from before the crash, to send Justin to the University of Pennsylvania Law School.

While studying for his second year, Justin had a mental breakdown. He stayed at home until, in 1915, the finances became too great and he was admitted to Rittersville State Hospital for the Insane in Allentown During his stay, Justin was encouraged to draw—thus beginning his first dabblings in art. He returned to live with his mother in the Mansion in 1920.

But the Mansion was no longer the Mansion. Floretta McCarthy had turned it into a guest house, she called Franklin Fields. When she died in 1940, Justin felt a great loss. He did not continue operation of the guest house. Once again, it was the Mansion.

Justin earned money by selling produce. "He used to huckster," said Jack Koehler Weatherly's historian and former postman who used to deliver mail to the Mansion. "He lived in the Mansion by himself and would go to stores and get second-hand groceries, and huckster around Beaver Meadow, Hazleton and Weatherly in an old truck."

He sold liniment, labored at a cement company, was a chocolate mixer. During World War II, he worked at Bethlehem Steel as a machinist’s assistant. During this period, Justin began working with oil paints.

"One time, he had a water company, Justin's Water Company," said Koehler. "Weatherly's reservoir is fed by gravity and the west end of town is high and they had low water pressure, so Justin had a big lake and started his own water company to pump water."

In the 1950s, Justin created so many paintings, that nearly all of the 16 rooms filled with them and he began closing off rooms. He painting on any surface that he could get his hands on, often Masonic, sometimes old formica countertops.

Arnold Rinker said that Justin became a recluse, sleeping on the pool table in a room heated with a kerosene stove.

According to Koehler. "McCarthy often frequented Sturtevant's Drug Store—which my mother owned," said Koehler. "Justin would come in and start painting pictures on paper or cardboard. They used to laugh at him."

"In fact," he continued. "They didn't care for him hanging around there all the time. He painted nudes, Hollywood actors, sport scenes, Everyone laughed. It was crude. Now he's a primitive artist. It's hard to believe that a person could be that popular thirty years after his death. when everyone laughed at him in town then."

Continued in Part 3 - Success After Death