Iowa Farm Pencil Drawing, I'm Stumped on the artist

I bought this today and just can't seem to figure out the signature of this artist. J Hendly? Handry?
I did find A Henry Deiman 1817-1893 lived in that county, maybe the farm owner but not sure.
The drawing I think is pencil or maybe charcoal. Frame Measures
22" x 12"
That's all I have. Any help and or comments are welcomed
Mikey

 

Could be just a local artist in that area that never got their name out there to be well known.

 

Mikey, I LOVE that drawing! But I think you have the signature about as clear as it's going to get.....I ran it through my enlarging/enhancing program, and it's bigger & a bit lighter, but I don't really think any clearer....bottom one is Inverted....I too am thinking J. handly.....

 

Hendry?

 

Deiman seems to have been well known in the area.

 

Thats what I think.

 

@Aquitaine I love it myself. Its going to be hard to put a price on it.
Mikey

 

You know... There's only 35,000 people in Lee County. Someone must know something about your piece. You might want to ask the local historical society about it.

https://www.facebook.com/LCIHS/

Debora

 

LOVE the drawing !!! ... Joy.

 

This was the kind of rendering that was done in the 19th century and inserted into things like county directories. They were meant to show notable buildings or the farms of prominent citizens. I've seen similar drawings for counties in other midwestern states.

 

Thanks everyone. I'll check out the fb link tonight. I was going to ask about the age of this maybe 19th century?
Mikey.

 

Likely mid 19th century (1830-1870), and yes.

 

Thank you very much. And for pocket change. I'm grateful for all of you

 

Handly?

 

The Historical society pushes everything research related off on the Library. I did send them a pic though. Maybe someone will answer.

 

Someone at the historical society answered me and they were a little bit interested. said they would do some poking around next week.
Ill post an update
Mikey

 

Excellent new, Mikey! Thank you so much for bringing us up-to-date.

Debra

 

Just in case anyone wants to read, Here is the story on Henry Deiman

http://www.mygenealogyhound.com/iow...lee-county-iowa-pleasant-ridge-township.html#

 

Interesting story. Some seems a tad far-fetched, but then these late 1800's books about "prominent men of (insert place name)" were written to flatter. One of my 2x great-grandfathers is included in a book about Isabella County, Michigan.