This posting on another of Americas first ladies, has a lot of firsts for the White House and a rather shocking way that she met her husband, and one day President of the United States! Frances Clara Folsom Cleveland Preston (July 21, 1864 – October 29, 1947) was the wife of the President of the United States Grover Cleveland and the 23rd and 25th First Lady of the United States from 1886 to 1889 and again from 1893 to 1897. Becoming First Lady at age 21, she remains the youngest First Lady in history. All of Frances Clevelands ancestors were from England and settled in what would become Massachusetts, Rhode Island and New Hampshire, eventually migrating to western New York. She was their only child to survive infancy (a sister, Nellie Augusta, died before her first birthday). She originally had the first name Frank (named for an uncle), but later decided to adopt the feminine variant Frances A longtime close friend of Oscar Folsom, Grover Cleveland, at age 27, met his future wife shortly after she was born. He took an avuncular interest in the child, buying her a baby carriage and otherwise doting on her as she grew up. When her father, Oscar Folsom, died in a carriage accident on July 23, 1875, without having written a will, the court appointed Cleveland administrator of his estate. This brought Cleveland into still more contact with Frances, then age 11. She attended Central High School in Buffalo, NY and Medina High School in Medina, NY and went on to attend Wells College in Aurora, New York. Sometime while she was in college, Clevelands feelings for her took a romantic turn. He proposed by letter in August 1885, soon after her graduation. They did not announce their engagement, however, until just five days before the wedding. In honor of Frances Cleveland, Cleveland Hall was constructed in 1911 on Wells College Campus. Originally a library, the building currently holds foreign language classes. Frances Folsom, age 21, married President Grover Cleveland, age 49, on June 2, 1886, at the White House, the only President to have been married in the Executive Mansion. The new First Lady was the subject of intense media interest. She took over the duties of being White House hostess, and her charm won her popularity. She held two receptions a week—one on Saturday afternoons, when women with jobs were free to come. Clevelands sister Rose Cleveland had been her bachelor brothers hostess in the first 15 months of his first term of office. After her brothers marriage, Rose gladly gave up the duties of hostess for her own career in education. After the president was defeated in the 1888 presidential election, the Clevelands lived in New York City. Upon leaving the White House at the end of her husbands first term, Cleveland is reported to have told the staff to take care of the building since the Clevelands would be returning in four years. She proved correct, becoming the only First Lady to preside at two nonconsecutive administrations. Children: The Clevelands had three daughters and two sons: Ruth Cleveland (1891–1904) – She died at the age of 12 of diphtheria and is buried in Princeton, New Jersey. Esther Cleveland (1893–1980) Marion Cleveland (1895–1977) Richard Folsom Cleveland (1897–1974) Francis Grover Cleveland (1903–1995) After her husbands death in 1908, Cleveland remained in Princeton, New Jersey. On February 10, 1913, at the age of 49, she married Thomas J. Preston, Jr., a professor of archaeology at Frances alma mater, Wells College. She was the first presidential widow to remarry. She was vacationing at St. Moritz, Switzerland, when World War I erupted in August 1914 with her daughters Marion and Esther and her son Francis. They returned to the United States via Genoa on October 1, 1914. During the Great Depression of the 1930s, she led the Needlework Guild of America in its clothing drive for the poor. She died at the age of 83 on October 29, 1947, in Baltimore. She was buried in Princeton next to President Cleveland, her first husband. ~ Donna Photo 1 - A young Frances Cleveland. Photo 2 - Frances with with daughter Esther, who in 1893 became the only baby ever to be born inside the White House. Photo 3 - President Grover Cleveland.
Posted on: Tue, 06 Jan 2015 17:02:08 +0000
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