Mark D. Evans Collection of Frances Folsom Cleveland - Table of Contents........................Frances Folsom Cleveland - Table of Contents

Frances Folsom and Grover Cleveland
From the
Mark D. Evans Collection of Frances Folsom Cleveland (Home Page)

Frances Folsom and Grover Cleveland [Frances] was born in 1864 in Buffalo, New York, only child of Emma C. Harmon and Oscar Folsom--who became a law partner of Cleveland's. As a devoted family friend Cleveland bought "Frank" her first baby carriage. As administrator of the Folsom estate after his partner's death, though never her legal guardian, he guided her education with sound advice. When she entered Wells College, he asked Mrs. Folsom's permission to correspond with her, and he kept her room bright with flowers. Though Frank and her mother missed his inauguration in 1885, they visited him at the White House that spring. There affection turned into romance--despite 27 years' difference in age--and there the wedding took place on June 2, 1886. After the President's defeat in 1888, the Clevelands lived in New York City, where baby Ruth was born. With his unprecedented re-election, the First Lady returned to the White House as if she had been gone but a day. Through the political storms of this term she always kept her place in public favor. People took keen interest in the birth of Esther at the mansion in 1893, and of Marion in 1895. When the family left the White House, Mrs. Cleveland had become one of the most popular women ever to serve as hostess for the nation. [She] was at her husband's side when he died at their home, "Westland," in 1908. Source: The White House

| ...Home Page ...| ..Buffalo Architecture Index...| ..Buffalo History Index... .|....E-Mail ...| ..

web site consulting by ingenious, inc.