White House gossip : $b from Andrew Johnson to Calvin CoolidgeColman, Edna M. (Edna Mary)
History
White House gossip : $b from Andrew Johnson to Calvin Coolidge
Colman, Edna M. (Edna Mary)
Presidents -- United States -- Biography; Washington (D.C.) -- Social life and customs; White House (Washington, D.C.)
Prior to his accepting public office in the late sixties, Grover
Cleveland and Oscar Folsom had been law partners. He was a frequent
visitor at the Folsom home, when the little blue-eyed, brown-haired
daughter, Frances, was attending the select French kindergarten
conducted by Madame Bucher in Buffalo. The bachelor mayor made a pet
of her. She always climbed upon his knee when he came and called him
“Uncle Cleve.” In 1875, when she was eleven years old, her father,
Oscar Folsom, was killed in a carriage accident. It was later
discovered that he had made his partner the guardian of his child. Mrs.
Folsom, the mother, took the little girl to Medina, her own home town,
but the latter later returned to Buffalo to attend school. Finally,
she entered Wells College, where she was a student for three years.
Miss Folsom was a favourite among teachers and pupils; also an object
of envy to the girls who all noted the letters and flowers from the
Governor of New York. While she was in college, Cleveland was nominated
for the Presidency, and there was much buzzing of girlish tongues over
the regular letters from Washington.
The following June, when the class of ’85 held its commencement at
Wells, no young graduate attracted more attention and comment than
pretty Miss Folsom. This was due, in part, to the superb flowers which
came to her from the White House, over which there was much gossip and
speculation.
Before she sailed with her mother for a year of sightseeing in Europe,
the President had conveyed to her his desire to lose a ward and gain a
bride. To the intimate family group only their engagement was announced.
Miss Folsom, with a French trousseau, finally arrived in May. She was
met by Secretary Lamont, who checked all newspaper attempts to approach
her for information by whisking her and Mrs. Folsom aboard a steamer he
had waiting. He personally conducted them to the Gilsey House, where
they remained for a few days. President Cleveland, in the meantime,
concluded that his presence was necessary in New York on Memorial
Day. Thus their final plans were completed. He returned at once to
Washington, and early on the morning on the second of June, Miss Rose
Cleveland hurried to the station, returning shortly with the young lady
and her mother.
All day the President and his lovely fiancée addressed unusually
elaborate boxes of wedding cake, each carrying a card bearing their
combined autographs. The President had previously sent to a limited
number of guests the following simple form of invitation:
Executive Mansion,
May 29, 1886.
MY DEAR MR.----
I am to be married on Wednesday evening at seven o’clock at the White
House to Miss Folsom. It will be a very quiet affair and I will be
extremely gratified at your attendance on the occasion.
Yours sincerely,
GROVER CLEVELAND.
As this was the first and only time a President was married in the
White House, the wedding marked an epoch in the history of the mansion.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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