Frances Cleveland

Frances Cleveland
First Lady of the United States
In role March 4, 1893 – March 4, 1897
President	Grover Cleveland
Preceded by	Mary McKee (acting)
Succeeded by	Ida McKinley
In role June 2, 1886 – March 4, 1889
President	Grover Cleveland
Preceded by	Rose Cleveland (acting)
Succeeded by	Caroline Harrison
Personal details
Born	Frank Clara Folsom (1864-07-21)July 21, 1864 Buffalo, New York, U.S.
Died	October 29, 1947(1947-10-29) (aged 83) Baltimore, Maryland, U.S.
Resting place	Princeton Cemetery
Political party	Democratic
Spouse(s)	Grover Cleveland ​ ​ (m. 1886; died 1908)​ Thomas Preston ​ (m. 1913)​
Children	5, including Ruth, Esther, Richard
Education	Wells College (BA)
Signature

Frances Clara Cleveland Preston (born Frank Clara Folsom; July 21, 1864 – October 29, 1947) was first lady of the United States from 1886 to 1889 and again from 1893 to 1897 as the wife of President Grover Cleveland. Becoming first lady at age 21, she remains the youngest wife of a sitting president.

Early life[]

First given the name Frank Clara Folsom, she was born in Buffalo, New York to Emma (née Harmon) and her husband, Oscar Folsom, a lawyer who was a descendant of the earliest European settlers of Exeter, New Hampshire.^[1] She was their only child to survive infancy. (A sister, Nellie Augusta, died before her first birthday.) All of Frances Cleveland's ancestors were from England and settled in what would become Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and New Hampshire, eventually migrating to western New York.^[2]

She was originally given the first name Frank, in honor of an uncle, but later decided to adopt the feminine variant Frances.^[3] A long-time close friend of Oscar Folsom, Grover Cleveland met his future wife when she was an infant and he was twenty-seven years old. He was fond of her, buying her a baby carriage and doting on her as she grew up. When her father died in a carriage accident on July 23, 1875, without having written a will, the court appointed Cleveland administrator of his estate.^[2]

She attended Central High School in Buffalo and Medina High School in Medina, New York, then Wells College in Aurora, New York.^[4] Cleveland proposed marriage to Frances in the spring of 1885 when she visited Washington D.C. with her mother. They were married on June 2, 1886 in the Blue Room of the White House. Cleveland was aged forty-nine, Frances, twenty-one.^[4]

Children[]

              Frances Cleveland                         by Anders Zorn, 1899

The Clevelands had five children: Ruth (1891–1904), Esther (1893–1980), Marion (1895–1977), Richard (1897–1974), and Francis (1903–1995). British philosopher Philippa Foot was their granddaughter.^[5]

Later life[]

After her husband's death in 1908, Frances Cleveland remained in Princeton, New Jersey. On February 10, 1913, at the age of forty-eight, she married Thomas J. Preston Jr., a professor of archaeology at her alma mater, Wells College.^[6] She was the first presidential widow to remarry. She was vacationing at St. Moritz, Switzerland, with her daughters Marion and Esther and her son Francis when World War I started in August 1914. They returned to the United States via Genoa on October 1, 1914.^[7] Soon afterwards, she became a member of the pro-war National Security League, becoming its director of the Speaker's Bureau and the "Committee on Patriotism through Education" in November 1918.^[4]

She stirred up controversy within the National Security League with claims that large sections of the population were unassimilated and in a sense prevented the country from working together properly. After causing outrage among the rank and file of the organization by wanting to psychologically indoctrinate school children to be in favor of war, she resigned on December 8, 1919. She also campaigned against women's suffrage, contending that "women weren't yet intelligent enough to vote". In May 1913 she was elected as vice president of the "New Jersey Association Opposed to Woman's Suffrage" and served as the president for the Princeton chapter.^[4]

During the Great Depression of the 1930s, she led the Needlework Guild of America in its clothing drive for the poor.^[8]

Mrs. Frances Cleveland with trowel at building foundation ceremony

While staying at her son Richard's home for his 50th birthday in Baltimore, Cleveland died in her sleep at the age of 83 on October 29, 1947.^[9] She was buried in Princeton Cemetery next to President Cleveland, her first husband.^[10][11]

In honor of Frances Cleveland, Cleveland Hall was constructed in 1911 on the Wells College campus. Originally a library, the building currently holds foreign language classes, as well as classes in women's studies, and a food pantry.^[12]

References[]

• Original text based on White House biography

External links[]

• Media related to Frances Folsom Cleveland Preston at Wikimedia Commons
• Frances Cleveland at C-SPAN's First Ladies: Influence & Image
• Frank: The Story of Frances Folsom Cleveland, America's Youngest First Lady (full-length biography)