A Secret Life: The Lies and Scandals of President Grover Cleveland
Page 41
348. “The place is full of rumors about Mrs. Cleveland,” Dunlap, 52, quoting Sir Cecil Spring-Rice.
349. “Called her wicked names and finally slapped her face,” Chicago Tribune, 7 December 1888.
350. “I can only say in answer to your letter.” New York Times, 8 June 1888.
350. His “tongue is considerably longer than his judgment,” ibid., 10 June 1888.
350. “Of course, I don’t believe these rumors,” ibid., 8 June 1888.
351. “It was mainly because the other party had the most votes,” Lamont scrapbook, Nevins Collection, Box 104.
351. “I am sorry for the president,” Dunlop, 58.
352. “Mrs. Cleveland looks up to her husband,” Atlanta Constitution, 25 November 1888, quoted by Dunlap, 58.
352. “The place I hate above all others,” GC to William Vilas, 20 May 1888, Nevins, Letters, 207.
352. “Jungle of gifts,” Nevins, 448.
353. “We’re coming back just four years from today,” Crook, 197–198.
353. “Things are getting into a pretty tough condition,” GC to Vilas, 20 May 1888, Nevins, Letters, 207.
353. “Why hasn’t Lena sent my corsets,” Dunlap, 63.
355. Moot rose and presented his opening statement: Four Great Lawyers of Our Time, amemoir privately published by the Buffalo law firm Kenefick, Cook, Mitchel, Bass and Letchworth, undated, 10.
355–379. Author’s note: No official transcript of the Ball vs. New York Evening Post Corporation trial exists. The Q and A and opening and closing arguments in chapter 18 are taken from a variety of sources, primarily contemporary newspaper accounts published in Buffalo in February 1890 and court papers on file at the New York State Appellate Division Law Library in Rochester.
357. “Remote deity,” Allan Nevins, The Evening Post: A Century of Journalism (New York: Boni and Liveright, 1922), 529. Nevins once worked at the Evening Post.
357. “Smacked of sensationalism,” New York Times, 22 May 1902.
358. Locke was also a voracious reader: Four Great Lawyers of Our Time, 3–5.
363. “It was torture,” Buffalo Times, 5 February 1890.
367. Once he had treated the son of a tribal chief. Buffalo News, 14 August 1910.
371. A pallid George Ball sat at the plaintiff’s table. Buffalo Times, 6 February, 1890.
373. “In this an attack had been made not only upon the living but upon the dead.” Author’s note: The quote is from the Buffalo Commercial Advertiser account of the trial (6 February 1890.) Although there are no quotation marks, it appears to be directly taken from John Milburn’s closing arguments.
375. “If it pleases Your Honor we desire to reopen our side of the case,” Buffalo Times, 7 February 1890.
378. “Without the slightest leaning one way or the other,” Buffalo Commercial Advertiser, 7 February 1890.
378. No one expected a victory for Ball. Buffalo Courier, 8 February 1890.
379. It had taken six more ballots before reaching a unanimous verdict: Buffalo Courier, 8 February 1890.
19. KEEPER OF THE FLAME
381. Two days before she passed away, Maria wrote out a will. New Rochelle Pioneer, 22 February 1902.
381. “Do not let the funeral be too public,” Utica Journal, 10 February 1902.
382. Then a hearse carried the coffin down a rain-slicked country road. Records from the Davis Funeral Home, New Rochelle, New York, courtesy Rick Moody of New Rochelle.
382. “The well-known stove and furnace dealer,” New Rochelle Press, 8 February 1902. Also see New Rochelle Pioneer, same date.
383. “But for this woman [Mrs. Baker],” Brooklyn Eagle, 9 February 1902.
383. On October 30, 1909, Byrne was sitting. Buffalo Courier, 1 November 1909; death of Byrne from Courier, 31 October 1909.
383. He was boarding a trolley in front of the Iroquois Hotel. Buffalo News, 14 August 1910; 16 August 1910. Bull was eighty-three when he died. Some accounts put his age at eighty-five.
384. The 342-acre site opened on May 1, 1901. Thomas E. Leary and Elizabeth Sholes, Buffalo’s Pan-American Exposition (Charleston, South Carolina, Arcadia Publishing, 1998), 110, 117.
385. The hotel was the social hub of the new town: Ron Jamro and Gerald L. Lanterman, The Founding of Naples (Naples, Florida, The Collier County Museum, 1985), 41.
386. “Ah, Eve, Eve, surely you cannot realize what you are to me,” Rose Cleveland (RC) to Evangeline Marrs Simpson Whipple (EMSW), postmarked 23 April 1890, Whipple/Scandrett Family Papers, Minnesota Historical Society (MHS), P789, Box 2, File 1890. Author’s note: An account of the relationship between Rose and Evangeline can also found in Odd Girls and Twilight Lovers: A History of Lesbian Life in Twentieth-Century America by Lillian Faderman (New York: Penguin, 1992), 32–33.
386. “Oh, darling, come to me this night, my Clevy, my Viking,” RC to EMSW, 22 April 1890, ibid.
386. “Oh, Eve, Eve, this love is life itself—or death,” RC to EMSW, 5 May 1890, ibid.
387. “I shall go to bed, my Eve,” RC to EMSW, 6 May 1890, ibid.
387. “Ah, my Cleopatra,” Rose wrote that day. RC to EMSW, 9 May 1890, ibid.
387. “Yes, darling, I will be with you, surely,” ibid.
389. “I wish for your happiness and good,” Rose wrote. Postmarked 25 April, apparently in the year 1893. P789, Box 3, ibid.
389. “The bishop is in vigorous health. New York Times, 24 October 1896.
391. Seeking a consultation on a “very important matter.” William Williams Keen, The Surgical Operations on President Cleveland in 1893 (Philadelphia: George W. Jacobs and Co., 1917), 30–31.
393. “If you hit a rock, hit it good and hard,” Nevins, 530.
395. Lamont snapped that it was a “preposterous” question: H. W. Brands, The Reckless Decade: America in the 1890s (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1995), 83. Author’s note: Brands’s book offers an excellent account of the Panic of 1893.
395. Dr. Bryant found something disturbing. Keen, 36–44.
396. “My God, Olney, they nearly killed me!” Nevins, 532.
397. Erdmann later said he “did more lying,” Nevins, quoting Erdmann, 533.
398. “Mr. Cleveland had suffered so much at the hands,” Philadelphia Times, 31 August 1893.
399. Sensible and responsible women “do not want to vote,” Ladies Home Journal, October 1905, 7–8.
399. Baby Ruth as she came to be called. Author’s note: The Baby Ruth candy bar made its first appearance some seventeen years after the child’s death. Although the Curtiss Candy Company maintained it was named in honor of Ruth Cleveland, some have speculated that it was a ruse to avoid paying royalties to the baseball great Babe Ruth.
402. “Where she knew she could find him,” Dunlap, 129; Jean S. Davis, A Rambling Memoir of Mrs. Grover Cleveland and Some Related History, unpublished manuscript, Louis Jefferson Long Library, Wells College, 23.
402. “Unpleasant shock when I read the headlines reporting the engagement,” Davis, 24.
403. “The Cleveland pew was third in front of ours,” ibid.
403. He was fond of crocheting. Dunlap, 133.
404. “That of a man who needed to go to Florida for his health,” New York Times, 11 February 1913; also noted by Davis, 26.
405. “I went over his book before it was published,” Frances Cleveland Preston to William Gorham Rice, 13 August 1918, Rice Papers, Folder 8, Manuscripts and Special Collections, New York State Library.
405. She recruited the historian for the presidency of Wells. Jane M. Dieckmann, Wells College: A History (Aurora, New York Wells College Press, 1995), 101.
405. “When his friend, Charles W. Goodyear, reported that a particularly violent,” McElroy, 91–92.
406. “Who threw open his papers and gave invaluable advice,” Nevins, v.
407. “A weaker or more callous man in his place,” Nevins’s account of the Halpin scandal can be found in his Cleveland biography, 162–169.
407. A
“true picture—of the man and his meaning,” Frances Cleveland Preston to Rice, 23 December 1932, Rice Papers, Folder 9.
407. “It probably wasn’t Cleveland’s child,” New York Times, September 8, 2008.
408. Author’s Note: If Nevins’s meticulous scholarship closed the door on divergent accounts of the Cleveland-Halpin story, it also opened a window, albeit a small one. He claims that in 1895, Maria Halpin made a crude attempt at blackmail in a letter she addressed to President Cleveland at the White House. She demanded money from Cleveland, Nevins says, and threatened to “publish facts in her possession” unless she was paid off. Nevins cites a date for this letter—September 9, 1895—which he says can be found in the collection of Grover Cleveland’s presidential papers in the Library of Congress. The Library of Congress has no record of such a letter. One can only presume that Frances Cleveland, or someone acting on her behalf, removed Maria Halpin’s letter before consigning the Cleveland Papers to the Library of Congress in 1923. One can also wonder whether it was the only item to have met that fate.
408. In October 1946, an extraordinary spectacle. New York Times, 22 October 1946.
409. “You did?” he asked. “Where?” Davis, 30.
EPILOGUE
411. King even set up a Dickens Room in his house. Buffalo Evening News obituary on King, 10 March 1947.
411. Saimi Pratt worked as his cook. E-mail from Ronald Pratt to author, 28 July 2009.
412. “I was a new bride and very nervous,” interview with Ruth Kahn Stouroff, 21 October 2008.
412. “If anyone calls, just say I am improving,” Buffalo Evening News, 10 March 1947.
412. A funeral procession took his coffin. Warren (Pennsylvania) Times Mirror, 10 March 1947.
412. Pliny the Elder’s Naturalis Historia: This edition of Naturalis Historia was published in 1634 or 1639. The nameplate indicates it was a Christmas gift to King from Beulah Hood. John Edens, University of Buffalo Libraries, SUNY. Via e-mail, 27 July 2009.
413. To his former laundress he left $500. Buffalo Evening News, 28 May 1947. The laundress was Marie Bazinski; the six-year-old boy was James Millard Riley.
INDEX
Abbott, Dr. Lyman
Albany Argus
Allen, Cleveland
Allen, Gertrude
Allen, Lewis
Allen, Margaret
Apgar, Edgar
Arthur, Chester A.
Avery, Rev. Charles
Bacon, Charles E.
Bacon, Cleveland
Baker, Maria (Mrs. William)
Ball, Rev. George H. (see also Ball vs. New York Evening Post)
Ball vs. New York Evening Post
Banks, Charles
Baptist Union
Barnum, P. T.
Bass, Cleveland & Bissell
Bass, Lyman K.
Beard, Frank
Beaver Island Club (“Jolly Reefers”)
Beebe, Milton E.
Beecher, Eunice
Beecher, Henry Ward
Beniski, George
Bigelow, Allen
Bissell, Wilson S.
Billy Dranger’s Saloon
Blaine, Harriet
Blaine, James G.
Boston Globe
Boston Herald
Boston Journal
Boscobel
Bowen, Dennis
Box, Henry
Bragg, Edward S.
Brooklyn Eagle
Brown, Sister Rosaline
Bryant, Dr. Joseph
Buchanan, James
Buffalo
cholera epidemic
City Council
Fourth of July celebrations
Mansion Row (Delaware Ave.)
tensions in
Buffalo Orphan Asylum
Buffalo Commercial Advertiser
Buffalo Courier
Buffalo Evening News
Buffalo Evening Telegraph
Buffalo Express
Buffalo Times
Bull, Dr. Alexander
Burchard, Rev. Samuel D.
Burrows, Roswell L.
Butler, Gen. Benjamin
Butler, Ed
Byrne, John
Canal Street
Chicago Advance
Chicago Tribune
Christian Union
Cleaveland, Moses
Cleveland, Ann (mother of Grover)
Cleveland, “Baby Ruth”
Cleveland, Cecil
Cleveland, Frances (see Frances Folsom)
Cleveland, Grover,
achievements of
bachelor
bound for Buffalo
cancer
children of
Civil War
courting Frances
cuts back drinking
death of
Decoration Day parade
dislike of reporters
early years in Buffalo
elected governor
Election Day
election of
Evening Telegraph
feelings about Buffalo
final years
George Ball
as governor
honeymoon
inaugurated mayor
inaugurated president (1884)
inaugurated president (1893)
law career
leaves Holland Patent
life in Buffalo
life in White House
Maria Halpin scandal
as mayor
New Year’s Eve 1855, 14 nominated for president
Oscar Folsom’s death
as president-elect
presidential campaign (1884)
proposes marriage
relationship with Maria Halpin
resides in governor’s mansion
runs for governor
runs for mayor
runs for sheriff
runs for president 1884
as sheriff
sentiments about abolitionists
wedding of
Cleveland, (Frederick) Lewis
Cleveland, Mary (Mary Cleveland Hoyt)
Cleveland, Oscar Folsom (see also James E. King Jr.)
Cleveland Penny Press
Cleveland, Rev. Richard (father of Grover)
Cleveland, Rose Elizabeth (Libby),
as author
as editor of Literary Life
as First Lady
attends Grover’s wedding
death of
first impressions of
in Holland Patent
house fire
influenza epidemic
leaves White House
meets Evangeline Simpson
in Naples, Fla.
lesbianism
“Romanist peril,”
Cleveland, Rev. William
Cleveland siblings
Cohan, George M.
Collins, Gail
Conkling, Roscoe
Cornell, Gov. Alonzo
Cresswell, Harry
Cresswell, John
Curtis, George
Cymbeline
Czolgosz, Leon
Dana, Charles
Daniels, Charles
Davis, Henry Gassaway
Davis, Jean S.
Davis, Jennie
Delaware Avenue (“Mansion Row”)
Depew, Chauncey
Dickens, Charles
Dickinson, Anna
Dorsheimer, William
Douglas, Stephen A.
Dow, Julie
Edwards, John
Eisenhower, Gen. Dwight David
Elder, Abram, P. T.
Election of 1884
Erie Canal
Erie County Jail
Falvey, Mike
Fargo, William G.
Fifth Avenue Hotel
Fillmore, Mary Abigail
Fillmore, Millard
Fillmore, Powers
Flint & Kent
Flint, William
Flower, Roswell P.
Folger, Charles J.
Folsom, Benjamin
Folsom, Emma
Folsom, Frances (Mrs. Grover Cleveland)
absent from 1884 inauguration
birth of
children of
Cleveland visits
courtship by Cleveland
death of father
Frankie Cleveland Clubs
leaves White House
marries Preston
popularity of
protecting Cleveland’s reputation
reacts to Maria Halpin
relationship with “Uncle Cleve”
returns to U.S.
shopping spree
tensions with Emma
tour of Europe
visits White House
wedding preparations of
Wells College
Folsom, Col. John
Folsom, Oscar death of
Fort Porter
Frank Leslie’s Illustrated Newspaper
Fullerton, James C.
Gaffney, John
Ganson, Alison B.
Gilsey House
Goetz, Louis
Godkin, Edwin L.
Godey’s Ladies Book
Goodyear, Charles
Gould, Jay
Gorman, Sen. Arthur Pue
Grace, William
Grady, Thomas
Grand Island
Haight, Albert
Halpin, Frederick (Maria’s father-in-law)
Halpin, Frederick (Maria’s first husband)
Halpin, Frederick (Maria’s son)
Halpin, Maria (Hovenden)
affidavit of
Beecher speech about
claims rape
death of
Horatio King
kidnaps son
life in Buffalo
life in New Rochelle
marries Seacord
pregnancy of
reappearance in Buffalo
reunited with baby
Harper, Fletcher
Harrison, Benjamin
Hasbrouck, Dr. Ferdinand
Hastings, Anna Cleveland
Hayes, Rutherford B.
Hendricks, Eliza
Hendricks, Thomas A.
Hibbard, Daniel
Hill, David
Hodges, G. C.
Hoffman House
Hovenden, Robert
Hubbell, E. S.
Hudson, William C.
Huguenots
Hunt, Wallace
Hunter, Rielle
Huntington, Lawrence D.
Indianapolis Sentinel