Frances Folsom

1864 - 1947  (83 years)    Has 46 ancestors and 5 descendants in this family tree.

• Name	Frances Folsom  [1]
  Birth	1864	Buffalo, Erie Co., New York, USA
  Gender	Female
  Death	29 Oct 1947	Baltimore County, Maryland, USA
  Burial	Princeton, Mercer County, New Jersey, USA
  Person ID	I74424	Geneagraphie
  Last Modified	18 Feb 2002

  
  

  Father	Oscar Folsom   d. 1875
  Mother	Emma Harmon   d. Yes, date unknown
  Family ID	F49309	Group Sheet  |  Family Chart

  
  

  Family 1	22/24th President Stephen Grover Cleveland,   b. 18 Mar 1837, Caldwell, New Jersey, USA d. 24 Jun 1908, Princeton, Mercer County, New Jersey, USA (Age 71 years)
  Marriage	2 Jun 1886	White House, Washington, District of Columbia, USA   [1]
  Children	1. Ruth Cleveland,   b. 3 Oct 1891, New York, New York, USA d. 7 Jan 1904, Princeton, Mercer County, New Jersey, USA (Age 12 years)   2. Esther Cleveland,   b. 9 Sep 1893, White House, Washington, District of Columbia, USA d. 25 Jun 1980, New Hampshire, USA (Age 86 years)   3. Marion Cleveland,   b. 7 Jul 1895, Buzzards Bay, Massachusetts, USA d. 10 Mar 1977, New York, New York, USA (Age 81 years)   4. Richard Folsom Cleveland,   b. 28 Oct 1897, Princeton, Mercer County, New Jersey, USA d. 10 Jan 1974, Baltimore County, Maryland, USA (Age 76 years)   5. Francis Grover Cleveland,   b. 18 Jul 1903, Buzzard Bay, Massachusetts, USA d. Nov 1995, Tamworth, New Hampshire, USA (Age 92 years)
  Family ID	F30248	Group Sheet  |  Family Chart
  Last Modified	3 Jan 2005

  
  

  Family 2	Prof. Thomas J. Preston   d. Yes, date unknown
  Marriage	1913
  Family ID	F41258	Group Sheet  |  Family Chart
  Last Modified	29 Aug 2000

  
  

• Event Map	Click to hide
  		Marriage - 2 Jun 1886 - White House, Washington, District of Columbia, USA Death - 29 Oct 1947 - Baltimore County, Maryland, USA  = Link to Google Earth
  Pin Legend	: Address       : Location       : City/Town       : County/Shire       : State/Province       : Country       : Not Set

  
  

• Notes

  Benjamin Harrison won the 1888 election, but Mrs. Cleveland told the servants to take good care of the White House. "I want everything just the way it is now when we come back," she said. "That will be exactly four years from now." She was right ... I detest him so much that I don't even think his wife is beautiful." So spoke one of President Grover Cleveland's political foes--the only person, it seems, to deny the loveliness of this notable First Lady, first bride of a President to be married in the White House. She was born 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. Cleveland's scholarly sister Rose Elizabeth Cleveland: her bachelor brother's hostess in 15 months of his first term of office. Rose gladly gave up the duties of hostess for her own career in education; and with a bride as First Lady, state entertainments took on a new interest. Mrs. Cleveland's unaffected charm won her immediate popularity. She held two receptions a week-one on Saturday afternoons, when women with jobs were free to come. 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 bore two sons while the Clevelands lived in Princeton, New Jersey, and was at her husband's side when he died at their home, "Westland," in 1908. In 1913 she married Thomas J. Preston, Jr., a Professor of archeology, and remained a figure of note in the Princeton community until she died. She had reached her 84th year-nearly the age at which the venerable Mrs. Polk had welcomed her and her husband on a Presidential visit to the South, and chatted of changes in White House life from bygone days.

  
  

• Sources

  [S32] Brian Tompsett, Presidents Database: Genealogy of the US Presidents, (based on book "The Presidents", pub. by Funk & Wagnall's).