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by | Dec 1, 2017

Rose Farwell Chatfield-Taylor (March 7, 1870 – April 5, 1918) was an American sportswoman, bookbinder, suffragist, and socialite, and co-founder of a golf club in Illinois named Onwentsia.

Early life

Rose Farwell was born a twin in Lake Forest, Illinois, the daughter of Charles Benjamin Farwell and Mary Eveline Smith Farwell. Her father was a United States Senator from Illinois. She and her older sisters Anna de Koven and Grace were considered fashionable beauties in Chicago society, and all enjoyed various sports. Anna became a novelist, and married composer Reginald de Koven. Grace became the first president of the Art Institute of Chicago.[1]

Rose attended Ferry Hall and Lake Forest College for her schooling.[2] Portraits of Rose Farwell as a young woman were painted by John Elliott and Adolfo Müller-Ury.[3]

Career

Because of Rose's and her new husband's interest in golf, the family arranged for Charles B. MacDonald to design a golf course in 1892.[1][4] In 1895, Rose Farwell Chatfield-Taylor and her husband were among the founders of the Onwentsia Club, a golf club in Lake Forest.[5][6] She won several golf events, owned a racehorse, and played lawn tennis. She was a clubwoman, and served as vice president of the Northside Chicago branch of the Illinois Woman Suffrage League.[2]

The Chatfield-Taylors were also members of the "Little Room", a social gathering of artists, writers, and performers. They kept studios in the Fine Arts Building on Michigan Avenue, where Rose Chatfield-Taylor ran a bookbinding business called the Rose Bindery, "a shop where books were appreciated and clothed in beautiful and appropriate bindings."[2][3][7] She learned the craft in Paris, and was a member of the Guild of Bookworkers from 1906 to 1910.[8] She wrote about bookbinding for the Sketch Book magazine.[7]

Personal life

In 1890, Rose Farwell married wealthy writer, social host, and sportsman Hobart Chatfield-Taylor.[9] Together, they were the parents of three sons and one daughter:

  • Adelaide Chatfield-Taylor (1891–1982), who was awarded a Croix de Guerre for her work running a canteen in Boston during World War II. She married Hendricks Hallett Whitman in 1912. They divorced in 1932,[10] and she married William Davies Sohier Jr. in 1940. Her granddaughter is politician and businesswoman Meg Whitman.[11]
  • Wayne Chatfield-Taylor (1893–1967), who served as Under Secretary of Commerce and Assistant Secretary of the Treasury under President Franklin D. Roosevelt.[12]
  • Otis Chatfield-Taylor (1899–1948),[13] a writer, playwright, editor, theatrical producer who married Janet Benson in 1931. They divorced in 1934,[14] and he married Marochka Borisovna Anisfeld,[15] a daughter of Boris Anisfeld, in 1936.[16]
  • Robert Farwell Chatfield-Taylor (1908–1980), who married Valborg Edison Palmer in 1928.[17]

She died in Santa Barbara in 1918,[18] aged 48 years, from pneumonia after an appendectomy.[3][19] In her memory, her sisters funded a visiting nurse position in Chicago, beginning in the fall of 1918.[20] Her sister's book, A Cloud of Witnesses (1920), recounts Anna de Koven's efforts to contact the spirit of the late Rose Farwell Chatfield-Taylor.[21]

References

  1. ^ a b "Farwell-Winston Family". Lake Forest-Lake Bluff History Center. Retrieved July 10, 2019.
  2. ^ a b c Leonard, John William (1914). Woman's Who's who of America: A Biographical Dictionary of Contemporary Women of the United States and Canada. American Commonwealth Company. pp. 173–174.
  3. ^ a b c Whitfield, Kay. "Farwells 5: Twilight Generation "It" Couple". Classic Chicago Magazine. Retrieved July 10, 2019.
  4. ^ Coventry, Kim; Meyer, Daniel; Miller, Arthur H. (2003). Classic Country Estates of Lake Forest: Architecture and Landscape Design, 1856-1940. W. W. Norton & Company. pp. 67–68, 269. ISBN 9780393730999.
  5. ^ Ebner, Michael H. (1988). Creating Chicago's North Shore: A Suburban History. University of Chicago Press. pp. 71–72. ISBN 9780226182056.
  6. ^ "History". Onwentsia Club. Retrieved July 10, 2019.
  7. ^ a b Chatfield-Taylor, Mrs. H. C. (October 1905). "Bookbinding". Sketch Book. 5: 109–116.
  8. ^ Gertz, Stephen J. (February 12, 2014). "The Strange Suicide of an Early 20th C. Female Rare Book Binder". International League of Antiquarian Booksellers. Retrieved July 10, 2019.
  9. ^ Greasley, Philip A. (May 30, 2001). Dictionary of Midwestern Literature, Volume 1: The Authors. Indiana University Press. p. 106. ISBN 9780253108418.
  10. ^ "H.H. Whitman, 66, Textile Man, Dead; Chairman of William Whitman Co., Manufacturers, Succumbs in France on World Cruise". The New York Times. March 19, 1950. Retrieved June 6, 2020.
  11. ^ "Meg Whitman to Wed June 7". The New York Times. April 20, 1980. Retrieved June 6, 2020.
  12. ^ "Wayne Chatfield Taylor Dead; Roosevelt and Truman Aide, 73; Banker Held Major Posts in Commerce, Treasury and the Export-Import Bank In Many Public Posts Envoy at Trade Meetings". The New York Times. November 23, 1967. Retrieved June 6, 2020.
  13. ^ "Writer Is Killed When Auto Skids; Otis Chatfieid-Taylor, Long Known in Theatre and Press, Fatally Hurt at Croton". The New York Times. January 18, 1948. Retrieved June 6, 2020.
  14. ^ "Three Divorces In Reno.; Chatfield-Taylors, R.E. Sherwoods and J.D. Pierces Parted". The New York Times. June 16, 1934. Retrieved June 6, 2020.
  15. ^ "Paid Notice: Deaths Chatfield Taylor, Marochka". The New York Times. November 4, 1999. Retrieved June 6, 2020.
  16. ^ "Marochka Anisfield Wed; Daughter of Chicago Artist Bride of Otis Chatfield-Taylor". The New York Times. May 7, 1936. Retrieved June 6, 2020.
  17. ^ "Valborg E. Palmer Wed.; Becomes Bride of Robert Farwell Chatfield-Taylor". The New York Times. November 8, 1928. Retrieved June 6, 2020.
  18. ^ "Mrs. Chatfield-Taylor is Dead in California". Chicago Tribune. April 6, 1918. p. 1. Retrieved July 10, 2019 – via Newspapers.com.
  19. ^ "Estate of Woman Worth More than Million". Salt Lake Telegram. May 7, 1918. p. 6. Retrieved July 10, 2019 – via Newspapers.com.
  20. ^ "Twenty-Ninth Annual Report for Year Ending December 31, 1918, The Visiting Nurse Association of Chicago". Influenza Encyclopedia. December 31, 1918. Retrieved July 10, 2019.
  21. ^ Koven, Anna De (1920). A Cloud of Witnesses. Dutton. Anna de Koven.

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