Rose Farwell Chatfield-Taylor

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.

Rose Farwell Chatfield-Taylor
Born
Rose Farwell

(1870-03-07)March 7, 1870
Lake Forest, Illinois
DiedApril 5, 1918(1918-04-05) (aged 48)
Santa Barbara, California
EducationFerry Hall School
Alma materLake Forest College
OccupationSocialite, sportswoman
Spouse(s)
​
​
(m. 1890; her death 1918)​
Children4, including Wayne
Parent(s)Charles B. Farwell
Mary Eveline Smith Farwell
RelativesAnna de Koven (sister)

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 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. "Farwell-Winston Family". Lake Forest-Lake Bluff History Center. Retrieved July 10, 2019.
  2. 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. 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. 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. Times, Special to The New York TimesThe New York (November 23, 1967). "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. Retrieved June 6, 2020.
  13. TIMES, Special to THE NEW YORK (January 18, 1948). "WRITER IS KILLED WHEN AUTO SKIDS; Otis Chatfieid-Taylor, Long Known in Theatre and Press, Fatally Hurt at Croton". The New York Times. 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 ANISFELD 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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