Episode 40: The Wilson Women

President Woodrow Wilson was surrounded by some very interesting women.

Transcript

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Hey everybody, I'm Shannon, and welcome to the They Hid What Podcast. On this podcast, I explore parts of history that have been kept hidden or swept under the rug. In this week's episode, I will be discussing the Wilson women. Let's get into it. So, apologies right up front. This episode is not about the ladies of heart. This is about the ladies that were in President Woodrow Wilson's life. I do not remember how I started down this rabbit trail. I think it started when I was reading Eleanor Herman's Sex with Presidents. I love this author. I've referenced her before in the Madame Pompadour episode. Um, but yeah, I think that's what started it. And then I had read something else after, and in each one, there were these like little nuggets about these women. Uh, but I wanted more. So here we are. So we are going to start with Woodrow Wilson's first wife, Ellen. Ellen Axon was born on May 15th, 1860, in Savannah, Georgia, and was raised in Rome, Georgia. She was the eldest of four children. Brother Stockton was born in 1867, brother Eddie was born in 1876, and sister Maggie was born in 1881. Ellen's father, Samuel, was a Presbyterian minister and was the chaplain to a South Carolina regiment in the Confederate Army during the American Civil War. Iw. Samuel married Margaret Hoyt in 1858. Now, Ellen loved art, music, and literature, and at 11 years old, she began studying art at Rome Female College in Rome, Georgia. She graduated from this school in 1876 at about 16 years old. In 1881, shortly after giving birth to Maggie, Ellen's mother, Margaret, died. Her father, Samuel, really struggled with the death and went into a severe depression. Ellen cared for her two younger brothers, Stockton and Eddie, and her aunt Louisa raised the baby, Maggie. In 1883, Ellen attended the church where her father was preaching and caught the eye of a visitor, Woodrow Wilson. At this time, Woodrow was an attorney and was in town visiting his cousin Jesse Wilson in Rome, Georgia. Woodrow thought that Ellen had, quote, splendid laughing eyes. And after a few months of dating, he proposed in September 1883. Ellen accepted the proposal, but they agreed to wait to get married while Woodrow attended graduate school. This time wasn't all sunshine and roses. Ellen is still taking care of her brothers, and now her father's depression has become so bad that Ellen has had him sent to a sanatorium. Samuel Axon committed suicide while he was hospitalized in 1884 at only 48 years old. After this event, Ellen went to and graduated from the Art Students League of New York. She focused on portraiture and submitted a drawing titled School Scene in 1878 in the Paris International Exposition, where it won a bronze medal for excellence. On June 23, 1885, Woodrow Wilson and Ellen Axon finally marry at Ellen's paternal grandparents' home in Savannah, Georgia. The wedding was performed by Woodrow's father, Reverend Joseph Wilson, and Ellen's grandfather, Reverend Isaac Stockton Keith Axon. Now that they were married, Ellen took a break from her art studies, and Ellen and Wilson agreed that Ellen's brother Eddie would live with them, and her brother Stockton would stay with them while on breaks from school. Later in 1885, Brynmark College in Pennsylvania offered Woodrow a teaching position for $1,500 a year, and the family moved to live closer to the campus. Now get this. Ellen was insistent that her children would not be born Yankees, those that were of the northern states considered part of the Union Army in the American Civil War. So when Ellen was pregnant with her first child, she went to stay with relatives in Gainesville, Georgia, when it was time to give birth. Daughter Margaret was born in 1886 and son Jesse in 1887. But boo-hoo, their third child, Eleanor, was born in Connecticut in 1889, when Woodrow was teaching at Wesleyan University. Can you imagine? Dirty Yankee. Okay, so now it's 1890, and Woodrow is the president of Princeton University in New Jersey. The Wilsons are now a family of five, with Ellen's brother Eddie living with them. Ellen decided to learn German so that she could help with translating political documents for her husband. Cool. Now let's talk about brother Eddie. He was born in 1876, like I said, and he had a gift for mechanics as a child. By the time he was 12, he could take apart, fix, and put back together practically anything that was set in front of him. He ended up graduating from Princeton University and went on to study at MIT. He became superintendent of Franklin Gold Mines in Georgia. Eddie married and had a son in 1905. Now this is where things get a bit murky. We don't know the how, but Eddie, his wife, and their infant son drowned in the Etowah River in Georgia. Ellen set up a scholarship in Eddie's memory at Barrie College in Georgia. Ellen also began to experience periods of what their daughter called blue blacks. Presumably, this is a depressive episode, as Ellen's daughter Eleanor said that during these bouts, Ellen barely spoke. Ellen did, however, return to her art. She spent time at an artist colony in Connecticut and exhibited her works in shows, including the Art Institute of Chicago, the Heron Art Institute, the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, and Philadelphia's Art and Crafts Guild. In May 1906, Woodrow had a stroke, but was able to bounce back. And in 1912, he was elected President of the United States. Ellen kept an art studio on the third floor of the White House and donated a lot of her paintings to the auctioned off for charity. She took an interest in the White House garden and added the president's walk between the West Wing and the White House. Ellen also had rose bushes, narcissists, pansy, and boxwood hedges planted. Ellen also had interests in improving housing in Washington, D.C. and would visit areas known as slums. I'm confused by this little turn of events, and I could not find what changed her mind. But she advocated for cleaner conditions and would take members of Congress through the alleyways. Ellen also pushed for legislation to remove the alleyways and replace them with public parks. Now, when I'm saying slums, I mean the poorer communities, mainly full of African American people, which is why I was confused. Unfortunately, Ellen suffered from Bright's disease, which is an inflammation of the kidneys, and died of her illness on August 6, 1914. One of her dying wishes was for the Alley legislations to pass. Lovely. Now to close out Ellen's story, I want to mention her brother Stockton. He was born in 1867 and lived with the Wilsons while he was on breaks from college. He eventually became a professor of English at numerous colleges, including Princeton and Rice University. Stockton was the Secretary General of the American Red Cross during World War I. In the fall of 1918, Stockton went to France for the Red Cross with President Wilson during the peace negotiations. He was a pretty big deal in the collegiate circle at the time, but Stockton Axson unfortunately died on February 26, 1935, of a cerebral hemorrhage. Now, I saw only one source that said that Stockton had suffered a mental breakdown while he was teaching at Princeton, but I didn't see it referenced anywhere else. In his many obituaries, this wasn't mentioned, but then again, why would it be? It's not hard to believe that Stockton may have suffered from depression like his father and his sister had, but we'll probably never know for sure. Edith Boyling Galt was born October 15, 1872, in Wykeville, Virginia. She was the seventh of eleven children to a pretty well-to-do family. The Boylings were descendants of the first settlers to arrive in Virginia. The family were some of the oldest members of Virginia's slave-owning plantations. Iath's father, William, was a descendant of Matoka. Remember her from a previous episode? Matilka was Pocahontas. William Boyling was a descendant from Pocahontas's granddaughter, Jane Rolfe, who married Robert Boyling, a slave owner, planter, and merchant. Barf. Apparently, Edith is also related to Thomas Jefferson, Martha Washington, Latita Tyler, and the Harrison family by either blood or marriage. Anyway. After the American Civil War, Edith's father William started practicing law and became a circuit court judge. Edith did not go to school in the beginning, but was instead taught how to read, write, and do basic math at home. And apparently, as a child, Edith was also the caretaker to her grandmother and her grandmother's 26 canaries. At around 15 years old, in 1887, Edith's father sent her to Martha Washington College, which was a finishing school in Abingdon, Virginia. Turns out Edith was a pretty unruly student. She was miserable at this school and apparently complained a lot. Things like, quote, the food was poorly prepared, the rooms too cold, and the daily curriculum excessively rigorous, intimidating, and too strictly regimented. Edith left after one semester. In 1889, Edith's father enrolled her in Powell's School for Girls in Richmond, Virginia, and she loved it. The school, however, closed at the end of the year after the headmaster suffered an accident that cost him his leg. Concerned about the cost of Edith's education, William Boyling refused to pay for any additional schooling, choosing instead to focus on educating her three brothers. I'm not exactly sure when, but at some point, Edith was visiting her sister in Washington, D.C. when she met Norman Galt, who was a jeweler of Galt and Brothers. Edith and Norman were married on April 30th, 1896, when Edith was 23 years old. The pair lived in D.C. for 12 years, and Edith gave birth to a son on September 22, 1903. The baby, however, only lived for two days, and the delivery made it so that Edith couldn't have any more children. In 1904, Edith became the first woman in Washington, D.C. to obtain her driver's license. Kinda cool. Sadly. On January 28, 1908, Norman died unexpectedly. Apparently, he had an illness that his family knew of, so it wasn't a total surprise to them when he passed at such a young age. But either way, after Norman's death, Edith hired a manager to oversee his jewelry business. She paid off any debts, and toured Europe with the money that was left over. In March 1917, Edith visited the White House and was introduced to President Woodrow Wilson by his first cousin, Helen. Helen Woodrow Bones was acting as the White House hostess after Ellen Wilson had passed in August 1914. Edith and Woodrow began spending a lot of time together. And this was pretty frowned upon. It was very bad look for a president to be seen about with another woman so soon after his wife's death. Keep in mind. Ellen passed in August 1914. He and Edith start hanging out March 1915. They tried to hide their relationship as best they could. Allegedly, Woodrow proposed to Edith soon after they met, and that news was spreading as a rumor since they couldn't confirm it at the time. Edith and Woodrow decided to wait until a full year had passed since Alan's death. On December 18, 1915, Edith Boylan-Gault and Woodrow Wilson were married in Edith's home in Washington. Edith came into the role of First Lady at an interesting time. The United States entered World War I in 1917. All White House events and parties were canceled. So Edith took it upon herself to be an example for Americans. She observed gasless Sundays, meatless Mondays, and wheatless Wednesdays to set an example for the rationing that was going on. She set sheep to graze on the White House lawn rather than had it mowed. She also auctioned off the sheep's wool to benefit the Red Cross. At the end of the war, Edith went with Woodrow to Europe for the negotiations of the Treaty of Versailles. After returning home, Woodrow went on a press tour in October 1919. And while on the road, he had suffered another stroke. He was returned to the White House, but was left bedridden and partially paralyzed. Edith and the inner circle hid Woodrow's condition from almost everyone. Edith also took over a lot of the presidential duties until Woodrow was able to return to work almost a year and a half later. Edith called October 1919 to March 4, 1921, which was the end of Woodrow's presidential term, her stewardship. She was the one that decided who and which communications and matters of state were important enough to bring to Woodrow. So for a time, we kind of had a lady president. Not that the public knew that. Woodrow's presidential term ended and the pair moved to S Street, where they stayed until Woodrow died on February 3rd, 1924. After his death, Edith remained active in D.C. She was present during Roosevelt's address to Congress. On April 14, 1945, she attended Roosevelt's funeral at the White House. She later attended the January 20, 1961 inauguration of President John F. Kennedy. Edith Wilson died of congestive heart failure on December 28, 1961, at 89 years old. This date also happened to be Woodrow's 105th birthday. Now we move on to Mary Hulbert Peck. Mary was born on May 26, 1862, in Grand Rapids, Michigan. Mary's first husband was Thomas Harbeck Hulbert, and they married in October 1883. He was a mining engineer and the pair had a son, Alan, in September 1888. Unfortunately, Thomas died from an accident in 1889. And after his passing, Mary held a position on the Ladies Commission of the World's Fair, then married affluent New England woolen manufacturer Thomas Dowse Peck in December 1890. The family lived in Massachusetts. However, Mary developed an illness. Not much info on it, but I'm guessing it was lung related, and was told to spend her winters in Bermuda. So Mary starts to spend her winters in Bermuda. And when she was 44 years old in 1907, she met Woodrow Wilson there, who was on a solo trip. At this point, Woodrow was married to Ellen, his first wife. Mary and Woodrow hit it off and he began writing to her that February. Woodrow and Mary spent the entire month of January 1908 together in Bermuda as well. He wrote a note to her during this trip that began, quote, My precious one, my beloved Mary. Now keep in mind, from 1906 to 1910, Woodrow's wife Ellen was pretty despondent over the loss of her brother Eddie. And Woodrow was writing to Mary constantly during this time. And it's alleged that Ellen encouraged the added correspondence after Woodrow's stroke in 1906. In 1912, Mary divorced Thomas Peck, and she moved to an apartment in New York with her son and her mother. Woodrow would often visit and call the apartment. After Woodrow was elected president, he and his family went to Bermuda and stayed in Mary's home there so that he could collect his thoughts and plan his cabinet. Now Mary wasn't present, but obviously the entire family was welcome to use her home. Now comes 1915. Woodrow wants to marry Edith. But there are rumors, not just about him and Edith dating so soon after Ellen passed, but also about he and Mary. Everyone thought the two were having a years-long sexual affair. Woodrow sat Edith down and assured her that nothing physical ever happened between him and Mary. However, to save face, Woodrow stopped corresponding with Mary. At this point, Mary's being hounded by reporters and writers to turn over her letters from Woodrow, and she's being offered loads of money for them. Every time she refused. Wilson's official biographer, Ray Baker, reached out to Mary asking for the letters, but Mary said no. He kept asking her for three years, and he was asking around to get money to offer to pay for the letters. Finally, on June 5th, 1928, Mary signed an agreement to sell the letters for $31,500 to Ray Baker. The money came from a Woodrow Wilson admirer. Now, this is over $600,000 in today's money. Mary was sad to see the letters go, but decided to publish her memoirs in 1932. And on December 19th, 1939, at years old, Mary died of heart disease. This is still a debate to this day. Was Mary Woodrow's mistress? I'm on the side that she was not. It would seem as though he absolutely valued her and their friendship. Perhaps it could be deemed an emotional affair, but there's nothing definitive to say, yeah, they were hooking up. It's alleged in some places that Ellen supported it. It's alleged in other places that she said it was a horrible point in her marriage. So I don't think, again, we will ever know. Let's end this episode talking about Woodrow Wilson's daughters. First is Margaret. Margaret was born April 16, 1886. She went to Goucher College in Baltimore and trained in voice and piano at the Peabody Institute of Music. After her mother died in 1914, Margaret took over responsibilities as hostess at the White House along with Woodrow's cousin. Margaret was dabbling in a singing career at this time as well, and she released the song My Ladies under Columbia Records in 1914. She also performed for Allied troops in France in World War I. Margaret toured the United States to raise funds for the Red Cross and recorded the Star-Spangled Banner to raise funds as well. Margaret followed in her mother Ellen's footsteps in that she was a suffragette and worked to improve conditions for African American students in DC. While her father institutionalized segregation in the federal workforce, Margaret made a point of publicly visiting and calling attention to poor conditions for the students. All three Wilson daughters allegedly pressed their dad on the issue of women's suffrage, but his policies and decisions to enter the First World War went starkly against it. Margaret decided to leave the White House and move to Greenwich Village and became active in the Women's City Club, now known as Women's Create Change. In 1924, when her father died, Margaret was left with a trust fund with an annual salary which would continue as long as she was unmarried. And allegedly it was over $2,500 a month, which is about $47,000 today. In 1932, she retired from singing and began work for an advertising agency. But also in the 30s, Margaret discovered a book on Eastern mysticism at the New York Public Library, and she was hooked. In 1938, she traveled to India to the ashram of a nationalist and very prominent yogi. She became a member and devotee of the ashram and was given the name Nisha, which means dedication in Sanskrit. Some equate what she was doing and like her title and her role to what we would say is like a Catholic nun almost. Margaret and the scholar Joseph Campbell edited the English translation of the Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna, and it was published in 1942. Margaret died on February 12, 1944, at 57 years old of uremia, which is a result of kidney failure. Now we've got Jesse, the middle child. Jesse was born August 28, 1887. She was educated at Miss Fine's School in New Jersey and at Groucher College in Baltimore. Jesse worked at a settlement home in Philadelphia after graduation for three years. Kind of like reporting from the trenches. On November 26, 1919, Jesse married Francis Bose Sayers at the White House. Francis was a graduate of Harvard Law School and was serving in the office of the district attorney at the time. The couple moved to Williamstown, Massachusetts, where Francis was an assistant to the president of Williams College. On January 17, 1915, Jesse gave birth in the White House to Francis Jr. In 1916, she gave birth to daughter Eleanor and in 1919, son Woodrow. After World War I, the Sayers family moved to Cambridge, Massachusetts, where Francis was faculty at Harvard Law School. Jesse was an active member in the League of Women's Voters, the YWCA, and secretary of the Massachusetts Democratic Committee. By the 1920s, the family was living in Thailand, where Francis served as High Commissioner and Advisor on International Law at the Royal Court of Siam. On January 15, 1933, Jesse had abdominal surgery in Cambridge, Massachusetts. It's unclear or unknown what the surgery was for or what happened, but Jesse died on the same day at only 45 years old. Two years after her death, the Boston branch of the Women's Democratic League was renamed the Jesse Woodrow Sayer Woman's Democratic League. And our final Wilson woman, youngest daughter, Eleanor, she had a pretty quiet life. She was born October 16, 1889, and went to a boarding school in North Carolina. On May 7, 1914, she married William Gibbs McAdoo, U.S. Secretary of the Treasury at the White House. She had daughter Ellen in 1915 and daughter Mary in 1920. Eleanor and William divorced in July 1935. Eleanor wrote a biography about her father and served as an informal counselor on the 1944 biopic Wilson, where her father was played by Alexander Knox. And Knox won a Golden Globe and was nominated for the Best Actor Academy Award for that role. In 1965, Eleanor had a cerebral hemorrhage and became incapacitated. And on April 5th, 1967, she died in her home in California at 77. So we've got Ellen, who lost her mother when she was 21 and had to raise her younger brothers. She also had to help her despondent father, who had to be committed and ended up committing suicide. Ellen herself battled depression and faced it again when she lost the brother she raised and his entire family. She was also an accomplished artist and helped Woodrow through a stroke and presidential campaign. There was also family history of cerebral hemorrhage and kidney troubles. Then we've got Edith, descendant of Pocahontas, somewhat heiress of a jewelry fortune, and possibly the first lady president who took rationing by the horns during World War I. We got Mary, a nice lady that met a future president while on vacation and was accused of being his mistress for the rest of her life. We've got daughter Margaret, the former singer and Hindu nun, Jessie, the woman who was married in the White House, gave birth in the White House, then traveled the world for her husband's job, and Eleanor, who was only considered an informal counselor on her father's life for a movie. We don't hear enough about the other residents of the White House, but I hope you learned a bit today and come back next time to see what else has been hidden.