Rose Farwell Chatfield-Taylor
American sportswoman and suffragist
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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.
March 7, 1870
Rose Farwell Chatfield-Taylor | |
|---|---|
Chatfield-Taylor in 1901 | |
| Born | Rose Farwell March 7, 1870 Lake Forest, Illinois, U.S. |
| Died | April 5, 1918 (aged 48) |
| Education | Ferry Hall School |
| Alma mater | Lake Forest College |
| Occupations | Socialite, sportswoman |
| Spouse | |
| Children | 4, including Wayne |
| Parent(s) | Charles B. Farwell Mary Eveline Smith Farwell |
| Relatives | Anna 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 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]