Frances Esther Wolcott (née Metcalfe, formerly Bass) (May 19, 1851 – February 9, 1933) was an American socialite and author.
Frances Metcalfe Wolcott | |
|---|---|
| Born | Frances Esther Metcalfe May 19, 1851 |
| Died | February 9, 1933 (aged 81) New York City, New York |
| Spouses | |
| Children | Lyman M. Bass |
| Parent(s) | James Harvey Metcalfe Erzelia Frances Stetson |
| Relatives | James Stetson Metcalfe (brother) Elizabeth Tyree (sister-in-law) |
Early life
editFanny, as she was known, was born on May 19, 1851, at her father's house on Swan Street in Buffalo, New York. She was a daughter of James Harvey Metcalfe (1822–1879) and Erzelia Frances (née Stetson) Metcalfe (1832–1913). Among her siblings were James Stetson Metcalfe (a drama critic for Life Magazine and The Wall Street Journal who married Elizabeth Tyree), George Stetson Metcalfe, and Francis Tyler Metcalfe. Her father came to Buffalo from Bath, New York, in 1855 and created a family fortune establishing the First National Bank and the Buffalo, New York and Philadelphia Railroad. He was also an early park commissioner and helped implement Frederick Law Olmsted's plan for the city's park system.
Her paternal great-grandfather was killed in the Tory army at the Battle of Bunker Hill and her grandfather, Thomas Metcalfe, was "taken by his mother to Virginia, where later he freed his Virginia-born slaves and trekked to Central New York".[1]
Career
editAfter her husband's health declined, he did not run for reelection to Congress and they moved to Colorado Springs, Colorado, where he continued the practice of law became general counsel for the Denver and Rio Grande Railroad Company.[2]
She lived all over the world and in 1932, shortly before death, had published by Minton, Balch and Company, Heritage of Years: Kaleidoscopic Memories,[1] a "brilliant work of a sophisticate who looks back over 80 years and tells what she saw during that time."[3] In the prologue to her memoir, she writes:
"The privileges of my life have been great, including the acquaintance of distinguished persons of three continents, audiences with Popes and Kings, intercourse with soldiers, artists, musicians and writes. Those who have attracted me most are those who have had great dreams and striven to make them reality."[1]
Among her many friends and acquaintances were architect Stanford White (who with his firm, McKim, Mead & White built her mother's home in Buffalo), diplomat John Buchan, poet Helen Hunt Jackson, and author Richard Le Gallienne.[1] At Hillcrest, her country estate, she hosted "Theodore Roosevelt, Alice Roosevelt Longworth, Mark Twain, Ethel Barrymore and Karl Bitter, a famous sculptor."[4]
Personal life
edit
In 1874, Fanny married U.S. Representative Lyman Kidder Bass (1836–1889) in Buffalo.[5] He was a law partner of president Grover Cleveland and Wilson S. Bissell (later former Postmaster General). Before his death from consumption in 1889, they were the parents of one child:[2]
- Lyman Metcalfe Bass (1876–1955), the U.S. Attorney for the Western District of New York[6] who married Grace Holland, a daughter of Nelson Holland, in 1904.[7]
After Bass' death in 1877, she married Edward O. Wolcott, the then youngest member of the U.S. Senate in 1890 and a direct descendant of Oliver Wolcott, signer of the United States Declaration of Independence.[8] They were married by The Rev. Francis Lobdell at St. Paul's Cathedral in Buffalo.[9] In Washington, they lived in a mansion on Connecticut Avenue, "in the immediate neighborhood of the British Ambassador, and in the very heart of the fashionable set."[10] They later divorced in 1899.[11] Senator Wolcott died in 1905 while on vacation in Europe.[12]
After the divorce, she bought Hillcrest, a 32-room mansion in Pavilion, New York, in the Genesee Valley.[4][13] Fanny died in New York on February 9, 1933.[13] After a funeral service at her son's residence in Buffalo, she was buried at Forest Lawn Cemetery there.[14]
References
edit- ^ a b c d Wolcott, Frances Metcalfe (1932). "Heritage of Years; Kaleidoscopic Memories". Minton, Balch and Company. Retrieved 5 October 2022.
- ^ a b "DEATH OF LYMAN K. BASS | The Brilliant Lawyer and Shrewd Politician Dies in New-York". Buffalo Morning Express and Illustrated Buffalo Express. 12 May 1889. p. 13. Retrieved 5 October 2022.
- ^ "Frances M. Bass Wolcott". buffaloah.com. Buffalo Architecture and History. Retrieved 6 October 2022.
- ^ a b "The Hillcrest Estate". exploregeneseevalley.com. Explore Genesee Valley. Retrieved 5 October 2022.
- ^ "Jotter's Corner". Catholic Union and Times. 2 December 1874. p. 5. Retrieved 5 October 2022.
- ^ "Lyman M. Bass" (PDF). The New York Times. Vol. CIV, no. 35596. New York, N.Y. 10 July 1955. p. 75.
- ^ of 1897, Yale University Class (1948). Half Century Record. New Haven: Yale University. p. 112. Retrieved 6 October 2022.
{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link) - ^ "200 Wolcott Descendants To Have Reunion in Camden". The New York Times. 10 August 1927. Retrieved 4 October 2022.
- ^ "SENATOR WOLCOTT MARRIED.; THE YOUNGEST MEMBER OF THE UNITED STATES SENATE WEDS MRS. BASS". The New York Times. 15 May 1890. Retrieved 4 October 2022.
- ^ "THEIR TEMPERS ARE NOT COMPATIBLE. Senator and Mrs. Wolcott Have Separated, Prior to a Divorce. Mrs. Wolcott is a Buffalonian and a Daughter of Mrs. E. M. Metcalfe of North Street. NO SCANDAL IS INVOLVED". The Buffalo News. 6 March 1899. p. 1. Retrieved 5 October 2022.
- ^ "WIFE OF SENATOR WOLCOTT BRINGS SUIT FOR A DIVORCE. She Was Miss Metcalfe and Later Mrs. Lyman K. Bass of Buffalo Before Becoming Mrs. Wolcott". The Buffalo Review. 6 March 1899. p. 1. Retrieved 5 October 2022.
- ^ "EX-SENATOR WOLCOTT DEAD.; Passes Away in Italy, Where He Had Been on a Visit". The New York Times. 2 March 1905. Retrieved 4 October 2022.
- ^ a b "MRS. WOLCOTT DIES AFTER VARIED LIFE. Mother of Lyman M. Bass Lived in Buffalo, Capitals and Western Frontier". The Buffalo News. 10 February 1933. p. 29. Retrieved 5 October 2022.
- ^ "RITES HELD TODAY FOR MRS. WOLCOTT. Mother of Lyman M. Bass, Noted as Writer at 80, Dies in New York". The Buffalo News. 11 February 1933. p. 4. Retrieved 5 October 2022.
External links
edit- Heritage of Years: Kaleidoscopic Memories by Frances Metcalfe Wolcott (1932)