Evangeline Marrs Simpson Whipple (January 15, 1857 – September 1, 1930) was an American philanthropist and author, who was known for her humanitarian activities as a member of the
American Red Cross in Europe during the
First World War
World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...
.
Early life
Evangeline E. Thurston Marrs was born in
Wayland, Massachusetts
Wayland is a town in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States. The town was founded in 1638, and incorporated in 1780 and was originally part of neighboring Sudbury (incorporated 1639). As of the 2020 United States Census, the population was ...
.
She was the only daughter born to Jane Van Poelien Marrs (1832–1906),
an immigrant from England, and Dana Francis Marrs (b. 1826), a machinist and farmer from Ireland.
Her older brother was photographer Kingsmill Marrs, who married Laura Norcross (a daughter of mayor
Otis Norcross).
Marriages
First marriage
In 1882, Evangeline was first married to
Michael Hodge Simpson (1809–1884), a wealthy cotton manufacturer from
Saxonville, Massachusetts,
who was 48 years her senior.
As a wedding present, he gave her $1 million () in bonds.
While the newlyweds went on their honeymoon in Europe, Simpson commissioned a $150,000 () mansion to be built for Evangeline in Wayland, overlooking
Dudley Pond. Local residents responded badly to their age difference however, and the couple did not end up spending much time in the mansion.
Simpson died of heart failure in 1884 and left an estate of $10–12 million to Evangeline.
Second marriage
As a wealthy widow, Evangeline later began a relationship with
Rose Cleveland
Rose Elizabeth "Libby" Cleveland (June 13, 1846 – November 22, 1918) served as first lady of the United States from 1885 to 1886, during the first term of her brother, President Grover Cleveland's two administrations. The president was a bachel ...
, the sister of President
Grover Cleveland
Stephen Grover Cleveland (March 18, 1837June 24, 1908) was an American lawyer and politician who served as the 22nd and 24th president of the United States from 1885 to 1889 and from 1893 to 1897. Cleveland is the only president in American ...
. Rose had served as her brother's
White House
The White House is the official residence and workplace of the president of the United States. It is located at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW in Washington, D.C., and has been the residence of every U.S. president since John Adams in ...
hostess (
First Lady of the United States) from 1885 to 1886 because he was not married when he took office. The relationship between the women continued until Evangeline met Bishop
Henry Benjamin Whipple
Henry Benjamin Whipple (February 15, 1822 – September 16, 1901) was the first Episcopal bishop of Minnesota, who gained a reputation as a humanitarian and an advocate for Native Americans.
Summary of his life
Born in Adams, New York, he was ...
in Florida while she was on vacation. Henry Whipple was the first
bishop of Minnesota
The Episcopal Church in Minnesota, formerly known as the Episcopal Diocese of Minnesota, is a diocese of the Episcopal Church in the United States of America which has jurisdiction over all of Minnesota, except Clay County, which is in the Episco ...
, known for advocating for Native American rights. He maintained a winter home in Florida, and founded a church in
Maitland, Florida.
Evangeline was an "intimate friend" of Whipple's first wife Cornelia Wright Whipple, a daughter of Benjamin Wright of
Jefferson County, whom he married in 1842 and who died in 1890 from injuries sustained in a railroad accident.
Evangeline married the bishop in 1896,
moved to Minnesota, and changed her legal family name to Whipple. Henry Whipple was 36 years her senior.
She then began a period of humanitarian and philanthropy, working with her husband, a missionary for
The Episcopal Church. She greatly expanded the
Cathedral of Our Merciful Saviour
The Cathedral of Our Merciful Saviour in Faribault is the oldest cathedral in Minnesota. Built 1862–1869, it was the first church in the Episcopal Church in the United States of America designed as a cathedral. The architect was James Renwi ...
, provided the fund for the construction of the
St. Mary's School for Girls, also in Faribault, and worked to improve education provided to women.
Henry died in 1901. In his honor, Evangeline commissioned several memorials to him, including the bell tower for the Cathedral of Our Merciful Saviour.
She stayed in Minnesota following his death and continued supporting the community.
In 1902, she traveled to Italy with Rose Cleveland. They corresponded when apart.
Italy
In 1910, Whipple left Minnesota for Italy, traveling with Cleveland, to be with her terminally ill brother Kingsmill Marrs, and never returned to the United States.
Whipple moved to
Bagni di Lucca
Bagni di Lucca (formerly Bagno a Corsena) is a comune of Tuscany, Italy, in the Province of Lucca with a population of about 6,100. The comune has 27 named frazioni (wards).
History
Bagni di Lucca has been known for its thermal springs since th ...
and the two women spent the next eight years doing philanthropic and civic work, such as building an orphanage. In recognition of their contribution to the city, Bagni di Lucca named a street after Whipple. Whipple often socialized with her friends such as
Nelly Erichsen in the three houses that she owned.
After the onset of the Great War, both Whipple and Cleveland volunteered for the Red Cross in Italy, in addition to their friend Erichsen. During the war, Whipple also worked to address the Spanish flu pandemic and transport people displaced due to the war to Bagni di Lucca by providing humanitarian aid. Erichsen contracted Spanish influenza during the
1918 flu pandemic
The 1918–1920 influenza pandemic, commonly known by the misnomer Spanish flu or as the Great Influenza epidemic, was an exceptionally deadly global influenza pandemic caused by the H1N1 influenza A virus. The earliest documented case was ...
, and died shortly after the end of the war. Cleveland also died several days later from the flu after nursing for Erichsen.
Whipple continued to travel around Europe and advocate for women's issues around the continent. In 1928, ''A Famous Corner of Tuscany'' written by her was published. It was dedicated to Cleveland.
Death and legacy
![III Cimitero Inglese, Bagni di Lucca, Italia 3 (2)](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/72/III_Cimitero_Inglese%2C_Bagni_di_Lucca%2C_Italia_3_%282%29.jpg)
In 1930, Evangeline fell ill while traveling in London, and died shortly after in 1930. She was buried alongside Rose Cleveland in the English Cemetery section in Bagni di Lucca.
In her will, she left millions of dollars to schools, churches, people, and Native American programs in Minnesota that she worked with.
It is believed that she gave a total of what would have been $53 million in 2013 to the St. Mary's School for Girls, now called the Shattuck-Saint Mary's.
Archived at the
Minnesota Historical Society is the correspondence, described as love letters, between Evangeline and Rose. It is part of the Whipple-Scandrett collection.
Her influence on the Faribault, Minnesota area was portrayed in Rice County Historical Society's version of ''A Night at the Museum'' that features historical people in a 2013 event.
The historical society received a grant from Minnesota Historical Society in the amount of $9,800 to produce archives of Whipple's life. Tilly Laskey, who traveled to Tuscany to research Whipple's life and is considered the "premier historian" on her legacy, was expected to be commissioned to work on the project called "Hidden in Plain Sight: Recovering Evangeline Marrs Whipple’s Minnesota Story Through Archival Research."
References
Notes
Sources
Further reading
* - includes samples of their correspondence
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Whipple, Evangeline Marrs
1857 births
1930 deaths
People from Wayland, Massachusetts
19th-century American writers
19th-century American women writers
20th-century American women writers
20th-century American writers
American expatriates in Italy
American lesbian writers
LGBT people from Massachusetts