Frank Armstrong Crawford Vanderbilt (January 18, 1839 – May 4, 1885) was an American socialite and philanthropist. During the

American Civil War The American Civil War (April 12, 1861 – May 26, 1865; also known by other names) was a civil war in the United States. It was fought between the Union ("the North") and the Confederacy ("the South"), the latter formed by states ...

, she was a strong supporter of the

Confederate States of America The Confederate States of America (CSA), commonly referred to as the Confederate States or the Confederacy was an unrecognized breakaway republic in the Southern United States that existed from February 8, 1861, to May 9, 1865. The Confeder ...

. After the war, she lived in New York City and married multi-millionaire

Cornelius Vanderbilt Cornelius Vanderbilt (May 27, 1794 – January 4, 1877), nicknamed "the Commodore", was an American business magnate who built his wealth in railroads and shipping. After working with his father's business, Vanderbilt worked his way into lead ...

, who donated $1 million to establish

Vanderbilt University Vanderbilt University (informally Vandy or VU) is a private research university in Nashville, Tennessee. Founded in 1873, it was named in honor of shipping and rail magnate Cornelius Vanderbilt, who provided the school its initial $1-million ...

Nashville, Tennessee Nashville is the capital city of the U.S. state of Tennessee and the seat of Davidson County. With a population of 689,447 at the 2020 U.S. census, Nashville is the most populous city in the state, 21st most-populous city in the U.S., and ...

Early life

Frank Armstrong Crawford was born on January 18, 1839 in Mobile, Alabama to Robert Leighton Crawford and Martha Eliza Everett.T.J. Stiles
The Commodore’s Civil War
, ''Vanderbilt Magazine'', Spring 2011 Her parents named her after their best friend, Frank Armstrong, before she was born, not knowing she would be female. Growing up in Mobile, she attended

St. Francis Street Methodist Church St. Francis Street Methodist Church, officially St. Francis Street United Methodist Church, is a historic former United Methodist Church building in Mobile, Alabama, United States. The current structure was built in 1896 by the architectural f ...

.Lyle Lankford
Women to the Rescue
''Vanderbilt Magazine'', Summer 2009 During the

of 1861—1865, she was "an unrepentant Confederate." After the war, she moved to

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the Un ...

with her mother.Kara Furlong
Commodore's 'strange gift' became educational legacy
, 03/27/06

Augusta Jane Evans Augusta Jane Evans Wilson (May 8, 1835 – May 9, 1909), was an American author of Southern literature and a patriot of the South. She was the first woman to earn through her writing. Wilson was a native of Columbus, Georgia, and her first book ...

, ''A Southern Woman of Letters: The Correspondence of Augusta Jane Evans Wilson'',

University of South Carolina Press The University of South Carolina Press is an academic publisher associated with the University of South Carolina. It was founded in 1944. By the early 1990s, the press had published several surveys of women's writing in the southern United States ...

, 2002, p. 15

/ref>

described her as a "zealous Methodist."

Philanthropy

Crawford persuaded her husband,

, to give $1 million to Bishop Holland Nimmons McTyeire, the husband of her cousin, Amelia Townsend, to found

. Cornelius saw this gift as an olive branch to the South, after he had helped defeat the

Confederate States Army The Confederate States Army, also called the Confederate Army or the Southern Army, was the military land force of the Confederate States of America (commonly referred to as the Confederacy) during the American Civil War (1861–1865), fighting ...

with his USS ''Vanderbilt'' during the Civil War. However, he never visited the university.

Personal life

Crawford was briefly married to John Elliott, but quickly divorced. In 1869, she married Cornelius Vanderbilt after the death of his first wife, Sophia Johnson (a mutual cousin). He died in 1877, and was her mother's cousin. She signed a pre-nuptial agreement, agreeing to receive $500,000 in bonds after his death, a great sum at the time but a fraction of Vanderbilt's fortune.Stiles, The First Tycoon, p. 549 Confederate General

Braxton Bragg Braxton Bragg (March 22, 1817 – September 27, 1876) was an American army officer during the Second Seminole War and Mexican–American War and Confederate general in the Confederate Army during the American Civil War, serving in the Western ...

and his brother, Confederate Attorney General

Thomas Bragg Thomas Bragg (November 9, 1810January 21, 1872) was an American politician and lawyer who served as the 34th Governor of the U.S. state of North Carolina from 1855 through 1859. During the Civil War, he served in the Confederate States Cabinet. ...

, both attended the wedding.

Death and legacy

She died on May 4, 1885 in Staten Island. Her funeral was conducted by the Rev. Charles Deems in the Church of the Strangers, a church for Southerners in New York that she attended regularly. Her portrait, painted by William J. Whittemore in 1906, was donated by her brother Robert Leighton Crawford Jr. to Vanderbilt University; it is in Kirkland Hall. Crawford Hall, one of the ten houses on the Martha Rivers Ingram Commons at Vanderbilt University, was named in her honor. An article in the ''Vanderbilt Political Review'' about the university's links to slavery notes, "During our research, for example, it was shockingly difficult to find information on Frank Armstrong Crawford’s stance on the Civil War on the Vanderbilt website or in Vanderbilt archives, yet other sources plainly cited her dedication to the Confederate cause."

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Vanderbilt, Frank Armstrong Crawford 1839 births 1885 deaths American socialites Philanthropists from New York (state) People from Mobile, Alabama People from New York City Vanderbilt University people Frank Armstrong Crawford Methodists from Alabama 19th-century American philanthropists Burials at the Vanderbilt Family Cemetery and Mausoleum Methodists from New York (state)