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.

Early life

Rose Farwell was born a twin in

Lake Forest, Illinois Lake Forest is a city located in Lake County, Illinois, United States. Per the 2020 census, the population was 19,367. The city is along the shore of Lake Michigan, and is a part of the Chicago metropolitan area and the North Shore. Lake Forest ...

, 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 Anna de Koven (''née'' Farwell; November 19, 1862 – January 12, 1953) was an American novelist, historian and socialite. The wife of composer Reginald de Koven, she published her works as Mrs. Reginald de Koven. Career Anna Farwell was b ...

and Grace were considered fashionable beauties in Chicago society, and all enjoyed various sports. Anna became a novelist, and married composer

Reginald de Koven Henry Louis Reginald De Koven (April 3, 1859January 16, 1920) was an American music critic and prolific composer, particularly of comic operas. Biography De Koven was born in Middletown, Connecticut, and moved to Europe in 1870, where he receive ...

. Grace became the first president of the

Art Institute of Chicago The Art Institute of Chicago in Chicago's Grant Park, founded in 1879, is one of the oldest and largest art museums in the world. Recognized for its curatorial efforts and popularity among visitors, the museum hosts approximately 1.5 mill ...

. Rose attended

Ferry Hall The Ferry Hall School was a girls' preparatory school founded in 1869 in Lake Forest, Illinois, Lake Forest, Illinois, United States. In 1974, Ferry Hall merged into Lake Forest Academy. History Originally named The Young Ladies' Seminary at Fe ...

and

Lake Forest College Lake Forest College is a private liberal arts college in Lake Forest, Illinois. Founded in 1857 as Lind University by a group of Presbyterian ministers, the college has been coeducational since 1876 and an undergraduate-focused liberal arts inst ...

for her schooling. Portraits of Rose Farwell as a young woman were painted by John Elliott and

Adolfo Müller-Ury Adolfo Müller-Ury, KSG (March 29, 1862 – July 6, 1947) was a Swiss-born American portrait painter and impressionistic painter of roses and still life. Heritage and early life in Switzerland He was born Felice Adolfo Müller on 29 March ...

Career

Because of Rose's and her new husband's interest in golf, the family arranged for

Charles B. MacDonald Charles Blair Macdonald (November 14, 1855 – April 21, 1939) was a major figure in early American golf. He built the first 18-hole course in the United States, was a driving force in the founding of the United States Golf Association, won the f ...

to design a golf course in 1892. In 1895, Rose Farwell Chatfield-Taylor and her husband were among the founders of the Onwentsia Club, a golf club in Lake Forest. She won several golf events, owned a racehorse, and played lawn tennis. She was a

clubwoman The woman's club movement was a social movement that took place throughout the United States that established the idea that women had a moral duty and responsibility to transform public policy. While women's organizations had always been a part ...

, and served as vice president of the Northside Chicago branch of the Illinois Woman Suffrage League. 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 Bookbinding is the process of physically assembling a book of codex format from an ordered stack of ''signatures'', sheets of paper folded together into sections that are bound, along one edge, with a thick needle and strong thread. Cheaper, b ...

business called the Rose Bindery, "a shop where appreciated and clothed in beautiful and appropriate bindings." She learned the craft in Paris, and was a member of the

Guild of Bookworkers Founded in 1906, the Guild of Book Workers (GBW) is an organization registered in New York City which promotes the craft of bookbinding, conservation, and the Book Arts. Membership in the Guild is common, though not universal, among American bookb ...

from 1906 to 1910. She wrote about bookbinding for the ''Sketch Book'' magazine.

Personal life

In 1890, Rose Farwell married wealthy writer, social host, and sportsman

Hobart Chatfield-Taylor Hobart Chatfield Chatfield-Taylor (March 24, 1865 - January 17, 1945) was an American writer, novelist, and biographer. He was considered a top authority on Molière. Early life He was born in Chicago to Henry Hobart Taylor and Adelaide Chatfie ...

. Together, they were the parents of three sons and one daughter: * Adelaide Chatfield-Taylor (1891–1982), who was awarded a

Croix de Guerre The ''Croix de Guerre'' (, ''Cross of War'') is a military decoration of France. It was first created in 1915 and consists of a square-cross medal on two crossed swords, hanging from a ribbon with various degree pins. The decoration was first awa ...

for her work running a canteen in Boston during

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

. She married Hendricks Hallett Whitman in 1912. They divorced in 1932, and she married William Davies Sohier Jr. in 1940. Her granddaughter is politician and businesswoman

Meg Whitman Margaret Cushing Whitman (born August 4, 1956) is the US ambassador to Kenya, an American business executive and former gubernatorial candidate for California. She is a board member of Procter & Gamble and General Motors. Whitman was previously ...

. *

Wayne Chatfield-Taylor Wayne Chatfield-Taylor (December 19, 1893 – November 22, 1967 Events January * January 1 – Canada begins a year-long celebration of the 100th anniversary of Confederation, featuring the Expo 67 World's Fair. * January 5 ** Spain and ...

(1893–1967), who served as Under Secretary of Commerce and Assistant Secretary of the Treasury under President

Franklin D. Roosevelt Franklin Delano Roosevelt (; ; January 30, 1882April 12, 1945), often referred to by his initials FDR, was an American politician and attorney who served as the 32nd president of the United States from 1933 until his death in 1945. As the ...

. * Otis Chatfield-Taylor (1899–1948), a writer, playwright, editor, theatrical producer who married Janet Benson in 1931. They divorced in 1934, and he married Marochka Borisovna Anisfeld, a daughter of

Boris Anisfeld Boris Izrailevich Anisfeld (1878–1973) was a Russian-American painter and theater designer. Biography 1878 - October 2. Boris Izrailevich (Srulevich) Anisfeld is born in Bieltsy, in the Bessarabia Governorate of the Russian Empire (present- ...

, in 1936. * Robert Farwell Chatfield-Taylor (1908–1980), who married Valborg Edison Palmer in 1928. She died in Santa Barbara in 1918, aged 48 years, from pneumonia after an appendectomy. In her memory, her sisters funded a visiting nurse position in Chicago, beginning in the fall of 1918. 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.

References

External links

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Sarah Kernochan Sarah Marshall Kernochan (; born December 30, 1947) is an American documentarian, film director, screenwriter and novelist. She is the recipient of several prestigious awards, including two Academy Awards ( Documentary Feature for ''Marjoe'' in 19 ...

"At Home With a Ghost - 47"
(April 2, 2013), a blog post about Anna de Koven's ''A Cloud of Witnesses.'' {{DEFAULTSORT:Chatfield-Taylor, Rose Farwell 1870 births 1918 deaths People from Lake Forest, Illinois American socialites American suffragists American female golfers Amateur golfers Golfers from Illinois Lake Forest College alumni Deaths from pneumonia in California