A Secret Life_ The Lies and Scandals of President Grover Cleveland - Charles Lachman [170]
But to the very end, Dr. James E. King Jr., born Oscar Folsom Cleveland, kept the family secrets.
THE END
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
RESEARCHING A Secret Life has been a challenge. Published biographies of Grover Cleveland have whitewashed the Maria Halpin scandal or treated it only superficially. As happens occasionally to authors, there came a eureka moment for me when I realized I had found a treasure trove of material that previous writers had overlooked. These were the court proceedings of the 1890 libel trial of Ball v. The New York Evening Post Corporation. For the first and only time, many of the key people connected to the scandal were compelled to testify under oath about what they knew of Maria Halpin and Grover Cleveland. I found these records in the archives of the New York State Appellate Division, Fourth Department Law Library, in Rochester, New York. Although Maria Halpin was never called as a witness at the Ball trial, I also obtained her handwritten affidavits, sworn to in October 1884, when the attacks on her character compelled her to go public with her version of events.
Grover Cleveland’s lifetime of correspondence has been collected by the historian Allan Nevins and published in the Letters of Grover Cleveland, 1850–1908. The letters, particularly those written in the 1850s, offer priceless detail of time and place when Cleveland was on the cusp of manhood. The Cleveland Papers at the Library of Congress were another vital source of information for the White House years. Fortunately, the papers and correspondence of several key Cleveland aides who were involved in managing the Maria Halpin crisis—including Horatio C. King, Wilson Bissell, and Daniel Lamont—have been preserved in the Library of Congress and various archives and special collections. Allan Nevins also left much of his research into the life of Grover Cleveland archived at Columbia University.
Maria Halpin’s family put into my hands cherished family photographs passed down through the generations. No photograph of Maria Halpin has ever previously been published. With A Secret Life, we finally get a look at this woman who I believe has been terribly disparaged in history. I especially want to thank two of Maria Halpin’s direct descendants, Emogene Sweeney and Jennifer Hawkins, for guiding me through their family history and encouraging me in my research and writing so that Maria Halpin’s story could finally be told.
I want to thank Doris Cross for her invaluable editorial contributions to the final manuscript. She has my sincere appreciation for another great job. Tamie Rovnak served as my research associate in Buffalo for more than two years of indefatigable endeavor.
William Kendall III and his son, William Kendall IV, descendants of Minnie Kendall and Sarah Kendall King, were also generous with their time and advice. And Ruth Kahn Stouroff was kind enough to offer me firsthand memories of Dr. James E. King Jr.
Many dedicated archivists and librarians were extraordinarily helpful, especially Cynthia Van Ness of the Buffalo and Erie County Historical Society, Sister Mary Grace Higgins of the Sisters of Charity Hospital in Buffalo, John A. Edens of the University at Buffalo Libraries of the State University of New York, and Barbara Davis of the New Rochelle Public Library. I also want to express my gratitude to Jarrod Cushing for creating some of the graphics used in this book, and David Voisinet and Robyn Carlton of the Appellate Division, Fourth Department Law Library, in Rochester for their essential efforts in locating the files of Ball vs. The Evening Post Corporation. Also, Tim Freeman, Utica Public Library; Wendy Edwards, Ludington Library, Bryn Mawr; Daniel DiLandro, college archivist