A Secret Life_ The Lies and Scandals of President Grover Cleveland - Charles Lachman [39]
When news of Folsom’s accident reached him, a shaken Grover Cleveland rushed to his friend’s side. Again and again Cleveland had warned him about his aggressive driving. Now, ten months after Oscar Folsom Cleveland had been born, Cleveland got there in time to see the man his son had been named after take his last breath. It was 9:45 p.m.
Assembled in the back room of the saloon were Folsom’s cousin Benjamin Folsom and two other well-known lawyers, Henry Box and Charles Thomas. The county coroner was called, and Folsom’s body was lifted into a wagon and transported to the Tifft House, where Folsom had rented an apartment for the summer while his family was away.
A telegram was sent to Emma Folsom at her mother’s estate in Medina. It arrived after midnight. Frances was immediately awakened and informed of her father’s death. Many years later, she would recall how she sat on the steps in the hallway taking it all in. Her father was gone, and she could see her mother sitting on the porch, reading and rereading the telegram by the light of a lantern. It was as if she could not quite believe what had happened, that at age thirty-three she was now a widow.
Emma returned to Buffalo the next day and found a city in mourning. Her husband’s accident was the lead local story in the Commercial Advertiser.
“There is no one among the prominent young men of this community whose death would be more deeply mourned than is that of Oscar Folsom,” the article said, heaping praise on Folsom for being “true as steel to his friends.” The paper also conceded, in so many words, that Folsom had had a reputation for recklessness with a horse and buggy when it took note of his “quick and impulsive” nature. The Morning Express said the city had lost a citizen whose place “cannot be refilled. Oscar had not an enemy in the world.” Of course the tension surrounding the illegitimate birth of Oscar Folsom Cleveland was kept in the strictest privacy. Not a word about it appeared in print. Only the most intimate friends of Grover Cleveland and Maria Halpin knew that the enmity between them was mounting.
Cleveland was given the honor of delivering the eulogy at Oscar Folsom’s funeral—a stirring address, spoken from the heart, and considered by those who were there to be the greatest speech of his life. Emma was present, as was Folsom’s grieving father, Colonel John Folsom. He had now lost his wife, a daughter, and two sons in the span of just nineteen months. Death seemed to be stalking John Folsom’s family, which had been virtually wiped out by disease and hard luck. The adolescent Frances, who was considered to be too young to attend the funeral, remained in Medina with her grandmother.
Oscar Folsom left no will—a surprising lapse for someone in the legal profession but characteristic of his irresponsible nature. Dying intestate meant Folsom’s assets had to be processed through probate court, and Grover Cleveland was appointed administrator of the estate. Everyone agreed that Cleveland’s veneration of the dead man and his affection for Emma and Frances Folsom made him the perfect choice.
Oscar Folsom left a sizable estate of an estimated $250,000, the rough equivalent of $5 million in modern currency. Financially, Emma and Frances had no worries.
For a time, they stayed in Medina, where Frances continued her education at the Medina Academy for Boys and Girls. Then they tried living with Emma’s sister Nellie in St. Paul, Minnesota, thinking that a new life in another city might be just the thing to cheer them up, but they disliked St. Paul; and six months later, they were back in Medina.
Grover Cleveland was a continuous presence in Frances’s life. Given that her mother was still alive, the girl did not require a legal guardian, but Cleveland effectively took over that role and was advised on every