• Choose a category
• All
• Classic-Fiction

By Root 1795 0

as a forewoman in a millinery establishment. We heard from her occasionally but she rarely visited us. I wish she had remained home with me. This terrible trouble might then have been averted.” Then he broke into sobs.

Two of Hovenden’s unmarried daughters lived with him and tried to comfort the old man. “Well, Father, it is not your fault, dear. You could not have guarded against this,” Maria’s sister said.

“I know,” Hovenden answered. “But I, her father, knew nothing of this. I do not even now know what the exact story is. I know, however, that it is bad, very bad. Here I am almost blind and we, my children, have this additional affliction. Oh, I wish I could but meet Maria. I would have her tell all. There must be some truth in the terrible accusation.”

One of Hovenden’s daughters wanted the reporter to understand what the family was going through. “We have known, sir, nothing whatever about this awful story. We feel the disgrace keenly.” She said Maria had visited her father’s home just three weeks before. It was the first time they had seen each other since the early 1860s, when Maria had married Frederick T. Halpin. She had come to call because she had heard that her father was dying. “It is indeed strange that she never confided this matter to her family,” she added.

Hovenden had many questions concerning Maria’s life in Buffalo and the birth of Oscar Folsom Cleveland. The newsman from the Brooklyn Times told them everything he knew, and the Hovendens expressed their appreciation. It was better to know now than to read about it in cold type. Still, the information was “like knives piercing their hearts.” No matter what the set of circumstances, according to the code of conduct by which they all lived, Maria was in a state of ignominy and had brought shame on her family.

From college school girl to First Lady.

A woman defamed. The first photograph published of Maria Halpin.

Another unauthorized ad using the image of the First Lady, this time for a popular laxative.

Campaign poster from Cleveland’s re-election bid, with running mate Allen Thurman. Note the presence of First Lady Frances Folsom Cleveland in center. First Ladies were rarely seen during election campaigns. Cleveland lost.

Cancerous growth removed during a secret operation on President Cleveland in 1893, now preserved at the Mutter Museum, Philadelphia.

The other side of the specimen jar preserving President Cleveland’s cancercous growth.

Cleveland became the first and, so far, only president to get married in the White House. The ceremony was held in the intimate Blue Room. From a 19th century hand-colored woodcut.

First Lady Frances Folsom Cleveland, depicted in an ad for a bottle of medicine. The unauthorized use of her image infuriated the president.

Excerpts from Maria Halpin’s Oct. 28, 1884 affidavit denouncing Grover Cleveland. “The circumstances under which my ruin was accomplished are too revolting on the part of Grover Cleveland to be made public...”

Former First Lady Rose Cleveland, taken in Rome.

Frances Folsom Cleveland, at age 22 she became the youngest First Lady in American history.

Cleveland in 1886, the year she married Grover Cleveland and became First Lady.

Grover Cleveland on board the private yacht Oneida, site of his secret cancer operation during his second term as president.

Grover Cleveland as a young man.

Helen Fairchild Smith, the dean, or Lady Principal, at Wells College. It was said she took it as her mission to prepare Folsom Folsom for the White House.

Maria Halpin defends her honor in this excerpt from her affidavit, stating that her “life was as pure and spotless as that of any lady in the City of Buffalo—a fact which Grover Cleveland should be man enough and just enough to admit...”

Maria Halpin says she “has been induced to remain silent”

Maria’s brother-in-law, Simeon Talbott. He convinced Maria to give up Baby Oscar. Young woman on right is Maria’s daughter, Ada.

Maria Halpin’s son, Frederick. He met with a top Cleveland