First Lady of the United States from 1913 to 1914
"Axson" redirects here. For the unincorporated community in the US state of Georgia, see
Axson, Georgia
.
Ellen Axson Wilson
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Ellen Axson Wilson, photographed in 1910
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In role
March 4, 1913 ? August 6, 1914
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President
| Woodrow Wilson
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Preceded by
| Helen Taft
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Succeeded by
| Margaret Wilson
(acting)
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In role
January 17, 1911 ? March 1, 1913
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Governor
| Woodrow Wilson
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Preceded by
| Charlotte Fort
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Succeeded by
| Mabel Fielder
(acting)
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Born
| Ellen Louise Axson
(
1860-05-15
)
May 15, 1860
Savannah, Georgia
, U.S.
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Died
| August 6, 1914
(1914-08-06)
(aged 54)
Washington, D.C.
, U.S.
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Cause of death
| Bright's Disease
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Resting place
| Myrtle Hill Cemetery
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Spouse
|
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Children
| Margaret
,
Jessie
, and
Eleanor
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Signature
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Ellen Louise Axson Wilson
(May 15, 1860 – August 6, 1914)
[1]
was the
first lady of the United States
from 1913 until her death in 1914, as the first wife of President
Woodrow Wilson
. Like her husband, she was a Southerner, as well as the daughter of a clergyman. She was born in
Savannah, Georgia
, but raised in
Rome, Georgia
. Having an artistic bent, she studied at the
Art Students League of New York
before her marriage, and continued to produce art in later life.
During her tenure as First Lady, she arranged White House weddings for two of their daughters. She was the third First Lady and the most recent to die during her tenancy.
Biography
[
edit
]
Ellen Louise Axson, born in
Savannah, Georgia
,
[1]
was the daughter of the Reverend Samuel Edward Axson, a
Presbyterian minister
, and his wife Margaret Jane (nee Hoyt) Axson. Ellen became a woman of refined tastes with a fondness for art, music, and literature. When she was eleven years old, she began studying art at Rome Female College in
Rome, Georgia
. After her graduation in 1876, Ellen's drawing titled
School Scene
was submitted to the
Paris International Exposition
.
[2]
where it won a bronze medal for excellence.
[1]
In April 1883, she met Woodrow Wilson when he was visiting his cousin Jesse Woodrow Wilson in
Rome, Georgia
, on family business. At that time, she was keeping house for her widowed father. Woodrow Wilson thought of Ellen, "What splendid laughing eyes!"
[3]
They were engaged 5 months later, but postponed the wedding while he did postgraduate work at
Johns Hopkins University
and she nursed her ailing father. Ellen's father committed suicide while hospitalized for depression, after which she went North to study at the
Art Students League of New York
.
[
citation needed
]
Wilson, who was 28 years of age, married Ellen, age 25, on June 24, 1885, at her paternal grandparents' home in Savannah, Georgia. The wedding was performed jointly by his father, the Reverend
Joseph R. Wilson
, and her grandfather, the Reverend Isaac Stockton Keith Axson. They honeymooned at
Waynesville
, a mountain resort in western North Carolina.
[
citation needed
]
That same year,
Bryn Mawr College
in Pennsylvania offered Dr. Wilson a teaching position at an annual salary of $1,500. He and his bride lived near the campus, keeping her little brother with them.
[
citation needed
]
Together, the Wilsons had three daughters:
Insisting that her children must not be born as
Yankees
, Ellen went to stay with relatives in Gainesville, Georgia for Margaret's birth in 1886 and Jessie's in 1887. But Eleanor was born in
Connecticut
in 1889, while Wilson was teaching at
Wesleyan University
.
[
citation needed
]
Wilson's career at
Princeton University
began in 1890, bringing Ellen new social responsibilities. She took refuge from such demands in her art. As First Lady, she drew sketches and painted in a studio set up on the third floor of the White House. She donated much of her work to charity. She arranged the White House weddings of two of her daughters.
[
citation needed
]
After Wilson was elected as president in 1912, the Wilsons preferred to begin the administration without an inaugural ball. The First Lady's entertainments were simple, but her unaffected cordiality made her parties successful. In their first year, she convinced her scrupulous husband that it would be perfectly proper to invite influential legislators to a private dinner.
[
citation needed
]
Wilson had grown up in a slave-owning family. As First Lady, she devoted much effort to the cause of improving housing in the national capital's largely black slums. She visited dilapidated alleys and brought them to the attention of debutantes and Congressmen.
[
citation needed
]
She died of
Bright's disease
at the
White House
on August 6, 1914.
[1]
She was buried in
Rome, Georgia
among her family at
Myrtle Hill Cemetery
.
In December 1915, President Woodrow Wilson remarried, to
Edith Bolling Galt
.
[4]
See also
[
edit
]
References
[
edit
]
Further reading
[
edit
]
- Burns, Lisa M. (2004). "Ellen Axson Wilson: A rhetorical reassessment of a forgotten first lady".
Inventing a Voice: The rhetoric of American first ladies of the Twentieth century
. pp. 79?102.
- Miller, Kristie (2010).
Ellen and Edith: Woodrow Wilson's First Ladies
. Lawrence, KS: University Press of Kansas.
- Saunders, Frances Wright (1985).
Ellen Axson Wilson: First Lady Between Two Worlds
. University of North Carolina Press. p. 359.
- Weinstein, Edwin A. (2014). "CHAPTER XV. An Untimely Blow: The Death of Ellen Axson Wilson".
Woodrow Wilson
. Princeton University Press. pp. 245?264.
- Wilson, Woodrow
; Wilson, Ellen Axson (1962).
The Priceless Gift: The Love Letters of Woodrow Wilson and Ellen Axson Wilson
. McGraw-Hill.
External links
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