Frances Cleveland was the wife of the President of the United States Grover Cleveland and the 22nd and 24th First Lady of the United States from 1886 to 1889 and again from 1893 to 1897. Becoming First Lady at age 21, she remains the youngest First Lady in history.
Background
Frances Clara Folsom was born in Buffalo, New York, the daughter of Oscar Folsom, a lawyer and descendant of the earliest settlers of Exeter, New Hampshire, and Emma Harmon.
All of Frances Cleveland's ancestors were from England and settled in what would become Massachusetts, Rhode Island and New Hampshire, eventually migrating to western New York. She was their only child to survive infancy (a sister, Nellie Augusta, died before her first birthday). She originally had the first name Frank (named for an uncle), but later decided to adopt the feminine variant Frances.
A longtime close friend of Oscar Folsom, Grover Cleveland, at age 27, met his future wife shortly after she was born. He took an avuncular interest in the child, buying her a baby carriage and otherwise doting on her as she grew up. When her father, Oscar Folsom, died in a carriage accident on July 23, 1875, without having written a will, the court appointed Cleveland administrator of his estate. This brought Cleveland into still more contact with Frances, then age 11.
Education
Frances Folsom attended Central High School in Buffalo, and Medina High School in Medina, New York
After graduating for a high school, Frances attended Wells College in Aurora, New York.
Career
Vivacious and attractive, Frances Cleveland was a popular first lady. She was soon more popular than her husband. A flock of journalists followed the Clevelands, as much to report on events involving the first lady as to provide information on her husband’s administration- There were rumors that the Clevelands were having marital difficulties during the presidential campaign of 1888, but the first lady emphatically denied such reports.
Cleveland lost the 1888 election, and as the couple was leaving the White House shortly before the inauguration of his successor, Benjamin Harrison, Frances told a caretaker: “I want you to take good care of all the furniture,” and she added, “I want to find everything just as it is now when we come back again.” The Clevelands were indeed back in the White House following the presidential election of 1892.
After the presidents defeat in 1888, the Clevelands lived in New York City, where their first child, Ruth, was born. Frances, meanwhile, had remained so popular that she was often pictured with candidate Cleveland on his campaign posters for the 1892 election.
In her role as first lady, Frances Cleveland held two receptions each week. She made sure that one of them was open to the public and held on Saturday afternoon, when Women with jobs were free to attend. At one reception, she personally greeted over eight thousand guests.
Much of her time during the president s second term was spent caring for the couple s children, two of whom were born while the Clevelands were in the White House. Esther was born in 1893, and Marion in 1895. A son, Richard, was born shortly after the Clevelands left the White House in 1897. Their youngest child, Francis Grover, was born in 1903 in Princeton, New Jersey, where the couple had retired.
The Clevelands often entertained the faculty members and students of Princeton University. They became friends with Woodrow Wilson, president of Princeton at the time, who would be elected president of the United States in 1912. Cleveland’s health began failing soon afterward, and he died in 1908 at the age of seventy-two. Frances became widow at the age of forty-four.
Frances continued to live in Princeton and was involved in fundraising activities for several schools, including her alma mater, Wells College.