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Description
Five page letters from Mary Collings dated February 23rd 1889 living in Washington D.C. Mrs. Collings gives in person account of meeting and describing outgoing President Grover Cleveland among other related topics. Mrs. Collings was a socialite and heavily involved in politics.
The 1888 United States presidential election was the 26th quadrennial presidential election, held on Tuesday, November 6, 1888. Republican nominee Benjamin Harrison, a former Senator from Indiana, defeated incumbent Democratic President Grover Cleveland of New York. It was the third of five U.S. presidential elections (and second within 12 years) in which the winner did not win a plurality of the national popular vote.
Some of the highlights from this letter:
*I believe I wrote to Sam that I attended President Cleveland last reception. His face does not indicate strong intellect ,but he seems anxious to please and certainly on occasion looked “Mighty Pretty” as Kentuckians would say.
*His wife was dressed in pure white with a diamond necklace and carried a feathered fan. It was a trying thing for Miss Bayard to stand beside so much youth and loveliness, Miss B being plain ,scrawny and oldish.
*I was present today at the memorial service for the late Congressman J.N.Burns of Missouri. His desk was draped in black and there were beautiful flowers on it.
*I don’t know whether to undertake going up the monument of not. ”It is said to be a strain on one’s nerves to take the elevator to the top.
*I visited the panorama of the Battle of Shiloh…”
This letter came from an archive associated with the Collings/Kirker family of Adams Co., Ohio, including: Archive of materials from the Kirker-Collings-Gibson family of Adams Co., Ohio, from just before statehood to the end of the 20th century. Two of the progenitors of this clan are James R. Gibson and his wife, Martha King Gibson.
The Gibsons had at least three children, J. King Gibson, Mary King Gibson and Alice Gibson. Mary married C.E. (Charles Evans) Kirker and they had George Gibson Kirker and Alice Kirker Charles. Alice Gibson married Henry Collings. Their offspring included Henry Davis Collings, George Gibson Collings (1888-1890) and Mary King Collings. George Collings (brother?) (1800-1862) married Jane Collings. Their offspring included George E. Collings (1839-1882), who married Harriet A. Collings. Their son was Ralph Collings. This archive appears to have been accumulated and come through Mary King Collings, who, it appears never married.
Please take a moment to examine my other items from this archive currently listed in my shop. ~Thank you.
ref: Collings/Kirker/Gibson archive ephemera box
