With this week’s writing prompt, there were a myriad of cousins I could write about. Famous, well-known, historical, and those that lived simple lives. I was going to write about First Lady Ellen Louise Axson Wilson, the wife of the 28th President of the United States Woodrow Wilson. I knew very little about her. When researching her, I realized that she died 18 months into her role as First Lady, and her eldest daughter Margaret Woodrow Wilson took over the role as acting White House social hostess. After reading more about Margaret, I decided she was quite an interesting person, not as well-known as her parents, and would make for a good subject to write about this week.

First Lady Ellen Wilson considered herself a proud Southerner. So much so that she did not want her daughters born as Yankees! So, she returned to Georgia to give birth to her first two children. Ironically, her maternal grandparents, Rev. Nathan H Hoyt, Jr. and Margaret Bliss, were Yankees! He was born in New Hampshire, and she was born in Connecticut. It is through her grandmother Margaret Bliss that the lines of our cousin kinship are found. We share Colonial Massachusetts ancestors John Leonard and Sarah Heath.

John Leonard was born in England, he emigrated to British Colonial Massachusetts and settled in Springfield. His parentage is unproven. Preliminary Y-DNA analysis of descendants indicate he may have been related to James Leonard of Taunton and Samuel Leonard of New Jersey, but more research needs to be done.

He married Sarah Heath in Springfield on 12 October 1640. Her last name may have been Heald or Healy but is found as Heath in her marriage record. Although recently others looking at the actual marriage record and transcription believe it reads Heald. She was born in England. Her parentage is unproven. She was not the daughter of John Heald and Dorothy Royle, as some contend. (2)

Donald Lines Jacobus speculated that she may have been brought by a relative or had been an indentured servant. He notes that Gershom Hale or Heald, son of John Heald of Concord settled in Springfield a generation later, and it’s possible she was his sister. (1)

John and Sarah had 15 children before his untimely death. He was killed by Indians early in 1676. After his death, Sarah married twice more, on 21 February 1677 to Deacon Benjamin Parsons, who died at Springfield, 24 Aug. 1689, and thirdly at Springfield on 3 November 1690 to Deacon Peter Tilton, who died at Hadley, Massachusetts on 11 July 1696. She outlived all of her husbands and died 23 November 1711 in Springfield.

First Lady Ellen Axson Wilson’s direct line is via daughter Martha Leonard who married Samuel Bliss. My direct line is via son Josiah Leonard who married Sarah Dumbleton. After the death of Josiah Leonard, his wife married Thomas Root. Thomas Root is also my direct ancestor with his wife Mary Spencer.

First Lady Ellen Louise Axson Wilson and my great-grandfather Joseph Edward Cole were 6th cousins.

The above photo is of Margaret Woodrow Wilson with her two sisters. She was the first child of President Woodrow Wilson and his first wife, Ellen Louise Axson. She was born on April 16, 1886, in Gainesville, Georgia. The “Woodrow” in her name is from her paternal grandmother’s surname and her father’s middle name. Both of her grandfathers were Presbyterian ministers. (3) She had two younger sisters, Jessie Woodrow Wilson and Sayre Eleanor Randolph Wilson McAdoo.

At the time of her birth her father was teaching at Bryn Mawr College, a women’s liberal arts college in Pennsylvania. After attending local schools, she opted to study at Goucher College in Baltimore. She trained in piano and voice at the Peabody Institute of Music. She recorded multiple songs, one of them titled “My Laddie” that was released by Columbia Records. There is a photo further down of the Irish harp she played, which is now in the post-Presidency home of President Woodrow Wilson.

Her father was elected as the 28th President of the United States and came into office on 4 March 1913. Her mother Ellen was a supportive wife and an excellent hostess. Though Wilson’s administration was the first not to hold an inaugural ball when he was elected president in 1912, Ellen’s cordiality made future White House parties successful. She also oversaw the weddings of two of their daughters. She continued doing art while living in the White House and even had a studio set up on the third floor. She donated many of her paintings to charity. As First Lady, Ellen Wilson worked tirelessly to improve housing in Washington’s poverty-ridden and largely black slums. (4)

She suffered from Bright’s Disease, a kidney ailment that left her increasing frail. She died at age 54 on 6 August 1914, just two years into Wilson’s first term as president. Her husband was devastated by her death. With his wife’s death and the stress that came with being president, Wilson was left feeling lonely and downhearted. (4) This is when their eldest daughter Margaret stepped in as acting First Lady.

Margaret was quite free-spirited and only a 28-year-old when her mother died. She held the post of acting First Lady for only a matter of months. She did not enjoy the social demands of the position and preferred her soprano singing studies to the role of White House social hostess.

A year after the death of President Wilson’s wife, he met Edith Bolling Galt in the elevator at the White House. They got married at Edith’s Washington townhouse nine months later. (4) When they became engaged in 1915, Margaret eagerly stepped aside and allowed Edith to take over the First Lady duties.

Margaret decided to instead embark on a career as a soprano singer, even traveling to Europe to perform for Allied troops serving in World War I. Below you can listen to Margaret singing The Star-Spangled Banner in 1915 to raise funds for the Red Cross.

Margaret and her two sisters made their support for women’s suffrage known both before and during their father’s term in office. Margaret seemed to express disagreement with her father on issues of race as well; while he institutionalized segregation of the federal workforce, Margaret, an education advocate, made a point of publicly visiting and calling attention to the poor conditions for African American students in the nation’s segregated capital. All three of Wilson’s daughters were reputed to have lobbied him on the issue of women’s suffrage. His racist policies, and his decision to enter the First World War, were protested by suffragists and others. (4) 

The many other efforts of the Suffragists finally bore fruit in 1918, when President Wilson voiced support for a constitutional amendment allowing women to vote. The President indicated that the Senate should vote in favor of passage of the amendment, which was ultimately key to its success. (6)

After leaving the White House, Margaret moved to Greenwich Village, New York, a place she had frequented in earlier years. Her father died in February 1924, when she was only 37 years old. In his will, he left her an annual allowance of $2500 (which is worth $39,529 today) as long as she remained unmarried, and it didn’t exceed one-third of the estate’s income. She seemed to enjoy her Bohemian lifestyle, but also the stipulations of her father’s will did not lend itself to her leaving her spinsterhood.

Margaret later worked in advertising and lobbied for various social causes, but in the 1930s during a visit to the New York Public Library, she encountered a book on Eastern mysticism, and soon became deeply enthralled. In 1938 she traveled to the ashram of Sri Aurobindo in Pondicherry, India, where she remained for the rest of her life. As a member of the ashram, she was given the new name ‘Nistha’, meaning “dedication” in Sanskrit, for her devotion to its teachings. She and scholar Jospeh Campbell edited the English translation of the work on the classical Hindu mystic Sri Ramakrishna, The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna by Swmai Nikhilananda, published in 1942. In spite of entreaties from the U.S. government, Wilson refused to leave India during WWII; she died and was buried in Pondicherry in 1944. (6)

Margaret Woodrow Wilson was a First Daughter, an acting First Lady, an accomplished soprano singer and musician, a suffragette, and a Greenwich Village socialite. But she is perhaps best known for her fascination with Eastern philosophy and Hinduism and her becoming a Hindu nun in the last years of her life.

References:

1. Jacobus, Donald Lines. Hale, House, and Related Families, Mainly of the Connecticut River Valley (Connecticut Historical Society, Hartford, 1952); Pages 678-9.
2. A Record of the Descendants of Simon Henry & Rhoda Parsons” by Frederick Augustus Henry page 52a pub 1905 Cleveland, Ohio J. B. Savage Press.
3. Woodrow Wilson Children at totallyhistory.com.
4. Woodrow Wilson’s Wives at totallyhistory.com
5. Not Every First Lady Has Been Married to the President. The role of the United States’ first lady traditionally goes to the president’s spouse, but in instances it falls to others. history.com
6. Margaret Woodrow Wilson: First Lady, Suffragist, and Village Socialite. POSTED NOVEMBER 3, 2020, BY ARIEL KATES.

Further Reading:

To learn more about US President Woodrow Wilson:

1. Woodrow Wilson. THE 28TH PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES. whitehouse.gov
2. Woodrow Wilson Biographical. nobelprize.org

To learn more about First Lady Ellen Louise Axson Wilson:

1. Ellen Axson Wilson. HOME ABOUT THE WHITE HOUSE FIRST FAMILIES. whitehouse.gov
2. Ellen Wilson, American first lady. britannica.com

To learn more about Margaret Woodrow Wilson:

1. Presidents’ Children: Woodrow Wilson’s Daughters. potus-geeks.livejournal.com
2. Margaret Woodrow Wilson- letters from the Ashram. Extracts of Margaret Woodrow Wilson’s letters to her friend Lois – written from the Sri Aurobindo Ashram, Pondicherry. Posted on December 10, 2011 by sriaurobindocenterla. sriaurobindocenterla.wordpress.com

To learn more about Sri Aurobindo:

1. Sri Aurobindo en.wikipedia.org
2. Sri Aurobindo Ashram today. sriaurobindoashram.org
3. Sri Aurobindo’s Teaching and Spiritual Method. A Radical Approach to Evolution. auroville.org

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