Frances Glessner Lee is married

This month marks the 125^th anniversary of the marriage of Frances Glessner and Blewett Lee. The ceremony took place on February 9, 1898, in the parlor of her parents’ Prairie Avenue home. It was a small affair attended by family and close friends, but a great effort went into all the preparations. In this article, we will examine the event from beginning to end.

Frances Glessner returned from her fourteen month Grand Tour of Europe in July 1897 and immediately joined her family at The Rocks, their New Hampshire summer estate. Soon, she met Blewett Lee, a friend of her brother George. The relationship developed quickly and just three months later, on October 17, Blewett asked her parents for her hand in marriage. However, Frances had not yet had her formal introduction into Chicago society, so although her parents consented to the union, the announcement was withheld until after her debut took place in late November. (Click here to read an article about the debut). The engagement was announced to the extended family over the Christmas holiday. On the last day of the year, Frances’s mother wrote in her journal that she had spent much of the day writing letters to friends announcing the engagement. The letter read as follows:

“We have a very precious bit of news which we wish to share with you and Mr. ___. Our Frances is engaged and to be married early in February to Mr. Blewett Lee. We should rather have her a little older than she will be then, but Mr. Lee is so nearly everything in the world that is good and perfect that we cannot find it in our hearts to interfere with their complete happiness. Mr. Lee is a well established practicing lawyer and is also a professor of law in the Northwestern University, is a man of very unusual parts, character and education. He comes from old and distinguished families, the Lees and Harrisons of Virginia. He and Frances are heartily in love with each other and if we must lose our only daughter, he is the one man in the world to whom we are willing to give her. So, we ask you to congratulate the young people upon their happiness and us too because our daughter loves so good a man and one whom we cordially love and approve.”

The letter noted the bride’s young age – she was just 19 at the time; her husband-to-be was 30. Chicago newspapers announced the engagement on January 2, 1898, the Chicago Tribune noting this about Blewett:

“Mr. Blewett Lee, whose residence is at the Chicago Club, was educated at the Universities of Mississippi and of Virginia, studied at Leipsic and Freiburg, graduated from Harvard, and, besides his practice here, is professor of constitutional law and equity in Northwestern University, and has recently been asked to take similar positions at prominent Eastern colleges.”

The Inter Ocean provided a few additional facts including the fact that Blewett had been in Chicago for four years, and that following his graduation from Harvard in 1889, he “began his practical legal experience” with Justice Horace Gray of the U.S. Supreme Court. None of the articles provides any information about Frances Glessner herself. In mid-January, the date of Wednesday, February 9 was announced. By coincidence, it was the same date as the wedding of Elizabeth Henderson, daughter of the Glessners’ neighbors who lived three doors to the south at 1816 S. Prairie Avenue.

Over the next month, the journal is filled with entries relating to the wedding planning, including multiple visits to Madame Weeks at 1521 S. Michigan Avenue. She was Mrs. Glessner’s preferred dressmaker and made both the wedding dress and most of the trousseau, with items such as the lingerie coming from Schlesinger & Mayer’s.

Wedding corset, embroidered cotton coutil
(Collection of the Chicago History Museum)

As presents began to arrive, a third floor room was converted into an area to display the variety of costly gifts, and Mrs. Glessner notes many occasions where she took friends up to see the gifts and the trousseau. A notebook was purchased in which to record all the presents and from whom they were received, with sections for silver, china, glassware, embroideries, bed linens, household linens, and table linens. The image below shows a portion of the silver on display in the third floor room. The chest of silver flatware, with service for 18, was made by Gorham in the Antique pattern, and was a gift from the Glessners, as was the hammered silver tea and coffee service at left. The silver platters came from Frances’s favorite uncle, George Glessner, and the silver trays from her brother George. All the pieces have been donated to Glessner House by the family.

On Saturday, February 5, the 900-pound Steinway grand piano was moved up to the second floor. The cook, Mattie Williamson, baked the cakes, and they were taken to Charles Smiley, Chicago’s premiere African American caterer, for icing. Mrs. Glessner noted that the “little brides which were on our wedding cakes” were taken in for repair, and that some of the preserved orange flowers from her bouquet were to be put in with Frances’s fresh flowers.

The day before the wedding, men came in to lay white muslin on the floors, and the florist came to decorate the rooms. White lilies adorned the music cabinet, and the parlor mantel was filled with a bank of ferns and orchids. The northeast corner of the parlor, where the ceremony was to take place, was hung with wild smilax and white orchids, tied back on either side with small wreathes of lily of the valley. The stairway was decorated with palms and azaleas, and a group of these stood in the hall in front of the door to the courtyard. An immense bunch of American beauties stood on the sideboard.

Out of town guests began to arrive, and presents were sent all day. Rev. Philip H. Mowry, who had presided over the wedding ceremony of John and Frances Glessner in 1870, traveled from Chester, Pennsylvania to perform the ceremony for their daughter. More out-of-town family arrived on Wednesday, some staying with the Glessners’ neighbors, the O. R. Keiths, at 1808 S. Prairie Avenue.

Rev. Philip H. Mowry

The ceremony was scheduled for 5:00pm. Madame Weeks and two assistants arrived at 3:00pm to dress Frances. The wedding gown was made of white satin with a deep flounce of double rose Venetian point lace which Mrs. Glessner had acquired from Rome. Frances wore a tulle veil and carried a bouquet of lily of the valley (which was preserved, see image below). She wore a handkerchief and point lace in her sleeves that her mother had worn when she was married. She borrowed a pearl headed pin from her mother and wore a diamond necklace given to her by Blewett’s mother, whose fragile health prevented her traveling from Mississippi to attend.

The bridal party:

·        Helen Macbeth, maid of honor, was the bride’s aunt. She was Frances’s traveling companion during her Grand Tour of Europe in 1896-1897. Helen had served as the maid of honor when her sister Frances married John Glessner in 1870.

·        Alice Hamlin of Springfield, Ohio. Her engagement to George Glessner was announced later that evening.

·        Frances Ream of 1901 S. Prairie Avenue, a childhood friend. She went on to marry industrialist and coal mine operator John Kemmerer.

·        Marion Ream, Frances’s oldest sister. Her first husband was Redmond Stephens and together they owned what is now the Charnley-Persky House. Her second husband, Anastase Vonsiatsky, was a founder of the White Russian Fascist movement in the United States and was imprisoned for espionage during World War II.

·        George Glessner, the best man, was the brother of the bride.

·        Dwight Lawrence was Blewett Lee’s partner in the law firm of Lee & Lawrence, and a friend of George Glessner. Lawrence initiated the introduction between Blewett and the Glessners. He later became a leader in the National Roosevelt Committee when Theodore Roosevelt ran for president on the Progressive ticket in 1912.

·        Leverett Thompson was a banker and later served as mayor of Lake Forest.

Alice Hamlin, Marion Ream, Helen Macbeth, and Frances Ream

Madame Weeks received a pin in thanks, as did each of the servants. The bridesmaids received brooches of stones and pearls, and wore white organdy, with Valenciennes lace, pink sashes and bows, and carried pink carnations. Helen carried white roses. The men each received three pairs of sleeve buttons.

The bridal party formed in the hallway outside of the Glessners’ bedroom. Close friends formed a passage in the main hall for them to pass through, and then followed them into the parlor. Members of the Chicago Orchestra were seated on the main staircase on platforms that had been made especially for them by the Auditorium stage manager. Theodore Thomas selected and arranged the music but was unable to be present due to another commitment. They played the “Swedish Wedding March” by Söderman followed by “Call me thine own” from the opera L’éclair by Halévy. Of the ceremony, Mrs. Glessner wrote:

“Mr. Mowry stood with his back to the corner – and read the full Episcopal ceremony. The young people made their responses clearly and without hesitation. They were married with a ring. Helen removed the veil, Blewett kissed his bride. John, General Lee and I congratulated them, then George, then the grandparents, etc.”

At the conclusion of the ceremony, the orchestra played Mendelssohn’s “Wedding March.” After congratulations were offered all around, George stood by his mother, and Alice Hamlin by John Glessner, and their engagement was announced.

Signatures of the bride and groom, parents, and wedding party from the guestbook

The reception followed:

“Our tea table was set in the library. We put a fine damask cloth and then our old Maltese lace cloth. We had two pyramids of cake, white and black, one on each end. On top of these were the little brides used on our wedding cakes. We had a splendid basket of pink and white roses and ferns on the table. Then there were cakes the shape of a heart – candies with little white bow knots on top of them. We had frozen egg nog in the hall – tea and coffee in the alcove.”

(For cake recipes, see the "Cooking with Mattie" column posted February 1, 2023)

The reception was followed by dinner for 32 – the bridal party, family, Mr. and Mrs. Moore, Mr. and Mrs. Lawrence, and Governor and Mrs. Bushnell. The bridal party was seated in the dining room, the others were seated at three tables in the parlor.

The menu:
Oysters on the half shell, brown bread and butter, olives and celery
Chicken cream soup
Fish with cooked cucumbers and potatoes
Fillet of beef with brown sauce, with chestnuts, creamed mushrooms, celery, and jelly
Salad with sliced ham and hot crackers
Ice cream in the shape of four-leaf clovers
Cake, fruit, bon bons, coffee
Champagne throughout

John Glessner gave the toast to the bride:

“A toast for the bride – a good and loving daughter, a sweet and lovely bride who is to be a good and thoughtful and loving wife, whose joy is not in riches but in home making and the affection of husband and friends.

“To us old fogies these seem over young to marry yet and start out for themselves – but we old folks did it when we were young. The future is rose colored and rose scented for them as the looking forward was rosy for us and to us the color and the fragrance of the backward glance – the realization – is sweeter still.

“May it be so with these our dear children. Here pledge with me the health of the bride and the peace and comfort and joy of this new household.”

(The toast was later written out by Isaac Scott, and framed, as seen below)

The guests left at 9:00pm. Frances went to her room to change into her traveling costume – blue serge skirt, blue green and yellow plaid silk waist (swatch shown below), blue serge Eton coat, black velvet hat with scarlet roses, and a sealskin cape. Mrs. Glessner recorded how the evening drew to a close:

“Then we five sat down in our bedroom until time to go to the station. Then they – the two – went out alone together never to enter the home in the same way again.”

Waist fabric from book containing swatches of Frances's wedding dress and trousseau

The Elite News published an extensive account of the wedding, also noting the pedigree of the couple, a complicated issue given the role Blewett’s father played in the Civil War:

“Miss Glessner, through Madame Anna Bayard, who came to this country with her brother, old Peter Stuyvesant, the first Dutch governor of New York, and settled on Bohemia Manor, partly in New York and partly in New Jersey, traces her lineage to the family of the Chevalier Bayard, the knight sans peur et sans reproche, and Mr. Lee, through both the Lees and the Harrisons, goes back to Colonial Virginia and old established English families.

“Mr. Lee’s father, Lieut.-General S. D. Lee, was the Confederate officer detailed to demand the surrender of Fort Sumter at the breaking out of the war, and his grandfather, Hon. James T. Harrison, was selected by the whole of the Southern bar at the close of the war to defend Jefferson Davis if action should be brought by the Federal government against him for treason. Happily, this was not necessary, and both sides of Mr. Lee’s family accept the logical results of the war and are true and loyal citizens of our united country.”

Frances Glessner notes in her journal that on Saturday she felt her “first severe reaction” and could hardly get through the day. Serious illness was fast approaching, and on February 20 she underwent surgery in the corner guestroom and was confined to her bed for several weeks. Frances and Blewett Lee returned to Chicago on February 29 after spending their honeymoon in the South, and took rooms at the Hotel Metropole, located at 2300 S. Michigan Avenue.

The Lees held their first post-nuptial reception on April 12 at the Glessners’ home. On the same day and at the same hour, the former Elizabeth Henderson and her new husband, William H. Merrill, held their first reception at her parents’ home three doors away. This was no doubt carefully arranged, as the two families would have shared many of the same friends, making it convenient for them to visit both receptions at one time. John Glessner noted that 252 people attended their reception, but that his wife was not well enough yet to come down from her bedroom.

In early May, the young couple set up housekeeping in a first floor apartment at 120 E. 21^st Street, just a few blocks from the Glessners. On December 5, 1898, their son John Glessner Lee was born. It had been a whirlwind eighteen months since Frances Glessner returned from her Grand Tour.