Grovie and Her Rich Uncle

 Grovie and Her Rich Uncle

52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks Challenge: Story No. 2 -

     Here’s the most notable time Grovie Barbour made the news: after weeks, months, perhaps years of caring for her wealthy uncle Matthew Laflin, he died in 1897 leaving $58 million dollars. He divided it almost in half, leaving an equal portion to each of his sons, but he gave a small amount to four of his nieces and nephews, one of whom was Grovie. 

Who Was Uncle Matthew?

Sketch of Matthew Laflin, Chicago Magnate

     Matthew Laflin came from a prominent family in Southwick, Massachusetts. His family owned a gunpowder factory, and at age 16 Matt went to work for his father as a traveling salesman.  He drummed up so much business that he amassed a small fortune and went into gunpowder manufacture on his own with a brother-in-law as partner. He married Henrietta Hinman, sister of Grovie’s mother Harriet, and moved to Chicago where he saw opportunity. With his gunpowder money, he was able to invest in real estate. He bought 140 acres of land inside the city limits for $300 and ended up making millions on them. After 1849 he devoted himself entirely to real estate and development interests. In 1867 he refinanced the failing Elgin Watch Company and became one of its largest stockholders. It flourished, and a member of his family served on its board for 70 years.

     He helped build the Chicago stockyards, established the first water works system in Chicago, and developed the town of Waukesha, Wisconsin into a resort town which came to be called “The Saratoga of the West.” In 1874 he built the Fountain Spring House there, which for decades was the premier Midwestern resort and the place to “see and be seen.” He also founded the Chicago Board of Trade.

     Matt also gave money (about $2.5 million in today’s value) for the Chicago Academy of Sciences to build its first building, a four-story structure in Lincoln Park. It housed the city’s first museum open to the public. The building was known as the Matthew Laflin Memorial and was used by the academy until 1995. It is still in use today housing the administrative offices of the Lincoln Park Zoo. 

The Matthew Laflin Memorial Building

Who Was Grovie?

     Grovie was a 50-year old spinster when Uncle Matt died. It is a disadvantage to never marry. This was much more the case in the nineteenth century, when a single woman – a “spinster,” an “old maid” – was typically financially dependent on her family. It was that or a struggle to support herself with the few options open to woman - eking out a living sewing, running a boarding house, or perhaps serving as a “companion” to a wealthy invalid. 

     Grovene Porter Barbour never married and found herself in the latter position, caring for her 94-year old Uncle Matt in his last days. 

     “Grovie” was named for her maternal uncle Grove Porter Hinman. He pioneered the name “Grovene,” as a middle name to two of his daughters, Mary Grovene and Lucy Grovene Hinman. Grovie was the daughter of his younger sister, Harriet Hinman, and Edwin Case Barbour. 

     Grove and Harriet's older sister Henrietta was the one who married Matthew Laflin. She died 15 years before Grovie was ever born, but evidently a relationship was established between the millionaire and his niece. Grovie was born and raised in Madison, Indiana, a once-important transportation hub in the 1820s and ‘30s that was past its heyday by the time she was an adult. 

     In 1865 when she was 18, Grovie’s mother Harriet died. Her father remarried two years later. On the 1870 census, Grovie and her 18-year old brother Eddy were the last two children living at home. In 1880, Grovie’s father and stepmother lived alone in Madison, and I haven’t been able to find Grovie or Eddy on the 1880 census. Eddy was already in Illinois by then as shown by his 1878 marriage in Carlinville, Illinois. Their older brother George Ransom Barbour was enumerated in Monmouth, Illinois on the 1870 census. Matthew Laflin’s will was written in 1887. He had many nieces and nephews and only left something for four of them in this will. He did not include Grovie’s brothers. So did Grovie move to Illinois with her brothers after 1870, perhaps taken into Uncle Matt’s house? Obviously, at some point she became important to him. 

Caring for Uncle Matt

     In a lengthy article about the “venerable pioneer’s" death, the following was written: “His niece, Miss Grovene Barbara [sic], in constant attendance upon him, was hopeful as late as four o’clock that the patient would live into the night.” Yet just after four, seated in a comfortable recliner, he began to cough and struggle to breathe. It may have been the death rattle. He died at 4:25 p.m. with Grovie at his side, as well as his two sons, Lycurgus and George.

     The article noted that, “As late as last Monday morning he accompanied his niece on a drive through the boulevards.” He also stayed at his resort, Fountain Springs House, at least as late as 1895. Grovie was probably with him. 

Fountain Springs House

People came from Memphis, from New Orleans, from Shreveport, Galveston, and from Chicago, St. Louis, Davenport and points in between  to spend a week, two weeks, or the season at the resort that Matt Laflin built. Open only June to September, it was where the rich and famous stayed, where in 1885 Vice President Thomas Hendricks (who served with President Grover Cleveland) attended a reception and ball. It was often described as magnificent, and its accommodations for 800 were nearly always full.

     Staying at the Fountain Spring House was like being on a cruise ship today. There was the elaborate decor, the inclusive packages, the nearly non-stop entertainment and excursions. The building was a four-story stone and brick edifice with an elevator, located on three acres, surrounded by 155 acres of lawn and shaded walks. There were three dining rooms, the largest seating 500. When Grovie walked into the main dining room she saw three domes in its ceiling, the central one 13 feet high, each hung with huge, elaborate chandeliers. The ceilings were painted a light sky blue, the walls a yellow-olive. One of the dining rooms was for children and servants, so one could eat undisturbed. 

     Wednesday and Saturday nights there were full dress balls. There were morning musicales, Saturday night concerts, and a Sunday orchestra. A brief newspaper item noted that Grovie especially enjoyed attending music performances; after all, she came from a generation in which the only way she could hear music was live. There were fishing trips, boat rides, hayrides, beach excursions at the lakes and “trolley parties” in which an electric trolley took guests to Milwaukee to see theatricals. There was a billiard room and a bowling alley. Starting in the 1890s, there were golfing and tennis contests. There were also card parties, fireworks displays and donkey parties. (Donkey parties were a huge fad. What we now call "pin the tail on the donkey" was played -- by adults.) Of course there were the healing springs themselves, the reason for the resort’s location in Waukesha.

     The newspapers ran sections with titles like “Watering Place Notes,” and “At the Summer Resorts.” Here they reported tidbits of news at the most popular spots, along with lists of who arrived to stay. Grovie arrived at the Fountain Spring House resort on July 11, 1897, two months after Uncle Matt died. She may have stayed long enough to rendezvous with a friend, Emma Paulding Scott, who was society editor of the Chicago Evening Post.

The Inheritance and Grovie’s Later Years

     Considering all the money Uncle Matthew had, he didn’t leave Grovie with very much. He gave her $1,000, the equivalent of a modest year’s salary of about $32,000. It would be nice to know that he left her set for life, but this was not the case. How did Grovie support herself? 

     On the 1900 census, Grovie lived in a fashionable residential hotel on Lake Avenue in Chicago. Residential hotels are a forgotten phenomenon today, but in the late 1880s up until about 1930, people lived for years in these hotels. They provided a way for people of relatively modest means to live in luxurious surroundings in a neighborhood they could not otherwise afford to live in. The hotels provided the trappings of wealth. There were the elegantly decorated shared public spaces such as lobbies, ladies' parlors and dining rooms; the latest technology, such as telephones, electricity and central heating, and staff such as doormen and maids -- the latter for an additional fee. The apartments were furnished, making it easy for a single person or couple coming to the "big city." Grovie's niece, Margaret “Madge” Barbour, and her nephew Frederick Brooks lived at the same hotel. Madge was a stenographer and Fred was an attorney living with his wife and daughter Martha Grovene, who went by Grovene.

In 1910, Grovie lived with Fred and his family in Washington Park. Grovene married at 16 in 1913; Fred died in 1915. Grovie lived till 1922. But I cannot find any mention of her after 1919, when she helped host a reception for her nephew Septimus Barbour, a music teacher in Streator, Illinois and the son of her brother Eddy. She died in Evanston, Illinois, where the young Grovene lived, and her body was taken back to Madison for burial in the family plot. Her niece Madge accompanied her body. 

Grovene Porter “Grovie” Barbour (1847-1922) –  Beloved Aunt, Daughter of Edwin Case Barbour, granddaughter of “Deacon” John Barbour III 

Where She Connects In My Tree:  My 3rd-great grandfather, Myron Fitch Barbour, and her father Edwin were first cousins. (John Barbour III and Myron’s mother, Elizabeth “Betsey” Barber, are siblings.)

Sources:

      Krueger, Lillian. “Waukesha - The Saratoga of the West,” Wisconsin Magazine of History, Vol. 24 No. 4, (June 1941), pp. 394-424.

     “Who Is Matthew Laflin?” Chicago Academy of Sciences Nature Museum, 24 Nov 2014, https://naturemuseum.org/2014/11/who-is-matthew-laflin/

     "From Residential Hotel Living to SROs, and B&Bs," Lakeview Historical Chronicles, 20 May 2011, https://www.lakeviewhistoricalchronicles.org/2011/05/hotels-to-b.html

“Fountain Spring House Menu,” 10 Aug 1888, Wisconsin Historical Society Menu Collection, ontent.wisconsinhistory.org/digital/collection/p15932coll12/id/656/

     “At Waukesha - Last Evening’s Reaction to Vice President Hendricks and Wife a Brilliant Affair,” The Inter Ocean, 21 Aug 1885, p. 1.

          “Science’s New Home - Opening of the Matthew Laflin Memorial, Lincoln Park,” The Inter Ocean, 1 Nov 1894, p. 7.

     Grovie’s Visit with Friend: Chicago Tribune,  6 Oct 1895, p. 30.

     “Put His Faith in Chicago - Matthew Laflin Early Convinced of Its Coming Greatness,” The Chicago Chronicle, 27 Sept 1896, p. 37. 

     “Matthew Laflin Is Dead - Close of a Life Replete With Honor and Good Works,” Chicago Chronicle, 21 May 1897, p. 1. 

     “Matthew Laflin’s Will in Court,” Chicago Tribune, 2 June 1897, p. 2.

     Grovie Arrives at Fountain House: Chicago Tribune, 11 July 1897, p. 32. 

     “Oriental Music is Presented - S.E. Barbour Gives Remarkable Program at Studios,” The Times (Streator, Illinois), 4 April 1919, p. 7. 

Copyright Andrea Auclair © 2023