Whipple, Evangeline Marrs Simpson (1857–1930)

At the turn of the twentieth century, Evangeline Whipple used her wealth to improve the lives of women, people of color, and the poor. She supported social justice for Native Americans in Minnesota, for African Americans in Florida, and for villagers and World War I refugees in Bagni di Lucca, Italy.

Evangeline Marrs was born in Wayland, Massachusetts. Her father was an Irish immigrant who worked as a machinist and farmer; her mother was a first-generation immigrant from England. Her first marriage, in 1882, was to Michael Simpson, a textile industrialist forty-eight years her senior. When Simpson died two years later, Evangeline became a wealthy widow at the age of twenty-seven.

Around 1889, Evangeline met Rose Elizabeth Cleveland (1846–1918), a sister of President Grover Cleveland. Since he had been unmarried, Rose had served for fifteen months as the First Lady of the United States during 1885 and 1886. The Minnesota Historical Society owns letters that document Evangeline’s long-term romantic and domestic partnership with Rose.

Evangeline and Rose traveled together throughout Europe, the Middle East, and the United States. They met Bishop Henry Whipple (1822–1901) and his wife, Cornelia, during a winter visit to Florida. Whipple was the first Episcopal bishop of Minnesota and worked as an advocate for Indigenous people, intervening in Minnesota and U.S. politics on their behalf. He spent time in Florida for health reasons and to escape northern winters.

Cornelia Whipple died in 1890, and six years later, Evangeline married Henry. Her vast financial resources and emotional care supported the elderly bishop during the last five years of his life, when Evangeline moved from Massachusetts to Minnesota and joined him in doing missionary and humanitarian work through the Episcopalian Church. She supported the church specifically and used her personal fortune to double the size of the Cathedral of Our Merciful Saviour in Faribault. Evangeline was also responsible for the construction of seven memorials after Bishop Whipple’s death in 1901, including a bell-tower addition to the cathedral.

Evangeline remained committed to the humanitarian work Bishop Whipple had promoted. During 1886–1910, in Minnesota, she fought for equal education for women and financed St. Mary’s School for Girls in Faribault. In addition to teaching local girls, the school’s staff boarded Native American children. They taught them English and educated them with a Euro-American worldview. While the education was well intended, the repercussions of the boarding school system Evangeline supported had deeply negative effects on Native communities through the twentieth century and today.

Evangeline supported Ojibwe and Dakota communities as well as their schools and churches. She received gifts from Native American friends, mainly women; by then, Minnesota was Evangeline’s home. She stayed in the state for nine years after the death of Bishop Whipple even though her fortune could have allowed her to live anywhere. She remained in Minnesota until her brother, Kingsmill Marrs, who was living in Italy, became ill. When Evangeline heard the news in 1910, she left the United States and never returned.

Evangeline traveled with Rose Cleveland to Florence in 1910 and settled together in Bagni di Lucca, Italy, in 1912. During the 1910s, she purchased three homes and offered her extra rooms to friends, including Nelly Erichsen, an English artist and writer.

In Bagni di Lucca, Evangeline used her Minnesota missionary experiences to create social service programs. She supported schools for Bagni di Lucca villagers, a hospital, a food pantry for the poor, and cottage industries for women to earn wages.

Evangeline, Rose, and Nelly were involved in World War I Red Cross efforts in Italy from 1914 through 1918. The Spanish influenza hit Bagni di Lucca hard, and Nelly caught the flu while working in Bagni di Lucca’s hospital. She died on November 15, 1918. Rose Cleveland was infected while nursing Nelly and died one week later.

Evangeline continued to live in Bagni di Lucca and serve the community after Rose’s death. The town’s mayor made Evangeline an honorary citizen in 1918 to thank her for her work. The community also named a major road after her—Via Evangelina Whipple. She published A Famous Corner of Tuscany, a history of Italy’s Lucca region, in 1928.

Evangeline died in London in 1930 at the age of seventy-three. She is buried next to Rose Cleveland in Bagni di Lucca’s English Cemetery.