Little Known First Ladies: Ellen Wilson Quiz

Answer: Georgia

Ellen was born in Savannah, Georgia in 1860. Her southern genteel manner was noted by everyone she met and she never really lost it even after decades up north. Growing up, she had the typical Southern charm and interests. She was well-educated and loved the arts and music. She is the most recent First Lady whose family owned slaves during her lifetime.

Answer: Took care of her father

Ellen's mother Margaret died in childbirth and Ellen spent much of her time taking care of her ailing father in his widowerhood. Her father Samuel was a minister and former Confederate soldier who suffered from mental illness later in his life. He required frequent care until he committed suicide brought on by depression in 1884 while institutionalized. Ellen and Woodrow met in Rome, Georgia where Ellen lived. Woodrow was in town visiting his cousin when the two met and fell instantly in love.

The future president stated he was taken in by Ellen's eyes.

Answer: Not wearing an engagement ring

During the engagement, Ellen rarely wore her engagement when out in public. Because the future president was in New York teaching, Ellen spent a lot of time alone in Manhattan. She frequented the theater and restaurants without a man accompanying, something highly unusual. For fun, Ellen was also known to flirt with other men and lead them on romantically.

Another untraditional thing Ellen did was study non-Christian religions. Although she was raised strict Presbyterian, Ellen took an interest in learning about other religions. Decades later, this would be a similar path followed by her oldest daughter Margaret who became a Hindu nun.

Answer: Born in the South

Ellen always maintained her Southern roots and she refused to let her children be born Yankees in the North. The Wilsons' first two daughters Margaret and Jessie were born in Gainesville, Georgia where Ellen had family. However their youngest child Eleanor was born in Connecticut because Woodrow was teaching their at the time and Ellen was unable to travel to the South alone.

Answer: She felt African-Americans were inferior to whites but evolved to think otherwise.

Ellen was from a Southern family. She was the last First Lady whose family owned slaves during her lifetime. Historians generally agree that Ellen was probably not "racist" in the way we think of it today. But she did believe that African-Americans were inferior.

This was largely from the way she was raised, being only a small child when the Civil War ended. Her father often told her stories about how things were better for their family before the war and how the abolition of slavery ruined things for both whites and blacks.

However, Ellen was very active in charities and organizations seeking a better life and living conditions for formerly freed slaves and their families. Ellen's turnabout was influenced by many of the Northern college professors she had befriended while Woodrow was teaching at universities. Both before and during her time as First Lady, Ellen also hosted many prominent African-American activists including Booker T. Washington.

Answer: President Cleveland and his wife Frances

After leaving the White House after his second term, Grover Cleveland and his wife Frances settled in Princeton, New Jersey. Woodrow was teaching there (and would later become its president) and relocated his family to the town. Ellen befriended the former president and first lady.

It was during this time that Ellen and Woodrow took an interest in politics after they discovered their views were aligned with the Democratic Party. The couples' friendship was further strengthened because they both had young daughters about the same age.

Answer: It would ruin his political career

Woodrow was known as something of a lady's man and Ellen was well aware of this. Because his career in education often required him to travel, Woodrow was separated from Ellen for short periods of time. It is not known for sure if Woodrow had sexual affairs but he did write many love letters to other women while he was married.

The most famous of these women was Mary Hulbert Peck. It is not known to what extent Woodrow and Mary's relationship spanned. Ellen knew about the friendship between her husband and Mary but not the love letters.

She was concerned that a male-female platonic relationship would appear as a romantic one and derail her husband's political career.

Answer: Helping her husband get elected president

At the time, New Jersey did not have a formal Governor's Mansion and so there were no social events for the First Lady to host. Instead, Ellen focused her time making political connections to get husband elected president. She befriended William Jennings Bryan, who had been the Democratic nominee for president before, and convinced him to support her husband during the convention in 1912. Ellen was much more ambitious than her husband was.

He wanted to pursue the presidency in a much more clandestine manner while Ellen was openly campaigning and pulling the strings long before he was nominated.

Answer: She advocated for new health and safety standards

Woodrow Wilson was elected president with the help of many women's and African-American advocacy groups who had believed he would support their causes. This turned out not to be the case. Ellen was largely blamed for her husband's lack of support for women's suffrage because she publicly denied supporting it. In reality, she did support women's suffrage but refused to publicly support policies her husband did not.

It was a similar situation with race. Ellen believed the races should not mix socially but should be equal in the workplace and other endeavors. She advocated better standards of safety in the federal workplace. However because of Woodrow's Jim Crow segregation policy, the standards exposed just how segregated things were. It was made much more obvious and public. Wilson was hammered by his former supporters and Ellen received much of the blame as a scapegoat. However, a number of prominent African-American newspapers came to her defense.

Answer: Bright's Disease

Ellen had long been a frail woman and the vigor of hosting social events began to take its toll on her. She planned elaborate weddings for two of her daughters and the stress and exertion was too much for her. The president said she suffered a terrible fall one day and never recovered. She died from Bright's Disease, a kidney ailment.

After her death, she buried in her hometown of Rome, Georgia. The president caused controversy because he began dating a woman named Edith, whom he would soon marry, before Ellen even had a headstone. After Ellen's death but before Woodrow's wedding to Edith, the couple's daughter Margaret Wilson took over the First Lady duties.