Images in the News

Discovering the Legacy
of Evangeline Whipple

Pictured above, on "Via Evangelina Whipple," (translated from the Italian as Evangeline Whipple Street or Road) in the town of Bagni di Lucca, Italy, are Jim Huber, the Rev. David Norgard (a priest canonically-resident in Minnesota currently residing in the Los Angeles area), the Rev. Penny Warren and Mary Huber.

Evangeline Marrs Simpson was the second wife of Bishop Henry Benjamin Whipple, the first Episcopal Bishop of Minnesota.  Whipple's first wife, Cornelia, had died in 1889 as a result of a train wreck en route to the couple's winter home in Maitland, Florida.  It was in Maitland that Bishop Whipple first met Evangeline, who probably attended The Church of the Good Shepherd, which he founded and served as pastor of in the winter months.

The website www.faribault.org provides this description of the marriage of Evangeline Whipple to Henry:

In 1896, to the surprise of many people, he married Evangeline Marrs Simpson, whom he likely had met in Florida several years earlier. She was a wealthy widow from Boston. Evangeline was thirty-six years old when she married Henry, who was seventy-four. One historian suggests that the people of Faribault did not know what to think of this young woman at first, with her progressive lifestyle and dramatic tastes. But she was devoted to the Bishop and his causes. She traveled with him to the Indian missions and around the world. She was also very generous, donating money to the missions and building on to the Whipple home next door the Cathedral. Now Henry had space for a library and room to display the many gifts he had received from American Indians and others over the years. Evangeline also had a sophisticated collection of art objects in their home, reportedly including some items from the estate of “Mad” King Ludwig II of Germany.

In 1906, five years after the Bishop had died,  Evangeline departed Faribault suddenly, headed to Tuscany to care for her ailing brother, Kingsman Marrs.  She ordered the big "See House" closed up and requested that the Whipple's faithful servant, Major Milligan, who lived in the basement, not let anyone inside until she returned.  He carried out her wish for the next 24 years.  Evangeline would never return to Faribault.

In Tuscany, Evangeline was joined by her long-time companion, Rose Cleveland, sister of U. S. President Grover Cleveland.  The two women lived out their lives in Bagni di Lucca where they founded an orphanage and were engaged in many philanthropic and civic causes.  They were decorated by the King of Italy for their philanthrophy and the town of Bagni di Lucca permanently named a street after Evangeline.

Rose died of complications of the Spanish Flu in 1918.  Finally, in the summer of 1930, Evangeline decided to head for home.  She was en route to Faribault when she was taken ill in London, where she died.  She was buried next to Rose in the cemetery of the American Anglican Church in Bagni di Lucca.

Major Milligan received the news of Evangeline's death in a telegram from London. 

And, the first person admitted into the See House, other than Milligan, in the 24 years since Evangeline's departure:  the Western Union delivery boy.