Morgan, Frances Louisa (1845–1924)

American philanthropist and society matron. Name variations: Mrs. J. Pierpont Morgan. Born Frances Louisa Tracy on May 15, 1845; died on November 16, 1924; daughter of Charles Tracy (a lawyer) and Louisa Kirkland Tracy; married J. Pierpont Morgan (1837–1913, the financier), on May 31, 1865; children: Louisa Pierpont Morgan Satterlee (b. March 10, 1866); J.P. Morgan (1867–1943, who marriedJane Norton Grew Morgan ); Juliet Morgan Hamilton (b. July 1870); Anne Morgan (1873–1952).

Frances Louisa Morgan, called Fanny, married financier and so-called robber baron J. Pierpont Morgan in 1865, three years after his beloved first wife Amelia Sturges Morgan died of "galloping consumption" while still on their extended honeymoon. Frances Morgan gave birth to her first child less than nine and a half months after the wedding ceremony, and to her second a year later. She and her husband possessed quite different temperaments, however, and the workaholic J. Pierpont never spoke to her about his business matters; their marriage was troubled by the late 1870s. Both were prone to depression, and Morgan increasingly was subject to "sick" headaches and various ailments. When she was able, she partook of the usual activities available to women of her social station, attending lectures and operas and devoting time to philanthropical pursuits, including financial assistance to Helen Keller . By the 1880s, her husband, whose numerous mistresses and general womanizing was so notorious that gossip said he had founded New York City's Lying-In Hospital solely for benefit of his illegitimate offspring, was taking advantage of her illnesses to send her off on extended journeys, on which she was often accompanied by one or more of her daughters. She kept a diary throughout much of her married life, and outlived her husband, who died in 1913.

sources:

Strouse, Jean. Morgan: American Financier. NY: Random House, 1999.