Florence Sellers Coxe Paul

Florence Sellers Coxe Paul by Ida Waugh

Florence Sellers Coxe Paul was born on April 22, 1864, the daughter of David Wampole Sellers (1833-1901), a Philadelphia attorney, and Anna Frances Jaquett (1838-1915). Her father was chairman of the Fairmount Park Commission and a senior consultant for the Pennsylvania Railroad Company.[1]

Before her marriage, Florence Sellers was considered one of the most stylish women of the Philadelphia good society, often seen in the most fashionable places and events.[2][3][4]

She married, first Marcellus Coxe (1857-1917), a wine merchant,[5] on June 2, 1885.[6] The wedding present from her husband were some strings of pearls inherited from his grandmother.[1] The wedding was notable both for the attending guests than for the unusual richness of the wedding presents.[7] Marcellus Coxe was the grandson of Professor John Redmund Coxe from the University of Pennsylvania.[8] At about this time Ida Waugh took the portrait of Florence Sellers Coxe Paul.[9] From this marriage she had her only son, Francis Travis Coxe (1889 - 1973), vicepresident of the Fidelity Philadelphia Trust Co.[10]

In 1890 Florence Sellers was the patroness of a German Dance held at the Devon Inn, that was considered the most successful of the season.[11] In 1892, Florence Sellers Coxe was included in Boyd's Philadelphia Blue Book, which was "the fashionable private address directory, the ladies visiting and shopping guide and Philadelphia Club list."[12]

On September 8, 1915, at the home of her brother Edwin Jacquet Sellers (a noted genealogist),[13] she married Lawrence Taylor Paul (1854-1926). Paul had been at University of Pennsylvania, class' 74, same alma mater as Edwin Jacquet Sellers, class '86.[14][15]

Warren House

She and her second husband, Lawrence T. Paul, lived at Paulhome, 118 Mill Street, Newport. Paulhome was originally the Warren House, built in 1809 by Robert Lawton. At Lawton's death in 1818, the house was inherited by his wife Penelope. Through different owners it became the property of the Paul family from 1886 to 1932. In 1932 it passed to George Henry Warren, Jr. (1889–1971), whose wife was Katherine Urquhart, one of the founders of the Preservation Society of Newport County. In 1996 the Warren House won the Newport Historical Society's Historic Preservation Award.[16]

In Philadelphia the Pauls lived at the Chateau Crillon Apartment House.[14] Paul died in 1926; among their nephews were Viscount William Waldorf-Astor, John Jacob Astor, A. J. Drexel Paul, Frank W. Paul, Mrs. John Kent Kane, Mrs. Paul D. Mills, Mrs. Howard Bland, and Mrs. Albert Spencer Clay, of England.[17]

In the 1930s, she moved to Paris, moving back to the United States at the outbreak of World War II.[14] In 1939 she donated to the Drexel Institute of Technology a Sheraton mirror, originally hanging in the Longwood House in the Island of Saint Helena while Napoleon Bonaparte was in residence there.[18]

She was one of the original members of the Acorn Club, a private Philadelphia club for women founded in 1889;[12] she was also a member of Daughters of the Cincinnati and Daughters of the American Revolution.[14] While in New York City, she stayed at the Colony Club.[19]

She died in 1950 and is buried at Laurel Hill Cemetery, Philadelphia.[14]

References

  1. 1 2 "06 Jun 1885, Sat • Page 16". The Inter Ocean: 16. 1885. Retrieved 27 March 2018.
  2. ↑ "24 May 1885, Sun • Page 3". The Times: 3. 1885. Retrieved 27 March 2018.
  3. ↑ "The Troopers' Field-Day - 19 Oct 1883, Fri • Page 1". The Times: 1. 1883. Retrieved 27 March 2018.
  4. ↑ "City Troops Races - 19 Oct 1883, Fri • Page 8". The Philadelphia Inquirer: 8. 1883. Retrieved 27 March 2018.
  5. ↑ "04 Jun 1885, Thu • Page 2". The Philadelphia Inquirer: 2. 1885. Retrieved 27 March 2018.
  6. ↑ Sellers, Edwin Jaquett (1924). Jaudon Family of Pennsylvania. Press of Allen, Lane & Scott. p. 18. Retrieved 17 March 2018.
  7. ↑ "Three Notable Weddings - 03 Jun 1885, Wed • Page 2". The Times: 2. 1885. Retrieved 27 March 2018.
  8. ↑ "26 Apr 1885, Sun • Page 2". The Times: 2. 1885. Retrieved 27 March 2018.
  9. ↑ Newportraits. UPNE. 2000. p. 98. Retrieved 14 September 2017.
  10. ↑ Who's who in Commerce and Industry, Volume 8. Marquis Who's Who. 1953. p. 314. Retrieved 17 March 2018.
  11. ↑ "The Devon Inn German - 21 Sep 1890, Sun • Page 10". The Philadelphia Inquirer: 10. 1890. Retrieved 27 March 2018.
  12. 1 2 Boyd's Philadelphia Blue Book. C.E. Howe Co. 1892. Retrieved 22 March 2018.
  13. ↑ "(Sellers, Edwin Jaquett, 1865-)". The Online Books Page. Retrieved 17 March 2018.
  14. 1 2 3 4 5 "Mrs. Lawrence Paul Dies in Philadelphia - 26 Jan 1950, Thu • Page 2". Newport Daily News: 2. 1950. Retrieved 17 March 2018.
  15. ↑ The Alumni Register of the University of Pennsylvania, Volume 18. General Alumni Society. 1915. p. 82. Retrieved 17 March 2018.
  16. ↑ "RI - Newport: Warren House". flickr. Retrieved 27 March 2018.
  17. ↑ The Pennsylvania Gazette ...: Weekly Magazine of the University of Pennsylvania, Volume 25, Issue 5. 1926. p. 134. Retrieved 17 March 2018.
  18. ↑ "Mirror of 1810 Given to Drexel - 29 Jan 1939, Sun • Page 24". The Philadelphia Inquirer: 24. 1939. Retrieved 27 March 2018.
  19. ↑ "Entertains in N.Y. - 02 Feb 1941, Sun • Page 68". The Philadelphia Inquirer: 68. 1941. Retrieved 27 March 2018.
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