THE WINSOR CONNECTIONS: William Jennings Bryan

WINSOR-Dort-Post-Smith

1915 William Jennings Bryan & wife Mary Baird

Sometimes you just never know what might fall out when you start shaking the family tree! This is especially true with our female ancestors, whose family names sometimes get lost through marriage. The surname of Winsor, however, has endured. Look at what I found when I traced that branch leading back to a shared lineage:

WILLIAM JENNINGS BRYAN (1860 - 1925)

DID YOU KNOW?

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"The Great Commoner"

He was the youngest Presidential nominee of a major party in U. S. history. William Jennings Bryan of Nebraska, a former Congressman, ran as the Democratic nominee for President in 1896. Only 36, he was one year older than the minimum age requirement.  (He won the Democratic party’s nomination three times: 1896, 1900, 1908.)

·         William served as Secretary of State for U.S. President Woodrow Wilson.

·         He was called “The Great Commoner” –‘In 1896 William Jennings Bryan, a young man with a golden voice and the air of a Victorian tragic actor, rose into prominence as the champion of the distressed American farmer. Candidate of the Democrats and the Populists, he polled only 14,001 votes too few to win the Presidency of the United States, and he did this by campaigning as a progressive and a reformer against the vested interests of Eastern financiers.’ (George Woodcock, History Today, 1957)

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"Daybreak" by Parrish, Kitty reclining

Ironically, his granddaughter “Kitty” Leavitt Owen married one of those ‘Eastern financiers,’ Robert Lehman, CEO of one of the top three investment banks in the U.S. at that time, Lehman Brothers. In the 20’s, Kitty modeled for a number of Maxfield Parrish’s well-known paintings and Life magazine covers. Kitty’s daughter “Kaywin” Winsor Meeker’s middle name honored her great-great-great grandmother -my great-great-great grandfather's sister- Mehitabel Winsor*.

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Ruth Baird Owen

William and Mary’s daughter (and Kitty’s mother) Ruth Baird Owen was appointed the first female chief of mission as head of the U.S. Embassy for Denmark and Iceland in 1933. (Prior to that, she was elected as Florida’s first female U.S. Representative.)

·         Mehitabel*, or “Hitty,” is our family’s link to the family connection with William Jennings Bryan: from Mehitabel Winsor who married Darius Dexter, to their daughter Maria “Lavina” Dexter who married John H. Baird, to their daughter Mary E. Baird who married William Jennings Bryan.

·         Author L. Frank Baum satirized Bryan as the Cowardly Lion in The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, published in 1900. Baum had been a Republican activist in 1896 and promoted Bryan’s opponent’s bid for the presidency.

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  As counsel for the prosecution in the celebrated 1925 Scopes case (known as the ‘Scopes Monkey Trial’) Bryan successfully defended the right of the State of Tennessee to forbid the teaching of Evolution. On Day 7 of the trial, council for the defense Clarence Darrow changed tactics by calling prosecutor Bryan as a witness. The deal was that Bryan, in turn, would get to do the same. Attempting to undermine Bryan’s stance on biblical versus evolutionary history, a scathing inquisition by Darrow’s select experts resulted in the judge deeming the heated debate irrelevant to the case, and ordering it expunged from the court record. Thus, Bryan never got a chance to question Darrow on the witness stand. Although the case was later appealed and found constitutional, it was overturned on a technicality. William Jennings Bryan died suddenly, five days after the trial's conclusion. His body lay at state in the courthouse where, only days before, he had vigorously argued the Scopes case.  

·         William Jennings Bryan was buried, as he had wished, in Arlington National Cemetery. He earned the rank of Colonel in the 3^rd Nebraska Volunteer Infantry while serving in the Spanish American War. Mary, “wife and helpmate” was also buried with him there.

"STATESMAN, YET FRIEND TO TRUTH: OF SOUL SINCERE, IN ACTION FAITHFUL, AND IN HONOR CLEAR"