Grover Cleveland's Love Child
The recent revelation about Arnold Schwarzenegger fathering a child with the family housekeeper brings to mind the story of Grover Cleveland and Maria Halpin. Grover was no body builder, and in fact his biographer Henry Graff suggests that Cleveland was "notably unconfident with women of his own class" because of his weight. In Cleveland's biography in the American Presidents Series, Graff writes that when Cleveland ran for the presidency the first time, the Buffalo Evening Telegraph ran a front page story entitled "A Terrible Tale: A Dark Chapter in a Public Man's History, The Pitiful Story of Maria Halpin and Governor Cleveland's Son." The Telegraph story presented Cleveland as a seducer and Halpin as his unwitting victim. Graff writes:
"Halpin was a comely young widow from Pennsylvania who, leaving two children behind, had come to Buffalo from Jersey City in 1871 at the age of thirty three - a year younger than Cleveland. Tall, attractive and winsome, able to speak French, she was able to find employment in a dry goods store and quickly attained a responsible position. A parishioner of the fashionable St. John's Episcopal Church, she almost immediately had prominent friends. Possible Cleveland was seduced as well as the seducer. When the child was born, Halpin began to drink heavily and neglect the infant. Alarmed, Cleveland had his friend Roswell L. Burrows, a county judge, look into the matter. He arranged for Halpin to be committed to the Providence Asylum - an institution for mentally deranged people run by the Sisters of Charity. The little boy was sent to the Protestant Orphan Asylum where Cleveland promised to pay through Burrows the monthly cost of five dollars. Cleveland also persuaded Burrows to leave town, setting her up in business in Niagara Falls. Pining for her child and still disappointed that she had not been able to snare Cleveland in marriage, she returned to Buffalo in 1876 and after failing to recover him legally, kidnapped the youngster from the orphanage. Burrows once again played the Good Samaritan. He returned the boy to the asylum from which he was later adopted by a respectable family in town. Halpin disappeared, although years later, during Cleveland's second term as president, she wrote to him for money."
In the election of 1884, Cleveland's enemies tried to use this scandal by adopting the slogan "Ma, Ma, where's my Pa?" When confronted with the scandal, Cleveland's instructions to his campaign staff were: "Tell the truth." Cleveland admitted to the press that he had paid child support in 1874 to Maria Halpin, but be never admitted that he was the child's father. Halpin was involved with several men at the time, including Cleveland's friend and law partner, Oscar Folsom, for whom the child was also named. Cleveland said that he did not know which man was the father, and is believed to have assumed responsibility because he was the only bachelor among them.
The strategy of confronting the issue apparently worked for Cleveland. While the popular vote total was close, with Cleveland winning by just one-quarter of a percent, the electoral votes gave Cleveland a majority of 219–182. Following the electoral victory, the "Ma, Ma, where's my pa" attack slogan was met with the response: "Gone to the White House. Ha! Ha! Ha!"
Cleveland's romantic habits would be cast in the spotlight later when he married 21 year old Francis Folsom, 28 years his junior, who was the daughter of his good friend Oscar Folsom and who he became guardian of when Oscar Folsom died, leaving 11 year old Francis in Cleveland's care. For more details on this story, go here.
"Halpin was a comely young widow from Pennsylvania who, leaving two children behind, had come to Buffalo from Jersey City in 1871 at the age of thirty three - a year younger than Cleveland. Tall, attractive and winsome, able to speak French, she was able to find employment in a dry goods store and quickly attained a responsible position. A parishioner of the fashionable St. John's Episcopal Church, she almost immediately had prominent friends. Possible Cleveland was seduced as well as the seducer. When the child was born, Halpin began to drink heavily and neglect the infant. Alarmed, Cleveland had his friend Roswell L. Burrows, a county judge, look into the matter. He arranged for Halpin to be committed to the Providence Asylum - an institution for mentally deranged people run by the Sisters of Charity. The little boy was sent to the Protestant Orphan Asylum where Cleveland promised to pay through Burrows the monthly cost of five dollars. Cleveland also persuaded Burrows to leave town, setting her up in business in Niagara Falls. Pining for her child and still disappointed that she had not been able to snare Cleveland in marriage, she returned to Buffalo in 1876 and after failing to recover him legally, kidnapped the youngster from the orphanage. Burrows once again played the Good Samaritan. He returned the boy to the asylum from which he was later adopted by a respectable family in town. Halpin disappeared, although years later, during Cleveland's second term as president, she wrote to him for money."
In the election of 1884, Cleveland's enemies tried to use this scandal by adopting the slogan "Ma, Ma, where's my Pa?" When confronted with the scandal, Cleveland's instructions to his campaign staff were: "Tell the truth." Cleveland admitted to the press that he had paid child support in 1874 to Maria Halpin, but be never admitted that he was the child's father. Halpin was involved with several men at the time, including Cleveland's friend and law partner, Oscar Folsom, for whom the child was also named. Cleveland said that he did not know which man was the father, and is believed to have assumed responsibility because he was the only bachelor among them.
The strategy of confronting the issue apparently worked for Cleveland. While the popular vote total was close, with Cleveland winning by just one-quarter of a percent, the electoral votes gave Cleveland a majority of 219–182. Following the electoral victory, the "Ma, Ma, where's my pa" attack slogan was met with the response: "Gone to the White House. Ha! Ha! Ha!"
Cleveland's romantic habits would be cast in the spotlight later when he married 21 year old Francis Folsom, 28 years his junior, who was the daughter of his good friend Oscar Folsom and who he became guardian of when Oscar Folsom died, leaving 11 year old Francis in Cleveland's care. For more details on this story, go here.