A New Chapter in the Life of Louis Sullivan: Margaret Hattabough Sullivan and Lester Sullivan

Abstract

A New Chapter in the Life of Louis Sullivan: Margaret Hattabaugh Sullivan and Lester Sullivan Paul Sprague Margaret Hattabough Whatever possessed Louis Sullivan, a 42-year-old bachelor, to get married in the spring of r899 is a mystery and likely to remain so. The woman he chose for his wife has also proved enigmatic. Hugh Morrison knew her name, Margaret Hattabaugh, and the dates of their marriage, July r, r899, and divorce, January 29, 1917, but little else.' Historian Willard Connely knew more about her, probably from remembrances furnished by Andrienne Sullivan, the daughter of Sullivan's brother Albert, and from a few surviving documents. But because Connely did not favor the reader with references, the validity ofhis remarks cannot easily be verified: In addition to whatever Sullivan's niece may have remembered about Margaret from her parents' conversations and conveyed to Connely, he apparently also got some of his facts from a note accompanying a photograph of Margaret then in Andrienne Sullivan's possession (jig. I). It reads, "Mrs. Louis H. Sullivan was (Mrs. Margaret Davies Hattabaugh) born in California in r872, married to Louis H. Sullivan, July r, r899." Just who was this elusive woman who in July r899 married the famous, well-educated and cosmopolitan architect, Louis Sullivan (jig. 2)? Discovering her lineage would have been much easier had she not continued to change her name throughout her life. The daunting task would also have been rendered much simpler had she honestly reported her age from time to time. As for her name, she gave it as Margaret Hattabaugh when she married Sullivan in r899. Her age, she testified was 27, which would make her birth year about r872.3 To the census-taker in I900, she reported her Fig. I. Margaret Sullivan. Probably taken during the I899I900 winter season at Ocean Springs on thefront porch ofthe Sullivan cottage. At that time Margaret was 4I years old. (Courtesy ofthe Avery Library, Columbia University) name as Margaret Sullivan; the year ofher birth as r873; and her place of birth, California. She added that her father had been born in Massachusetts and her mother in Connecticut. By 1914 she had become Margaret Davies Sullivan. In 1916 when she applied for a passport, she was still Margaret Davies Sullivan, but her age had advanced to 37, and, in fact, there she gave her birth date as May 29, r879, the place San Francisco. The next year, when she married for the third time, she gave her name as Mary Azona Sullivan, otherwise Margaret Davis, formerly Hattabaugh, age 38; her father, Arthur James Hattabaugh (deceased), a lawyer.4 ARRIS 39 PAUL SPRAGUE Fig. 2. Louis Sullivan. Taken by Chicago photographer William Koehne in I90I. At the time Sullivan was 44 years old (From the Architectural Annual, I90I,jrontispiece) In 1920 she is listed by the census-taker as Margaret D. Marshall, aged 39, which would make her birth year r88r. But little of this is true! She was not 27 when she married Sullivan, nor was her given name Margaret, nor were her parents born in Massachusetts and Connecticut, nor was she ever given the name Davies, nor was there any such a name in her family, nor was she born in San Francisco, nor was her father Arthur James Hattabaugh, a lawyer! What is true is that her maiden name was Hattabaugh and that her middle name very likely was Azona and her birthday was surely May 29.5 Who then was this mysterious woman who claimed Sullivan's heart? She was born Mary Azona Hattabaugh on a farm in the Santa Clara valley of California about three miles southwest of San Jose on May 29, r858.6 She first appears in public records in the r86o federal census of California where she is identified as Mary A. Hattabaugh, age 2, daughter of Isaac and Jane Hattabough.7 This means, of course, that in July r899, when Mary married Louis Sullivan, she was 41 years old, making her less than two years younger than Sullivan. No wonder Robert Twombly was struck by her rather mature features to the discussion of which he expended not a few words in his...