By Bain – Library of Congress, Public Domain
I.R. March 1, 1883 – PURCHASED – Mrs. Field of Chicago, has bought, through H. C. Burr, the residence of Rev. J. H. Young, owner of Fifth and Vernon streets. The price paid was $7,500. Mrs. Field purchased the property for the use of her parents, Mr. and Mrs. Robert Scott, who will come here to live. The new owners take possession on April 1st when the property will undergo some repairs. Mr. Young will move his family to Pittsburg.
I.R. Oct. 28, 1886 – Mrs. Marshall Field, of Chicago, was here visiting her parents, Mr. and Mrs. Robt. Scott, this week.
NEW YORK HERALD, February 24, 1896 – MRS. MARSHALL FIELDS DIES IN NICE – Chicago, Ill., February 23, 1896. Mrs. Marshall Field died in Nice (France) this morning of peritonitis. She was ill for only 48 hours. Although Mrs. Field had been practically invalid for 15 years, her sojourn in Europe since 1891 had benefited her greatly.
Her time abroad was spent mainly with her daughter (Ethel), the wife of Arthur Tree, son of the former American Minister to Russia, Lambert Tree, in Leamington, England, and her son, Marshall Field, Jr., who is now living in Nice. At the time of her death, she was accompanied by her sister Miss Scott, who had been her constant companion for many years.
Mrs. Field was 54 years old. She was the daughter of Robert Scott, formerly a wealthy ironmaster of Ironton, Ohio. She was born in Greenup, KY, but her parents moved to Ohio when she was very young. She was one of three sisters who were prominent socially in the South, East, and West thirty years ago.
She was married to Marshall Field in 1863, and the only children were a son and a daughter, Marshall Field, Jr. and Mrs. Arthur Tree. Mrs. Field was not a society woman in the accepted sense of the term but was prominent because of her husband’s immense wealth. She was a very charitable woman, but instead of giving through a regularly organized society she had a personal agent who sought out deserving cases and attended to them. The body will be brought to this county, but the place of burial has not been decided upon.
Ironton Register 27 Feb. 1896 – DEATH OF MRS. MARSHALL FIELD. – Mrs. Nannie Scott Field, wife of Mr. Marshall Field, of Chicago, died in Nice, France, last Sunday morning. The sad news, which came in a telegram from Chicago, reached her mother, Mrs. Robert Scott, who resides here, last Sunday evening. the venerable mother was prostrated by the painful message. Mrs. Fannie Gardner, a sister of Mrs. Field, was attending services at the Baptist church, at the time, and the word was sent to her, and she hastened home overwhelmed with grief. The news was a severe shock.
That day Mrs. Gardner had received a letter from Mrs. Field, under the date of Nice, France, February 10, at which time Mrs. Field was going about, though she complained of some catarrhal trouble, but was in wise apprehensive. There are no particulars except that she died of peritonitis.
Some three years ago, Mrs. Field went to Lemington, near London, where her daughter, Mrs. Arthur Tree, lived who was quite sick, and with her, she stayed until recovery. In the meantime, about two years ago, her son, Marshall Field, Jr. went to France and took up his residence near Paris, hoping a change of air would improve his health.
Thither Mrs. Field went, after the recovery of her daughter, and in a lovely villa, only a few minutes out of the city, dwelt with her son, taking trips in other countries occasionally, and spending the Winters in the south of France, where she was when her fatal illness came.
Mrs. Field was the daughter of the late Robert Scott and was born in 1840 at old Steam Furnace, Greenup County, Ky. The family moved to Mt. Vernon furnace in the fifties and there Nannie Scott spent her girlhood days. She was a beautiful girl of gentle spirit and charming manners.
Everybody loved her for the sweet graces of her youth. In those days, the iron furnaces were the scenes of much social life, and none excelled in the subject of this sketch in the traits of loveliness. When she advanced into her teens, she was sent to Madame Willard’s school in Troy, New York.
There she formed pleasant associations, and in 1863, when visiting a former schoolmate, she met Marshall Field, then a rising young man in the dry goods trade. The acquaintance ended in marriage, and thenceforth, she lived in Chicago, where her husband grew into great wealth.
Through all the years of her high social position, she kept the warm heart and gentle nature of her girlhood, and these blossomed ever in deeds of benevolence and affection. Whether in her mansion in Chicago or in the villa in France, want or distress was never turned away with a thankless heart or an empty hand.
Heaven only knows the wide expanse of her benefactions. Her old friends in this community remember her so lovingly, that the intelligence of the final summons brings to all of them profound sorrow. Mrs. Field leaves a husband and two children to mourn her loss. The children are Marshall Field, Jr., and Mrs. Arthur Tree, the former living near Paris and the latter near London.
Besides the children, she has three sisters, Mrs. Dr. Earheart, of Boulder, Colorado; Mrs. Fanny Gardner, who has been some weeks here with her mother; Miss Nora Scott, who was with her sister when she died; Mr. Geo. T. Scott, of Columbus, and Mr. Harry G. Scott of Ironton.
Mrs. Gardner left Mrs. Field in London, last October, whither she had come with her children to bid her sister goodbye and send tokens of love and memory to dear ones in America. Then, Mrs. Gardner did not dream that the days of deep sorrow would come so soon. The interment will take place near London, where Mrs. Tree lives, who wants her mother buried by the side of her little children. Thither Mr. Field goes on the first steamer to share in the sorrow of the last sad scenes.
I.R. June 11, 1896 – MRS. FIELD’S WILL FILED – From the Chicago Herald – Letters of administration were issued this morning in the Probate court to Arthur B. Jones in the estate of Nannie D. Field, who was the wife of Marshall Field. The estate is valued at $87,000. The reality, (sic), which is situated in Ohio and Nebraska, is scheduled at $40,000, while the personal holdings of the descendant are set down at $47,000.
It is explained that there is no income from the realty. In connection with the issuing of the letters, Marshall Field filed an explanatory paper in which he says it is not convenient for any member of the immediate family of the decedent to act as administrator.
The merchant prince also waives all his claims to any part of his wife’s estate and says he will be satisfied to have the property go to the other heirs. The heirs designated are Marshall Field, Jr., and Ethel Tree, who is the wife of Arthur M. Tree, son of Judge Lambert Tree. Mrs. Field died in Europe on Feb. 23, 1896. Mr. Jones, the administrator, is in Mr. Field’s employ.
I.R. April 20, 1899 – MARSHALL FIELD – In a series of resolutions adopted by the Women’s Philharmonic Society of New York, denouncing the use of birds or parts thereof for millinery, we find this one: Resolved, That we also admire and respect the great merchant and princely encourage, of the fine arts, including music, Marshal Field of Chicago, for having given up more than a year ago the sale over his counters of millinery ornaments as manufactured from slaughtered birds; and commend his example to the department stores throughout the country as one of the most potent means of stopping the traffic in question.
DEATH ANGEL – CLAIMS GREATEST MERCHANT PRINCE at 4 o’clock Tuesday – NEW YORK, JAN. 16.
I. R. January 18, 1906 – Marshall Field, the millionaire Chicago merchant died at the Holland House at 4 o’clock this afternoon after an eight days illness of pneumonia. Death came peaceably while members of the family who had been in almost constant attendance for several days were gathered around the deathbed. They, as well as the dying merchant, were prepared for the end.
Marshall Field was without question the greatest and most successful merchant of his generation, and he was one of the world’s richest men, his wealth is estimated at anywhere from $100,000,000 to $200,000,000.000.
The following incident is of local interest in connection with Marshall Field: Miss Jennie Scott, the sister of Marshall Field’s first wife, was burned to death at Mt. Vernon Furnace this county June 17, 1862. Her dress caught fire from the explosion of a swinging lamp on Monday, June 16, and she died the next day.
Her death occurred on the Tuesday preceding the Thursday set for the wedding of Mr. Field and her sister, Marie Scott. The fatal accident caused a postponement of the wedding until January 8, 1863. The wedding ceremony was performed by Rev. John M. Boak(?) the Presbyterian minister of Hanging Rock.
I.S.T. Sept. 14, 1941 – BRIDE OF MARSHALL FIELD WAS VERNON FURNACE GIRL – (PICTURE OF HOUSE) TRAGEDY FORCED DELAY OF MARRIAGE; HOUSE STANDS – BY Richard Schreiber – Nestled down among the hills just past Pedro on Route 75 stands a staunch old gray-brick house. If you know the history of that place you can imagine the day when fancy phaetons, drawn by sleek bay horses, lined the drive. For there was a day when Mt. Vernon was gay with flickering lights and full of laughter and conversation.
In the middle of the 19th century, the Mt. Vernon furnace was booming as were all the other blast furnaces then located in the Hanging Rock Iron Region. The old brick home housed the manager and his family. During the trying days of the Civil War, one Robert Scott, with his family of ten children and his wife, lived in Vernon farmhouse and directed the operations at the furnace. Though she was not considered to be as beautiful as her younger sister, Jennie, nor as some of her brothers, Nannie Scott’s name will always be foremost in the annals recording the social history of the day.
AWAY TO SCHOOL – When Nannie Scott was old enough, her father sent her off to an exclusive school for girls at Mt. Holyoke. This was not at all unusual for the children of furnace operators and managers to be given the best education possible. While traveling through Boston, Nannie Scott, chanced to meet a young “counter hopper” in one of that city’s department stores. (A counter hopper was a clerk of sorts who did work of all kinds around the store.)
No one will ever know just how Nannie Scott struck up a lasting acquaintance with this young department store clerk. But she did. And when she finished her schooling and returned to Mt. Vernon, the youthful clerk still pursued her with his affections.
HE WAS MARSHALL FIELD – Perhaps Nannie sensed that there was something great in the young man’s ambitions. Maybe she looked forward to the day when he was to own one of the greatest department stores in the world. At any event, it wasn’t long before she was engaged to be married to him. His name was Marshall Field.
All of Ironton and the Hanging Rock Iron Region buzzed with excitement at the approaching marriage. They didn’t know a thing about the groom, but the bride and the bride’s family were always prominent in local social affairs.
The wedding date was set for June 19, 1862. But fate stepped in. The Ironton Register appeared that Thursday morning with the following story: “On Monday evening at Mt. Vernon Furnace in this county, an accident occurred from the explosion of a camphene lamp by which Miss Jennie Scott, daughter of Robert Scott, was burned so badly that she died the next day about noon.
“Her father, Mr. Scott, was also burned severely, though not dangerously in trying to extinguish the flames and rescue his daughter. The lamp was a swinging one and had just been trimmed, filled, and lighted a few moments before by Miss Scott and her brother. Miss Scott had started to the parlor to call her father and another gentleman (probably Marshall Field) to tea and was passing directly under the lamp when it exploded, setting her clothes on fire with the above results.
MOST BEAUTIFUL – “Miss Jennie Scott was among the most beautiful and accomplished young ladies of Lawrence County, the favorite of all, and her sudden death has cast a gloom over the entire community. “Her sister, Miss Nannie Scott, was to have been married today, Thursday, and Jennie had her trunks packed ready to accompany her sister to her new home in Chicago. But an overruling providence decreed otherwise.”
So, a little item on page three of the Ironton Register, headed Local and Miscellaneous, tells how the wedding of Nannie Scott and Marshall Field had to be postponed until the following month. The R. P. Triplett’s now live in the ten-room house. Down from the high-ceilinged hall drops a long electric light fixture where the fateful oil lamp formerly hung.
And under the linoleum, according to Mrs. Triplett, the burnt floor is still in evidence. How Marshall Field and his bride from Lawrence County went to Chicago and made their fame and fortune is part of the gigantic story of American business.
I.R. Thursday, November 30, 1905 – SAD DEATH – of Marshall Field, Jr., From Wound inflicted by accident. – Chicago, Nov. 28 – Five minutes before 5 o’clock last afternoon, Marshall Field, Jr., died. Kneeling beside his death bed in Mercy Hospital, holding his left hand in both of hers, was his wife.
His father stood at the foot of the bed his, face wet with tears. Mr. Field passed quietly away, holding to his lips a crucifix. When Dr. Bevan and Dr. Billings, who since Wednesday last had brought every resource known to science to keep alight the small flames of life in Mr. Fields’ body after he had accidentally shot himself, whispered that the end had come. Mrs. Field collapsed. Weeping, hysterically, she threw herself into the arms of her father-in-law.
Marshall Field, Jr., the only son of Chicago’s greatest merchant, was 37 years old, and he leaves an only sister, Mrs. Ethel Field Beatty, who lives abroad. He was born within a stone’s throw of the place where the fatal accident happened, at the old Field homestead, 1905 Prairie Avenue, and had for his playmates the children of the old Chicago families, who are now leading businessmen of Chicago.
Young Field was a member of the class of 1891 at Harvard University, but delicate health forced him to leave college an [illegible] immediately afterward he was married to Miss Albertine Huck, a daughter of Louis Huck, and they went to Europe for a two years’ honeymoon. Upon their arrival, they were established at 1919 Prairie Avenue, the home in which the young man accidentally shot himself last Wednesday afternoon.
Mr. Field was especially devoted to his three children, Marshall III., aged 11; Henry, aged 9, and Gwendolyn, aged 2. The eldest son inherited his father’s fragile health, and he received his father’s particular care and sympathy. When the boy was ill last spring the father was his nurse through the long siege.
The death of Marshal Field, Jr., today makes an eleven-year-old boy, Marshall Field III., the oldest lineal descendant of the head of the great house of Field. Many Ironton people were well acquainted with Mr. Field as he used to visit his grandmother here, Mrs. Robert Scott, quite frequently, His mother, Mrs. Nannie Scott Fields was well known to many Register readers.
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