Eleanor Baldwin Cass Explained

Eleanor Baldwin Cass
Birth Name:Eleanor G. Baldwin
Birth Date:February 5, 1874
Birth Place:Charlestown, Massachusetts, U.S.
Death Date:August 24, 1966 (aged 92)
Other Names:Ella G. Cass
Occupation:Fencer, writer, educator

Eleanor G. Baldwin Cass (February 5, 1874[1] – August 26, 1966) was an American fencer, who promoted fencing and wrote about the sport.

Early life and education

Baldwin was born in Charlestown, Massachusetts, the daughter of Charles F. Baldwin and Mary Gilbert Baldwin. She graduated from the Sargent School of Physical Education and Emerson College in Boston.[2]

Career

Cass was a competitive fencer,[3] "reputed to have the most beautiful form of any woman in the world." She gave fencing demonstrations on stage.[4] She taught fencing to women at Mount Holyoke College, Wheaton College, Smith College, and Jackson College.[5] She also taught privately in Newport, to young men and women in wealthy families, including the Vanderbilts and Astors. James J. Van Alen was one of her fencing students.[6] Her 1930 book on fencing included historical and practical information, with diagrams and photographs.[7] [8]

Cass was a skilled horsewoman, and played tennis and golf well. She also directed a church play given as a fundraiser during World War I.[9] "No mother should neglect a talent that has been given to her," she told an interviewer in 1930. "She need not use it remuneratively, but she should make it benefit the family."[10]

Cass filed for bankruptcy in 1920 and 1924,[11] [12] and was arrested for passing a bad check in Rhode Island in 1924.

Publications

Personal life

Baldwin married banker John W. Cass in 1900. They had five sons, John, Robert, Francis, Leo, and Edward, who all became fencers.[14] [15] Her son Francis started the Medford Fencing Club in 1924;[16] he died in World War II. She died in 1966, at the age of 92, in Cambridge, Massachusetts.[17]

Notes and References

  1. Cass gave inconsistent answers when asked for her year of birth, across United States federal censuses and other sources. Most sources show her year of birth in the 1870s. She appeared in the 1880 Federal Census as a six-year-old in her parent's household, supporting an 1874 birth year, via Ancestry.
  2. Book: Howe, Julia Ward . Sketches of representative women of New England . Graves . Mary H. . Elliott . Mary Elvira . Stimpson . Mary A. . Hoyt . Martha Seavey . 1904 . 472 . Boston : New England Historical Pub. Co..
  3. News: 1904-02-21 . Clever Women Fencers of Greater Boston . 2024-07-24 . Boston Post . 59 . Newspapers.com.
  4. News: 1914-01-11 . Eleanor B. Cass (advertisement) . 2024-07-24 . The Boston Globe . 51 . Newspapers.com.
  5. News: 1966-08-27 . Mrs. Cass, Fencing Expert, Dies at 89 . 2024-07-24 . The Boston Globe . 14 . Newspapers.com.
  6. News: 1924-09-04 . Woman Fencer Held for Fraud; Mrs. Eleanor Baldwin Cass of Medford Arrested at Newport L.I. . 2024-07-24 . The Republican . Newspapers.com . 4.
  7. News: 1931-01-04 . The Book of Fencing . 2024-07-24 . The Los Angeles Times . Newspapers.com . 46.
  8. News: 1930-11-09 . Book of Fencing Revives Lost Art . 2024-07-24 . Arizona Republic . Newspapers.com. 6.
  9. News: 1918-06-11 . 'The Master's Power' Proves Gripping Play . 2024-07-24 . Boston Post . 7 . Newspapers.com.
  10. News: 1930-06-04 . 'Like Mother, Like Son!' Mrs. E. Cass Taught Her Five Sons Skill in Fencing . 2024-07-24 . The Times . 6 . Newspapers.com.
  11. News: 1920-05-16 . Business Troubles . 2024-07-24 . The Boston Globe . 9 . Newspapers.com.
  12. News: 1924-12-24 . Business Troubles . 2024-07-24 . The Boston Globe . 7 . Newspapers.com.
  13. Book: Eleanor Baldwin Cass . The book of fencing . 1930 . Lothrop, Lee and Shepherd.
  14. News: 1921-03-20 . Milne . J.R.. Why Grow Old? Try Backyard Flip Flops with the Children . Newspapers.com . 2024-07-24 . Boston Post . 48.
  15. News: 1929-06-15 . Woman and Five Sons Expert Fencers . 2024-07-24 . The Daily Item . Newspapers.com . 11.
  16. News: 1924-04-17 . If Medford isn't the First City to Have a Boys' Fencing Club, it's One of the Very Few . 2024-07-24 . The Boston Globe . Newspapers.com. 18.
  17. News: 1966-08-27 . Former Fencing Instructor at Mount Holyoke Dies. 2024-07-24 . Newspapers.com. Transcript-Telegram . 13.

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