Florence Jaffray (Hurst) Harriman (1870 - 1967)

Florence (Hurst) Harriman is Notable.

On November 13, 1889, at age nineteen, she married Jefferson Borden Harriman in Manhattan, New York, New York, United States.^[4] The list of attendees at their wedding included past and future president Grover Cleveland, railroad tycoons Cornelius Vanderbilt and Edward Harriman, John Jacob Astor IV, and J. P. Morgan ^[5]. Together they had one child, Ethel Borden, born in 1897. In 1900, they lived at their New Castle, Mount Kisco estate overlooking the Hudson River ^[6] which she later donated for use as a tuberculosis sanatarium.

Florence led one of the suffrage parades down Fifth Avenue, worked on campaigns on unsafe factory and tenement conditions, child labor and safe milk. As minister to Norway in World War II, she organized evacuation efforts while hiding in a forest from the Nazi invasion.

She served on the Board of Managers of New York State Reformatory for Women at Bedford, New York, appointed by Pres. Wilson to the the U.S. Commission on Industrial Relations, co-founded the Committee of Mercy, organized the American Red Cross Women's Motor Corps of the District of Columbia, and directed the Women's Motor Corps in France, served as chair of the U.S. National Defense Advisory Commission's Committee on Women in Industry.

In her ninety-second year, U.S. President John F. Kennedy honored her by awarding her the first "Citation of Merit for Distinguished Service."

She often found herself in the middle of historic events, including the outbreak of WWI in Europe, and the Mexican civil war. As she stated, "I think nobody can deny that I have always had through sheer luck a box seat at the America of my times."

She passed away in 1967 at her home in Georgetown, Washington, D.C. She is buried at Woodlawn Cemetery in Bronx, NY ^[7].

Sources

1. ↑ United States Passport Applications, 1795-1925, Florence Jaffray Jaffrey Harriman, 1917; citing Passport Application, District Of Columbia, United States, source certificate #60354, Passport Applications, January 2, 1906 - March 31, 1925, Roll 385.
2. ↑ "New York, New York City Births, 1846-1909," database, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:27YF-ZVS : 11 February 2018), Hurst, 21 Jul 1870; citing Manhattan, New York, New York, United States, reference 110 New York Municipal Archives, New York; FHL microfilm 1,315,318.
3. ↑ United States Census, 1870, Florence Hurst in entry for Francis W Hurst, 1870.
4. ↑ New York Marriages, 1686-1980, Florence Jaffray Hurst in entry for Jefferson Borden Harriman, 1889.
5. ↑ Biography, Christopher Camalick https://www.familysearch.org/tree/person/details/9D4B-4TH
6. ↑ United States Census, 1900, Florence J Harriman in household of J Harriman, New Castle Township Mt. Kisco, Westchester, New York, United States; citing enumeration district (ED) 91, sheet 20A, family 436.
7. ↑ Find A Grave: Memorial #152195831

• "Mrs. J. Borden Harriman, Ex-Envoy, Dies at 97. Served in Norway at Time of Nazi Invasion in 1940 Given First Citation of Merit by Kennedy in April, 1963". The New York Times. September 1, 1967.

Mrs. J. Borden Harriman, Minister to Norway at the beginning of World War II and an early crusader for social rights, died at her Georgetown home here today. She was 97 years old.

• Biography on FamilySearch profile posted by Christopher Camalick, July 27, 2017 https://www.familysearch.org/tree/person/details/9D4B-4TH
• "United States, GenealogyBank Historical Newspaper Obituaries, 1815-2011", database, FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:QPBK-DM6V : 18 July 2020), Hon Florence, 1967.