Shining brow vs. Reality (need help w/Edwin Cheney history)

[mike]

"Shining Brow" vs. Reality



I am doing research on Edwin Cheney after his move to St. Louis. One thing I am curious about is the script in the play

[Guest]

Well, first of all, Cheney did not inform Wright of the murders by telegram. Wright got word of the murders by phone while working at Midway Gardens, then under construction. His son John was with him.



Wright immediately got on the train for Spring Green and by coincidence he met Cheney on the ramp. They shook hands, didn't say much and rode the train up. There was never any indicaction that there was outward hostility. Cheney took his murdered children's remains back with him. He married not long after Mamah's death.



I know Cheney moved to Detroit after that.



Secrest's biography on Wright has these details plus a few more.

[rgrant]

Mike, you have a copy of the "Shining Brow" script? Where did you get it? Is it available? I tried to arrange a concert performance of it at last year's Conservancy event, but it would have been too expensive. I also know there is a CD, but it has not ever been released.

[mike]

He may have moved to detroit for some time. I am certain he lived in St. Louis. I have verified this thru census records, phone books and the fact that there are records that he was a vice president of Wagner Electric in St. Louis in the 1930's.

There was a brief description of the play "Shining Brow" on the official website.

Can you tell me where I can find the account of the story of Wright & Cheney meeting on the train? Also on his possible move to Detroit?

[pharding]

Can you tell me where I can find the account of the story of Wright & Cheney meeting on the train? Also on his possible move to Detroit?

There is a very good description in My Father, Frank Lloyd Wright by John Lloyd Wright in addition to Secrist's book. John Lloyd Wright was there on the train to Madison on that horrible day with FLW and Edwin Cheney.

[DamiensGreve]

I am doing research on Edwin Cheney after his move to St. Louis.

I had never known he moved to St. Louis; in fact, I've never been able to find any information about his life after the 1914 fire at Taliesin. Where are he, Martha and John buried? And is he related at all to the current Vice President of the United States? Seriously--I've wondered that for years.



As for your inquiry, pharding is correct. Secrest and John Lloyd Wright both provided the account of Wright's encounter with Edwin Cheney immediately after the 1914 fire.

[JR-Oak Park]

RGrant - used copies of the Shining Brow libretto are available on amazon.com.



DamiensGreve - from an article in one of the Oak Park local papers a few years ago, I recall that Edwin Cheney is buried in Bellefontaine Cemetery in St. Louis. I believe that the children are buried there as well.

[mike]

Thank you for that tidbit about where they are buried. I didn't have that info yet.

(by the way....Bellefontaine is the location of Louis Sullivan's "wainwright tomb")

I don't think he moved to st. louis unitl 1926 or so. I can't imagine his kids are buried in St. Louis.

The last time his name apears in a St. Louis county phone book is 1940 +-

[mike]

The "St. Louis" Cheney family according to the 1930 U.S. census



Edwin H Cheney born 1872 (died in St. Louis approx. 12/20/1942)

(wife)Elizabeth M Cheney born 1876

Henry K Cheney born 1913

Frederick Cheney born 1915

Jane Cheney born 1918



The fire a taliesin was around August 15, 1914

Mamah, her two children John and Martha died in the fire.



Wrights affair started in 1909 so it looks like Cheney had started his new family before the fire.



I contacted Bellefontaine Cemetary and it looks like some of his children are buried there but not Edwin.

[Reidy]

I can't help noticing how quickly he remarried and started a new family. This raises the suspicion that he, like Mamah, had something going on the side before the divorce.



Peter

[Roderick Grant]

Since the affair between Wright and Mamah was apparently going on for several years before their departure and was not exactly a secret around Oak Park, it seems unlikely that Edwin did not know about it. The oddest thing about the whole situation is that he did not take any action earlier.