Gertrude Webster

Webster was born in 1872 in Sycamore, Illinois. Her parents were Richard L. Divine and Susan S. Smith Divine.{{Cite web|title=1550 Clifton Avenue|url=http://www.woodlandparkcolumbus.com/1550-clifton-avenue.html|access-date=January 1, 2022|website=Dornberg House, Stories of Woodland Park|language=en}} She attended Ann Arbor High School.{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=_f3hAAAAMAAJ&dq=gertrude+webster+dies+in+phoenix+1947&pg=PA371|title=The Michigan Alumnus: News By Classes|date=May 24, 1947|publisher=Alumni Association of the University of Michigan.|pages=371|language=en}} She earned a Bachelor of Letters from the University of Michigan{{Cite book|last=University of Michigan|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=d-vhAAAAMAAJ&q=%22gertrude+adelaide+divine%22|title=General Register|date=1895|pages=223|language=en}}{{Cite web|last=Cornelius|first=Keridwen|date=January 1, 2019|title=The Constant Gardeners|url=https://www.phoenixmag.com/2019/01/01/the-constant-gardeners/|access-date=December 31, 2021|website=PHOENIX magazine|language=en-US}} in 1896.{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Ny7bTRq5NRQC&dq=gertrude+divine+marriage+to+william+mcclellan+ritter&pg=PA173|title=The Michigan Alumnus|date=1897|publisher=Alumni Association of the University of Michigan.|pages=173174|language=en}}{{Cite book|last=University of Michigan|first=author|url=http://archive.org/details/03610470R.nlm.nih.gov|title=Catalogue of graduates, non-graduates, officers, and members of the faculties, 1837-1921|date=1923|publisher=Ann Arbor, Mich. : The University|others=U.S. National Library of Medicine|pages=109}}

After college, she lived in Columbus, Ohio, where she founded the Big Sister movement in Columbus. On February 2, 1898, she married a lumber tycoon from West Virginia, William McClellan Ritter, at St. Thomas' Church in New York.{{Cite news|date=January 28, 1898|title=Local Brevities|periodical=Ann Arbor Argus|url=https://pulp.aadl.org/node/151577|access-date=January 1, 2022}} While in Columbus, Webster was the president of the Columbus Arts Association from 1911 to 1921. In 1909, Webster commissioned the painter Cecilia Beaux to paint her mother while Beaux was in Columbus, Ohio.{{Cite book|last1=Beaux|first1=Cecilia|url=http://archive.org/details/ceciliabeauxamer00beau|title=Cecilia Beaux : American figure painter|last2=Yount|first2=Sylvia|last3=High Museum of Art|last4=Tacoma Art Museum|last5=Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts|date=2007|location=Atlanta : High Museum of Art ; [Berkeley] |publisher= University of California Press|isbn=978-0-520-25318-6|pages=58}}{{Cite book|last=Columbus Museum of Art|url=http://archive.org/details/americancollecti0000colu|title=The American collections, Columbus Museum of Art|date=1988|location=Columbus, Ohio |publisher=The Museum, in association with H.N. Abrams, New York|isbn=978-0-8109-1811-5|pages=62, 203}} The resulting painting "Mrs. Richard Low Devine, born Susan Sofia Smith", was displayed in the Columbus Museum of Art multiple times.

File:ManchesterVT_SVAC_YesterHouse.jpg, formerly served as Webster's winter home.]]

Webster's summer home, Yester House, was in Manchester, Vermont. The house was built for Webster, her then-husband William Ritter, and their two adopted children in 1917.{{Cite web|last=Rafael|first=Anita|date=May 10, 2017|title=Yester House|url=https://strattonmagazine.com/history/yester-house/|access-date=January 1, 2022|website=Stratton Magazine - Celebrating Manchester and the Mountains|language=en-US}} The house was designed by Henry Murphy and Richard Henry Dana, with the landscape design done by Charles N. Lowrie. While she lived there, the house held 6,000 pieces of Swiss glass, and Webster wrote about the Vermont Glass Factory in a 1923 article in Country Life.{{Cite magazine|last=Ritter|first=Gertrude D.|date=1923|title=The Vermont Glass Factory|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=jFgiAQAAMAAJ&dq=country+life+vermont+glass+factory+1923&pg=PA29|language=en|publisher=Doubleday, Page, & Company|pages=74|periodical=Country Life}} She also worked with the League of Women Voters in Vermont.{{Cite news|last=National Endowment for the Humanities|first=|date=October 9, 1922|title=The Brattleboro daily reformer. (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1913-1955, October 09, 1922, EARLY MAIL EDITION, Image 5|newspaper=The Brattleboro Daily Reformer|pages=5|url=https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn86071593/1922-10-09/ed-1/seq-5/|access-date=January 1, 2022|issn=2474-6134}} From 1919 until 1921, Webster was one of the highest tax payers in Manchester,{{Cite news|last=National Endowment for the Humanities|first=|date=July 3, 1919|title=Manchester's heaviest tax payers|page=1|work=The Manchester journal (Manchester, VT)|url=https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn83025668/1919-07-03/ed-1/seq-1/|access-date=January 1, 2022|issn=1062-5070}}{{Cite news|last=National Endowment for the Humanities|first=|date=June 9, 1921|title=The Manchester journal. [volume] (Manchester, Vt.) 1861-current, June 09, 1921, Image 1|newspaper=The Manchester Journal|url=https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn83025668/1921-06-09/ed-1/seq-1/|access-date=January 1, 2022|issn=1062-5070}}{{Cite news|last=National Endowment for the Humanities|first=|date=July 15, 1920|title=The Manchester journal. [volume] (Manchester, Vt.) 1861-current, July 15, 1920, Image 1|newspaper=The Manchester Journal|url=https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn83025668/1920-07-15/ed-1/seq-1/|access-date=January 1, 2022|issn=1062-5070}} and at the time Yester House was showcased in Country Life magazine.{{Cite news|date=April 1920|title=Yester House|pages=63–65|work=Country Life|url=https://books.googleusercontent.com/books/content?req=AKW5QaeObBlmdkuPhtAXr9GIqVDZ6YIWEAeg3Xu6VKChHtGql47413eaVkVWHCwcZbXopKpt79Kh8qPgbOYW1P7n84O7ix75Wagt7PnolNHegx7lI-aahMS4baVTtCqXN9TIFUe-gXkxvCYjCuNNqBMK3gQPX5HLD4pvqgFX_4Kiy4V_cGgr8KsjF9xivhSkeLfmtkmwHtSfohdhYpyu3AmkwJN-Gap7HJlXw1qPHKbRj8On2dfF9KfjXRY4ceS8S9bLmtKO9eiU}} In 1950, Yester House was purchased by the Southern Vermont Arts Center.{{Cite book|last=Mitchell|first=Don|url=http://archive.org/details/vermontphotograp00mitc|title=Vermont|date=2001|publisher=Fodor's|isbn=978-0-676-90139-9|pages=235}}{{Cite web|title=History of the Southern Vermont Arts Center in Manchester|url=https://www.svac.org/visit/about-us/|access-date=January 1, 2022|website=Southern Vermont Arts Center|language=en}} In 1988, a successful application was filed for Yester house to join the National Register of Historic Places.{{Cite web|date=September 1988|title=National Register of Historic Places Inventory - nomination form|url=https://npgallery.nps.gov/GetAsset/3f94f38b-abd7-425a-a218-efa49b7a6682}}

Webster divorced Ritter in 1922, and they agreed she was to receive $70,000 per year, the Vermont house, and a house in Washington, DC.{{Cite news|date=January 4, 1934|title=MRS. WEBSTER ON STAND.; Ex-Wife of Lumberman Testifies in Suit for $70,000 a Year.|language=en-US|work=The New York Times|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1934/01/04/archives/mrs-webster-on-stand-exwife-of-lumberman-testifies-in-suit-for.html|access-date=January 1, 2022|issn=0362-4331}} When Ritter stopped paying alimony in 1932, she sued him.{{Cite news|date=April 26, 1933|title=Former wife asks Ritter back alimony|page=A-2 (image 2)|work=Evening star (Washington, D.C.)|url=https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn83045462/1933-04-26/ed-1/seq-2/|access-date=December 31, 2021|issn=2331-9968|via=National Endowment for the Humanities}} The resulting 1934 trial was covered by the New York Times during which Webster noted that Ritter "beat the horses and the dogs" and further objected when she brought ailing children from a Washington, DC, hospital to their summer home in Vermont. Webster initially declined a settlement offer of $30,000 per year,{{Cite news|date=January 9, 1934|title=Former Wife Rejects $30,000 a Year Income|language=en-US|work=The New York Times|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1934/01/09/archives/former-wife-rejects-30000-a-year-income.html|access-date=January 1, 2022|issn=0362-4331}} but accepted the offer the following day.{{Cite news|date=January 10, 1934|title=Ex-Wife Accepts $30,000 a Year.|language=en-US|work=The New York Times|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1934/01/10/archives/exwife-accepts-30000-a-year.html|access-date=January 1, 2022|issn=0362-4331}}

File:Phoenix-Desert_Botanical_Garden-Webster_Auditorium-1.JPG

Webster was also a collector of early Americana who donated multiple pieces to the Smithsonian Museum of American History.{{Cite web|title=Sugar Caster|url=https://americanhistory.si.edu/collections/search/object/nmah_300027|access-date=January 1, 2022|website=National Museum of American History|language=en}}{{Cite web|title=Collections Search Results|url=https://americanhistory.si.edu/collections/search|access-date=January 1, 2022|website=National Museum of American History|language=en}} In 1924 she donated a room to the Smithsonian Institution.{{Cite web|last=Laboratory|first=United States National Museum Photographic|date=1957|title=Hall of Everyday Life in Early America, Museum of Natural History|url=https://siarchives.si.edu/collections/siris_arc_402416|access-date=January 1, 2022|website=Smithsonian Institution Archives|language=en}} The donation was the paneled walls of the parlor of the Reuben Bliss house from Springfield, Massachusetts, which was presented in a 1957 report.{{Cite book|last=United States National Museum|url=http://archive.org/details/annualreportfory1957united|title=1957 Annual Report|publisher=Washington : Smithsonian Institution|others=Smithsonian Libraries|year=1951|pages=2, 7}}

Webster married Hugh Webster in Manchester, Vermont, on November 22, 1924,{{Cite book|url=http://archive.org/details/sim_vogue_1925-01-15_65_2|title=Vogue 1925-01-15: Vol 65 Iss 2|date=January 15, 1925|publisher=Condé Nast Publications |pages=109|language=English}} and they split their time between Vermont and Phoenix. She divorced him in 1928, but retained the last name Webster.

A few years later, after a trip to Switzerland, Webster returned to Phoenix with an unusual cactus and met Gustaf Starck, an engineer who organized the Arizona Cactus and Native Flora Society in 1934.{{Cite book|last=Desert Botanical Garden (Ariz.)|url=http://archive.org/details/agave1219unse|title=Agave|date=1983|publisher=Phoenix, Ariz. : The Garden|others=Schilling Library Desert Botanical Gardens|pages=4, 5}} In 1936, Webster, now president of the Arizona Cactus and Native Flora Society, asked the state of Arizona for land and $2500 to run the garden. When the state declined, Webster raised the $40,000 needed to establish the garden, including a $10,000 donation of her own.{{Cite book|last=McCormick|first=Kathleen|url=http://archive.org/details/gardenloversguid00mcco|title=The garden lover's guide to the West|date=2000|location=New York |publisher= Princeton Architectural Press|isbn=978-1-56898-166-6|pages=35}} In 1938 they got permission from the state of Arizona to use the land, in what had been the Papago Saguaro National Monument, as a botanical garden.{{Cite book|last=VanderMeer|first=Philip|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Lomuw8gf880C&dq=gertrude+webster+phoenix+arizona&pg=PT93|title=Desert Visions and the Making of Phoenix, 1860-2009|date=December 16, 2010|publisher=UNM Press|isbn=978-0-8263-4893-7|language=en}} The landscape architect Charles Gibbs Adams helped design the plans for the botanical garden, and Webster helped design the layout while she was living at her house in Vermont. The Desert Botanical Garden opened to the public in 1939,{{Cite web|last=Southard|first=John Larsen|title=Gertrude Webster, Garden Booster|url=https://saltriverstories.org/items/show/37|access-date=January 1, 2022|website=Salt River Stories|language=en}}{{Cite book|last=Talton|first=Jon|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=BmirCgAAQBAJ&dq=gertrude+webster+phoenix+arizona&pg=PA62|title=A Brief History of Phoenix|date=2015|publisher=Arcadia Publishing|isbn=978-1-4671-1844-6|language=en}} and included plants donated by Starck, Webster, and others.{{Cite book|last1=Hartz|first1=Donna|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=kXYKXufJfo0C&dq=gertrude+webster+phoenix+arizona&pg=PA22|title=The Phoenix Area's Parks and Preserves|last2=Hartz|first2=George|date=2007|publisher=Arcadia Publishing|isbn=978-0-7385-4886-9|language=en}} The Webster Auditorium, named after Gertrude Webster, is on the property of the Desert Botanical Garden and was dedicated on January 21, 1940, with over 1500 people attending the ceremony. During World War II, the garden was tended by a few volunteers, but was not faring well.

Webster died on March 31, 1947 in Phoenix and was buried in the Elmwood Cemetery in DeKalb County, Illinois. She directed the income from her Arizona properties to the Arizona Cactus and Native Flora Society to be used in the administration of the Desert Botanical Garden.{{Cite book|last=Wyman|first=Donald|url=http://archive.org/details/arboretumsbotani00wyma|title=The arboretums and botanical gardens of North America|date=1959|location=Jamaica Plain, Mass. |publisher= Arnold Arboretum of Harvard University|pages=5}} The one stipulation was that the society had to retain at least two hundred members in good standing, which Lou Ella Archer made happen in the period following Webster's death. Upon her death, items from her estate{{Cite news|date=October 24, 1947|title=$720 Paid for Four Chairs|language=en-US|work=The New York Times|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1947/10/24/archives/720-paid-for-four-chairs.html|access-date=January 1, 2022|issn=0362-4331}}{{Cite news|date=November 1, 1947|title=Antique Bowl Brings $375|language=en-US|work=The New York Times|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1947/11/01/archives/antique-bowl-brings-375.html|access-date=January 1, 2022|issn=0362-4331}}{{Cite news|date=October 25, 1947|title=Glass Collection Auctioned|language=en-US|work=The New York Times|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1947/10/25/archives/glass-collection-auctioned.html|access-date=January 1, 2022|issn=0362-4331}} were auctioned off in New York City,{{Cite news|date=October 19, 1947|title=AUCTIONS TO OFFER MANY RARE WORKS; Items From Private Collectors and Estates Listed for Sale by Galleries This Week|language=en-US|work=The New York Times|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1947/10/19/archives/auctions-to-offer-many-rare-works-items-from-private-collectors-and.html|access-date=January 1, 2022|issn=0362-4331}} ultimately resulting in a donation for over $114,000 that was given to the Children's Hospital in Columbus, Ohio.{{Cite news|date=November 2, 1947|title=$114,120 FOR COLLECTION; Children's Hospital to Benefit, as Provided in Owner's Will|language=en-US|work=The New York Times|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1947/11/02/archives/114120-for-collection-childrens-hospital-to-benefit-as-provided-in.html|access-date=January 1, 2022|issn=0362-4331}}{{Cite news|date=November 19, 1944|title=Van Dyck Bring $3,100 at Sale|language=en-US|work=The New York Times|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1944/11/19/archives/van-dyck-bring-3100-at-sale.html|access-date=January 1, 2022|issn=0362-4331}}

File:Echinocereus_websterianus_(6050284589).jpg]]

George Edmund Lindsay, who served as the executive director of the Desert Botanical Garden, named a succulent after Webster.{{Cite book|last1=Eggli|first1=Urs|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=gf3uCAAAQBAJ&dq=gertrude+webster+phoenix+arizona&pg=PA256|title=Etymological Dictionary of Succulent Plant Names|last2=Newton|first2=Leonard E.|date=June 29, 2013|publisher=Springer Science & Business Media|isbn=978-3-662-07125-0|language=en}} The plant, Echinocereus websterianus is described in the Cactus and Succulent Journal of America in a 1947 publication.{{Cite journal|last1=Lindsay|first1=George|date=1947|title=Echinocereus websterianus G.E.Linds.|journal=Cactus and Succulent Journal of America|volume=19|page=153}}

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Category:University of Michigan alumni

Category:Philanthropists from Illinois

Category:1872 births

Category:1947 deaths

Category:People from Sycamore, Illinois

Category:Pioneer High School (Ann Arbor, Michigan) alumni