Helena Holbrook "Ella" Walker, Principessa della Torre e Tasso

Helena Holbrook "Ella" Walker, Principessa della Torre e Tasso

https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/71512224/helena-holbrook-princi...

In 1897, Detroit and Walkerville celebrated one of the biggest social events of the time. “The Canadian Club Girl,” Ella Walker, the only child of Franklin Hiram (a son of Hiram Walker) and Mary Holbrook Walker, announced her intention to marry Count Manfred von Matuschka, a Hungarian nobleman. The wedding was a gala affair. Over 500 guests assembled at the Franklin Walker mansion after church ceremonies. Surrounded by roses and palms, they sampled hors d’oeuvres catered by Sherry’s of New York and sipped “red lemonade” spiked with Walker’s Canadian Club. Reports of the wedding filled many newspaper’s society pages.

Ella’s extraordinary life provides a glimpse of Detroit and Walkerville in the Gilded Age (1890-WWI), as well as a compelling personal tale. Both are the subject of a book project just launched by University of Michigan professor Jennifer Widner and several colleagues around the world. Widner spent a month at the Rockefeller Foundation’s research centre in Bellagio, Italy this winter. Each day she passed a photograph of an older woman who had a special sparkle in her eye. Upon learning that the woman was the original owner of the estate and that she had come from the Detroit area, Widner wanted to know more. So did her fellow scholars. The outline of Ella’s story has taken form over the past several weeks.

Widner and her colleagues are looking for descendants of relatives or friends who might have recollections or correspondence. “I would like to know what Ella thought of the events she lived through, what she enjoyed or found fun, and the choices she made.”

Ella was born in 1876. She entered wealthy Detroit-Walkerville society whose members were beginning to turn their attention to art and philanthropy. As a teenager she watched her uncle, Edward Chandler Walker, help launch the Detroit Museum of Art (now the DIA). She may also have encountered Charles L. Freer, the local business magnate who later endowed the Smithsonian Institution with his extensive collection. And she would have known James McNeil Whistler’s aunt and sister, both of whom lived nearby.

Life was not always easy. Ella settled with the Count in Upper Silesia after their marriage. The Count was a naturalized German citizen, and when World War I broke out, he fought on the side of the Kaiser. The U.S. Government confiscated Ella’s property, including businesses in which she had a joint interest. Ella also lost her U.S. citizenship. She lived a humble existence behind the lines in Berlin, to the distress of her parents. Ella’s home, Villa Serbelloni, overlooking two branches of Lake Como, with the village of Bellagio, Italy below. The interwar years were turbulent. In 1926, Count Manfred died.

Four years later, Ella re-married, but the union lasted less than two years. In 1932, Ella regained her U.S. citizenship and married for a third time. Her new husband, Prince Alessandro von Thurn und Taxis, the Duke of Duino and Prince of Torre e Tasso, was a naturalized Italian citizen. The two settled in Italy but appear to have lived much of the time apart, while he sought to re-build the Castel Duino near Trieste, his seat, and she sought to renovate the Villa Serbelloni on Lake Como. The Prince died five years after the marriage.

In the last quarter of her life, Ella’s project was the restoration of the Villa Serbelloni and its grounds. A site of considerable historical significance, the Villa itself had fallen into use as a hotel, and Ella set herself to the task of its rescue. When German occupation forces moved in, she escaped over the Alps to Switzerland, returning at the end of the war to continue her mission.

On her death in 1959, Ella left the Villa to the Rockefeller Foundation to promote international understanding. She gave much of her remaining fortune to her adopted daughter. And she remembered the local tie too! Franklin H. Walker, Ella’s father, was the first member of the Hiram Walker family to attend college…the University of Michigan. Ella left the University of Michigan a gift in her parents’ names to help extend educational loans to needy students
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Several functions of elaborate character have been given in honor of the approaching marriage of Miss Walker and Count Manfred Graf von Matuschka. On Tuesday Mr. F. H. Walker gave a dinner for thirty gentlemen at the Detroit Club. The table was magnificently decorated with flowers and the colors of Germany, and the menu cards were of very beautiful design. Thursday afternoon Mrs. T. D. Buhl gave a reception and Thursday evening Mr. Buhl gave a dinner at the Detroit Club. Monday evening Mrs. J. Harrington Walker will give a dinner.

The marriage of Miss Ella Holbrook Walker, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Franklin H. Walker, and Count Manfred Von Matuschka, Baron de Toppolezen und Spatten, of Germany, will be celebrated Tues day afternoon at the residence of the parents of the bride-elect.

WEDDED A WEALTHY GIRL. A German Count Captures a Hello of Detroit.

Detriot, Mich., June 16. This afternoon Bishop Foley united in marriage Count Manfred Von Matuschka, Baron de Toppolezen and Spatten, and Miss Ella Walker at the residence of tho bride's father, Franklin H. Walker. The civil ceremony was performed by Justice Schellenberg at noon today.

Count Von Matuschka resides in Silesia and Is of Hungarian extraction. Ho Is a lieutenant In the regiment Der Gardes du Corps, a reserve force of the German army. Two other members of the German nobility, the Count's brother, Eberhardt Von Matuschka, and Count Ack--n, were present at the ceremony. Miss Walker Is a granddaughter of Hiram Walker, the founder of the great distillery at Walkervllle, Ontario. The wealth of the Walker family is estimated at from fifteen to twenty millions. The wedding was strictly private, only a few Immediate friends and relatives of the contracting parties being present.

--- The Scranton Tribune, Scranton, Pennsylvania, Thursday, June 17, 1897

Birth: Jan. 17, 1875 Detroit Wayne County Michigan, USA
Death: Jun. 20, 1959 Como Lombardia, Italy

HSH (Her Serene Highness) Ella, Principessa della Torre e Tasso.

She was born in the United States, the daughter of Franklin Hiram Walker & May Holbrook and the grand-daughter of Hiram Walker, the distiller known for "Canadian Club" whiskey and other products bearing his name and the founding of Walkerville, Ontario, Canada.

As an adult she had been described as "a beautiful woman of rather small stature, auburn hair, fair complexion, magnificent blue eyes, and a marvelous smile".

She was married three times during her eventful life. Her 1st marriage was to Count Manfred von Matuschka, Baron de Topholenzen and Spatten in 1897, which ended in 1926.

She next married James Hazen Hyde, an American capitalist, in 1930 at Versailles, France. The marriage lasted only two years.

She thirdly married the head of the Italian branch of the princely Thurn und Taxis family, Prince Alessandro von Thurn und Taxis, the Duke of Duino and Prince of Torre e Tasso, in 1932 at Vrana, Italy.

The two settled in Italy but appear to have lived much of the time apart, as he sought to re-build the Castel Duino near Trieste, his seat, and she sought to renovate the Villa Serbelloni on Lake Como, which she had owned since 1928. The Prince sadly died five years after the marriage in 1937.

Ella lived until the age of 84 years but was childless, save an adopted daughter, Huberta, from her first marriage to Graf Matuschka. She was a warm-hearted and sophisticated person, much loved by her husband's family. Before she died in June 1959 at the Villa Serbelloni, Ella gifted the property and 16 exquisite furnishings, plus an added two million dollar endowment in the Princess' last will for the promotion of international understanding, to the the Rockefeller Foundation.

Franklin H. Walker, Ella's father, was the first member of the Hiram Walker family to attend college, his alma-mater being the University of Michigan. Ella also left the University of Michigan a gift in her parent's names to extend educational loans to students in need.

The Villa Serbelloni is today also known as the Rockefeller Foundation Centre.

Ella is buried near her husband Prince Alessandro.

Family links:
Parents:

Franklin Hiram Walker (1853 - 1916)

Burial: Cimitero di Castello di Duino Duino Provincia di Trieste Friuli-Venezia Giulia, Italy

Created by: Jeff Lloyd ©2004-2016 Record added: Jun 17, 2011 Find A Grave Memorial# 71512224

References

1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alessandro,_1st_Duke_of_Castel_Duino
2. https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1937/03/12/118962454....
3. https://www.familysearch.org/tree/person/sources/L8WW-F6C
4. https://quellochepiaceavaleria.com/en/the-story-of-helena-holbrook-... “This enchanting woman is called Helena Holbrook “Ella” Walker, Princess of Torre e Tasso (1875-1959)”