John Templeman Coolidge, Sr.

Obituary, Hartford (CT) Courant, 18 Nov 1945:

Well Known Artist Is Dead At 89 John T. Coolidge Was Trustee of Boston Museum of Fine Arts

Boston, Nov. 17 (AP) - John Templeton Coolidge, 89, author and artist, died yesterday at his Beacon Street home.

A trustee of the Boston Museum of Fine Arts and the Boston Athenaeum Library, he prepared for college in England and was graduated from Harvard in 1879.

Coolidge studied art in Europe, but most of his artistic undertakings were in Boston.

Vice-president and a director of the Boston Marine Museum, he served on the council of the School of Drawing and Painting of the Boston Museum of Fine Arts and the Committee on Fine Arts at Harvard.

He leaves his wife, four daughters and three sons. Funeral services will be held Monday at the First Church in Boston (Unitarian).

John Templeman Coolidge was the son of Joseph Swett Coolidge (born Joseph Swett), son of Tasker Hazard Swett & Elizabeth Boyer, and Mary Louisa Coolidge, dau. of John Templeman Coolidge & Louisa Riche Tilden.

John was first married 16 Sep 1879 in Boston, Mass. to Katherine Scollay Parkman, dau. of Francis Parkman & Katherine Scollay Bigelow; children: Mary, b. 23 May 1881 Paris, France Katherine Parkman, b. 5 Jan 1883 Paris, France Louisa Riche, b. 19 Aug 1886 Portsmouth, New Hampshire John Templeman, b. 28 Dec 1888 Boston, Mass. Elizabeth, b. 22 Jun 1895 Boston, Mass.

John married second 3 Sep 1913 in Kennebunk, Maine, Mary Abigail Parsons, dau. of George Parsons & Sarah Elizabeth Eddy; children: Henry, b. 29 Aug 1914 Portsmouth, New Hampshire Usher, b. 23 Apr 1917 Boston, Mass. ____________________________________

John Templeman Coolidge was a Boston Brahmin, from one of America’s oldest families and was independently wealthy thanks to the exertions of his forebearers.

A native of Boston, Templeman graduated from Harvard, Class of 1879, and was the first in his class to marry – to Katherine Parkman, daughter of the American historian Francis Parkman. Following the wedding the couple spent the years 1879-1884/5 in Paris, where Templeman studied art in the atelier of J. Carolus Duran. Returning to Boston, the Coolidges took up residence at 106 Beacon Street in the Back Bay neighborhood.

In 1886, Templeman purchased the Wentworth Mansion at 375 Little Harbor Road, Portsmouth, New Hampshire along with fifteen acres as a summer retreat from the city. The Mansion was built in 1750 by Benning Wentworth, colonial Governor of New Hampshire.

Accessible by boat and by rail from Boston, the Mansion had seen better economic times, and Mr. and Mrs. Coolidge set about working on their property and encouraging Boston friends and acquaintances to join them. Now known as the Wentworth-Coolidge Manson, a summer community began to form thanks to their efforts. Friends built or bought summer homes nearby, and artist friends from Boston were encouraged to come for a visit.

John Templeman Coolidge was a long-time trustee of the Boston Museum of Fine Arts, and a highly trained, competent and capable artist and antiquarian. A number of his oil on canvas paintings, and those of other Coolidge family members, are on display at the Mansion. The property was donated by Templeman's widow, Mary Abigail Parsons Coolidge, to the state of New Hampshire in 1954 and is now a state park and National Historic Landmark.

Wives:

1. Katherine Parkman d. February 12, 1900
2. Mary Parsons 1878-1964

Children with Mary Parsons:

1. Henry
2. Usher

Wentworth-Coolidge Mansion: City of Portsmouth: At the end of Little Harbor Road is the farm of Royal Governor Benning Wentworth (1696-1770). Appointed in 1741 by George II, Wentworth governed the province of New Hampshire for 25 years, promoting expansion as far west as Bennington, in present-day Vermont. The Cushing family acquired the farm in 1816, and by the 1840s began to show the mansion as one of America’s first historic houses open to the public. In 1886, John Templeman Coolidge of Boston purchased the site for a summer home. In 1954, his widow, Mary Abigail Parsons Coolidge, donated it to the state of New Hampshire.

Sources: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_New_Hampshire_Historical_Marke...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Wentworth-Coolidge_Mansion,_Ports...