Rash's Surname Index
Notes for Frances Matilda Van DE GRIFT
Frances Matilda VANDEGRIFT was born on 10 Mar 1840, to Jacob & Esther Thomas Keen Vandegrift, in Indianapolis, Indiana. Frances "Fannie" Vandegrift lived near Indianapolis until 1864, when she decided to join her husband, Samuel Osborne, who had already moved near Carson City, NV (prospecting). She and her children, Samuel Lloyd and Isobel Stuart Osborne, went by train to New York, then boarded a steamship to Panama, walked across the isthmus, by steamship to San Francisco, and finally stage coach to Carson City and Austin, Nevada, where she supported the family as a laundress. In 1869, the family moved to Oakland, CA, where Fannie studied painting. In 1875, she left Osborne and took the children to France and Belgium to pursue her art studies, and it was there she met Robert Louis Stevenson and the couple was living together by 1877. In 1878, she returned to San Francisco and Monterey, CA. After a reconciliation with Osborne failed, she divorced him.
Stevenson joined her after an arduous journey, described in "Across the Plains". They were married in 1880 and lived in Great Britain in 1880-1888. In 1889, searching for relief from RLS's health condition, which may have been genetic in nature. The Stevenson family (including his mother) went by ship to Tahiti, Hawaii, Gilbert Islands, and ultimately Western Samoa (see footnote).
The year following the family's arrival in Western Samoa, they began building their estate, Vailima, on 400 acres of lushly forested land behind Apia, and lived there until Stevenson's death, from a massive brain hemorrhage, in 1894. The last four years of his life were spent with his wife, her son Lloyd, and his adopted family of Samoans. Fannie continued living in Samoa until 1897, at which time she sold the land and returned to San Francisco until shortly before her death on 19 Feb 1914 in Santa Barbara, CA. She was buried in Jun 1915, at the summit of Mount Vaea, next to her husband.
Her daughter Isobel was amanuensis for RLS, and was, herself, and author, writing "This Life I've Loved", and other works. Fannie's son, Lloyd, served as Vice-Consul of Western Samoa, and was also an author, publishing several books of his own, including "An Intimate Portrait of RLS", and collaborated on several works with his famous step-father.These works included: "The Wrong Box" (1889) *"The Wrecker" (1892) "The Ebb Tide" (1894)
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