Martha Borthwick, newspaper photo from 1911
Martha "Mamah" Borthwick (Boone, Iowa), June 19, 1869 - Spring Green (Wisconsin), August 15, 1914) was especially known for her love relationship with Frank Lloyd Wright, who only ended when she was murdered on August 15, 1914 . biography
Borthwick obtained her BA at the University of Michigan in 1892. Later she worked as a librarian in Port Huron (Michigan). In 1899 Borthwick married Edwin Cheney, an engineer from Oak Park (Illinois). They had two children: John (1902) and Martha (1905).
Mamah (pronounced: "Mee-maa") and Wright's wife, Catherine, met through a friend's group. Soon Wright was commissioned to design a house for Edwin and Mamah. Nowadays, this house is known as the Edwin H. Cheney House, which has been a bed & amp; breakfast room.
In 1909, Mamah and Wright left their two spouses to travel to Europe, where they initially stayed in Italy for about a year. Some historians believe that Mamah and Wright had an affair since 1905. Mamah's official name was Martha Borthwick Cheney, although she no longer used her husband's name from their divorce in 1911, just after her return from Europe.
On their return home in the United States, most people in their former social environment rejected the open affair, especially because Catherine refused to accept a divorce from Frank (which she continued until 1922). The editor of the local newspaper in Spring Green (Wisconsin) told Wright to shame on the town. Even the larger newspapers in Chicago (Illinois) shared this criticism and predicted that Wright would be arrested for immorality, despite the fact that the sheriff of Spring Green stated that he did not have enough evidence to link. For years, the alleged affair had a major impact on Wright's career: he received only half of the assignments he had previously received and his first major project was only in 1916 when he was commissioned to design the Imperial Hotel. Murder
On August 15, 1914, a quarrel between Wright and one of his recently employed servants led to the murder of Mamah, Cheneys, both children, three of Wright's comrades and one of the sons of these comrades. The servants set fire in a wing of Wright's Taliesin house, and killed his victims with an ax while the house burned. At that time, Wright was in Chicago, where he worked on the construction of the Midway Gardens.
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