Born in 1899, Belle Baruch grew up with the twentieth century.
She came of age during WWI, when Bernard Baruch joined Woodrow Wilson’s administration and sold his seat on the New York Stock Exchange.
Like her father, to whom she was close throughout her life, Belle wanted to contribute to the war effort.
After the war, Bernard Baruch went to Paris with Woodrow Wilson’s delegation to help negotiate the Treaty of Versailles and develop the League of Nations.
He invited Mrs. Baruch and Belle to visit France while he was there, to see for themselves the wreckage of war.
Belle and her mother toured the devastated countryside and visited battlefields, including Belleau Wood, where nearly 10,000 Americans had died in a fierce battle in 1918.
Belle Baruch and Evangeline Johnson were high-spirited, young and wealthy, and they wanted to change the world. In 1920, when the 19th Amendment was passed and women got the right to vote, they were ecstatic.
Later, influenced by Bernard Baruch’s work with Woodrow Wilson, they became passionately interested in the League of Nations.
They were dismayed by the negative response from Congress to Wilson’s efforts to establish the League, and the toll it was taking on the President.
The Baruchs were devoted to Mrs. Wilson. Throughout the rest of her life they treated her with care and affection, and she was a frequent visitor to Hobcaw Barony.
In the spring of 1925, still mourning her husband’s death, Edith Wilson traveled to Europe with Belle Baruch, meeting Evangeline Johnson along the way. Wilson and Johnson are seen admiring a bird in this photograph, taken on the trip.
Later that year, Evangeline fell in love with the conductor Leopold Stokowski and married him. Evangeline’s marriage dismayed Belle, forcing her to confront her feelings for her friend.
Following Evangeline’s marriage to Stokowski, Belle Baruch began spending more time in France. There, she could live free from the shadow of her famous father, in an atmosphere more welcoming to gay people.
She bought an apartment in Paris and frequently visited the small town of Pau in the French Pyrenees to go foxhunting.
It was in Pau that Belle began to train for show jumping, a sport that would would dominate her life for the next decade.
To return to the trail click NEXT STOP
To return to the Hobcaw House Reception Hall click
/hobcaw-house/the-reception-hall/
