Greatest Loss to Women’s Golf
Women’s golf suffered the most serious loss in the history of the sport in this country when Miss Fanny C. Osgood died suddenly in Hopedale yesterday morning. (In some articles, her name is spelled Fannie.) She was president of the Women’s Golf Association of Boston, and the part that she played in the handling of its destinies, as well as in the general conduct of women’s golf in this country for many years, was well summarized in the remark made by Miss Frances Stebbins, the association secretary:
“I don’t know what we shall do. She simply had everything at her fingertips. The rest of us only had to do what she said.”
Time was when Miss Osgood was best known to her golfing public from her playing ability, but even in the early days of her identification with the sport she was known to her associates in the executive end of the game as one who thought clearly and farsightedly, whose judgment was sound, whose ideas on the development of women’s golf were ever based upon logic, progressiveness and the maintenance of highest standards. When it came to efficiency of management, decisiveness in action and capabilities in grasping and looking after every detail, no matter how small, Miss Osgood in her eighteen years of service as secretary of the Boston Association and her subsequent service as president, was a marvel. She had a rare tutor in the person of Miss Louisa A. Wells, the first secretary of the Boston Association, which was organized in 1900 with The Country Club, Oakley, Brae-Burn and Concord Country Clubs as its entire membership.
Thinking back over the years, I can still see the picture of Miss Osgood at championships or other events run under the auspices of the association, seated at a table handling all of the details of the tournament; giving instructions here, answering questions there, making decisions on rules and doing a dozen and one things. How in the world she ever played the golf she did in some of those events, while looking after so many details, is something to still cause wonderment, in retrospect.
Nor were her interest limited to the affairs of the Boston District. The Country Club, of which she was a member for many years, was even more closely identified with the national affairs of golf in those earlier days than is the case today, even though Herbert Jaques of that club is now a member of the Executive Committee of the U.S.G.A. In the days when Miss Osgood began to become an important factor in woman’s golf, The Country Club was one of the comparatively few active, or voting clubs in the national organization and it was a power not only for that reason, but because from the members there had been chosen now fewer than three presidents of the national body between the years 1898 and 1909, each serving two years. It was through her acquaintance with two of those presidents, G. Herbert Windeler and the late Herbert Jaques that Miss Osgood had so much a part in helping the national organization solve many of the national problems of women’s golf.
The name of the newspaper this article was printed in was not on the clipping. The date was missing also, but the year 1929 was written on it. According to the town report for that year, Fanny died of peritonitis on May 3 at the age of 46. Her mother had died in February of that year. (You can find out a lot of things in those old town reports that aren’t in the more recent ones.)
Fanny was the granddaughter of George and Hannah Draper and the daughter of Hannah Thwing Draper and Edward Louis Osgood. The Osgood house was on the corner of Hopedale and Draper streets, part of the block where the Community House is now. (The house had originally belonged to George and Hannah Draper.) In 1909, Fanny’s mother, Hannah Osgood, bought The Larches from her nephew, George Otis Draper when it was the only house on William Street. (Before 1930, it was always William Street. I haven’t been able to pin down just when it was changed to Williams Street.) Shortly after the purchase, the house burned. The house that’s there now is the one she had built to replace the original Larches.
.On the back of this photo, it says Mary O’Connell, the nanny I presume, and Fanny, Hannah and Dana Osgood. It was taken by E. W. Cook, Albany, New York.
Sorry. This is the best I could do getting this picture of Fanny, even though I tried about a dozen shots in various places in the room. You can see it, much better than this, in the Trustees’ Room at the Bancroft Library.
Thanks to Wayne Boucher formerly of Northampton, Mass and now Cambridge, England, for sending links to the stained glass window at the Arlington Street Church in Boston. The window was donated by Fanny Osgood’s twin sister, Hannah Draper Osgood Townsend, in memory of Fanny, and their mother, Hannah Thwing Osgood.
Click here to see more on the Arlington Street Church and its windows.
Buried in the Osgood lot are:
Edward Louis Osgood, August 6, 1843 – June 10, 1911
Hannah Thwing (Draper) Osgood, April 11, 1853 – February 27, 1929.
(Hannah was the daughter of George and Hannah Draper.)
Their children:
Fanny Colburn Osgood, December 27, 1882 – May 3, 1929.
George Draper Osgood, April 25, 1888 – October 15, 1972.
Edward Dana Osgood, January 2, 1882 – May 25, 1951.
Laird (Branch) Osgood, July 17, 1878 – July 8, 1961. (Wife of Dana Osgood.)
Austin Branch Osgood, July 25, 1911, September 27, 1971. (Son of Dana and Laird Osgood.)
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