Beatrice Farnham
Beatrice Farnham (February 5, 1876 – February 19, 1979) was a 20th-century American artist and entrepreneur who was notable for her native-American-inspired fashion and handicrafts, her impassioned defense of tribal culture in newspaper interviews, and her outdoor wedding ceremony with noted Colorado park ranger John Otto.
"[4] In 1904 Farnham, who had been living in Boston, purchased the Ebenezer Vinson homestead on Randolph Street, South Weymouth, and said she intended to use it as a summer home.
[11] In September 1910, Sarah Comstock interviewed Farnham for Collier's magazine, for an article on women farmers.
"[11] The May 28, 1910, issue of Collier's noted that Farnham "is investigating our great river highways by means of her own motorboat.
She runs the Aloha herself, has covered hundreds of miles on the Ohio and its tributaries, and contemplates going down the Mississippi [River] on her next outing.
"[14] In August 1910, Farnham placed a classified advertisement in the Cincinnati Enquirer to sell a "new motor boat, fully equipped for cruising, size 32x8-1/2 feet; heavy duty engine; cost $1,800; ... at big sacrifice if at once; stored at Havana, Ill. Adress [sic] Miss Beatrice Farnham, South Weymouth, Mass.
"[15] A newspaper report in 1911 said that Farnham found South Weymouth "deadly dull and [nearby] Boston far too prim.
"[4] After her wedding to John Otto in 1911 (below), she publicized her interest in setting up an "Independence Colony" near Grand Junction, Colorado, where "girls of high society and the daughters of working men will be brought together to be taught new ideals of a sane American life.
"[16][17] We will discard corsets, and rats, and puffs, and powder and give the girls the real complexion.
[16][17]In 1911, at age 35, Farnham was "fully six feet tall, athletic, wiry and bubbling over with high spirits."
[4]Another writer in the same year noted that Farnham was a "very tall, slender girl, carrying a leather saddlebag rolled and strapped into a package easily handled.
She carried a "beautifully dyed" quirt made of horsehair, which, she said, was "weighted with buckshot and would fell a man if wielded by a strong hand.
"[11] Farnham and John Otto met in 1910 at a camp in the desert about fifty miles from Albuquerque, New Mexico.
[4] They were wed June 20, 1911, at the base of Independence Monument "on a narrow ledge a hundred feet from the ground" and reached by a trail sawn out of the solid rock by the bridegroom."
After a wedding dinner over a campfire, prepared by the bride, they changed their clothes, and the couple climbed Independence Rock, where they repeated vows "of their own devising.
[6]Chester, the best man at the wedding, recalled that the wedding site was "about 300 feet from the base of Independence Mountain,"[23] where Otto had built an altar about five feet in diameter, a circle made with white bits of quartz rock, flint, etc.
[23]The marriage ended two months after it began, when Farnham "went back to her home near Boston, purportedly to collect some belongings and settle affairs" but did not return.
[6] Farnham was married in April 1915 to Dallas Benson, a Kansas cowboy and ranch foreman, whom she had met on a train.
