[9] In 1882, aged 27, according to one source,[10] Evangeline was first married to Michael Hodge Simpson (1809–1884), a wealthy cotton manufacturer from Saxonville, Massachusetts,[11] who was 48 years her senior.

[12] While the newlyweds went on their honeymoon in Europe, Simpson commissioned a $150,000 (equivalent to $4,735,862 in 2023) mansion to be built in Wayland, overlooking Dudley Pond.

Local residents responded badly to their age difference however, and the couple did not end up spending much time in the mansion.

[14] The relationship between the women continued until Evangeline met Bishop Henry Benjamin Whipple in Florida while she was on vacation.

[16] In 1910, Evangeline Whipple left Minnesota for Italy, traveling with Cleveland, to be with her terminally ill brother Kingsmill Marrs, and never returned to the United States.

[7] Whipple moved to Bagni di Lucca and the two women spent the next eight years doing philanthropic and civic work, such as building an orphanage.

[7] After the onset of the Great War, both Whipple and Cleveland volunteered for the Red Cross in Italy, in addition to their friend Erichsen.

In her will, she left millions of dollars to schools, churches, people, and Native American programs in Minnesota that she worked with.

Tilly Laskey, who traveled to Tuscany to research Whipple's life and is considered the "premier historian" on her legacy, was expected to be commissioned to work on the project called "Hidden in Plain Sight: Recovering Evangeline Marrs Whipple’s Minnesota Story Through Archival Research.