From my “Over the Hill” series.
Coinciding with her wedding, Jennie was anointed as one of Four Hundred Ultra Fashionables in Americaby author C.W. deLyon Nicholla.
Her wedding would set an incredible standard. Two years earlier Empire Mine heir William Bourn, president of Spring Valley Water Company, and future owner of Woodside’s Filoli estate, spent $25,000 on a wedding for his only daughter, Maud, also at St. Matthews.
Tallying up Jennie Crocker’s list of expenditures, ranging from gifts to the wedding party ($40,000) to orchards ($4,500), maids, porters and grooms ($500), her wedding cost $55,900–more than double that spent by Bourn.