Francis Anthony Drexel

Francis Anthony Drexel
Born June 20, 1824
Philadelphia
Died February 15, 1885
Philadelphia
Occupation Banker
Spouse(s) Hannah J. Langstroth
Emma Bouvier
Children Elizabeth Drexel Smith
Katharine Drexel
Louise Bouvier Drexel Morrell
Parent(s) Francis Martin Drexel

Francis Anthony Drexel (June 20, 1824 – February 15, 1885) was a Philadelphia banker.

Biography

He was born on June 20, 1824 to Francis Martin Drexel. He had two brothers, Anthony Joseph Drexel and Joseph William Drexel.

He married Hannah J. Langstroth and they had two children: Elizabeth Drexel, who married Walter George Smith of Philadelphia and died on September 26, 1890; and Katharine Drexel, who became a nun, founded the Sisters of the Blessed Sacrament for Indians and Colored People, and was made a Catholic saint. Langstroth died five weeks after Katharine's birth.

His second wife, Emma Bouvier, was the daughter of Michel Bouvier, a French cabinetmaker and real estate speculator as well as the paternal great-great-grandfather of Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis née Bouvier. They had one child: Louise Bouvier Drexel, who married Edward de Veaux Morrell. Emma also died before Francis.

He died on February 15, 1885.

Legacy

The Saint Joseph's University Francis A. Drexel library is named in his honor. His daughters Elizabeth and Louise founded the St. Francis Industrial School at Eddington, Pennsylvania. They also endowed the Francis A. Drexel Chair of Moral Theology at the Catholic University of America.

 This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Herbermann, Charles, ed. (1913). Catholic Encyclopedia. Robert Appleton Company.

External links