Occupation Banker Children Katharine Drexel Parents Francis Martin Drexel | Role Banker Name Francis Drexel Siblings Anthony Joseph Drexel | |
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Born June 20, 1824 Philadelphia Died February 15, 1885, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States Spouse Emma Bouvier (m. 1860), Hannah Langstroth (m. 1854) Similar People Katharine Drexel, Anthony Joseph Drexel, Francis Martin Drexel | ||
Francis Anthony Drexel (June 20, 1824 – February 15, 1885) was a Philadelphia banker.
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Biography
He was born on June 20, 1824 to Francis Martin Drexel in Philadelphia. 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 Catherine Mary Drexel, born on November 26, 1858, who became a nun, founded the Sisters of the Blessed Sacrament, took the name Mother Katharine, and was made a Catholic saint. Langstroth died five weeks after Catherine's birth. Katharine died on March 3, 1955.
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). "article name needed". Catholic Encyclopedia. New York: Robert Appleton.