Cupid Spills Avery Riches

Detroit News, May 5, 1923

Riches-to-rags stories are great fodder in comparison to hearing about yachts and tea parties and corporations owned. Florence Olcott Avery, an heiress to her Yondotega Club member father's timber fortune, forsook her inheritance to marry the family's French gardener Francis Barrigrand.

At first hint of the blossoming romance, her mother whisked her off on a whirlwind tour of the states, enticing her with finery and antique books and disposed of the rose man. But the two reunited at first chance and sped off to New York and were married causing the family to publicly disown them. Which was fairly melodramatic considering that she was 42-years-old, living at home and had vowed not to marry a long line of potential suitors.

After the nuptials she lived in River Rouge, renting a flat in a lady's home while her beau worked at the steel mill. To be closer to his job they moved to Pontiac before he eventually lost employment and they went underground.

The estrangement ended sometime before the inevitable divorce 12 years later after Barrigrand struck his wife and menaced her with an automobile. He seemingly was allowed to stay on at the family ranch they were residing on in California to be the resident blacksmith where he had already established a storefront.

A cursory search resulted in no obituaries for the family and as I am unable to check the Yondotega Club roster until later, I can't really say if Mr. Avery maintained his membership with the group.

Denver Post, May 5, 1923

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