A Cradle of Forestry love affair: Forester Gifford Pinchot and Laura Houghteling
Gifford Pinchot was focused on but one goal. As the first American to receive professional forestry training, he desperately wanted to be the first to introduce the concept to the United States.
He had studied forestry in France and was able to do so by virtue of being from a fabulously wealthy family from Pennsylvania. So, it was with this goal in mind that he accepted George Vanderbilt’s offer of employment — not for the salary he was to receive. As a matter of fact, he was so rich that he and Vanderbilt met as equals, not as employer and employee.
On a cold, early February day in 1892, Pinchot arrived in Asheville to assume his duties and quickly wrote and implemented the very first scientific forest management plan in the country on the Biltmore Estate. He had successfully achieved his goal. He was first!
Now his thoughts turned to other matters. At different social functions throughout that winter and early spring, he again met Laura Houghteling, a blond-haired beauty with piercing eyes and a kind face. A stunning woman by all accounts. In addition to her beauty, she was also smart, assertive, a lover of poetry and deeply spiritual.
Laura was the offspring of a wealthy family, too. Both had met previously on several occasions since they belonged to 19th-century high society and had met at glittering parties and social events in such diverse places as St Augustine, Florida, and San Francisco. This time, however, was different. Romance was in the air!
By April, when their paths crossed one day while horseback riding along the French Broad River, both sensed there was more — way more — and over the next 18 months their previous casual acquaintance deepened into love.
They were inseparable. They took long horseback rides, recited poetry, and read Emerson, Swedenborg, and the Bible together. Days filled with romantic longing and desire. Seldom did their thoughts stray from one thinking of the other.
But Laura was in Asheville for a much different, compelling reason. She was suffering from tuberculosis and was seeking medical treatment. As their love grew, her medical condition only worsened. But how she and Gifford longed to marry. Both families were reluctant to bless the reunion because of her fragile condition, but relented on New Year’s Day, 1894 giving their consent. A little more than a month later Laura lay dead.
Pinchot was devastated but outwardly continued with the same calm courage that he had shown during her illness. He traveled with the Houghteling family to Chicago to attend her memorial service and then returned to New York to his consulting forester’s office. (By this time he had left Vanderbilt’s employment.) Answering a backlog of mail, he apologized for his tardiness by explaining that there had been an “illness in the family.”
But those despondent feelings were short-lived. Exactly 38 days after her death, she reappeared to him and on that day, he wrote a startling passage in his diary, “My lady is very near.” Gifford Pinchot was literally in love with a ghost, although it is perhaps more accurate to say he possessed an abiding spiritual love for her. He talked to her portrait daily and consulted her before making any major decision in his life.
Later, Pinchot became the first chief of the U.S. Forest Service when it was created in 1905. During his tenure, when he testified before a congressional committee, she was by his side offering encouragement and advice. When he traveled abroad, she was by his side. And she was with him in the Rocky Mountains on the nights when he slept alone.
In addition to his home — Grey Towers — in Milford, Pennsylvania, Pinchot also owned a 53-room mansion in Washington, D.C. One can imagine the talk in D.C. social circles. Here was this vibrant, handsome, rich bachelor, a close confidant of President Theodore Roosevelt, who showed no interest in women whatsoever; but little did they know how much he loved his departed Laura.
Interestingly, he wore black for two years but abruptly stopped one day. His mood changed. He was buoyant, smiling, gay! He was in love! And he was married! To Laura, of course! They were one! To Pinchot, God had joined the two for eternity. Twenty years elapsed after meeting Laura in Asheville before Pinchot finally married Cornelia Bryce, a remarkable woman in her own right.
Why did such a robust young man fall in love with someone who was so very ill? More importantly, perhaps, is the question of why he held such intense affection for her ghost for so long after her death. These and numerous other questions remain a mystery, and Pinchot carried their answers with him to his grave.
Robert Beanblossom, a member of the Society of American Foresters, retired from the WV Division of Natural Resources and is currently a volunteer at the Cradle of Forestry in America. He can be reached at r.beanblossom1862@outlook.com.
This article originally appeared on Asheville Citizen Times: Cradle of Forestry love affair: Gifford Pinchot and Laura Houghteling
