Fanny Van de Grift Stevenson

Frances Matilda Van de Grift Osbourne Stevenson (10 March 1840 – 18 February 1914) was an American magazine writer. She became a supporter and later the wife of Robert Louis Stevenson, and the mother of Isobel Osbourne, Samuel Lloyd Osbourne, and Hervey Stewart Osbourne.

Early life

Fanny Vandegrift was born in Indianapolis, the daughter of builder Jacob Vandegrift and homemaker Esther Thomas Keen. She was something of a tomboy, and had dark curly hair. At the age of seventeen she married Samuel Osbourne, a lieutenant on the state governor's staff. Their daughter Isobel (or 'Belle') was born the following year.

Samuel fought in the American Civil War, went with a friend sick with tuberculosis to California, and ended up in the silver mines of Nevada. Once settled there he sent for his family. Fanny and the five-year-old Isobel made the long journey via New York, the Isthmus of Panama, San Francisco, and finally by wagons and stage-coach to the mining camps of the Reese River, and the town of Austin in Lander County. Life was difficult in the mining town, and there were few women around. Fanny learned to shoot a pistol and to roll her own cigarettes.

Samuel began to be unfaithful to Fanny after the family moved to Virginia City, Nevada. In 1866, he headed off gold prospecting in the Coeur d'Alene Mountains, while Fanny and her daughter journeyed to San Francisco. There was a rumor that Samuel had been killed by a grizzly bear, but he returned, and a second child, Samuel Lloyd, was born in 1868. Samuel continued philandering and Fanny returned to Indianapolis.