MARCH 13, 2020 PART 2 OLGA DREXEL DAHLGREN AND HER FAMILY
ROCKWELL KENT WILDERNESS CENTENNIAL JOURNAL 100 YEARS LATER by Doug Capra © 2020 Part 2: Olga Drexel Dahlgren and her Family March 13, 2020 INTRODUCTION This journey into Olga Drexel Dahlgren and her family has several purposes. There is a connection between Olga and Rockwell Kent that involves his second wife, Frances, and perhaps even his first wife, Kathleen. I will cover this in the last entry of this series. On our way there, I want to introduce the family as portrayed by press coverage. To a significant extent, this will be a skewed perspective, as is all media coverage. I don’t have access to letters and diaries that would certainly present a more nuanced narrative. The Drexels, the Dahlgrens, and the Drexel-Dahlgrens represent a prominent, visible, wealthy, Roman Catholic family – a combination of old and new wealth – that emerged after the American Civil War during what has been called the Gilded Age. The Drexel-Dahlgren children reached maturity during a pe