Isabella Greenway - First and Second Marriages

First and Second Marriages

In 1905, Isabella was one of Eleanor's bridesmaids when Eleanor married Franklin Delano Roosevelt. Shortly thereafter, while the Roosevelts were on their honeymoon, Isabella married Robert Munro-Ferguson, the younger brother of Ronald Munro-Furguson. Robert was a family friend of the Roosevelts, as well as one of Theodore Roosevelt's Rough Riders. Robert and Isabella became the godparents of Franklin and Eleanor's only daughter, Anna Eleanor Roosevelt.

Three years into the marriage, Robert contracted tuberculosis and in 1910 the couple moved to the dry climate of New Mexico, hoping his health would improve. There Isabella nursed her husband and educated their two children, Robert, Jr. and Martha. During this period, Isabella and Eleanor established a close correspondence that continued for the rest of their lives.

After Robert's death in 1922, Isabella married a close friend, Col. John Campbell Greenway, another of Roosevelt's Rough Riders, whom she had met in 1911. John moved the family to a ranch in Arizona near Bisbee where he was manager of the Calumet and Arizona Mining Company. Later the family moved to Ajo where Isabella and John's son, John Selmes ("Jack") Greenway, was born in 1924. In 1926, John died suddenly, following surgery, leaving Isabella a widow once again.

Isabella and her three children moved to Williams, Arizona, and bought a ranch there as she and John had planned, the Quarter Circle Double X Ranch. Through smart business dealings and the sale of her mining stock at the top of its value ahead of the market crash, Isabella was able to grow the ranch to over 130,000 acres (530 km2). During the same period, she also became the owner and operator of Los Angeles-based Gilpin Airlines.