Jennie Schultz-Lander Nolan

Jennie Schultz-Lander was born in Braunschweig, Germany around 1870.¹ For a time, she lived in a French convent in Villenjen, Germany, and in November 1892, she sailed to America. While on that journey, she met Mrs. Augustine Drewitz who later recommended her for an open governess position at the White House; Augustine and her husband, Ernest, were friends with Grover and Frances Cleveland.² Schultz-Lander was hired to replace nurse Annie Thompson; the job became increasingly difficult as the public and press clamored for access to the three young Cleveland girls (Ruth, Esther, and Marion), which eventually led to the closure of the White House Grounds while the family was in residence.³ In August 1896, newspapers reported that Jennie Schultz-Lander had married John J. Nolan, who worked as the Cleveland family’s coachman and a White House watchman; the press called it “the climax of a romance of the stable and the nursery.”⁴ After the wedding, which was held at the Clevelands’ summer home Gray Gables, the newly-minted Mrs. Nolan returned to the White House. She likely remained through the end of Cleveland's second term in 1897.⁵ 

According to her obituary, Jennie Nolan also worked as a governess in the New York home of etiquette expert Emily Post; meanwhile, her husband John served as Post’s coachman.⁶ She and her family later resettled in Mansfield, Ohio in 1908, and she appears to have ceased working as a governess.⁷ Jennie Nolan died on January 6, 1938, and was buried at Mansfield Catholic Cemetery.⁸