NELLE FABYAN
Nelle Wright Fabyan was born on Nov. 19, 1866 in Marinette, Wisconsin. Not much is known about Nelle’s early life and upbringing, but we do know that Nelle’s father owned a dry goods store for a time and her uncle was a lawyer. According to the Boston Daily Globe, Nelle and George were engaged on February 15, 1891 and married that next month in Minneapolis, MN.
By 1895, the Fabyans were living in Chicago as George had reconciled with his father and was working in the Chicago offices of Bliss, Fabyan and Company. The Fabyans inherited George’s father’s part in the business in 1907 and used some of the inheritance to build a lavish estate with farms, exotic animals, concrete sculptures, greenhouses, a Dutch windmill, a Japanese Garden, science laboratories and more about one mile south of Geneva that she and George called “Riverbank.”
Nelle was very passionate about animals and flowers. She had kennels for her prize-winning dogs and greenhouses for flowers she grew and sold to hotels and restaurants in Chicago.
Nelle died in 1939 in Geneva and is buried next to her husband in his family’s hometown of Boston.
