Mamah Borthwick Cheney
(June 19, 1869 - August 15, 1914) Mamah Borthwick was born in Boone, Iowa.
She received a BA at the University of Michigan, and later worked as a librarian in Port Huron, Michigan. In 1899, she married Edwin Cheney, an electrical engineer from Oak Park, Illinois, USA. They had two children: John (1902) and Martha (1905). Edwin commissioned Wright to design them a home in 1903.
In 1909, Mamah and Frank left their respective spouses and traveled to Europe, settling in Italy for about a year. Upon their return, they settled at Taliesin in Spring Green, Wisconsin. On August 15, 1914, one of Wright's recently hired domestic workers murdered Mamah, both her children, three of Wright's associates, and a son of one of the associates. He set fire to one wing of Taliesin, and murdered the seven people with an ax as they tried to escape the fire.
At the time, Wright was overseeing work on Midway Gardens in Chicago. Catherine Wright refused to give Wright a divorce until November 13, 1922.
After he separated from his first wife, he began seeing Mamah Borthwick Cheney, who was separated by her husband. He dated her until she and her two children were murdered with a hatchet by one of her servants. Wright's son John says he was never the same after this.