Person:Linda Free (1)

The St. Louis County, MN Death Index records the death of a "Male" Wardwell on 18 January 1891, likely her son. 1910 census shows 2 children born, but only 1 living. Widowed, living at 42 Highland Road in Stamford, CT at 1930 census, owns home valued at $30,000. Living there in 1935, listed in Stamford Directory.

"Mrs. Frederick Schuyler Wardwell of Highland Terrace, Stamford, Conn., formerly chairman of Music, G.F.W.C. and for seventeen years chairman of the "plan of study" of the National Federation of Music Clubs has issued a "Plan of Study on Musical History" for use in clubs, schools and for teachers and students. She is also the author of a new book on American Music, "Autobiographical Sketches of American Composers", which has been endorsed by Daniel Gregory Mason, K.S. Chittenden, Percy Grainger, and other music authorities." -Fayetteville Daily Democrat 01 October 1921

WARDWELL, Linda Bell (Mrs. F. S.), Noted Musician, Authoress. Musical circles throughout the country have known Mrs. Wardwell for many years in concert and church work, and especially in the popularizing of musical study. She has written extensively on musical subjects in the outlining of courses of study as well as a work on American composers, and all of her volumes have had large sale and wide distribution. This she has accomplished, gaining a national reputation in the doing, while active in civic and social life, and while presiding over the home of her husband and son, a circumstance receiving more than passing notice even in an age when woman's sphere of activity is constantly broadening. Mrs. Wardwell is a musician of talent, with a gift of imparting her knowledge and ability, both by the spoken and written word, that amounts to genius. Mrs. Wardwell is a daughter of John W. and Hannah Ann (Wait) Free. John . Free was born in Akron, Ohio, about 1830, and died in Providence, Rhode Island, in 1919. He was the inventor of a threshing machine, and dealt extensively in many States, including New Hampshire, where he.engaged in lengthy litigation to recover his possessions of the Dixville Notch, Colbrook. For a time he was resident of Richmond, Indiana, moving thence to Chicago, Illinois. Linda Belle (Free) Wardwell was born in Richmond, Indiana, July 19, 1865. After attending the public schools of Chicago, she began her musical education in the Chicago Music College, whence she graduated, and later obtained a teacher's certificate from the Petersilea Academy of Music, of Boston. Her vocal study has been under the eminent teachers of voice culture and interpretation in Chicago, Boston, St. Paul, and New York, and she has been under the instruction of such noted musicians as Dr. John C. Griggs, of Vassar College, Dudley Buck, the composer, Francis Fisher Powers, Mrs. Carl Alves, and Oscar Saenger. During her music school study she was under the teaching of Dr. Florence Ziegfield, of the Chicago Musical College, and Carlyle Petersilea, in piano. She held the highest rank in the harmony class of Albert Ruff, in Chicago, studied counterpoint and fugue with the eminent Charles L. Capen, of Boston, and had Mr. Soebeck, of Chicago, as her teacher in composition. Mrs. Wardwell's musical career, in performance, as teacher, and in a broader field of musical education, has been a record of great usefulness, and she has gained high reputation in leading musical circles. She has taught piano in St. Paul, Minnesota, and in Des Moines, Iowa, Music School, and taught singing in Duluth, Minnesota, the Danbury Music School, and privately in New York City and in Stamford, Connecticut. For two years she was soprano soloist in a Methodist church of St. Paul, Minnesota, soloist and choir director of the Congregational church of Danbury, Connecticut, for five years, and soloist and choir director of the Congregational church of Stamford for seven years. For twenty-two years Mrs. Wardwell was chairman of the Plan Study Department of the National Federation of Musical Clubs, and was the second chairman of music of the General Federation of Women's Clubs. She is the author of a set of twenty books on musical history for clubs, teachers, and students, some of which have reached the seventh edition, a circumstance that in itself demonstrates the need they have met. Mrs. Wardwell is the founder of the Schubert Study Club, of which she is honorary president, and with Mrs. E. J. Tupper is the founder of the Stamford Women's Club, of which she is still a member. She is a member of the Bridgeport Musical Club, and the National Federation of Musical Clubs. The plan of study on musical history that she has prepared is a comprehensive course, treating of the music of the different countries and conveying a general knowledge of music from early times to the present day. It is endorsed by many prominent musicians and the leading music journals, and has become the basis of the work of thousands of clubs in the United States. -Encyclopedia of Connecticut Biography. New York and Chicago: The American Historical Society (Inc.)

1. ↑ Encyclopedia of Connecticut Biography. New York and Chicago: The American Historical Society (Inc.),.