Famous American Belles of the Nineteenth Century

j:\j" ' : ^*v V if __ ....[':.:':.[:.: \'Y|«v2» ; n 111 TTT : r HP A FT\TA f T : % IHi I IHI Llll. HI II III , "~Tir-rnMMMriiMniiiMMMM MM Illlllllllll Illllllllllllll.il... Famous American Belles of the Nineteenth Century Be T atn; gnifrtfiH laJaarO (d Jifiilioq ntot^ Emily Marshall (Mrs. William Foster Otis) From portrait by Chester Harding Famous American Belles of the Nineteenth Century By Virginia Tatnall Peacock ILLUSTRATED Philadelphia CsT London J. B. Lippincott Company i 9 o i Copyright, 1900 BY J. B. Lippincott Company ELiCTROTYPED AND PRINTED BY J. B. LIPPINCOTT COMPANY, PHILADELPHIA, U.S.A. To My Dear Mother from whom I derived my first conception of all that is most beautiful in woman PREFACE URING the century now drawing to its close there have appeared in America from time to time women of so pre-eminent a beauty, so dazzling a wit, so powerful a magnetism, that their names belong no less to the history of their country than those of the men whose genius has raised it to the rank it holds to-day among the nations of the earth. Among them have been women of the highest type of mental and moral development, women of great political and of great social genius, all of whom have left the impress of their remarkable personalities upon their time. When they have manifested these qualities in their girlhood they have risen frequently to an emi- nence such as it is scarcely possible for the women of any other country to attain at a correspondingly early age. From among the latter class the subjects of these sketches have been taken, those having been selected who seemed most adequately to represent their period and locality and whose fame was beyond question, it having been frequently of national and sometimes of international extent. Rising to wield the magic of their influence in every PREFACE decade of the century and in every section of the country, some study of the time in which each lived has been necessary in order to give her her proper set- ting and to justly estimate the power she exercised. The inventions and discoveries America has given to the world in this great century have made vast changes in our material condition, which, in turn, have been productive of striking contrasts between the existence of the women who gave life and color to the early years of the century and that of those who reflect the myriad advantages of its closing days. It argues the possession of extraordinary attributes to have been a belle of wide repute in the days when there was no telegraph to flash the record of a woman's beauty, charm, or social progress from one end of the country to the other, when the press contained only the briefest accounts of purely local and wholly public events, when every letter that might or might not have contained her name or have been a herald of her loveli- ness cost its sender twenty-five cents a sheet in postage, when her few and simple toilets were painstakingly made by hand, when she went to balls on horseback, arriving sometimes with a wrinkled gown but seldom with a ruffled temper, when all travelling was done by means of a stage-coach, and a journey from one city to another was sometimes the event of a lifetime, and when the comparatively few women who crossed the seas did so in merchant vessels not infrequently owned by their own fathers, and spent many long weeks in the passage. PREFACE Those who come within the radius of its charm, how- ever, easily recognize the power of a queenly personality, as the lives of the most illustrious men in every period of our history have borne testimony. Among the women who unite the centuries there is a brilliant promise, moreover, that there will be those in the twen- tieth, as there have been throughout the nineteenth, " to perpetuate that empire which beauty first established." The writer gratefully acknowledges her indebtedness to all those whose courtesy or assistance has in any way lightened the task of collecting the data for these sketches ; to those who by kindly lending portraits in their possession, as well as to those who by graciously permitting the use of their own portraits, have thereby added so much to the value and interest of this volume. Paris, June 22, 1900. CONTENTS PAGE Marcia Burns (Mrs. John Peter Van Ness) n Theodosia Burr (Mrs. Joseph Alston) 18 Elizabeth Patterson (Madame Jerome Bonaparte) 39 The Caton Sisters 61 Margaret O'Neill (Mrs. John H. Eaton) 69 Cora Livingston (Mrs. Thomas Pennant Barton) 80 Emily Marshall (Mrs. William Foster Otis) 90 Octavia Walton (Madame Le Vert) 102 Fanny Taylor (Mrs. Thomas Harding Ellis) 118 Jessie Benton (Mrs. John C. Fremont) 123 Sallie Ward (Mrs. George F. Downs) 148 Harriet Lane (Mrs. Henry Elliott Johnston) 161 Adele Cutts (Mrs. Robert Williams) 175 Emilie Schaumburg (Mrs. Hughes-Hallett) 190 Kate Chase (Mrs. William Sprague) 206 Mattie Ould (Mrs. Oliver Schoolcraft) 230 Jennie Jerome (Lady Randolph Churchill) 239 Nellie Hazeltine (Mrs. Frederick W. Paramore) 257 Mary Victoria Leiter ( Baroness Curzon of Kedleston) . 264 New York as a Social Centre 288 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS PAGE EMILY MARSHALL (Mrs. William Foster Otis). From portrait painted by Chester Harding in 1830 ; owned by her daughter, Mrs. Samuel Eliot, of Boston, by whose permission it is here reproduced for the first time in colors . Frontispiece MARCIA BURNS (Mrs. John Peter Van Ness). From miniature by James Peale, painted in 1797 ; owned by the Corcoran Art Gallery, Washington, D. C 12 THEODOSIA BURR (Mrs. Joseph Alston). From the original engraving by Charles B. J. F. Saint Memin ; owned by Hampton L. Carson, Esq., of Philadelphia, by whose permission it is here reproduced 22 ELIZABETH PATTERSON (Madame Jerome Bonaparte). From portrait painted by Quincon ; owned by her grandson, Mr. Charles Bonaparte, of Baltimore, by whose permission it is here reproduced for the first time 42 MARY CATON (Lady Wellesley). From portrait owned by Mrs. Charles Carroll Mactavish, of Baltimore, daughter of General Winfield Scott. Painted by Sir Thomas Lawrence, and reproduced by permission of Miss Emily Mactavish, now Sister Mary Agnes of the Visitation, at Mount de Sales, Catonsville, Maryland 64 CORA LIVINGSTON (Mrs. Thomas Pennant Barton). From a miniature painted by herself. Reproduced for the first time by permission of her niece, Miss Julia Barton Hunt, of Montgomery Place, Barrytown-on-the-Hudson 84 OCTAVIA WALTON (Madame Le Vert). From portrait, reproduced by permission of her kinswoman, Miss Josephine Walton. Present owner, Mr. George Walton Reab, of Au- gusta, Georgia, grandson of Madame Le Vert 104 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS PAGE FANNY TAYLOR (Mrs. Thomas Harding Ellis). From portrait painted by Thomas Sully. Reproduced for the first time by permission of her husband, Colonel Thomas Harding Ellis. Present owner, her adopted son, Mr. Beverly Randolph Harrison, of Amherst, Virginia 118 SALLY CHEVALIER (Mrs. Abram Warwick). Painted by Thomas Sully. Reproduced for the first time by permission of Colonel Thomas Harding Ellis 122 SALLIE WARD (Mrs. George F. Downs). From a miniature painted at the age of eighteen, owned by her husband, Mr. George F. Downs, of Louisville, Kentucky, by whose permission it is here reproduced for the first time 150 HARRIET LANE (Mrs. Henry Elliott Johnston). From photograph by Julius Ulke 164 ADELE CUTTS (Mrs. Robert Williams). From portrait by George Peter A. Healy, in possession of her husband, General Robert Williams, United States Army. Reproduced by permission of her daughter, Miss Adele Cutts Williams, of Washington, D. C 178 EMILIE SCHAUMBURG (Mrs. Hughes-Hallett). From portrait by Waugh, in possession of Mrs. Hughes-Hallett, of Dinar, France, by whose permission it is here reproduced for the first time 194 KATE CHASE (Mrs. William Sprague). From photograph by Julius Ulke 212 MATTIE OULD (Mrs. Oliver Schoolcraft). From photograph by George S. Cook. Reproduced by permission of her cousin, Mrs. Virginia Brownell, of Washington, D. C. ... 232 LIZZIE CABELL (Mrs. Albert Ritchie). From photograph. Reproduced by permission of her sister, Mrs. John D. Lottier 234 MARY TRIPLETT (Mrs. Philip Haxall). From photograph by Roseti. Reproduced by permission of her sister, Mrs. Meredith Montague 236 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS PAGE JENNIE JEROME (Lady Randolph Churchill). From photograph by Van der Weyde. Published by permission of Lady Churchill 244 NELLIE HAZELTINE (Mrs. Frederick W. Paramore). From photograph by J. C. Strauss ; by permission of her brother, Mr. W. B. Hazeltine, Jr 258 JENNIE CHAMBERLAIN (Lady Naylor- Leyland). From the painting by H. Schmiechen 266 MATTIE MITCHELL (Duchesse de Rochefoucauld). Daugh- ter of ex-Senator Mitchell, of Oregon. From photograph by C. M. Bell 272 MARY VICTORIA LEITER (Baroness Curzon of Kedleston). From photograph by Miss Alice Hughes, of London. By permission of Lady Curzon 276 MISS MAY HANDY, of Richmond, Virginia. From photograph by James L. Breese 284 CATHERINE DUER (Mrs. Clarence Mackay), of New York. From portrait 288 MARCIA BURNS (MRS. JOHN PETER VAN NESs) ARCIA BURNS ! What memories the quaint Scotch lassie's name calls up ! The city of Washington disappears and its site spreads before us in flourishing farm lands and orchards. Scattered farm-houses raise their chimneys amid primeval oaks and elms, and from the low door- way of the humblest emerges the winsome form of Marcia Burns. Six hundred acres, representing the thrift of generations of Scotch ancestors, surround her. The Potomac, one of the great water-ways of the South, carrying the produce of the fertile lands above into Alexandria for consumption or reshipment, almost kisses her feet.

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