Famous American Belles of the Nineteenth CenturyPeacock, Virginia Tatnall
History
Famous American Belles of the Nineteenth Century
Peacock, Virginia Tatnall
Women -- United States -- Biography
His third marriage, in 1846, to Sarah Ludlow identified him with one
of the prominent families of Cincinnati; Israel Ludlow, his wife's
grandfather, having been one of the founders of the city. Chase,
himself, though an Eastern man, born in Cornish, New Hampshire, whence
he had migrated on coming of age, was now one of the prominent figures
of Cincinnati, a busy, prosperous lawyer, with excellent political
prospects, which met their first realization when, in 1849, he was
elected to the United States Senate. When he came, six years later,
into the governorship of his State he was again a widower, and Kate,
though less than fifteen years of age, took her place at the head of
his home.
Accustomed since the dawn of memory to the most considerate attentions
from the most kingly of men, she already carried herself with that
noble grace that made her presence felt in every assemblage above that
of all others, no matter how simply she clothed herself nor how quietly
she deported herself.
[Illustration: Kate Chase
(Mrs. William Sprague)
From photograph by Julius Ulke]
Chase was the first of Ohio's governors to take up his official
residence at Columbus. There, for a year, Kate went as a day pupil to
Mr. Heyl's seminary, and later studied in the same institution music
and languages, having for the latter an unusual gift. She spoke French
faultlessly, especially after her long residence abroad, which came
later in her life. Her German, while it was fluent, had always a
suggestion of a foreign accent that in her seemed rather pleasing than
otherwise. Her native tongue she wielded with rare perfection, and no
one who has heard Kate Chase talk will ever forget the magic of her
voice, the life her graphic and discriminating language breathed into
every thought to which she gave utterance, while her wonderful eyes
expressed, even betrayed, every emotion. An old man who served the
Chase family for years in the capacity of coachman once paid a tribute
to the delicacy and power of her verbal delineations which many a man
of more enlightened intelligence more gracefully, perhaps, but not more
aptly acknowledged. He said he knew no greater pleasure than to take
Miss Kate off in the carriage with a book in her lap, and, without
opening it, for her to tell him every word that it contained from
beginning to end.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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