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Title: Presiding Ladies of the White House

Author: Lila G. A. Woolfall

Author of introduction, etc.: Margaret E. Sangster

Release date: October 5, 2017 [eBook #55679]
Most recently updated: October 23, 2024

Language: English

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*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK PRESIDING LADIES OF THE WHITE HOUSE ***

EAST ENTRANCE OF EXECUTIVE MANSION

PRESIDING LADIES
OF THE
WHITE HOUSE

CONTAINING

BIOGRAPHICAL APPRECIATIONS TOGETHER WITH A SHORT HISTORY OF THE EXECUTIVE MANSION AND A TREATISE ON ITS ETIQUETTE AND CUSTOMS

BY
LILA G. A. WOOLFALL

WITH AN INTRODUCTION BY
MARGARET E. SANGSTER

ILLUSTRATED WITH SYMBOLIC BORDERS AND REPRODUCTIONS IN PHOTOGRAVURE OF THE FIRST LADIES OF THE LAND

Published by
Bureau of National Literature and Art
Washington, D. C.

Transcriber’s Note: If you want to see the symbolic borders, you’ll need to look at the HTML version on the Project Gutenberg website.

Transcriber’s Note: Page numbers have been removed because there were so many blank pages in the original book. Links go directly to the relevant chapter or section.

	PAGE
Introduction	13
Martha Washington	19
Abigail Adams	23
Martha Jefferson Randolph	27
Dorothy Paine Madison	31
Elizabeth Kortright Monroe	35
Louisa Catherine Adams	39
Rachel Donelson Jackson	43
Angelica Van Buren	47
Anna Symmes Harrison	51
Letitia Christian Tyler	55
Sarah Childress Polk	59
Margaret Smith Taylor	63
Abigail Fillmore	67
Jane Appleton Pierce	71
Harriet Lane	75
Mary Todd Lincoln	79
Eliza McCardle Johnson	83
Julia Dent Grant	87
Lucy Ware Webb Hayes	91
Lucretia Rudolph Garfield	95
Mary Arthur McElroy	99
Frances Folsom Cleveland	103
Caroline Scott Harrison	107
Ida Saxton McKinley	111
Edith Kermit Carow Roosevelt	115
The White House	121
The East Room	122
The Blue Room	125
The Red Room	125
The Green Room	126
State and Private Dining Rooms	126
The Library	129
The Executive Office	129
Official Etiquette	135

ILLUSTRATIONS

Transcriber’s Note: Page numbers have been removed because there were so many blank pages in the original book. Links go directly to the relevant illustration.

	OPPOSITE PAGE
East Entrance of Executive Mansion	Frontispiece
Adams, Abigail	23
Adams, Louisa Catherine	39
Cleveland, Frances Folsom	103
Fillmore, Abigail	67
Garfield, Lucretia Rudolph	95
Grant, Julia Dent	87
Harrison, Anna Symmes	51
Harrison, Caroline Scott	107
Hayes, Lucy Ware Webb	91
Jackson, Rachel Donelson	43
Johnson, Eliza McCardle	83
Lane, Harriet	75
Lincoln, Mary Todd	79
Madison, Dorothy Paine	31
McElroy, Mary Arthur	99
McKinley, Ida Saxton	111
Monroe, Elizabeth Kortright	35
Pierce, Jane Appleton	71
Polk, Sarah Childress	59
Randolph, Martha Jefferson	27
Roosevelt, Edith Kermit Carow	115
Taylor, Margaret Smith	63
Tyler, Letitia Christian	55
Van Buren, Angelica	47
Washington, Martha	19
Blue Room	125
East Room	121
The Library	130
State Dining Room	126

INTRODUCTION

America stands to-day among the greatest and most progressive of the nations of the earth; and as the law of nations from earliest times has been the decline and fall of one, as another rises to prëeminence, it would seem that this great land of ours is fast soaring towards the highest pinnacle of national attainment.

If a nation is great, it is made so by the men who make and enforce its laws, who fill its positions of trust, who manipulate its finances, and who prove worthy citizens of the land of their birth or adoption.

And who are responsible for the men?

Are not the women, the wives and mothers of the nation, the bearers of this great burden of responsibility?

No nation has ever risen, or can rise above the level of its women, and in no other country is this truth more obviously demonstrated than in our own beloved and favored land.

Reasoning thus, we find that the American woman not only holds a high position of trust, but it is conceded by all who know her, that she fills it worthily, and is capable of meeting the varied demands upon her with rare tact and skill.

There are no women in the world to-day who are more truly the cynosure of all eyes, than are our own. They stand in the glare of public life in the highest circles of their own land, and are closely allied to royalty abroad, participating in, or presiding at, many of the functions of almost every foreign court, and everywhere the homage which is their due is freely accorded them.

There are two attributes of the American woman which are undeniably predominant in her nature, and these are adaptability and individuality.

They are displayed by the members of all ranks and classes, but probably the twenty-five women who form the coterie of “First Ladies of the Land” in our republican court at Washington, have had as great, if not greater, opportunities for exercising these qualities than any who have entered only into court life abroad.

“Noblesse oblige” is true in all stations of life, whether it be the nobility of honorable living or of high social birth, but in royal circles there is a code of etiquette which is enforced from generation to generation, just as royal sons and daughters are born to royal parents, and so its followers abide by its mandates as a matter of course. In a democratic country like America, no such rule obtains, for the children of a President of the United States, after their father’s term expires, may relapse into social inconspicuousness and seldom appear before the public, instead of, as in royalty, inheriting their father’s official greatness.

We have but one instance of the son of a President following in his father’s footsteps, and only one where a grandson did likewise. The wife of a President may have been born in affluence and social prominence, or she may have passed her early years in the humblest environment, as was the case with a number of the women who have presided at the White House, but in every instance the duties of hostess have been faithfully and creditably discharged, while natural ease, grace and tact, combined with this wonderful power of adaptation, have rendered the hospitality of the White House unquestionably refined, and marked by the highest breeding.

Some of the women who have held this exalted position have been called to it while little more than young girls, and others have assumed its responsibilities and obligations late in life, yet all have upheld the dignity of the nation of whose social life they were, for the time being, the highest exponents.

Can this always be said of the life at foreign courts?

When we consider the laxity and licentiousness of some of the so-called nobility, and the freedom of royal personages in their accepted code of morals, we realize that the life at the White House at Washington, makes for all that is pure in social life, having had no breath of scandal attaching to it in all the years since its establishment, and having set an example of moral righteousness for all the homes in the country at whose head it stands.

The individuality of each hostess has left its imprint upon the history of her time from the pomp and ceremony of Martha Washington’s régime, to the greater freedom from restraint of that of “Dolly Madison.” We hear also of the extreme “simplicity” of Jefferson’s administration and the social festivities which marked Mrs. Grant’s residence at the White House. Mrs. Polk abolished dancing, while Mrs. Hayes banished wine, from their entertainments. Mrs. Fillmore founded the library, for of books there were none when she was installed as mistress of the White House; and Mrs. McElroy marked the administration of her brother, Chester A. Arthur, with the acme of refined hospitality.

The list might be prolonged, but instances enough have been cited to show that while the women who preside over the nation’s home at Washington, must conform to certain accepted rules of etiquette, there is left sufficient scope for each to display individual tastes and characteristics, without in any way lowering the tone of the social life of the Executive Mansion.

The author who has with marvelous industry and good taste, written these condensed biographies of our country’s most eminent women, deserves the thanks of all; yet such short sketches as are embodied in this volume, can give but little knowledge of facts concerning lives with so much interest attaching to them that a history of each would offer absorbing entertainment to the lover of biography, but they can serve to enlighten every intelligent reader sufficiently to arouse a desire for more information relating to these women, famous in the story of their country’s social and political events, and to awaken a feeling of pride that these queens of a republican court have no peers in any foreign realm.

Margaret E. Sangster

Martha Washington

FIRST PRESIDING LADY

1789-1797

Martha Dandridge, of Virginia, was married at nineteen years of age to Daniel Parke Custis. At an early age she was left a widow with two children, Martha and John Parke Custis. In 1759 she married George Washington, thus becoming the wife of the first President of the United States. Accomplished, wealthy and fascinating, fond of ceremony, yet hospitable, her entertainments at Mt. Vernon were world-famous. The White House was not erected until after Washington’s death, hence she never presided there. New York being the Capital of the Country during Washington’s administration her court was held in that city, refined taste and abundant wealth admitting of appropriate display. Her patriotism was equal to that of her husband and led her through many trying scenes and privations during the Revolution. She died in her seventy-first year, having gradually failed in health since her husband’s death, nearly three years previous.

MARTHA WASHINGTON

Abigail Adams

SECOND PRESIDING LADY

1797-1801

Abigail Smith, of Weymouth, Mass., became the wife of John Adams at twenty. Ill health during her early years retarded her education, but her strong mind overcame this difficulty. Her letters to her husband and her son prove her mental powers and strong character, and many of them have been published on account of their literary and historical value. During her husband’s term the Capital was removed to Washington, and, though the White House was not yet completed, and the city was only a straggling town, the ceremony of Washington’s time was resumed there during her short reign of only half a year. In private life she was her husband’s constant companion, until, at the age of seventy-four, eight years prior to her husband’s death, she died, leaving the record of a unique life. She was the mother, as well as the wife, of a President, John Quincy Adams being the eldest of her three sons, and in this respect she stands alone.

ABIGAIL ADAMS

Martha Jefferson Randolph

THIRD PRESIDING LADY

1801-1809

Martha Jefferson Randolph, the elder of the President’s two daughters, presided at the White House whenever possible during her father’s administrations, his wife having died nineteen years before his election. The White House, however, during his terms, was practically without a mistress, although at times Mrs. Madison also acted in that capacity. Mrs. Randolph was eminently fitted for such a sphere, but was able to assume its duties only twice. Having received the advantages of foreign education and travel, and the continual association with men of letters, she was a most brilliant woman, and had her tastes been less domestic she would have shone in society. She gave her father unremitting care when, after his retirement from public life, he settled at his estate Monticello, where two years after his death her husband also passed away. Monticello was then sold and the remaining eight years of her life were spent among her children.

MARTHA JEFFERSON RANDOLPH

Dorothy Paine Madison

FOURTH PRESIDING LADY

1809-1817

Dorothy Paine, a Quaker, first married at nineteen, John Todd, a young lawyer of Philadelphia. One year after his death, when twenty-two, she married James Madison. Her kind heart, frank, cordial manners, and personal beauty made her very popular. When she presided at the White House her tact, ready recognition of every one, and her remembrance of events concerning them increased this feeling. Although her entertainments lacked the ceremony of past administrations, “Dolly” Madison was considered a charming hostess. While she was extremely charitable, she always dispensed her husband’s wealth with prudence and judgment. The war of 1812 showed her true nobility in many ways, and it was she who saved the Stuart portrait of Washington when the British were about to pillage and burn the White House. The Government bought from her Madison’s Record of the Debates in Congress from 1782-1787, for $30,000.

DOROTHY PAINE MADISON

Elizabeth Kortright Monroe

FIFTH PRESIDING LADY

1817-1825

Elizabeth Kortright was the daughter of a retired captain in the British Army, who, after the peace of 1783, remained in New York. She married Mr. Monroe there during a session of Congress, but later the seat of government was removed to Philadelphia, where they resided until 1794, when Monroe was made Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary to France. Her husband’s several foreign positions of trust obliged them to live much abroad. She saved the life of Madame de Lafayette, who, upon the very day of Mrs. Monroe’s call at the prison, was to have been beheaded; but the powerful support of the American Minister’s wife caused her liberation. Mrs. Monroe was elegant, accomplished, dignified and charming, and her “drawing rooms” were more ceremonious than those of Mrs. Madison. She died suddenly, one year before her husband, who spent the remainder of his life with his daughter Mrs. Gouverneur in New York.

ELIZABETH KORTRIGHT MONROE

Louisa Catherine Adams

SIXTH PRESIDING LADY

1825-1829

Louisa Catherine Johnson was born and educated in London. She met John Quincy Adams there, and they were married in 1797. His father, becoming President, transferred him to Berlin, where she accompanied him. During Jefferson’s terms America was their home, after which Monroe appointed Mr. Adams Minister to Russia, where nearly six years were spent. In 1815 he was made Minister to England. When Napoleon was returning from Elba, Mrs. Adams, traveling from Russia to rejoin her husband at Paris, after several escapes entered the city just after Napoleon’s arrival and the flight of the Bourbons. Having graced such high positions, she was eminently fitted to preside at the White House, but ill-health incapacitated her, although at the time Mr. Adams was Secretary of State they entertained most agreeably. When Lafayette last visited America he was entertained by Mr. and Mrs. Adams at the Executive Mansion.

LOUISA CATHERINE ADAMS

Rachel Donelson Jackson

SEVENTH PRESIDING LADY

Rachel Donelson, wife of Andrew Jackson, died the December before the inauguration. Therefore the position of Presiding Lady was accorded to her niece, Emily Donelson, wife of Major Andrew J. Donelson, private secretary to the President. His adopted son’s wife, Sarah Yorke Jackson, presided at the Hermitage then, and for many years. Mrs. Donelson was very young when called upon to fulfil her social duties; but innate refinement, ease, grace, dignity and various accomplishments rendered her capable of adding much to this period’s noted brilliancy. All admired her, even when party spirit quenched unbiased judgment. In all points of etiquette she was arbiter, the President deferring everything to her opinion. Her four children were born in the White House. Early in 1836 she returned to Tennessee, as her health was failing, hoping for renewed strength; but consumption developed, and her death followed in December of the same year.

RACHEL DONELSON JACKSON

Angelica Van Buren

EIGHTH PRESIDING LADY

1839-1841

Angelica Singleton was presented by her cousin, Mrs. Madison, to President Van Buren, in 1837, and in the following year married his son, Major Van Buren. On New Year’s day, 1839, she assumed her place as hostess of the White House, as Hannah Hoes, the wife of Martin Van Buren had died in 1819, leaving him a widower when elected President. This was a great loss, for she would have filled well the exalted position occupied in later years by her eldest son’s wife. The next spring Major Van Buren and his wife went abroad, where they received most flattering attentions, attributed to their high standing in America, and also to Mrs. Van Buren’s exceeding charm of features, form and manner, and long ancestral descent. They were invited to dine at the Palace of St. Cloud, where they were entertained with a cordial lack of ceremony by Louis Philippe and his Queen. In later life she was a society leader in New York, her death occurring in 1878.

ANGELICA VAN BUREN

Anna Symmes Harrison

NINTH PRESIDING LADY

1841

Anna Symmes was born near Morristown, N. J., and early in life was left motherless. Her father, disguised as a British officer, successfully carried her to her grandparents on Long Island, where she remained until the evacuation of New York. Trained in godliness, her whole life echoed her early teachings. When nearly twenty she married Captain Harrison, later General, and afterwards President. While he was Governor of the Indiana Territory she dispensed liberal hospitality, being greatly loved and admired, and here in her home in the old French Town of Vincennes many happy years were spent. Her husband being much away, she reared almost alone her ten children, afterwards seeing one infant, three grown daughters, four sons and ten grand-children die during thirty years at North Bend. The thought of removing to Washington was distasteful to her, but as the President died one month after his inauguration, this became unnecessary.

ANNA SYMMES HARRISON

Letitia Christian Tyler

TENTH PRESIDING LADY

1841-1842

Letitia Christian, of Virginia, President Tyler’s first wife, was extremely delicate, and lived scarcely two years after his inauguration. She was lovely and gentle, highly accomplished and beautiful, greatly beloved by her husband and family, but seldom seen in public, therefore during his administration the White House had several mistresses. The duties of hostess sometimes devolved upon his married daughter, but were generally assumed by his daughter-in-law, Mrs. Robert Tyler, to whom were relegated the duties of permanent hostess until, in 1844, the President married Miss Julia Gardiner. The ceremony took place at the Church of the Ascension in New York City, and was the first instance of the marriage of a President, which fact excited intense interest throughout the United States. Mrs. Julia Tyler, for the remaining eight months of the term, filled her position creditably and gracefully. She died in 1889, having long outlived her husband.

LETITIA CHRISTIAN TYLER

Sarah Childress Polk

ELEVENTH PRESIDING LADY

1845-1849

Sarah Childress, of Tennessee, when nineteen years old married James Knox Polk, a member of the Legislature of that State. The next year he was elected to Congress, continuing fourteen sessions in Washington, and Mrs. Polk held a high social position there owing to her courteous manners, dignity and many accomplishments. When she returned to Washington as the wife of the President, having no children, she devoted herself exclusively to her duties in that position. At her weekly receptions the custom of serving refreshments to guests was abolished. As she was a strict Presbyterian, dancing also was forbidden; nevertheless, she was very popular. She was a handsome woman of the Spanish type, dressed with refined and elegant taste, and was noted as a conversationalist, beside realizing keenly the obligations of her station. She survived her husband over forty years, living at “Polk Place,” Nashville, the home they had hoped to share in old age.

SARAH CHILDRESS POLK

Margaret Smith Taylor

TWELFTH PRESIDING LADY

1849-1850

Margaret Smith, wife of General Zachary Taylor, was the daughter of a Maryland planter. Domestic in taste and devoted to her husband, she lived much in garrisons and afield, making a home anywhere. She was without social ambition, and therefore had no desire to preside at the White House, preferring her quiet home at Baton Rouge, where she and her youngest daughter, “Miss Betty,” were widely known and liked, and where she permanently established an Episcopal church. When her husband was elected President, she relinquished the duties of hostess to Mrs. Bliss (Miss Betty), then but twenty-two years of age, whose grace of manner and youthful charms relieved the formality of Mrs. Polk’s previous reign. Their residence at the White House was suddenly terminated by the President’s death, sixteen months after his inauguration. Mrs. Taylor died two years later, at the home of her only son in Louisiana.

MARGARET SMITH TAYLOR

Abigail Fillmore

THIRTEENTH PRESIDING LADY

1850-1853

Abigail Powers was born in Saratoga County, New York, and reared in poverty. In order to help her widowed mother she taught from very early youth, although still a student herself. Fine health, height, fair coloring, delicate features, kindly eyes and an expression of humor, made her attractive, if not classically beautiful. At twenty-eight she married Millard Fillmore. In his early professional struggles her varied talents were devoted to his interests. When he became President she graced her position with ease; if possible, never neglecting any functions, but owing to feeble health late in life she often gave place to her daughter, Mary Abigail, who, though young, was a charming and dignified hostess. Mrs. Fillmore established the White House Library, no books having been there on her advent. Three weeks after her husband’s term expired she passed away quite suddenly, leaving the memory of a devoted wife and mother.

ABIGAIL FILLMORE

Jane Appleton Pierce

FOURTEENTH PRESIDING LADY

1853-1857

Jane Means Appleton, daughter of the President of Bowdoin College, and later wife of Franklin Pierce, was delicate in her physical and nervous organizations from early childhood. She was rendered more so, however, at the time of her husband’s inauguration, by the death of their only remaining child, a son of fourteen, in a railway accident. Nevertheless she did not give way to her personal grief, but dispensed cordial hospitality from the White House, presiding at every function requiring her presence, and thus sustained her popular husband, although her own preference would have been for a more retired life. Unselfishness and great mental ability distinguished her; as she was a deeply religious woman, she materially influenced the Sabbath observances of the White House circle while presiding there. In 1857, after her husband’s term expired, they went abroad for two years, but her health was not restored, and she died six years before her husband.

JANE APPLETON PIERCE

Harriet Lane

FIFTEENTH PRESIDING LADY

1857-1861

Harriet Lane was left an orphan at nine years of age, and was brought up by her uncle, James Buchanan, who took great pains with her education. When he became Minister to England in 1852, she accompanied him and was a marked favorite in court and diplomatic circles. She was a handsome blonde of twenty, dignified, graceful, clever and an engaging talker. On her uncle’s return to America, and his subsequent election she became mistress of the White House and was renowned for her charm, good taste and diplomacy. She entertained the Prince of Wales, now King Edward VII, while in America in 1860, and in recognition of this was an especially invited guest at his Coronation Ceremony. Shortly after her return to America she developed symptoms of a serious illness, to which she succumbed in July, 1903. After her uncle passed away, her great sorrows were the deaths of her husband, Henry Elliot Johnston, and her two young sons.

HARRIET LANE

Mary Todd Lincoln

SIXTEENTH PRESIDING LADY

1861-1865

Mary Todd, born in Lexington, Ky., had from girlhood a supreme desire to become mistress of the White House, which, however, did not seem probable when she married Abraham Lincoln in 1842, but later her ambition was realized. She was small, attractive in appearance, inclined to stoutness, self possessed in manner, and would have enjoyed her high position had not the troublous events of the Rebellion prevented all festivities and converted the White House into a public institution. The death of her second son preyed sorely upon her, but when in 1865 her husband was assassinated, the shock was too great, and that, added to the blow of her youngest boy’s death soon after his father’s, partly unsettled her reason. Although she traveled much abroad, she never recovered, mentally or physically. She died of paralysis in her sister’s home at Springfield, Ill., in 1882, and was interred in the Lincoln Monument vault with her husband and children.

MARY TODD LINCOLN

Eliza McCardle Johnson

SEVENTEENTH PRESIDING LADY

1865-1869

Presiding Ladies of the White House / containing biographical appreciations together with a short history of the Executive mansion and a treatise on its etiquette and customs

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