The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1895-12-14

years old, but was the belle of the city.
The young French captain Immediately
fell in love with the beautiful girl and
proposed. He was promptly accepted.
Then came the storm.
Miss Patterson's parents objected.
But Betsy was stubborn, and finally her
family gave in. The wedding was
gorgeous affair, for Baltimore was then
the social center of the country. The
young couple spent a few delightful
months travelling in this country. Their
honeymoon trip was q series of social
triumphs for the Baltimore belle.
Then came a stern message from the
emperor of the French. He commanded
his younger brother to return at once to
Paris and to 'leave behind the young
person whom he had attached to him
SELF Napoleon wanted Jerome to mar
ry some one else for political reasons.
The young captain had to obey, for
his income had been cut off. But Betsy
would not be left behind. She sailed in
fone Of her fathers ships for Lisbon. On
{her arrival she found every port in
Europe closed against her by French
sfrigate. Her husband was taken pris
oner to Paris, and an ambassador from
Napoleon gave her this message:
"The emperor asks what he can do
for Miss Patterson
'Tell the emperor, was her reply,
''that Nine. Bonaparte demands her
rights as member of the imperial fam
lily"
But Napoleon was memorable. He had
the French senate declare the marriage
annulled, after which the weak Jerome
obediently married Princess Catherine
of Wurttemberg and was created king Of
lWestphalia.
For so years after this Betsy Patter-
son fought for recognition as the wife
of jerome Bonaparte. She went to Eng
land, where a son was born to her. She
named him Jerome An annual pension
Of $4,000 was graciously allowed to
her by Napoleon. She spent her time in
various European courts, where she was
we'll received on account of her extraor-
binary beauty and fascinating manners.
She spent the winter of 1928 in Vienna,
where she reigned as a social queen.
- Her former husband wrote her many
letters and offered her beautiful resi-
dence in his kingdom with the title Of
princess. She spurned this offer with
scorn and replied:
fThere is room in Westphalia for but
one queen.
Nine. Bonaparte did not return to
Baltimore until her beauty had faded
and her disposition had become soured by
her disappointed ambition. For the rest
of her long life she devoted herself to
boarding money. When she died, at the
! age of SO, she was worth over 81, O0O,-
600. Her last years were spent in mi
serly penuriOusness. In Baltimore she
was known as Nine. Betsy Bonaparte
and was a conspicuous character. She
was seen everywhere and was fond of
wearing the treasured finery of the years
when she posed as a royal parsonage.
She left her fortune to jerome Bona
parte, in spite of the fact that he refused
to contract an alliance with the daugh-
ter of some foreign noble, as she wished,
but insisted on marrying plain Amer
lean girl His wife was Miss Williams
of Roxbury, Mass. He had two sons,
jerome and Charles Joseph. Jerome
served with distinction in the French
army and returned to this country a
colonel. His widow lives today in fine
style in Washington.
Charles Bonaparte, like his GRANDPA
Their. married a Baltimore girl. He
moves in the exclusive upper circles of
Baltimore society and practices law only
when he feels like it. His ambition to
become a senator has but recently been
made public