Clarke courier. [volume] (Berryville, Va.) 1869-1997, 1908-02-05
A Baroness Of Virginia.

1he death OF the old
Baroness Won Zollikofer recalls, to
those of us who knew her, an era
the like of which this community
will never again see.
Sprung on the paternal side from
the Ludlows of Virginia, who num-
bered among their forbears the
famous regicide of that name, she
was, through her mother, descend
ed from the GarEetts, MERGERS and
Brookes. Her first husband was
of the Selden family of this city:
her second, of the Maryland Ring
Colds and the Austrian Won Zol-
likofers.
The late Baroness, through her
wide family ramifications. her dis
tinguished acquaintance on both
sides of the Atlantic, her eventful
social career, her marked original
ity, her unswerving loyalty to her
friends, her uncompromising fidel-
ity to her opinions and her indomi-
table spirit, forms a picturesque
figure in our local annals of which
any city in the world might Justly
boast.
Her happy girlhood was passed
here, and here before the middle
of the last century she was a con-
spicuous belle for both wit and
beauty.
Her first husband and her child
ren were alike snatched away from
her by the fearful epidemic of 1855
"a scourge which, in proportion
to the population of the two cities.
respectively, wasby our late beloved
DIR. Armstrong calculated to have
been more destructive than the
great London plague in the reign
IofCharles III. Half century after
OBSERVATION-DISCLOSURES as vividly
before her memory as if it had
occurred but yesterday, and hus,
band and children were as much q
part of her daily thoughts and
speech as if they were still at her
side.
She faced all the deprivations
and horrors of the Civils War with
the undaunted soul of the true
Southern women, and so stinging
were her comments on the foe that
for time she was imprisoned-in.
deed, she odly secured her release
through the Intervention of Profes
sor Henry, of the Smithsonian In.
stitute, under the protection ot
whose family she remained unit
the close of hostilities.
But for her the war never really
ended. She soon withdrew tc
Europe, as she said she never
could be reconstructed, never coulc
forgive her enemies and never
could bear to see her beloved Vir,
ginia Yankeeized." She establish.
ed herself in Rome, in the palace
built by Cardinal Borghese, after
ward Pope Paul V, and in the apart
ment of Pauline Borghes, tn,
beautiful sister of the great Napo
leon, she created for herself a sailor
where all that was most brillian
in the society of that ancient capi
tai, whether Italian or foreign, a.
sembled weekly. Here one me
the Roman Massimos, Aldobran
dinis and CsrdelliS, the Grecial
Aristarchis, the English Caven
dishes, Percys and Herberts of Lea
the cardinals and officials of tn,
Papal court, the DANES d'honneu,
of Queen Margerita from tn,
Quirinal; and here, always sure o
the warmest greetings, were to b,
found all those Americans whC
came, as she said, from the "righ
side of Mason and Dixon's line. >
This cosmopolitan throng O.
guests she received with the state
illness of past age, and the South
erner did not fail to note that il
the midst of her finest Jewels she
invariably wore a little brooch O
Confederate standards given hel
by the daughter of her beloved
chieftain, Gen. Robert F.. Lee
At many foreign courts she made
her courtesy to Queen Victoria, t
the old Emperor William, to King
Humbert and Queen Margerits
and tothe Emperor Francis Joseph
who said to her:
Baroness, / believe you are al
Americana"
mo, your Majesty" she an
, swered, II am a Virginian."