The Cairo bulletin. (Cairo, Ill.) 1???-1928, 1908-12-21
DIGNIFIED In NAME
HAVE BEEN THE MISTREeSES OF
THE WHITE HOUSE.
But One Woman Has Had HIGH Honor
OF Being the Wife Of One and
the Mother of Another
President.

Fame Is fleeting enough in the case
Of men, but when It comes TO women
the goddess is twice as tickle. Almost
any public school pupil more than ten
years old can repeat the names of the
| presidents OF the United States, but
| how many know the presidents wives +?
| Doubtless 80 per cent. of the adult
! population is unable to name off.
hand more than a half dozen women
whose husbands occupied the White
| House.
Everybody knows Martha Washing.
| ton was Mrs. Custis when she was
married to the Father of His Country,
but how many remember her maiden
! name was cambridge? There are
| dozens of families throughout the coun.
| try which, If heradry obtain in Amer
| lea, would be entitled to emblazon the
nations shield on their coat-ofarms
| by reason of having been connected
with presidents through their ances-
tresscs. They represent the names of
cambridge GUSTS, Smith, Wayles,
SHELTON, Payne, Todd Kortwright,
Johnson, Donelson, Richards, Hoes,
Symmes. Christian Gardiner, Chill
dress Powers, Carmichael, Mcintosh,
Appleton, McCardle, Dent, Webb, Ru-
dolph, Herndon Folsom, Scott, Lord,
Dmmick, Saxon, Lee and Carow
And those are only names of presi,
dents wives. The mothers Of the
presidents, beginning with Washing
toms, originally bore the surnames
Ball, Boylston, Randolph. Conway,
Jones, Smith, hutchinson, Hoes, Bias
sett, Armistead, Knox. Stroller, Mil
lard Hendricks, Speer, Hanks, Melon
ough, Simpson, Orchard, Ballou.
Stone, Neal, Irwin, Allison and Bull
lock
Only one woman had the honor OF
being both the wife and the mother
Of presidents. She was Abigail Smith.
who was married to John Adams, the
second president and whose son
John Quincy Adams, became the sixth
president Another woman, Eliza.
beth Bassett, was wife and grand
mother of presidents. Her husband
was William Henry Harrison. ninth
occupant of the White House, her
grandson, Benjamin Harrison, the
twenty-third in line.
That all the presidents have been
dignihed men from their early years
is shown by the Christian names of
their helpmeets. Among the wives of
the presidents there never has been
a Fossie, a Babette, Tessie, Kitty,
nor even a Gwendolyn. Hortense orI
Mabel. The only woman whose given
name approached frivolity was Dolly
Madison. and she no doubt was chris
tened Dorothy or Dorothea, unless a
mistake was made at the baptsmal
font There were two Marthas and |
as many Abigails, Carolines, Marys. |
Elias and Julias
The other presidents wives have
been respectively. Dolly, Louisa,
Rachel, Hannah. Anna. Letitia, |
Sarah, Margaret. Jane, Lucy, Lucretia
Ellen, Frances, Ida, Alice and Edith |
Equally staid were The names OF the |
presidents mothers. There have been
two each of Jane, Eliza. Anna and
Nancy; three Marys and -four Elizabetha,
The other mothers of the presidents
divide the names Susanna. Nelly, Ahi-
gail Maria, Sarah, Phoebe, Harriet,
Sophia. Malyina and Martha The
wife of the first president and the
mother of The latest were named
Martha. It is hard 10 conceive Of any
Of those women being addressed by
diminutives.