Cameron County press. [volume] (Emporium, Cameron County, Pa.) 1866-1922, 1908-12-10
DIGNIFIED IN NAME
HAVE BEEN THE misTREssEs 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 neetng enough In the case
of men. but when it comes TO women
tho goddess is twice as tickle. Almost
any public school pupil more than ten
years old can repeat the names Of tho
presidents of the United States. but
how many know the presidents wives?
Doubtless 90 per cent of the adult
| population is unable TO name of
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.
nut how many remember her maiden
name was cambridge? There are
dozens of families throughout the coun-
try which, if heraldry obtain in Amer.
lea, would be entitled to emblazon the
nations shield on their coat-of-arms
by reason of having been connected
with presidents through their ances-
tresses. They represent the names of
cambridge, Custis, Smith, Wayles.
Shelton, Payne, Todd, Kortwright,
Johnson, Donelson, Robards, Hoes.
Symmes, Christian, Gardiner, Chill.
dress, Powers, Carmichael, Mcintosh,
Appleton, McCardle, Dent, Webb, Ru-
dolph, Herndon, Folsom, Scott. Lord,
Dimmick Saxon, Lee and Carow.
And those are only names of presi-
dents wives. The mothers of the
presidents, beginning with Washing
tons, originally bore the surnames
Ball, Boylston, Randolph, Conway,
Jones, Smith, Hutchinson Hoes, Bas-
sett, Armistead, Knox, Stroller, Mil
lard, Hendricks, Speer, Hanks, McDon-
ough, Simpson, Birchard, 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
dignified 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 Flossie, a Babette, Tessie Kitty,
nor even a Gwendolyn, Hortense or
Mabel The only woman whose given
name approached frivolity was Dolly
Madison, and she no doubt was chris
tened Dorothy or Dorothea, unless q
mistake was made at the baptismal
font. There We're two Marthas and
as many Abigails, Carolines, Marys,
Elias and Julias.
The other presidents wives have
been, respectively, Dolly, Louisa,
Rachel, Hannah, Anna, Letftia,
Sarah, Margaret, Jane, Lucy, Lucretia,
Ellen, Frances, Ida, Alice and Edith.
Equally staid We're the names of the
presidents mothers. There have been
two each of Jane, Eliza, Anna and
Nancy; three Marys and four Elizabeths,
The other mothers of the presidents
divide the names Susanna, Nelly, abb
gail, Maria, Sarah, Phoebe, Harriet,
Sophia, Malvina and Martha The
wife of the first president and the
mother of the latest were named
Martha. 1t is hard to conceive of any
of those women being addressed by
undignified diminutives.