(This is the story of Kate Chase Sprague and the men she t...)
This is the story of Kate Chase Sprague and the men she tripped on their way to the White House. Widely recognized by the nation’s leading newspapers: “No name could possibly be spoken in this city among the older residents that would evoke reminiscences that always started by the mention of Kate Chase. No woman so young ever held here the prominent and controlling position as leader that came to her as mistress of her father’s household, nor has the most critical observer failed in according to her an exceptional personal brilliance . . .” The New York Tribune “The most brilliant woman of her day. None outshone her.” Washington Star “No Queen has ever reigned under the Stars and Stripes. But this remarkable woman came closer to being Queen than any other American has.” The Cincinnati Enquirer “One of the most remarkable women ever known to Washington Society.” Providence Journal “The homage of the most eminent men in the country was hers.” New York Times “Her face is a study, an enchanting and dangerous study to most men, who are pretty certain to fall in love with it. It has been compared with that of the famous portrait of Mona Lisa.” The Boston Herald
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Kate was born on August 13, 1840 in Cincinnati, Ohio, United States, the daughter of Salmon Portland Chase and his second wife, Eliza Ann (Smith) Chase. She was christened Katherine Jane. Her mother died in 1845, and seven years later her stepmother was dead, leaving a daughter. In the years that followed, the lonely father turned more and more to his elder daughter, whom he indulged greatly, and whose talents and personality he developed by participation in his own career.
Her schooling was begun by him, and from 1847 to 1856 she was a pupil at the school kept by Henrietta B. Haines in New York City.
In Columbus, when her father was governor of Ohio, she studied at Heyl's Seminary, where she specialized in music and languages and became proficient in French.
From her sixteenth year Sprague was her father's official hostess. With her pale auburn hair, white skin, pert nose, and graceful figure she was a beauty. Already she was thoroughly extravagant in clothes and personal expenditures. When he became secretary of the treasury she established a salon in their home at Sixth and E streets.
At the National Democratic Convention of 1868 in New York she waged a vigorous campaign for her father.
By 1866 it had been whispered that her marriage was in difficulty, and with the stress due to Sprague's financial difficulties in 1873 the breach widened with a series of quarrels discussed in public print. In August 1879 Sprague in a jealous rage attacked with a gun his children's German tutor and Roscoe Conkling. Newspapers the next day and for days following described the scene and the details of what the parties to the quarrel said to reporters and to others. After divorce proceedings, scandalous and widely discussed, she was granted a divorce in 1882 and sailed for Europe with her three daughters.
In 1886 she returned to Washington to take up a dreary existence at "Edgewood, " her father's old home, where in her last years she struggled pitifully for mere existence, raising chickens, peddling milk, and always getting deeper in debt.
In 1896 Henry Villard raised a fund sufficient to pay the mortage, and she died at "Edgewood. "
Widely reported to have been one of the most beautiful and brilliant women of her day, Kate Chase Sprague and First Lady Mary Todd Lincoln were society hostess rivals during the Civil War. She was a strong supporter of her widowed father's presidential ambitions which, had he been successful, would have made her First Lady.
(This is the story of Kate Chase Sprague and the men she t...)
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The Sprague wealth became an instrument to further her political ambitions for her father. Jealous for her father's political future, she disliked Lincoln and was believed to have known about the "Pomeroy Circular" even though Chase was ignorant until he saw it in print. From time to time newspapers noticed her political influence, and gossip was ever busy with the subject.
Quotes from others about the person
At eighteen, according to Carl Schurz, "she had something imperial in the pose of her head, " and "took a lively and remarkably intelligent part" in the conversation at her father's table.
She was referred to as "the toast of the nation. " What she wore, said, and did became national news. "
"Competent judges have believed that had she been able to go into the convention and make her combinations on the spot she would have secured his nomination".
On her death, The New York Times wrote that "the homage of the most eminent men in the country was hers. "
Her marriage on November 12, 1863, to William Sprague was declared to be the most brilliant wedding Washington had ever seen. The economic crisis of 1873 put the Spragues in financial difficulty, and an already troubled marriage began to fall apart. Their quarrels were detailed in newspapers, as were the eventual divorce proceedings.
