Background
Born near Saint Louis, Missouri, she was first named Julia, at the insistence of her father, but was christened Ellen Wrenshall Grant at eighteen months to honor her dying grandmother. Despite her father"s disapproval, Nellie was married to Algernon Charles Frederick Sartoris (August 1, 1851 – February 3, 1893), a wealthy English singer, son of Adelaide Kemble and nephew of the famous actress Fanny Kemble, in a lavish White House ceremony on May 21, 1874.