1839-1841
Angelica Singleton was presented by her cousin, Mrs. Madison, to President Van Buren, in 1837, and in the following year married his son, Major Van Buren. On New Year’s day, 1839, she assumed her place as hostess of the White House, as Hannah Hoes, the wife of Martin Van Buren had died in 1819, leaving him a widower when elected President. This was a great loss, for she would have filled well the exalted position occupied in later years by her eldest son’s wife. The next spring Major Van Buren and his wife went abroad, where they received most flattering attentions, attributed to their high standing in America, and also to Mrs. Van Buren’s exceeding charm of features, form and manner, and long ancestral descent. They were invited to dine at the Palace of St. Cloud, where they were entertained with a cordial lack of ceremony by Louis Philippe and his Queen. In later life she was a society leader in New York, her death occurring in 1878.
ANGELICA VAN BUREN
Copyright 1903, by Bureau of National Literature & Art.
Anna Symmes Harrison
NINTH PRESIDING LADY
1841
Anna Symmes was born near Morristown, N. J., and early in life was left motherless. Her father, disguised as a British officer, successfully carried her to her grandparents on Long Island, where she remained until the evacuation of New York. Trained in godliness, her whole life echoed her early teachings. When nearly twenty she married Captain Harrison, later General, and afterwards President. While he was Governor of the Indiana Territory she dispensed liberal hospitality, being greatly loved and admired, and here in her home in the old French Town of Vincennes many happy years were spent. Her husband being much away, she reared almost alone her ten children, afterwards seeing one infant, three grown daughters, four sons and ten grand-children die during thirty years at North Bend. The thought of removing to Washington was distasteful to her, but as the President died one month after his inauguration, this became unnecessary.